Law and order

They keep showing us which side they are on.

The morning after at least two statues to racially divisive figures in New Orleans were pulled from their pedestals and a third defaced, Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration warned that those responsible "will face consequences."

“As we have said throughout these events: the administration is in complete support of peaceful demonstrations and of our people making their voices heard," Cantrell spokesman Beau Tidwell said in an emailed statement. "But the destruction and vandalism of City property will not be tolerated. These incidents will be fully investigated and those responsible will face consequences.”

We support your right to protest... but we will also not hesitate to hit you with tear gas.  We are happy to talk about taking down these monuments... with a committee of our friends and supporters, and people who sign up for our campaign notifications.  But the rest of you better stay in your lane. Or we will send the cops... who we are definitely not de-funding, by the way... out after your ass.

Here comes the benefits cliff

Full speed ahead into the abyss, I guess.

Hundreds of thousands of Louisianans who’ve lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic have continued to receive sizable weekly checks, thanks to a federal $600-a-week boost to the state’s unemployment benefits.

But with the extra aid set to vanish in two and a half weeks — dropping the state’s maximum unemployment insurance benefit from $847 per week to just $247 — scores of workers are bracing for a huge blow to their income and stressing over how to pay bills.

Not sure about that "sizable" bit.  Maybe not the best way to describe the precarity to which these hundreds of thousands of workers in Louisiana have been subjected.  $600 a month with a hard expiration date doesn't sound like anyone's getting any special favors. They got mad at me for pointing this out yesterday but the way we talk about these policies in the media matters.  Working class people are being utterly abused by a saftety-net-in-name-only that is specifically designed to humiliate and intimidate them. It's important to avoid the pretense that they should be grateful for that.  Last month, the Advocate referred to the expanded benefits as "generous." We'll be sure and send Mitch McConnell a thank you card. 

Maybe we are picking at nits. But, as yesterday's story goes on to point out, Republicans in Washington, who are dragging their feet about extending benefits, are explicitly arguing that millions of laid off Americans have it too good right now. 

So far, there’s been little progress in Washington D.C. on a new aid package. Serious talks have yet to begin between the Democrat-controlled House and GOP Senate over possible proposals, and it’s unclear whether Republicans would support another round of expanded unemployment benefits.

Many Republicans have criticized the federal supplement, saying it is too generous and has incentivized many workers to stay home instead of returning to their jobs, since many lower-wage Americans have ended up making more each week than they earned while working full time.

We still don't even know if Congress will approve a new round of one-time relief checks like the ones sent out to many Americans a few months ago.  Back in May, when Sen. John Kennedy was asked about a second stimulus, he told us "People in Hell want ice water."  Well, John, we are in Hell. I mean, people in the Arctic want ice water right now.  And still, whatever relief Americans get looks right now like it will be less than the already insufficient previous round of checks.

Anyway if Republicans really thought the problem with this tenuous allowance is that it is too generous to compete with what people were making at work, then maybe it's time to talk about why more than 30 million Americans currently claiming benefits haven't been afforded a living wage. Of course they don't care about that. It's central to the right wing project that we maintain a large pool of unemployed or underemployed workers who are insecure enough to work for practically nothing when needed. If there's no one holding enough power to force the US Congress toward a different policy then this is fine for them. They are there to protect the bosses. Right now the bosses are winning. There's almost no incentive for anyone on their side to budge.

Up until this this week, I had all but convinced myself maybe there would be just enough fear of the fall elections to get a last minute extension of benefits through.  But I'm starting to see how a second stimulus check might provide just enough political cover to let the UI benefits expire anyway. Forcing people to "just get used to" worsening conditions is too high on the Republican list of priorities. They're not going to just let an opportunity like this pass without a fight. 

The Immovable Feast

Can't really blame the various parading organizations for keeping their options open. But if you aren't at least hedging your bets on whether there are going to be Mardi Gras parades next year then you're just deluding yourself.

There are a few nods to caution: Some krewes are ordering throws without dates that could be stored and used in 2022 if the celebration is called off. Others won't hold traditional large indoor dances and gatherings. Deadlines for riders to sign up for some parades have been relaxed.

The captain of the Knights of Sparta, who declined to reveal his real-life identity, said that his organization will forgo next years’ coronation party and traditional bal masque, which would gather the membership in the Pontchartrain Center convention hall. Yet, he said, the krewe’s customary St. Charles Avenue parade will take place if allowed.

"Personally," he said, "I think there’s a 50-50 chance."

Some perspective is helpful here.  There have been years when New Orleans has gotten through a Carnival season without parades.  These have happened during police strikes, wars, you know, major events that you might want to take seriously.

Do we take COVID 19 seriously?  It doesn't always seem like we do.

A tale of Two Saints

The mayor of Lisbon would like to reevaluate some housing and development strategies.

Like many cities, we’re reassessing our post-pandemic priorities and putting the key workers that drove Lisbon through the Covid-19 crisis at the top of the list. Now is the moment to do things differently.

Lisbon has benefited enormously in recent years from the millions of tourists who throng our cobbled streets and enjoy our world-famous restaurants and bars, but we’ve paid a social price.

Essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out as Airbnb-style holiday rentals have taken over a third of Lisbon’s city centre properties, pushing up rental prices, hollowing out communities and threatening its unique character. 

Now we want to bring the people who are Lisbon’s lifeblood back to the centre of the city as we make it greener, more sustainable and ultimately, a better place to both live and visit.

Now, in this letter, the mayor says they're going to, I think, subsidize lanlords who rent to "essential workers" at what we have to assume are affordable rates although that can defined as anything.  Also it doesn't say the plan is to ban STRs altogether. It says "replace some Airbnbs" with affordable housing. And, again, they're doing this through a program that apparently pays money to landlords so.. this whole thing may be more about the gesture than it is about actually meeting the need.  We'd have to know more in order to say for sure.

Still, if we take Lisbon's plan at face value, if we assume it is a good faith effort to reclaim the city from the rot of over-tourism, then we might contrast it with what's going on in New Orleans where we continue to move ahead with evictions, even while we bend over backward to accommodate the owners of short term rentals whose licenses are due to expire. 

Meanwhile we've somehow decided our "affordable housing" policy is giving public money to Marcel Wisznia's bowling alley dormitory.

As a condition of getting a property tax break from the Industrial Development Board through a program known as payment in lieu of taxes, the developers agreed to set aside 40 of the project’s 218 units for those making between 60% and 80% of the area's median income. Those units would rent for less than $1,000 a month, while others in the complex will go for between $1,400 and $1,500.

“This will help us in our ability to provide affordable housing for working people here in this city,” Banks said.

The Two Saints project has drawn a mixed reaction. Some, including Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration and some affordable housing groups, have argued it will provide much-needed housing for lower income residents. Critics have said the prices for the units would still leave them out of reach of many and argued the co-living model is unlikely to be desirable

Ha ha, "unlikely to be desirable."  Ya think?  Cramming multiple <strike>families</strike> sorry.. individual 20 somethings.. nobody is going to move their family into a dorm...  into a "communal living space" is a brilliant idea in the middle of a pandemic.  Brilliant.

Also... there is nothing stopping these from being Airbnbs anyway.  The new zoning rules allow it. In fact, they encourage STRs in that area.  Ultimately, you have to assume that's what the project was designed for in the first place.

It's basically a weather report now

Everybody complains about it, nobody does anything.... etc. etc.

The Louisiana Department of Health reported 1,937 more coronavirus cases, 10 more deaths and 74 more hospitalizations over the last two days in its daily noon update on Sunday.

We're just hanging around getting used to it. 

Just remember 2020 was the good year

After the current golden age ends it starts to get really dicey.

Scott, of PAR, worries of a crisis in New Orleans, in particular. At the end of July, supercharged unemployment benefits of $600 a week on top of the state’s cap of $247 a week will end. Evictions have resumed after being suspended for months. The Paycheck Protection Program funds for many businesses are being exhausted, and the customer base for a significant chunk of New Orleans’ economy, tourists, have vanished.

“You could end up with both a financial crisis for government services and also a real struggle for the human condition,” Scott said.

Sculpture garden

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more lame.

President Donald Trump announced during a speech in front of Mount Rushmore on Friday an executive order to establish a "National Garden of American Heroes" featuring statues of "historically significant Americans." 

The executive order includes a list of former American presidents and historical figures to feature – with Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, and Billy Graham among them. 

Trump's effort to build more statues comes as protesters across the U.S. have torn down statues in protest of police violence against Black people in the wake of George Floyd's death in May.

Oh great another big dumb wasteful project that doesn't do anything but score political points though empty symbolic trolling and leave a massive wave of graft in its wake. After you do a border wall for that very same purpose, this just looks kind pathetic by comparison.

Besides, it's been done already. 

For most of the day before Nagin's scheduled dedication ceremony, the statue of Louis Armstrong, first dedicated in 1972 and recently moved to make way for a rendition of the old French Opera House, lay swathed in bubble wrap under a makeshift wooden shelter in the bed of a truck.

Mayoral spokesman James Ross said Tuesday five of the new statues will be displayed at tonight's event. Crews from A.M.E. Disaster Recovery Services were working furiously Tuesday under the supervision of city Parks and Parkways employees. A.M.E. has a $2.6 million contract for the so-called Phase 3 of Armstrong Park restoration. It got the deal in December 2009, a year after Burnell Moliere, the founder of similarly named companies housed at the same address, pleaded guilty to helping the former head of the Orleans Parish School Board collect a bribe.