NOLAmotion Blog

What Does Pres Kabacoff Have Against the Master Plan Process?

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UPDATE Thursday June 25: Zombies live in Legislature: SB75 briefly returned from the dead, attached as amendment to SB104 in manipulative move to revive it. See the story here on the T-P website. It ultimately was stripped from the bill in conference committee and finally died. However, the powers behind the bill evidently were determined and influential. Several politicians risked their reputations, including the lead author, Ed Murray, by pushing this bill. As evidenced by several postings on the T-P comments, Murray’s mayoral aspirations are now greatly weakened by his stance on the Master Plan. The fallout will become evident in the coming months as city election season gets underway in the next few weeks. It should be interesting.

UPDATE: Today (June 24) the House voted against SB75 and the bill is now dead.

So, thanks to sleuthing by “Celebrated blogutante” We Could Be Famous, the powers behind the attempt to mess with the City of New Orleans Master Plan process have come to light. Pres Kabacoff’s company HRI, bought the ad in the Times-Picayune pushing support for SB 75 which seeks to usurp the existing Master Plan process by adding yet another pubic vote. As a supporter of the Master Plan who voted in favor of giving it the force of law, I am disturbed by this effort, apparently driven by developers with ulterior motives, to change the policies and procedures for implementing the long-sought planning process for New Orleans. Red herrings, race baiting and misleading motives by proponents of SB75 make this a particularly ugly situation. My senator, Ed Murray, introduced the bill and my rep, Juan LaFonta supports it. I believe if this bill passes, not only will there be expensive taxpayer funded legal challenges, but the plan may never become law. Having participated in the process and read much of the current draft of the plan, I am saddened by the misdirection and misleading arguments offered by SB75 supporters. Current development “systems” in New Orleans have hurt the city and kept businesses and future-thinking developers away. The new plan will codify strong green/sustainable development guidelines and will help make it easier for everyone to interact with zoning processes. It will ensure that a level playing field is available to all.

The bill is now facing a House vote on Monday. I urge everyone to contact members of the Louisiana House of Representatives and let them know that the people of New Orleans already voted in support of the Master Plan process and that this bill will delay and possibly prevent New Orleans from ever having a Master Plan that helps both businesses and the public have a healthy, well-designed environment in which to do business and live.

Here’s New Orleans City Councilmember Jackie Clarkson’s thoughts on why we must defeat SB 75

Here’s New Orleans CityBusiness’ editorial against SB75

Cancer and Carnage Big Winners in Louisiana Legislature

SmokingDeath-1 — Smoking will take you places you've never been before.

In what is turning out to be one of the ugliest legislative sessions in my adult lifetime, the Louisiana Legislature seems bent on further eroding both our reputation and our wellbeing. After passing a bill requiring rear seat passengers to wear seatbelts, the leges kowtowed to the will of former governor–and mentor/benefactor of current Gov. Jindal– Mike Foster’s wishes and passed a bill that allows motorcyclists to go helmet-less, guaranteeing an increase in death and carnage–and higher medical bills that will cost taxpayers. Additionally, the House soundly defeated an attempt to ban smoking in bars and casinos, ostensibly to ensure freedom of choice. But that freedom only extends to smokers–a minority–and ensures that any nonsmokers–the majority–who wish to work in bars and casinos, or merely hear live music, drink a beer or gamble must breathe the toxic outgassing of smoking addicts.

Thanks, Louisiana Legislature! I’m no longer worried that my “right” to kill or maim myself or to personally pollute the air around me while smoking in confined spaces with nonsmokers will be taken away. Who cares that taxpayers will pay my bills if I smash my head in a minor motorcycle accident? And who cares if I make service workers sick or if nonsmokers don’t want to breathe my smoke? It’s freedom of choice–for me! I don’t want the government telling me what I can’t do to your lungs! That’s an invasion of my pursuit of happiness. So screw all you nonsmokers. How dare you use government to tell me what to do with your health!

motorcycle_no_helmet_1-300x300 — Actual skull damage after no-helmet motorcycle accident

Louisiana is truly a leader. We have 2 cities in the Top 10 for murder. We are the Number 1 per capita state for carbon emissions. We incarcerate a larger percentage of our population than any other state. And now we “protect” the “rights” of smokers and soon-to-be-brain-injured motorcyclists. Maybe we’ll become one of the top organ donor states when the helmet law becomes effective.

Just don’t get caught in the back seat without your seatbelt on. We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself. Because we care about your wellbeing.

NOTE: As of 3pm June4, all 3 of these bills await final passage if any of you care to get involved and contact your elected officials. See the Comments for this posting for specifics.

Credit Card Bill Needs Support

OK, I went to Washington and lobbied for S. 414, the Credit Card reform bill. Here’s what happened. We started the day at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office, so I was up first. The staffer (I don’t recall his name but will update this when I get it) we met with was a bit cynical. I was disappointed. I tried to emphasize that the banks were harming Sen. Landrieu’s strongest supporters and that it was time for her to stand up for the poor people who vote for her. He basically dismissed that line of thinking since the next election is years away. He claimed that Sen. Landrieu wasn’t afraid of angering the bankers (not that we said anything like that, though she is the recipient of more than $2 million in banking lobby money) because she had supported a credit union bill vehemently opposed by banks. We tried to get him to admit the banks were screwing us with these rate hikes, fees and other onerous new burdens. But he never seemed to sympathize.

Next we met with Travis Johnson, a legislative assistant with Sen. David Vitter. We we engaged by a smart, civil staffer who challenged us, debated us and gave us an opportunity to rebut and refine our arguments. We might not have changed the way Vitter will vote. But we had an intelligent and satisfying discussion with his staffer.

We also visited with very receptive staffers in the offices of Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb.

We were a small group, me, 2 from Virginia and 1 from Connecticut. We were led by representatives of Consumers Union, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for Responsible Lending.

Despite the fact that Sen. Landrieu’s opposition might be enough to stop the bill, there is a sense of optimism that credit card reform will pass. We were promised that if there is a signing ceremony with President Obama, that we’d be invited back!

I’m grateful to Consumers Union and the Pew Charitable Trusts for this amazing opportunity. It was amazing to see how accessible our federal delegation is to visits. I would advise anyone seeking to be heard to take the time to visit Washington and make an appointment. A staffer will be assigned to meet with you and give you the chance to be heard. Whether they listen is another story all together. But the experience is worth it because if you don’t try, nothing is guaranteed to happen.

Please call Sen. Landrieu’s office at 202-224-5824 and Sen. Vitter at 202-224-4623 and tell them you support credit card reform and want the senators to support their constituents and rein in the banks. The vote could happen this week or early next week, so call ASAP!

Heading to Washington to be a Citizen Lobbyist for Credit Card Reform

smith_goes Consumers Union called Friday afternoon to offer me the opportunity to join them in the Capitol this week to lobby for passage of S. 414, the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act. It seems that my participation in advocating for passage via http://creditcardreform.org caught their attention. My story was “one of the more credible ones” they’ve gathered and they want me to be a citizen lobbyist on Monday and Tuesday (May 4-5). They are covering the cost of the trip thanks to the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

I’m stoked, because Sen. Mary Landrieu is one of only 2 Democrats sitting on the fence regarding S. 414. She unfortunately voted to defeat the mortgage relief bill last week, saying that “my community bankers could be hurt.” Uh, Sen. Landrieu, your community is being hurt and we are the ones who elect you–by very slim margins each election–not the bankers.

FYI, Bank of America recently raised the rate on my credit card to 28% for no other reason than I have a fairly high balance. I have not missed a payment on any of the many cards I have and my credit is good. I’ve been quite outraged about this and sent emails to all my elected officials in Washington via the Consumers Union site. That’s what produced the phone call.

I’m going to be part of a team of citizen lobbyists working with Consumers Union this week. We’ll be calling on senators (the bill already passed the House) and their staffers, telling our stories and demanding passage of S. 414.

If you don’t already know, S. 414 protects consumers from unreasonable rate increase, bans marketing credit cards to people under age 21, sets clearer guidelines for gift cards (not allowing fees or expiration) and provides for higher deposit insurance levels–a component that also helps banks. The banking industry is squealing because the card limits hit their profit margins. But, had these despicable, greedy institutions done a better job of running fair businesses, they wouldn’t be complaining and we wouldn’t be rebelling against their usurious and unreasonable rates. What banks are doing to customers, young and old, is morally reprehensible.

You cannot escape from credit card debt, thanks to a bill passed by a bipartisan Congress during the Bush years. And now, there is blood on their hands. People are comitting suicide and murder over their indebtedness. (See Maxed Out, the 2006 documentary that exposes how banks and government created this mess.) We have to do something.

So, my advice to you is to become a member of Consumers Union, the nonprofit arm of Consumer Reports, and any other reputable organization fighting for the rights of the people. You never know, you might get to go to Washington, too.

A Proud Legacy

This is a rather primitive path in a park out west:

This is what the N.O. City Park Improvement Association, park directors and contracted designers consider a modern path:

Don’t you feel better knowing that people on the public payroll showed their wisdom in the management of one of the world’s great municipal parks by designing, reviewing and approving nearly a mile of polluting, impermeable, heat-inducing asphalt eight feet wide? This really brings New Orleans into the 21st Century! Heck, now you can even drive a car in places you couldn’t before. We sure are in good hands.

I want to thank all the wonderful people around the world who continue to contribute to our renewal. I know you will be impressed when you see how we’ve become such good stewards of our landscape in the aftermath of Katrina. Come to think of it, we might even make a few more bucks showing the world how we do this.

I don’t know about you, but I’m so proud right now I could cry.

Permeable Pavement Workshop Link

What Louisiana Loves: How to Get Rich in the Bayou State

I’ve decided on a new career that I know will make me rich. I’m going to be a chicken plucking, film making, sports team owning, wood pulping for export, drug testing entrepreneur! Yes, that’s the key.

Since it’s increasingly obvious the state doesn’t care for its arts, music, environment, mental health or safety, I figured I’d put my thinking cap on and ponder: What does the state really support? And, voila, I got the answer!

We’re spending $114 million buying the friendship of the movie industry, we’re putting up $50 million for a chicken plant near the Arkansas border and $20 million for a chicken freezer next to the French Quarter, we’re annually handing professional sports teams dozens of millions, we’re giving tens of millions to speed up the cutting of our mixed hardwood forests for things like wood pellets to be burned for fuel in Europe and landscape mulch, and we might put our money where the piss is by drug testing 20,000 welfare recipients.

Those are the businesses in Louisiana’s future!

On the other hand, we’re doing nothing to support music, cutting the arts, still don’t fully understand how to restore our environment, are closing and cutting mental health facilities and even have a bill ready for the upcoming session that allows guns on campuses… Hey wait, I just thought of something: bulletproof vests for teachers and students!

Hell, I almost missed a big one that could pay for my second Hummer. Yeah, it’s a great time to be in Louisiana, no foolin’…IF you know what you’re doing.

Paving N.O. City Park

As I write this, N.O. City Park (NOCP) is laying 4800 linear feet of 8 foot wide impermeable asphalt pathways in its Big Lake construction project. Also, construction crews are demolishing old parking and tennis courts between the Peristyle and Botanical Gardens to install yet more, polluting, impermeable, heat-inducing asphalt.

With all that we know about permeable paving and better stormwater management, this old fashioned, 20th century, car-oriented thinking is mind boggling. And to watch all this happen in one of the most precious places in the world, utilizing money donated from people who surely hoped we’d do the best we could to build with a strong sense of ecological awareness, is an abuse which I can find no diplomatic words to describe. I leave it to you to express, exclaim and accuse. As with so many things in the public realm–and NOCP is a public park whose staff is on the state payroll–we all share some of the blame.

I sent the following letter to Sally Perry, VP of the board of the New Orleans City Park Improvement Association (NOCPIA). I encourage readers to contact the NOCPIA and elected officials and demand that NOCP be the most innovative, sustainable park it can be.

Hi Sally:

So glad to reconnect and also happy that you were at the hearing. I’m not a golfer; but I don’t want to turn City Park into a feral landscape, either. There is a balance. A win-win can be achieved. However, I believe the plans as they now stand reflect outmoded thinking; an almost Eisenhower era-style of planning where development is done the way it always has been with cars and “drainage” as primary considerations.

Regarding NOCP drainage, the question starts with “to where?” And the dominoes of watershed realities expand outward for many, many miles. These realities must be understood and built-into all design considerations for our region, not just NOCP. David Waggoner knows so much about this thanks to his personal mission to interact with and learn from the Dutch. Is he part of the design team?

The current attitude seems to be the old “it’s too expensive” brush-off based on little research. We know so much more about ecological management, watersheds, and how to make design regenerative rather than just durable. What the park team needs is a change of thinking. And impervious asphalt and concrete need to be perceived as counterproductive.

We desperately need sustainability/green leadership to help redesign all plans to maximize innovation. City Park would then become a center for excellence in sustainable park design and implementation, something I believe would not only make the park more economically feasible and attractive to the world; but, something I also believe the world expects us to do with their contributions of time and money. And such a turn of thinking would open many more doors of support from myriad foundations and organizations.

The park has no green leader. It apparently has no strong green connections to the rapidly growing body of local professionals available to research, develop and implement best practices for sustainable, low impact design. And with nobody on the staff or board demanding innovation, how can anyone be expected to innovate?

Imagine if NOCP were to become a world leader in sustainable park design and operations, a true community partner in the education, health and well-being of the region. A place where people gathered not only for peaceful beauty but to learn how to live better, how to grow food, how to implement landscaping principles that healthily interact with the surrounding watershed, how to make a park thrive while maintaining its ecological balance and reducing the negative impact of parking, buildings, recreational facilities and golf courses. Now that would be an economic driver that could lead to sustaining the fiscal future of NOCP!

And sustainable is as much about the green of money as it is the green of the landscape. NOCP could be the best municipal park on the planet.

Mistakes we make now will not be ours to live with, they will be faced by our children and theirs. But, when we kill an ancient oak because we added too much impervious asphalt and concrete, or kill a cypress because we failed to maintain fresh water systems by assuming high saline water from the bayou was good, we commit two crimes: we assault our history and we steal from the future. Adding more heat-inducing, polluting, impermeable asphalt and concrete is a crime against the future. The cost must be measured in more than just today’s dollars.

It’s time to stop and look at what we’re doing. It’s time to make sustainable, low impact design the highest priority of planning.

Look at the makeup of the board and staff. Where is the diversity of thought, age and race that reflects New Orleans? Where are the young innovators who will lead us tomorrow? It will be their park, sooner than you or I want to admit.

I would be thrilled to be of assistance in any and every way possible in helping make NOCP the greenest park on earth. However it will take the leadership of the NOCPIA board to make anything happen. Feel free to call upon me at any time, and to share my thoughts with the rest of the board.

Respectfully yours,
Steve Picou

Additional Links:

N.O. City Park Master Plan

Board of Commissioners of N.O. City Park Improvement Assn (a state agency, list needs updating)

State Invests $100 Million in Film and Damned Near Nothing in Music

OK, so the numbers are in and, as reported today in the Shreveport Times, in 2007 Louisiana invested $100,000,000 in film (after recouping $14m in taxes) on $429,000,000 of film spending. Of course verifying these numbers, particularly the spending by film companies, is a fuzzy math situation in which we remain dependent upon the film companies themselves to report their spending, so I have my doubts as to the accuracy.

Can you imagine that if you were an investor in the film industry, say in a film fund, how much of a long term return your money might be getting? You’d be getting checks for the rest of your life and that of your heirs if you had spent $100 million in a film investment vehicle that spread your investments around the industry. But what does Louisiana get? One time, poorly validated “spending” by these companies that results in short-term jobs averaging $32,000. But we look good on camera!

If this is such a good investment, why don’t we do it for music? In fact, why don’t we do it for every business in Louisiana. If the state can directly spend a dollar and get back four, why not spend on restaurants, grocery stores, construction companies, or any business? Because it defies the laws of physics and economics. You can’t create a perpetual motion machine and you can’t use public money to create perpetual economic engines. For the public to benefit, any expenditure needs to produce more in tax revenues than it spends. Just as too many calories make you fat, too much spending makes you broke. No matter how you extend the numbers to “secondary spending” you cannot ignore the fact that more money is being taken from public coffers than is being replenished.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: where’s Louisiana’s share? If individuals invested this much money in the film business, they’d be getting a a piece of the action, a return on investment. Why is this not possible for public investment?

Music is our true asset. Though we welcome Hollywood and the movie industry, it is not one of Louisiana’s naturally occurring assets. Music is our calling card to the hearts, minds and wallets of the world. Yet we continue to allow it to flounder, leaderless, budget-less and without accountability for what little is being done. The press and public remain silent about the ongoing tragedy that is the Louisiana Music Commission.

Here’s the kind of readily available information that used to be produced by the LMC and which was publicly available on the web until 2006 when the years of undermining by a small, avaricious group empowered by soon-to-be-jailed former Louisiana Economic Development (LED) Entertainment director Mark Smith and other cohorts finally prevailed in destroying the LMC:

Economic Impact of the Louisiana Music Industry Analyzed by City

LMC Summary Report 1992-2003

In fact, let me state this: former LED secretaries Don Hutchinson and Mike Olivier, along with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the aforementioned Mark Smith were to music what the US Army Corps of Engineers was to flood protection in New Orleans in 2005–a massive disaster with ongoing consequences that will affect future generations.

Of course, I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am. Someone, please convince me that I’m wrong about all this and that Louisiana is better off because of these things. I’m a reasonable person.