So, in my continuing immersion (descent?) into all thing New Orleans, I have one nagging question at the fringes of my mind: How, exactly, does a Michigan resident (native and current) actually go about involving himself in, well, all things New Orleans? I can’t go there with any regularity or, for that matter, at all, at the moment. I can’t attend meetings or talk to citizens or any of that.
Or can I?
Excuse me while I wax poetic, but I can do much of this from the relative comfort of my home and/or office via the mystical experience of the Internet. From Blogometer to NorthWest Carollton, Think New Orleans to Gentilly Girl, Ray in New Orleans to Your Right Hand Thief, I can virtually participate. I can hear podcasts of meetings, collaborate on Wikis, comment on blogs. I can, for intents and purposes all my own, become part of a larger community, one that only exists because of technology. Granted, many of these blogs and the people behind them can interact in ways I cannot, but that’s part of the community as well.
Which leads us full circle to the burning question: How, exactly, does this Michigan resident (native and current) involve himself in all things New Orleans? As I look, I see a list already exists for me at the New Orleans Wiki in the form of the To Do Today list.
Since Karen has clued me in to the BNOB documents as a starting point, it seems logical that I would start by populating the Architects and Non-profit Organizations databases at the Wiki. Alan mentioned that a whole lot of you are doing research; where would you like me to start?
8 responses to “To Do Today – New Orleans Wiki”
[…] Where oh where did the BNOB go? And maybe the only way to find out is to do what Ryan is doing. Look. And write it down and look some more. […]
Land Use is the juicy one.
I'm going to need a little help with that one. In searching through thinknola, I'm finding a few of the neighborhood proposals with land use provisions, so I'm guessing the “juicy” part comes from conflicts with how developers want to use that land. Is there a resource for the proposed development solutions that I'm missing?
bingoand land use is juicy cause that is where the green space concept started. And the green space did not always follow the land elevation. That is, the lower 9th Ward is not lower.When I rebuild the lower part of my house..You can come stay for jazz Fest, with friends !
Have any of the developers tipped their hands with proposals for how they want to use the land?New Orleans in April sound like fun… now I have to convince someone else to go.
Hi Ryan, Thanks for joining us! The help is much appreciated, and so is an out of town perspective. Karen is the maven on all the boards, committees, etc. and all their relationships. For a little interesting background on the BNOB, GentillyGirl posted a link to a long article in Fortune that contains some of the BNOB's timeline and the planners and plans they went through. Might help put some names in context.
That article made me furious. I'm trying to digest all the geographic information in that article too so I'm coming up to speed, but I want to punch someone after reading that. Counter-productive, I know, but damn, someone deserves a broken nose.
Gosh, are ya'll talking about the new Fortune article? I thought it was dead spot on the money. Sad, but nonetheless true. *sigh*Ryan, these fine folks have been so generous and accepting to this particular out-of-towner. I have slight (very slight) cred by being the mother of a NOLA resident (Loyola student), and having visited five times in the 16 months before the storm and the flood, but mostly, I'm like you in that I haven't been able to take my eyes or heart from the city since Friday, August 26, 2005. It sort of reminds me of Richard Dreyfuss et al in “Close Encounters…” except that instead of building models and drawing pictures of the object of our obsession, we're blogging about it.Peace.