So tonight's news brought the usual madness & an announcement that the 'Bandit Sign & Dumping Enforcement' was full on, so we'd better be prepared.
A curiously enthusiastic reporter stood at the corner of Chartres & Frenchmen, in front of a light pole covered with the close cropped & tattered remains of shredded fliers that had been stapled there. It looked worse than I've ever seen it. A tattered mess.
"This pole was full of signs, just a week ago, but local merchants have TORN THEM DOWN!"
I'm sure they're very proud of their new tatterific display, too.
A huge victory party will no doubt ensue.
Stacy Head rifled through a huge stack of coroplast bandit signs, mostly for cheap services, free cell phones, 1-800 Buy House & shit like that. Ugly shit. I won't miss them. "Its an epidemic!" she said. I guess, but so is stupidity in government.
Some dude (Steve Mardon?) in Mid-city displayed his LARP like Death Wand El Fantasitco ( a pvc pipe with a nail it in) Bandit Sign Ripper, with which he removes those coroplast 'cheap crap' signs,dispatching them, no doubt, at great mortal peril to himself & The Known Universe.
I wondered why only The Reporter went to Frenchman St, and singled out a corner where mostly music fliers are posted? Is she privy to some insidious plan to persecute Music & Art in the Marigny?
Of course she is.
Because there is one, and we all know it.
A few local fliers targeting a specific neighborhood are just a Public Proclamation. I think we should ask local businesses to allow bulletin board space at key points of our neighborhood. It would serve them well to be such a hub of knowledge....
But, oh, wait;
There's a punch line here that trumps all punch lines.
As each & every business who relies on this for legitimate advertising takes the hit, we close with this cheery tag line;
"Political signs will be exempt."
It must be so fucking nice to be in charge of the pie.
You can make everybody as miserable as you want,
and still take the biggest piece for yourself, every fucking time.
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Then we take down their signs and recycle them! And we start a new political campaign: "Don't vote for any of them!!!". And that is who we will loudly vote for. No One!
We just put a big board on our stoop inviting all musicians and venues to flyer! 3127 Dauphine! It's private property! And we give you permission! You too can do the same thine! Put one up at your house too!
Okay, there is something I don't understand. If there is a plan to persecute music and the arts in the Marigny (and the Bywater), why? What's the point? WHO IS MAKING MONEY FROM THIS?
Dear Duchess; Thanks for asking. I always appreciate people who want to find things out for themselves.
Here we go; In the early to mid 90s, I moved to the Bywater, renting a half shotgun for about $400 a month. It was appraised at $60,000. At that time, people told me I was insane to move "out there" as I would surely be raped & eaten by monsters.
I'll admit, there were some 'Deadwood' moments. I saw a 12 -14 yr old kid with a pistol in a Schwegmann's bag, because it was too big to put in his pants without pulling them down.
Another time 3 or 4 kids beat & robbed and old black man on the street in the mid afternoon. It wasn't pretty, but it was cheap.
Many artists & musicians already lived there, and many more moved there, because it was cheap, and the 'Frontier'. The cops ignored it, the city ignored it, and we were on our own, literally.
When my neighbor, Helen Hill, was shot to death in her doorway, it was still pretty wild, and the locals had done the rebuilding post-K themselves, many of us working for free to help out neighbors.
Then the FEMA prices kicked in. To make a long story short, as property values rose, so did City interest.
As 'Treme' hit the air waves, the Street Car line got approved, and funding for the River Front Development came through, this are got slated for "The New Magazine Street' and that same house on Montegut Street is now appraised at about $300,000.
The only problem is, those dirty artists & musicians are still there, looking sketchy and hanging around, listening to music & wearing mis matched clothes.
The new hipsters (who hang around pretending to listen to music & wearing carefully designed mis matched clothing outfits from American Apparel) don't like it. It's only fun to be "bohemian" hen your garbage cans all line up and the light poles are nice & clean.
So, there's the money trail. This happened in NYC and it's happening here.
Artists, writer, musicians & other freaks move into a neighborhood that nobody else wants to live in. They make it cool, livable, community oriented and fun, and then it gets marketed to death, prices rise & they get run out.
The first few steps usually involve making anything fun or creative require permits, then illegal.
I'm just dying to see & hear all the wild creativity that comes pouring out of internet collection agency phone operators and their ilk.
Oh, wait.
I think I just missed it.
No, that was just gas.
I guess I'll keep waiting....
Correction;
When I said "It wasn't pretty, but it was cheap" I didn't mean the robbery. I meant the neighborhood.
But you knew that, right?
your blog is a great connection to my own past--I love it, although every post you write makes me wonder if I can ever go back.
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