April 2007 is month 20 since Katrina. Things are looking a bit better, but it is still one day at a time. The big issues remain unchanged. Race, flood protection, and the economic future of the city remain in doubt. People are definitely tired and are thinking about their commitment to the city. A Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse survey shows 25% of the metro population are dissatisfied and plan to leave (just wait til summer).

It's April and the weather is fantastic. Just like it is supposed to be. A little warm sometimes hinting at the summer to come, but mostly brilliant. You'll want to be outside 24 by 7.

ICF is still in the pits. They came up far short of the 7,000 closings they had hoped for in March, and 10,000 more in April looks like another pipe dream. The Road Home design (LRA responsibility) ran into a big snag with HUD further slowing things down. As of April 3rd there have been 6,100 closings. At 3,000 per month it's going to take 40 months to complete this program. Something has to change for the better. A couple of changes are in the works. First lump sum payments are now being made after closing. This was dictated by HUD rules and is the snag aluded to above. Second the title search requirment is now going to be modified if homeowners elect to repair their homes. The state diddled with the  ICF contract a bit and added some penalties that could cost ICF more than $2.7 million of the $38 million they expect to earn on the $757 million contract. Big whup. Of course they did it secretly and it became controversial on release.

Mary Landrieu and David Vitter are both blocking the appointment of a new commander for the Corps of Engineers until he first visits New Orleans and the coast. They want him to have this first hand experience. Lt. Gen. Robert van Antwerp (now anybody with a name like that should understand Dutch levee engineering) will visit on April 19th. Vitter is already on record expressing his disappointment with van Antwerp's understanding of the cause of the flooding. We'll see if they "make nice" after the visit.

The Mayor and the rest of the political leadership are not providing much in the way of a positive influence. The Governor has made herself a lame duck by opting out of the race for reelection. Bobby Jindal remains a strong favorite to replace her. This makes him a lame duck Congressman. John Breaux is a non-starter and the state's Democrats are scrambling to field a viable alternative. The Mayor has had his hands full teaching Ed Blakely how to keep his foot out of his mouth.

Ed, the "Recovery Czar," Blakely returned from Australia where he told folks there were only 350,000 people living in Orleans before the storm. Later he likened the racial tensions in New Orleans to the Shia-Sunni divide in Iraq, and then he went on to describe New Orleans leadership as buffoons heading up an economy based on T-shirt sales. I don't think he likes us very much, and he's not making friends. His factual understanding is a bit lacking, and he won't be staying long. In other words, he seems to get it.

Council member Cynthia Hedge-Morell got in trouble with the State Police when she was speeding along I10 displaying a flashing blue light in her city issued SUV. She then reportedly complained about being stopped. It seems she was running late for a meeting (with FEMA no less). This type of arrogance ill befits our public servants.

Eddie Jordan has had little time for fighting crime in the city as he is spending his time in court appealing his civil rights judgment for firing 43 white employees and later appearing before a Congressional committee investigating crime in New Orleans. He failed to distinguish himself in either encounter.

In the meantime crime continues unabated. Four killings per day is hardly newsworthy. More black on black, drug on drug. The entire city is the collateral damage. Richard Ieyoub surfaced in the news with the announcement that a new program between the DA and the police ought to bear rapid results.

Garbage pickup is excellent. Richard's Disposal is doing a great job in my neighborhood and most of the French Quarter loves SDT. A few in the French Quarter are continuing to object to the new containers and the Vieux Carre Commission Chairman, Ralph Lupin, got in a snit with city hall by calling the waste and sanitation queen there a bitch. Apparently it's her way or the highway. He might lose his job (at least he didn't say "nappy"). I am more interested in what she is doing to deal with this complaint and provide better service to the people in the city who pay her salary.

One of the funniest stories of the month emerged just before Easter when it was reported that ten abandoned cars have been sitting in short term parking at the airport since Katrina. In good parking spots no less.  Covered with dust, they are attracting commentary by finger tip artists. Of course the airport doesn't want to tow them away because of the loss of parking revenue. Let's see now...at $3.00 per half hour,  that's over $100,000 someone is going to have to pony up when they pull that car up to the checkout booth. (Not really, since the airport lot charges $15 per day, the most anyone will owe is under ten grand. In fact one guy picked up his car just two weeks back and paid the $8,700 he owed. They didn't even offer a car wash.)

MRE's are in the news again. I thought we heard the last about these culinary delights. It seems that FEMA wanted to be ready for the next storm so they stocked up on food, water  and ice in advance. But they bought so much, they have no place to store it. So in April they are dumping excess MRE's. Oops, I did it again! There goes a few more mega bucks down the drain. By the way did you know you can buy MRE's on the Internet for about $75 for a case of 12 meals, even less without the chemical heaters.