Monday, October 27, 2008

flood :: insurance

expected flood damage zones determined in 1984 by FEMA versus actual flood levels in 2005

Saturday, October 25, 2008

ERASE


Our law firm’s investigation has determined that FEMA deliberately ignored and tried to conceal the problems with toxic FEMA trailers. E-mails uncovered during a 2007 congressional investigation into the trailers showed that FEMA lawyers told the agency to drag its feet on air quality testing. FEMA’s Office of General Council also advised the agency not to test the trailers because doing so “would imply FEMA’s ownership of the issue”. One email from a FEMA lawyer advised, “Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK… Once you get the results…the clock is running on our duty to respond to them.” Another FEMA lawyer wrote in an email that investigations not approved by lawyers “could seriously undermine the Agency’s position.”

middle school bath


Upon renovation, the bathroom will no longer be to code.

4309 Jena Ave


Decode the national guard-speak.

Conversation 2

child #1:
Do you like that house?

visitor:
Yes. It is very interesting.

child #2:
We play in it.

child #1:
Do you want to see it? I can show you.

visitor:
You should be careful, I don’t think it is safe to play in there.

child #2:
Yah, the floors have a lot of holes.

rectory bath

Conversation 1


student #1:

I was thinking about moving to New Orleans after graduation,
but decided it wasn’t the city for me.


student #2:

Oh really? Was that pre- or post-?

after the rain

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Minutes 10.22.08

Today's meeting was a further sharing/discussion of the investigation into the VOID space. Since two weeks ago, I have been researching cities that share the urban condition of erasure, but did not arrive at that moment due to natural disaster. Chicago has shown remarkable similarity in an end condition, yet with totally different causal factors.

Ultimately, it seems as though Katrina and resulting flooding was not what created the current condition of crisis, but rather was a tool to unearth the existing economic/racial/spatial problems in the city.

The next step involves organizing the research to date, and creating an authored version of the geo-political timeline(s) leading up to today's situation.

(Then we went to the map room): Ashley and I will scan the appropriate documents, and have them ready for overlay/interpretation as part of the next step in the process.


"There is no such thing as a natural disaster. Disaster occurs where a vulnerable system interfaces with hazard."

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

GUILT/FILL

Katrina Memorial Biloxi: Opened Feb 15, 2006


“Memorial culture has come to the fore at a time when memory is increasingly being situated in connection to guilt by the market and culture.”

- From "Deluze and Memorial Culture"

VOID/FILL



St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro Jr. reads his opening remarks before he and city council members took turns reading the names of the victims killed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina August 29, 2005 at the rededication ceremony of an updated monument at Shell Beach Saturday October 11, 2008. The event was originally scheduled for the third anniversary but was delayed due preparations for Hurricane Gustav.


Posted by terry1953 on 10/11/08 at 8:40PM

My Mother on that List,
Mrs. Joyce Flad Pitre Mc Guire
Miss dearly by Son.

Monday, October 20, 2008

ERASE

In 1972, Lawrence M. Carino, chair of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce, made the observation that “Detroit is the city of problems. If they exist, we’ve probably got them. We may not have them exclusively, that’s for sure. But we probably had them first... The city has become a living laboratory for the most comprehensive study possible of the American urban condition.”

- From "Detroit: I Do Mind Dying"

Saturday, October 18, 2008

VOID

From :
Madam: Vitter a client at Canal Street brothel
Posted by Times-Picayune July 10, 2007



U.S. Senator David Vitter visited a Canal Street brothel several times beginning in the mid-1990s, paying $300 per hour for services at the bordello after he met the madam at a fishing rodeo that included prostitutes and other politicians, according to Jeanette Maier, the “Canal Street Madam” whose operation was shut down by a federal investigators in 2001.

After they met, Maier said Vitter became a customer at the Mid-City brothel. He made several visits, she said, but had stopped coming before federal agents raided the brothel.

On Monday, Vitter apologized after it was revealed his telephone number appeared among those associated with an escort service in Washington D.C. operated by the so-called “D.C. Madam.” In an e-mail Monday night, Vitter apologized for a “very serious sin in my past.”

At the New Orleans brothel, Maier said Vitter spent time with several women, but preferred one in particular named Wendy. She said all the girls that were with Vitter described him as a kind, respectful man, who did not talk down to them or use drugs.

“I’m not out to ruin a marriage, I’m out to save a man,” Maier said. “I want his wife to know he’s a good man, I want his children to know he’s a good father. If he had sex out of wedlock, so what? At least he stayed with his children.”

Vitter and his wife, Wendy, have four children ages 13 and under.

Vitter’s office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.