About Town…

3rd February 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Editor’s Note: This column goes be­hind the scenes in politics, the economy, society and those functions around which the Crescent City is really run!

One Landrieu’s Race Leads to Another… For the first time, incumbent U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu has fallen behind her major Republican opponent, Con­gressman Dr. Bill Cassidy in a poll. A new survey by Rasmussen Reports, puts the Democratic incumbent at 40 percent to 44 percent disadvantage to the GOP Rep. from Baton Rouge. In a knock to the theory that the presence of other Republican candidates might winnow the field, allowing her a first primary victory (in the same fashion as David Vitter achieved in 2004 against a crowded Demo­cratic field), only five percent cited support for the other well-financed Republican contender currently on TV, State Rep. Paul Hollis. (The poll surveyed 500 Louisianans, with a 4.5 percent margin of error.)

Of course, Mary Landrieu has faced these odds before. Polling data before her 2002 race, also a Republican-tide year, showed similar results against a crowded GOP field, prior to a bruising primary and a December low-turnout election. And, at that point, Landrieu had not the status of heir presumptive to the Chairmanship of the powerful Energy & Natural Resources Committee.

Moreover, specifically untested in the Rasmussen poll was Tea Party contender Col. Rob Maness, who has already focused his media vitriol on both Cassidy and the La. Republican Party—sparing Land­rieu the need to spend her campaign funds on that same negative purpose. (And, the fact that the three-term Rep. just voted on Tuesday for a budget deal that actually funds Obamacare will probably not go unremarked by Maness.)

Return of the King…Err Earl… If New Orleans has a Downtown Abbey, a stately home housing the heights of the local peerage and aristocracy, it is 2525 St. Charles Ave.

Better known as the home of past Rex Captain (and King of Carnival) Billy Grace, 2525 has, in fact, housed multiple Queens and Kings of Carnival over the last century and a half. As well as a myriad of Dukes and Maids. So many that the Rex parade actually jumps from one side of St. Charles Ave. to the other every Mardi Gras day just to toast its inhabitants each year.

In a city where the King of Carnival actually enjoys legal status as a Monarch (at least for one day a year), it’s not surprising that 2011’s Rex Herschel Abbott emce­ed a “Night of Downton Ab­bey” at 2525 St. Charles. The fundraiser for WYES television on January 24, had Abbott, as Chairman of that public television station, draw a winning ticket for one of the high-paying attendees to fly off to Highclere Castle, and visit the real Downton Abbey.

What the party of faux aristocracy did on a freezing cold night is bring together New Orleans’ (at times) exclusive upper strata into the same room as rank and file enthusiasts of the popular British ITV series. Together, all clad in costume de rigueur, the monies from their $250+ tickets to attend the festivities at NOLA’s Down­town, helped fill the gap of a local public station facing dwindling federal support in the wake of the sequester.

The Oil Boom has re-turned…Sorta… The New Orleans Community Data Center noted to The Louisiana Weekly that despite all of the talk of digital media expansion and new jobs to be generated from hospitals under construction in Southeast Louisi­ana, surprisingly little attention has been given to a much larger jobs creator in our region — the massive petrochemical expansion in progress locally.

As George Hobor and Elaine Ortiz observed to this newspaper, “Investments underway in petrochemicals, advanced manufacturing, and the energy industry total $21 billion, and dwarf the $2.1 billion hospital investments in downtown New Or­leans. The ensuing wave of new job openings will be more than quadrupled by the massive retirement of baby boomers happening at the same time. The majority of more than 42,000 openings will be in occupations that require just a high school degree complemented by various levels of training – such as welders, machinists, and pump operators – and offer a high me­dian wage between $15 and $35 an hour.”

“Many of these jobs, just up the road along the Mississippi River in Iberville, Ascension, and St. James parishes, are out of sight, but should not be out of mind. With family-sustaining wages, they should be very appealing to many folks struggling to make ends meet.”

“While officials have touted low unemployment rates in Southeast Louisiana recently, these rates do not take into account those adults who are not looking for work. In fact, the 65.6 percent overall employment rate for Southeast Louisiana (which accounts for those not in the labor force) is no better than the national rate. The new ‘energy boom’ is projected to inject into the economy thousands of jobs with family-sustaining wages. If awareness can be raised about these jobs, they should be very appealing to discouraged workers.”

They added, though, that a skilled administrative intermediary is needed that can weave together multiple public and private funding sources, and coordinate the efforts of employers, educators, and various service providers to supply multi-layered supports that help unemployed adults make the transition to work. The task is complex and will require significant investment. “But done right,” the NOCDC writers claimed, “it will infuse a new cadre of outstanding people and ideas into our economy. Moreover, preparing workers for the petrochemical industry holds the promise of a skilled labor force that can help support the emerging water management industry in Southeast Louisiana as well — ultimately delivering on the bold vision that leadership has for our future.”

Another One Bites the Internet Dust… Amidst the freezing cold temperatures, the Internet Revolu­tion claimed another local bookstore as its latest victim on January 31.

McKeown’s Books and Difficult Music at 4737 Tchoupitoulas St. has not only featured local author evenings such as local humorist Chris Champagne’s recent premier of his book Yat Dictionary, but its owner Maggie McKeown has made her store a refuge for poetry readings and alternative music performance.

Forty-four, in fact, with the last evening of “Difficult Music” on Saturday, January 25. Every customer who entered had a coffee awaiting, and one of her plush chairs in which to contemplate a purchase. However, these events and even the spillover from Hansen’s Snowballs next door, has not arrested the impact of the Internet on her sales. She closed her doors for the final time last Friday.

This article originally published in the February 3, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.