The curfew finally ended on 12/23/05. I guess Christmas under
curfew was just too much to bear. The Police finally conceded that they
have enough officers to maintain public safety. Until then a 2am-6am
curfew was in
effect for even minimally affected areas of town.
Exceptions were made for duck hunters. Why is there a curfew in
Orleans but not in Jefferson? Joggers need to get out early. The
newspaper is delivered during the curfew. Selective enforcement is an
abomination. It's a moot point now but something I will remember about
this administration.
Many intersections where the traffic lights failed have been replaced
by 4 way stop signs. With the low traffic volume it would make sense to
make these regular stop signs for the cross streets and allow the main
thoroughfare to proceed unimpeded. Claiborne Avenue is a prime example.
The police response to the "road rage" this stupidity is causing is to
increase enforcement!
Mississippi River Bridge tolls are the main impediment to getting
across the bridge and into the city from the Westbank. No, it's not the
$1 toll that deters people it is the 5 to 20 minute wait to pay that
toll. So many folks dont have toll tags (Why?). And even if you do the
ones that don't tend to have trouble finding a cash lane so they block
off the tag lanes. Tolls ought to be removed for the duration of the
emergency and forever.
During a visit in January to the CCC office I spotted two signs that kind of sum it up:
- No toll tags available. Check back on Jan 16th.
- Closed Jan 16 for Martin Luther King Day.
Debris trucks are still dropping stuff on the roads.
The media reports that road rage is at an all time high. I think I know
why. The leadership urges patience. What I don't understand is how in the name of all that is good we
can continue to do this to ourselves.
A crew showed up in my neighborhood to collect debris on January 20th.
Someone had chopped down a tree and put the branches out for
collection. The garbage guys used to collect this stuff during their
regular runs, but now the Corps of Engineers sends out a crew. The crew
consisted of a debris removal truck and its driver, a bobcat and its
operator, two flagmen and their cones in a big pickup truck. The crew
rolled in at 8:15 am and deployed the cones and flagmen sealing off a
two block area. With security in place, the bobcat went to work
scooping up the "debris" in two bites and loaded it in the truck.The
operator and truck driver hopped out and collected a few of the pieces
that the bobcat had dropped in the street and left behind. The
flagmen stood patiently at their posts but no traffic was in evidence.
By 8:35 the job was done and everyone loaded up their gear and trundled
off down the street to the next hot spot. This is SOP all over the city. No wonder everything costs so much and takes so long.
You've gotta be kidding.