SOME BRIEF HOUSEKEEPING
For the time being (and possibly for good), Miscellanea will be due in your inbox on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays. Thanks for being here.
Tens of thousands of people are still without power here in south Louisiana. The predominant form of aid for those that lost their homes is a rag-tag conglomeration of social media mutual aid funds while out-of-work neighbors help out-of-work neighbors.
Trash heaps still line the streets of New Orleans. I live on one of the ‘lucky’ blocks that has actually had a single trash pickup since the storm, and even now the stench left behind by everyone’s rotten freezer foods lingers — even after two days of Tropical Depression Nicholas. The worst part is that none of this comes as a surprise to anyone who has lived here for a time.
Yesterday, the mayor announced that residents can temporarily transport their own trash to a depository in the city… yes, your weeks-old-trash, in your car, on the way to a long line of others folks disposing of their weeks-old-trash. All because the city refuses to pay sanitation workers a decent wage, and now they’re stuck without a real contractor.
It’s been 18 days since Hurricane Ida made landfall. Branches and brown leaves line our streets. Most grocery stores are closing around dinner time. The restaurants that are open are serving limited menus. And so we all work while the crumbling infrastructure crumbles even more. New Orleans is not okay.
We are drowning in the heavy.
Consider this 🔗
Ida Showed the Fossil Fuel Industry Has Left Louisiana Defenseless, by Virginia Hanusik
There is still great need for any and all help down here. In this DNO post, we’ve listed some organizations we are actively giving to.
Looking back 🎞️
In the spirit of holding close the unique atmosphere of a more normal New Orleans, today I’ve curated a small selection of images from an album of slide film scans from the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans.
“Hope gives us license to carry out our lives as though nothing is wrong, living in the belief that someone else will figure it out…
The environment is not an area of interest, a career, or even a movement. It is what ties us all together — and we all have a duty to defend it.”
Willow Defebaugh