treme

Majestic Mortuary on Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, in Central City. Photo by New Orleans Lady

It's no surprise that the pilot of the HBO series Treme ends with death. Antoine Batiste is, after all, a musician, and has to "play for that money." The ep starts with a second line parade, the joyous, Sunday-afternoon type, and ends with the solemn procession to the cemetery we call the "jazz funeral." In all too many teevee shows and movies about New Orleans, the jazz funeral is a backdrop, a gratuitous prop, but Treme presents this serious and time-honored tradition of New Orleans as it should be, just another part of life (and death) in the city.

(click "Read More" - the rest is after the jump because of spoilers)

Allison photo of the Magnolia Housing Project, 1958 (NOPL)

One of the interesting story lines of the HBO series Treme deals with the issue of housing in post-storm New Orleans. The city shut down all of its housing projects in the wake of the storm, creating an uproar as thousands of New Orleanians had no home to which to return.

In the show, Albert Lambreaux (that's pronounced "Al-bear" for those of you not from NOLA) is a carpenter and skilled craftsman whose house in the Gentilly neighborhood of the city was totally submerged. He's living in a barroom in Treme owned by a friend/acquaintance, making his way through the post-storm landscape. Lambreaux (who is played by actor Clarke Peters) is also the Big Chief of the Guardians of the Flame, one of the city's Mardi Gras Indian tribes. The Guardians of the Flame are fictional, but the writers are very accurate in their depiction of the Indians. One of Albert's primary concerns is getting his people back home. He demands action from the city leaders on re-opening the projects and eventually stages a sit-in at the Calliope projects. That incident generates a number of plot complications that make Treme good television, but it also illustrates the frustration many folks feel to this day.

CJ Peete Project, June, 2006, appoximately 5 months after Lambreaux's fictional occupation of the Calliope

The Housing Authority of New Orleans administers the projects. Like all-too-many government or quasi-governmental agencies in NOLA, it was rife with corruption, corruption that was often ignored because there was so little profit in the first place. After the storm, with so many black folks literally packed up and shipped out of state, Karl Rove, the lead strategist for the Bush administration on Gulf Coast recovery, saw this as an opportunity to move Louisiana solidly in the red column. (David Vitter's likely re-election to the US Senate this year is testament to the success of Rove's work.)

Affordable housing units are being re-built at some of the project sites. Will they be enough? Experts say no, creating problems in the service-industry and skilled labor pools. People don't want to leave the metro area, but living in the suburbs while trying to work downtown is difficult on a low income.

Just ask Treme musician Antoine Batiste.