Culture, change collide in Treme (NOLA)

[funkybutt]

Source: Times Picayune, New Orleans

"Monday, at about 8 p.m., nearly 20 police cars swarmed to a Treme corner, breaking up a memorial procession and taking away two well-known neighborhood musicians in handcuffs.

The brothers, snare drummer Derrick Tabb and trombonist Glen David Andrews, were in a group of two dozen musicians playing a spontaneous parade for tuba player Kerwin James, who died last week of complications from a stroke he had suffered after Hurricane Katrina"

-snip-

"For newly arrived neighbors, Curry sometimes serves as a cultural interpreter. "I tell them, 'When someone dies in the Treme, you're going to hear a band,'¤" she said. But to those neighbors dismayed by the noise or the crowds that come along with those bands, Curry is stern. "I say, 'You found us doing this -- this is our way," she said

Read more: http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/10/culture_change_collide_in_trem.html

[mogster]

1. They paid for a permit?

To hold a funeral procession?

"Tuesday's parade was without incident. It was peacefully escorted by the New Orleans Police Department, thanks to a newly issued permit, the result of lengthy meetings Tuesday between community groups and police officials.

Funeral director Louis Charbonnet, a longtime supporter of music in Treme who also is in charge of James' Saturday funeral service, confirmed the permit came from those meetings, which he participated in. He was vague about who paid for the permit. "We've got a permit and it's paid for," he said.

Some neighbors said buying a permit was a cop-out, arguing the traditional parades should be unencumbered by the bureaucratic formalities.

"It is" a cop out, Charbonnet agreed. "But sometimes you have to do what you have to do.""

Why do you have to buy a permit to hold a peaceful demo, or funeral procession? :shrug:

[NavyDavy]

2. because newbies want to force their ways on everybody...

like here in NM...all these retirees come here and buy homes and complain about the local ways of doing things and traditions, they want to change places to the way they were in the place they just left

[KamaAina]

3. 20 NOPD cars pulled up to the same corner at once?

It's tough enough to get NOPD ("Not Our Problem, Dude") to show up when somebody gets shot!

Hey, maybe that's it! Next time someone's attacked, instead of yelling "Help! Police!", s/he should yell "Second line!" :sarcasm:

Still others say the incident is a sign of a greater attack on the cultural history of the old city neighborhood by well-heeled newcomers attracted to Treme by the very history they seem to threaten.

Anyone remember, right at the time people were allowed back into the city after You-Know-What, Mayor* Nagin specifically mentioning Treme by name as one of the first neighborhoods that would be reopened? Hmmm... I know he's involved in a real estate investment outfit... you don't suppose it's buying up buildings there and renting them to newbies, do you? :tinfoilhat:

[NOLALady]

4. WOW!

Last year we had to seriously fight to hold onto our Treme Church, St Augustine. The ArchBishop came up with all kinds of crap (none of which passed the smell test) about why they HAD to close St Augustine.
I theorized (couldn't prove) that this was an effort to please and benefit newcomers at the risk of ruining our cultural heritage.

OMG! The nerve of ANYONE complaining about our funerals. Nothing's Sacred!

[KamaAina]

5. As you might expect, the bloggers are all over this like white on rice

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2007/10/wrong-just-wron.html

I don't give a damn if there's a law. Fuck the law.

The brass bands are our culture. The second lines are our culture. This is worth preserving. Those that wanna bust people for parading need to just move, because they ain't New Orleans, and we don't need their ass....

People wanna live in the Treme, and then bitch about the brass bands and the parades?

Puh-leeze. Get yo' ass back to wherever you came from, 'cause it's your job to find an appropriate neighborhood for your lifestyle; not for the neighborhood to suddenly adjust to you.

Actually a fairly tame post, by Ashley's standards: only one F-bomb!

http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html#5052233223028991860

Now police in this town have an awfully bad time of things as it is but when you read something like this you have to wonder not only about departmental priorities, but also about how these officers can live with themselves sometimes.

Of course, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if the new Yuppie neighbors would realize that they haven't just moved to Topeka....

But I keep forgetting I'm not supposed to complain about all the new young professionals since they're all here to help us backward dumbfucks become civilized or something like that.

http://g-bitch.com/?p=358

Sorry, you'll have to check her out for yourself, as our Keystone Kops firewall thinks her site is porn just because she calls herself "G-Bitch"! (She most often posts about... public education. :eyes: )

[funkybutt]

6. nothin new about this issue

if you wanna parade, you gotta pay (A LOT)

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/3515.php

[funkybutt]

7. Misconception about New Comers

I believe there is a misconception that new comers to New Orleans are not welcoming to the culture. I saw this on K'Ville, but living here, I haven't experienced it. The people buying homes here are taking a huge risk. They come here, for the most part, out of a realization that this may be a short window, a gamble, a chance to make positive change here. The people buying up large pieces of land, aren't from here, don't live here, and have no plans of living here.

:shrug:

[Swamp Rat]

8. Fuck!

Those are MY FRIENDS!!!!! :mad: