Hard Rock fell down. Kailas got up again

 You'll never keep this city's permanent wealth class down. 

The lead developer of the Hard Rock Hotel, which collapsed while under construction in 2019, has begun construction on a major new project in a former downtown office building two blocks from the site of the fatal disaster.

Mohan Kailas and his partners in the new venture are planning to turn the 31-story skyscraper at 1010 Common Street into a mixed-use complex with two hotels, including a 250-room Fairmont Hotel with a rooftop pool.

The project, which will cost more than $90 million, will also include an extended stay Element Hotel and six floors of office space.

It's so obscene you almost have to admire it. 

It’s the first big project for Kailas, a seasoned developer with several successful real estate projects under his belt, since the Hard Rock fell. The collapse killed three construction workers and injured dozens of others. Kailas was never accused of criminal wrongdoing in connection with the disaster. In legal filings and prepared statements, Kailas and his partners have blamed the project’s engineer and steel provider for the structural failure, which remains the subject of more than 100 unresolved lawsuits.

Oh well, no one to blame. Nothing has to change. And now we're right back to building nice things for rich people in a city facing an ever-worsening housing crisis. Yes, there will be a public subsidy. Why even bother asking anymore, really. 

Kailas and his partners in the project, which include Atlanta-based investment group Monarch Private Capital, will use federal historic building tax credits to help finance the building’s conversion. The tax credit program enables developers to recoup 20% of what they spend rehabilitating a building.

Congratulations

Congrats to the various landlords and contractors and politicians responsible for the deadly collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in 2019. You're all free to go. 

NEW ORLEANS — A state grand jury voted against indicting anyone for causing the catastrophic Hard Rock Hotel collapse four years ago, essentially ending a two-year criminal investigation by Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams with nothing to show for it.

Thursday’s grand jury meeting was held in secret, but Angela Magrette, whose brother Anthony was killed in the catastrophe, told WWL-TV she was informed of the decision not to press criminal charges. The grand jury meeting was the last one before a deadline to file criminal charges. Next Thursday, Oct. 12, is the fourth anniversary of the catastrophe and state law gives prosecutors four years to file gross negligence charges.

Congratulations, also, to Jason Williams and his excellent decision making.  

Williams chose to have a grand jury hear testimony on the matter and vote whether to bring charges, rather than simply filing them. The grand jury returned “not a true bill,” meaning at least nine grand jurors heard unrefuted testimony and didn’t think there was enough evidence to hold someone criminally liable for the collapse.

Tick Tock (again)

Jason Williams' office is running out of time to bring indictments in the Hard Rock hotel collapse. It's been hard to know which party in particular has been dragging their feet the most these past few years.  Right now, Williams says the problem is OSHA. 

NEW ORLEANS — The federal workplace safety agency, OSHA, is refusing to cooperate with a grand jury probe of the deadly 2019 Hard Rock Hotel collapse until it resolves a long-delayed civil dispute with the building’s lead engineer, a target of that criminal investigation.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams subpoenaed OSHA’s Hard Rock investigation file more than two years ago

Williams said the federal agency’s refusal to produce the records as ordered by a judge now seriously hampers the criminal negligence case his prosecutors are presenting to the grand jury, with just two weeks left for it to return an indictment before a four-year deadline.

Williams said the lack of cooperation from OSHA is forcing him and his prosecutors to “fight with one hand tied behind our backs” as they present their case to the grand jury.

“It’s akin to enabling or covering up criminal activity because the clock is ticking. We only have a few more days before the clock runs out on this,” Williams said in an exclusive interview with WWL-TV. “If you had told me this would happen, I would tell you that you're a liar.”

Is it really that hard to believe, though? To some of us, it feels like the only possible thing.

Entergy's Company Town

We're finally doing something about the terrorists.  On Wednesday, March 23rd, your New Orleans City Council will begin an inquiry into an ongoing insurrection that threatens the security of our civic life.

NEW ORLEANS - The City Council's Utility, Cable, Telecommunications, and Technology Committee will be meeting next week with Entergy New Orleans to discuss animal-related outages at Entergy substations. The meeting comes after several reported outages caused by animals last week, including one which resulted in outages for over 10,000 customers in the downtown, CBD, and Mid-City areas.

Councilmember Morrell released the following statement in regards to the meeting: “Last week, over 10,000 New Orleans ratepayers lost power for hours because of a single bird, resulting in business closures. In light of the downtown outage and subsequent Lakeview power outages caused by a squirrel, I have requested for members of Entergy New Orleans to come before the Utility Committee to address the issue of animal-related system failures.

Incidents of power outages are unfortunately all too familiar to the residents of this city. These animal-related outages are not just mere inconveniences. They are hardships that grind our city to a halt.

When a bird topples key power sources for three years in a row, it’s time to take a deep dive into what is currently being done to prevent incidents like this, and which areas need improvement. If Entergy is going to request a rate increase, they should be able to explain how small animals repeatedly put thousands of customers in the dark.”

Reading that, one wonders if JP is really digging deep enough.  It's true the creatures have waged a campaign of sabotage against our infrastructure. But their terror activities extend beyond the scope of just three annual bird attacks. Channel 6 put together a cheeky little graphic on the fly last week to try and get the point across. 

Based off WDSU's records, there have been 5 incidents of animal-related power outages since 2013. There was also one non-animal related incident involving a balloon. Weather related outages are not included in this graphic. https://t.co/h2OObo3sJm pic.twitter.com/nizrMrFkRM

— wdsu (@wdsu) March 9, 2022

But that doesn't really capture the whole picture. We won't presume to provide a full catalog either. But just to give you an idea of what a few moments of casual googling and hazy memories will turn up, here are two outages allegedly caused by raccoons in 2008 and 2012.  Here is the squirrel JP's memo refers to. Here is another squirrel in 2016.  Here is one in Baton Rouge last year.  The WDSU graphic references the famous cat and the mylar balloons (2017, 2018, and 2021.) 

Technically a balloon is not an animal but we cannot rule out the possibility of them having been deployed through one or another creature's deliberate intervention. One hangs around here long enough and one begins to get the impression that the animals might be up to something.  The peacocks might vandalize your car. Feral hogs are undermining your levees. Alligators are up to all sorts of mischief in your streets, under your streets, in your dumpsters.  This weekend, our most prominent animal insurrectionist celebrated his seventh birthday to considerable internet fanfare. Clearly his growing cult of personality is emboldening others in his movement. 

With so much evidence of an organized animal uprising underway, you might think stewards of critical infrastructure like Entergy would invest more in countermeasures. But, as we've learned time and again, improved service is not the focus of Entergy's investment strategy. Profit hoarding is.  And, as we've also learned time and again, that isn't a model conducive to producing reliable public service.  

Entergy has aggressively resisted efforts by regulators, residents and advocates to improve its infrastructure. The company’s restoration of its equipment after major storms didn’t prioritize the grid modernization that industry experts say could limit the scope and duration of power outages. Instead of shifting toward renewable energy, Entergy doubled down on building plants that emit greenhouse gases — the same pollution that has made hurricanes more intense. 

ENO is uniquely positioned among American utilities to protect its interests because of how it’s regulated. The subsidiary is one of only two investor-owned utilities overseen by a city council; utilities typically are regulated by a state-level commission. That setup has often left the New Orleans City Council without sufficient resources and expertise to effectively regulate the monopoly electric utility, according to interviews with some residents, council members and former city officials.

How frustrating is it for City Council to regulate this monopoly? Earlier this month, we learned that they can't even hire a consulting firm to help with their analysis.  What's the matter? Don't these accountants want to work?  There's real beans to be counted here!

The New Orleans City Council is planning to rebid a contract to conduct a management audit of Entergy New Orleans, after its first attempt received zero responses from interested firms. The management audit was announced in September, in the wake of Hurricane Ida and the weeks-long power outages it caused in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana. 

“To be candid we’re nowhere,” said Councilman and utility committee chair JP Morrel in an interview. “We got zero responses.”

The lack of responsive companies is not isolated to this one contract. In recent months, the council has faced roadblocks finding companies to fill several contracts vital to its role as regulator of Entergy New Orleans.

Morrell called it “frustrating” and “jarring.”

These consulting contracts are typically the most lucrative the council can offer to anyone for anything. All last summer we kept hearing complaints from political and business elites that "free money from the government" was keeping too many people from going to work. But here we have the government with all this free money to give away to an auditing firm for, let's face it, not very much actual work, and there are no takers to be found.

The Lens asked JP Morrell why he thinks that is.  He can't say what is keeping national firms out of the running but he does have an interesting theory about what crowds out local bidders.

He said Entergy’s outsized influence in the region’s economy may have also played a role. He was clear that he had no evidence of actual active “economic intimidation” from Entergy, but said that companies that stand to work with Entergy may see the council contracts as a liability. 

“Someday you might want to do work with Entergy,” Morrell said. “There’s always going to be the idea both from law firms and accounting firms locally, that if you do work for the council on one of these pieces, you might conflict yourself out of any future work with Entergy.”

Someday you might want to do work with Entergy.  It's true, the revolving door between local government and the utility giant has been in operation for as long as we can remember. Just a few examples would include the following:

Former Entergy CEO Charles Rice who resigned in 2018 following a series of scandalous events including the "paid actors" incident, a contentious rate case negotiation, and at least the appearance of insider trading activity. Rice has been in and out of local government, most notably as City Attorney and Chief Administrative Officer under Ray Nagin.  Probably Rice's most famous exploit from that time was his purchase of the supposedly "bomb-proof" trash cans. In this story, we see Nagin trying to distance himself from the controversy. 

In a recent interview, Nagin said he was never a fan of the squatty cans, bought with a no-bid contract at the direction of former Chief Administrative Officer Charles Rice. Rice left city government in 2005, a few months before Hurricane Katrina.

"Those little munchkin trash cans? We got rid of those," Nagin said, referring to the trash can deal as "a Charles Rice special."

The mayor's chief beef, apparently, was that the receptacles, known as "Jazzy Cans," were too small.

"I said to Charles, 'Where'd you find these trash cans?'¤" Nagin recounted. "They're about this tall," he added, holding his hand at the level of a table top. "I had to bend over to put stuff in ¤'em."

Told of the mayor's comments, Rice fired back.

"This was discussed with Ray Nagin one-on-one and in a staff meeting in his office," said Rice, who is practicing law. "Ultimately, any decision involving the city of New Orleans rests with the mayor. He approved the purchase of the trash cans, and at the end of the day, Ray Nagin makes the decision and bears the ultimate responsibility."

The trash cans were controversial when they were installed, though the controversy had nothing to do with their size. The problem was that the company that supplied them, Niche Marketing USA, acknowledged a business relationship with Terrence Rice, Charles Rice's brother -- though the Rices have denied the link.

While Charles Rice is no longer the CEO at Entergy, he is still there in the legal department. His wife also works for Entergy as a systems analyst while maintaining a quasi public service role as chair of the public library board. 

When Ken Polite left the US Attorney's office for Louisiana's Eastern District, he was briefly rumored to become a mayoral candidate. Instead he landed at Entergy. Here was his job description. 

Entergy, based in New Orleans, confirmed the hire in a statement Tuesday (April 18), adding Polite will serve as the company's chief compliance officer overseeing legal and regulatory matters, including its compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules. Polite, 41, joined the company Tuesday and will assume full leadership of the department over the summer.

In the statement, Marcus Brown, executive vice president and general counsel at Entergy Corp., praised Polite's "superior legal acumen, experience leading people and his personal commitment to local communities."

"He is well suited to upholding and enhancing Entergy's high standards for ethical behavior and our serious commitment to complying with laws and regulations -- and doing what's right even when there's no rule to follow," Brown said.

Having received ethical instruction from Polite, Entergy would go on to unnecessarily shut down power during a severe freeze in New Orleans, struggle with restoring power and being transparent with the public after Hurricane Ida, back out of its commitment to funding a new substation for Sewerage and Water Board, and, of course, continue inventing new ways to nickel and dime its ratepayers.  

Of course, Polite would also remain closely involved in government.  In 2020 his firm was hired (secretly and outside of regular procurement procedures) by the city to perform one of the several simultaneous and conflicting investigations into causes of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse. Last year, President Biden appointed Polite to head the US Justice Department's Criminal Division where he will be in charge of investigating, among many other things, public corruption.

And then there are the firms the city council is (supposedly) attempting to replace through this bidding process. Here is a Lens feature from a couple years ago on the Dentons lawfirm and Legend Consulting Group. The story provides one of the best looks at the interlocking relationships between the City Council, the consulting firms, and Entergy itself.  There's so much going on there, it wouldn't do the article justice to just quote a few paragraphs.  But here are a few paragraphs. 

It’s neither illegal nor uncommon in Louisiana for government contractors to make campaign contributions to the politicians that hire them. And prior to the April 2007 resolution, members of the utility committee received a steady stream of campaign contributions from utility advisors, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars. Even after 2007, several council members received campaign contributions from utility consultants.

Thomas’ campaign finance records from his time on the council show thousands of dollars in contributions from several utility advisers, dating from at least 2002 to early 2007. The Lens identified one small contribution of $250 to Head from Bruno and Tervalon — the utility committee’s accounting contractor — in 2015. We could not identify any such contributions to Midura, who said in 2007 that she did not accept campaign money from contractors involved in regulating Entergy, according to an article in The Times-Picayune.

Clint Vince’s law firm, Dentons, also gave $25,000 to the Louisiana Democratic Party’s political action committee between 2013 and 2018, according to state campaign finance records. State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party since 2012, was hired by Dentons in 2014.

“Dentons does not have a relationship with the Louisiana Democratic Party,” Peterson said in an email to The Lens. “Separate and apart from my role with Dentons, I serve as chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party.”

There also appears to be a longtime relationship between the utility consultants and the Black Organization for Leadership Development (BOLD), a local political organization based in Central City. That relationship can be traced back at least to 1987, when the council hired a firm run by Sidney Cates IV and then-Tax Assessor Kenneth Carter. Carter, a co-founder of BOLD and the father of Karen Carter Peterson, was a close friend of then-Councilman Jim Singleton, another BOLD co-founder.

Long story short, the very small circle of people in the New Orleans political elite class (and we are talking multiple generations of the same families) tend to ping pong in and out of government  as they take lucrative jobs with the contractors those offices hire and the utilities and businesses they regulate. One more classic example of this occurred in January when we learned that Judge Regina Bartholomew-Woods, who is married to Jimmie Woods, the owner of one of the city's two major trash hauling contractors, was resigning her judgeship so she could take a position with, yep, Entergy.

All of which is to say, it's little wonder an unusually combative City Council can find any takers for these consulting contracts that may already be tacitly spoken for.  And that's a shame because JP makes it sound like they are so very close to getting to the bottom of this animal conspiracy. But it's tough when you can't get anyone to take the case. Nobody wants to work in this town anymore, it seems. That is unless they're working for Entergy.

Property rights

At first glance it might seem at least a little bit insensitive of Kailas to even bring this up.  

The developers of the ill-fated Hard Rock Hotel have sued the city over a new measure that would restrict the height of future construction at the site of the building collapse, alleging that it’s a politically motivated ploy from City Council member Kristin Gisleson Palmer.

The developers say that lowering the maximum building height allowed at the site from 190 feet to 70 feet constitutes an illegal taking of their property, and they’re asking an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge to declare a motion sponsored by Palmer null and void. 

After everything that happened here, the damage, the disruption, the cost, the injuries, the deaths, the exposure of the corrupt systems that underlie all of it, you'd think that the property owner doesn't  just say "my bad" and start over.  But we're so far off the edge of the map with regard to oligarchic late stage capitalism now that all the human questions about what should happen with that space now must take a back seat to the sacred "property" rights of people like Kailas to suck maximum value out of it.

Also he's probably just thinking the developers own their own judges now anyway. Might as well put that work. 

The developers’ preemptive lawsuit says that the process leading up to the June 3 vote was fatally flawed and that a judge should order it reversed. The lawsuit claims that an April report from the City Planning Commission cited only vague generalities about economic damage instead of specific violations of the city's comprehensive zoning ordinance.

The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Jennifer Medley. The city declined to comment.

Holy hell it is already June

It's been quiet on the Yellow Blog for a few weeks and, I guess, for much of the year. I've been kind of slacking, I realize that. That's not to say I've been off in space or anything. The main point of this blog is basically note taking for stuff that goes on in the news or just things I read and hear in general. Trust me there are plenty of notes. The "drafts" folder here is quite prolific. I just haven't taken the time to sit down and organize them in a while.   That's not a great thing because if I don't process at least a little bit, it starts to feel like I might forget it all. Which.. again.. the main point of this blog is so I don't forget about things that happen. 

And there's a ton of stuff going on right now that I don't want to lose track of.  The legislature is wrapping up today.  I managed to get some of that down a few weeks ago, but things have not improved since.  Most notably, despite being in possession of an historic budget surplus flush with federal money to throw at whatever they like, lawmakers decided to fund a roads and infrastructure program by forcing more cuts to higher ed and health care. 

Today, we learned that they have decided to scrap two years of work toward a plan for automating expungements of criminal records because the State Police said it might cost too much. 

Davis said State Police still weren’t able to afford the proposal. He told legislators last month that  if James’ bill passed his agency might be forced to reduce the size of its next police academy class — a priority for several lawmakers — or cancel the purchase of new police vehicles. 

But lawmakers could have absorbed the entire cost in next year’s budget. The Legislature’s budget plan includes $17 million in unallocated funding that can still be spent. The Supreme Court is also sitting on millions of dollars of reserves that could be used for this purpose if it wanted to do so.

Anyway, there's more, of course. But that's not the only thing.  A bunch of stuff has been going on. Another building is collapsing downtown while we are still figuring out what to do about the last one.   A big municipal election is coming and some of your all time favs are back in the mix. It's hurricane season again and the turbines are.. not ready.  It's June now but the first of July is coming and that is going to be the worst first of the month yet for people facing eviction. 

Also other things! I have to make time to get this stuff in context before it all becomes a big blur and our consciousnesses disintegrate into the wind.  I'm trying.  

Meanwhile, holy hell it is already June. The myrtles are already in bloom and it hardly even feels like we're in 2021 yet.

Who audits the auditors?

This is more from that David Hammer series on building inspections we mentioned the other day. All of this has gotten more attention after the Hard Rock collapse but it is important to remember that the trouble at New Orleans Safety and Permits began before that. There were have been competing investigations run by the city, by the feds, and by the Inpector General underway for well over a year. 

Hammer's report focuses on an internal audit of Safety and Permits run by City Hall. Not sure how it relates to the multiple other investigations, exactly, but according to Hammer's source, there are problems. 

Now, the results of the full audit, obtained by WWL-TV last month through a public records request, suggest that the audit itself had several issues.

The sample of 720 inspection files reviewed in the audit showed around 20% noncompliance, as Montaño said. But the audit turned out to be composed of what one auditor who spoke to WWL-TV called a “haphazard” mixture of inspections conducted by in-house city inspectors — with GPS data to track whether they showed up at construction sites — and inspections conducted by private, third-party inspectors with no GPS data to track their whereabouts.

According to the auditor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the audit also didn't employ a regimented process to review the inspection files. Each auditor did it their own way, the auditor said, making it much harder to determine if the city had indeed made the type of progress Montaño touted.

“It shows an incohesive, improper audit,” the auditor said. “It was not a proper, across-the-board, cohesive methodology to determine which inspections were accurate and which ones need (additional) review.”

The other bit of context here is that this was taking place at the same time the city was reorganizing the whole Safety and Permits department into a new entity run by a short term rental executive. At that time the declared purpose of the new agency was to "shift the paradigm"of Safety regulation toward helping businesses and landlords "get creative" with the rules.

“Instead of someone saying no immediately, it’s someone saying, ‘Let’s find a way to accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish and still stay within our rules and guidelines, not skirt the system, but let’s get creative on how we can help you succeed. Because you succeeding is us succeeding.’ “

Hammer's story concludes by noting the new agency will "focus continually on auditing the inspectors' work." Very reassuring.

Domino-like effects

Seeds of Decline "Fights The Futilities" Krewe Du Vieux 2006

So it's come to this

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans is warning residents that a citywide boil water advisory could occur in the next 24 hours because of water pressure drops caused by freezing water mains under the streets. 

The city is expecting temperatures to be below freezing for about 12 hours, starting at about 3 pm Monday.

Ghassan Korban, the head of the Sewerage & Water Board, said that the utility does not have much of a margin for error with little backup power. 

"Our power and pumping system is vulnerable and (will likely) have challenges," Korban said.

Sounds about right.  Happy Mardi Gras, everybody. Famously, a day of challenges. Like we said the other day, Carnival is a lot of things but most of all it is the time for us to be the most, um, intensely whatever we have been over the past year. And this certainly seems like a way to do that. 

After an explosion last year at one of their main power-generating turbines, S&WB has been operating on a shoestring power budget, with generators picking up the slack. 

This means that if any part of their system gets overloaded and goes down, there could be domino-like effects throughout the city. 

Sure, we remember the turbine explosion almost a year and two months ago.  It kind of put the capper on 2019 which had already featured multiple major street flooding incidents, a city cybersecurity disaster, and a certain hotel collapse downtown* you may have heard about. At the time, we thought that was what a year full of disaster would feel like.  Turned out we didn't know yet. But then a few days later the sewer exploded under the French Quarter and we had a little bit better idea.  

Ha ha I am just kidding.  We actually got a better idea of what a year of disasters was like when the "extreme emergency" of a backed up sewer main under Gentilly was declared immediately after that. Remember that one? No, of course you do not. Because after that came 2020 and... whoo boy. 

Anyway, back to those "domino-like effects" they're worried about now. What do those look like?

One of the most pressing of those is a citywide boil water advisory, which Korban said was more than possible. 

"We are likely to see water mains ... rupture throughout the city," Korban said.

This will likely cause localized boil water advisories and low pressure in various areas throughout the city. 

But if enough pipes freeze, or if a crucial main fails, S&WB could take more drastic preventative measures, such as a citywide advisory. 

Ha ha, of course. 

There still has not been one citywide boil order since the pandemic began

— skooks (@skooks) February 2, 2021

Because if you demand the cosmos answer a riddle, that is what you get. The boil order is now "more than possible" on Mardi Gras day. Also it will be freezing outside and maybe the power will be out.  

And so with little recourse now but to sit and contemplate these mysteries, we have to wonder a little bit if this is happening now because we haven't managed to put our spiritual energies back in balance after the cascading disasters of 2019.  The time for that would have been Carnival 2020. But recall that last year's cleansing rituals were themselves interrupted by bad weather, bad.. vibes.. and the horrifying deaths of two parade goers who were crushed by floats. In fact, if we weren't now trying to figure out how to have Carnival in the "not cancelled but different" circumstances of the pandemic, we would certainly have been arguing over whatever new rules might be in place after 2020.  Would barricading the route be an overreaction?  What about a permanent ban on tandem floats? Come to think of it maybe taking a year off to just eat king cake and decorate houses was the best choice for everyone COVID or no COVID.

In any case, there are multiple years of angst piling up here and no obvious means of venting any of it.  Certainly not before Wednesday comes. But something needs to happen before a domino-like karmic effect happens.  Probably nothing for it now besides focusing on getting people vaccinated.  Assuming that goes off well enough (a lot to assume, I know) then probably Krewe Du Vieux will happen on February 12, 2022.  Circle that on your calendar and keep your fingers crossed.

*Still dealing with the ramifications of that, btw

Having a normal one

Everything that is happening is exactly what was supposed to happen.  Don't worry about it.  

NEW ORLEANS — A large chunk of the partially collapsed Hard Rock Hotel came down Thursday morning exactly as planned, according to the lead local engineer on the demolition project.

“They were demo’ing the Burgundy Wing and hit it just right and the whole thing came straight down,” said Walter Zehner, who is the local engineer hired by the demolition company out of St. Louis, Kolb Grading. “Which is exactly what we hoped it would do. Things are fine we are all happy with the way it worked out.”

Everything around you is collapsing into rubble. This is normal.  It's what we hoped it would do. 

That about sums it up.

Right around Bastille Day

As good a time as ever to storm the wreckage.

Work to recover the bodies of two workers trapped inside the Hard Rock hotel in New Orleans when it collapsed last October could begin as early as July 13, city spokesman Beau Tidwell said in a media briefing on Tuesday.

Demolition crews have finished taking down three buildings surrounding the partially collapsed hotel and are currently assembling cranes needed to work on the building itself, Tidwell said.

Demolition time

What better way to begin the post-lockdown COVID Depression Era than with the formal initiation of the Hard Rock demolitions.  Beyond that, how fitting is it that the first building to come down was a post office.

They did not actually mean to do that

Hey remember when the big threat to public safety, symbol of systemic inequality, and destabilizer of the city budget was localized entirely within this one block of the city? Those were the days, huh. 
Anyway it's still there.  And, probably, it will be for... some amount of time.  There's a lot to sort out.

The developer of the mangled Hard Rock Hotel construction project in downtown New Orleans is asking an Orleans Parish judge to stop the city from enforcing a deadline next week for it to “commence” demolition work at the collapse site.

Potentially at stake, beyond the timing of the long-delayed demolition of a hotel project that partially collapsed more than six months ago, is about $5 million.

That’s how much the city wants to bill 1031 Canal Development LLC for emergency response, payroll for city employees and the estimated cost to repair Rampart Street, into which a crane from the failed construction remains speared. That’s about a quarter of what the city claims the developer owes in abatement.

That same $5 million figure is also what a city hearing officer last month ordered 1031 Canal Development to pony up in a bond that would cover penalties should work on the demolition not begin by April 29, court records show. The developer claims it doesn’t have the money.

It's hard to parse but I think this says the dispute is really more about the deadline than it is about the sum or even about the spurring of any action, for that matter.  It's hard to "commence demolition" when there is still no agreement on the method or a contractor in place to do whatever that work ends up being.

The developers don't agree with the demolition company the city has selected. Probably because they think they can get a better price. But the reason they supply in their legal filing is more interesting.

The relationship was already strained between 1031 Canal and Griffin, which performed the October explosion of two cranes that were dangling precariously off the collapsed job site.

“After raising the price for the crane demolition at the last minute from $1.25 million to $5 million, Griffin failed to fully demolish the cranes," the developer said, a public admission that the crane demo was far from perfect despite statements from city officials that it all went as planned. "One crane remains speared into Rampart Street, and the other remains hanging over Canal Street."

Recall that prior to the crane demolitions, city officials told us the plan was for them to fold in on themselves as though one were closing an umbrella.  A few days later, after the explosions left one crane embedded nose down in the center of Rampart Street and the other dangling precariously over Canal, they told us "both cranes behaved as expected."  That seemed wrong at the time. But no one really challenged them on that point until now.

Willful

The long awaited OSHA report on the Hard Rock collapse is now public.  Citations are issued to 10 different companies involved in the work which gives an idea of the systemic nature of the problem. One would think such comprehensive negligence would implicate the developer and general contractor.  But thanks to the acrobatic legalese of construction projects, they may or may not be held directly liable.

Anyway according to this article, OSHA points its most emphatic finger at Heaslip Engineering.

The OSHA citations include a "willful" violation filed against Heaslip for including steel connections that were "inadequately designed, reviewed or approved, affecting the structural integrity of the building." OSHA defines a willful violation as one in which "the employer either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard) or acted with plain indifference to employee safety."

Because I'm sure people are wondering, state dept of ethics filings show Heaslip Engineering and its owner James Heaslip have made campaign contributions to John Bel Edwards, Billy Nungesser, Joe Lopinto, Scott Walker, and John Young.  That's statewide office holders and some Jefferson Parish people.  I didn't see any contributions to New Orleans office holders BUT keep in mind this is just me doing a quick and dirty search. Also they do contribute to the New Orleans Home Builders Association which is a catch all construction PAC that spreads money around to everybody.

Also, in 2019, Heaslip was recognized by City Business for professional contributions to "Excellence in Construction and Real Estate" which is nice.

Oh yeah that's still going on

Well we were gonna blow it up. Then we were gonna take it apart. Then we were gonna blow it up again. Then the world went all to shit so we're back to arguing now.

The demolition of the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans is once again in limbo, with the city and the developers behind the project at loggerheads over how to bring down the partially-collapsed structure that has remained virtually untouched for five months.

City officials and 1031 Canal Street Development, the firm led by developer Mohan Kailas that was building the project, are each pushing different contractors and different methods of knocking down what remains of the 18-story building and retrieving the bodies of two workers that are still buried in the rubble.

The insurer says it's too expensive to implode so the developer wants to go back to piece-by-piece demo. The city wants to do the implosion and make the developer pay for it. It's not clear what the end game strategy is now.  The thinking had been the developers want the whole lot plus adjacent buildings they own cleared away because that would make the block more attractive for resale. 

But now, who knows.  Who knows what any land is worth right now, anyway.

Still in disaster mode

It's been 15 years since the privatized building inspector system has been in operation. It was supposed to be a temporary response to Katrina but disasters never really go away.  And the legacy they leave is the emergency improvisation after one disaster becomes routine procedure during the next one. Eventually it just becomes the de-facto policy. Like, one could imagine now a suggestion to do away with the city inspector altogether and just farm the whole thing out permanently.  Never mind the inherent problems with that which we can spot in this description.

To keep projects moving forward, it seems that an increasing number of contractors are now pulling from a list of dozens of state fire marshall-approved third party inspectors, which contractors pay for.

One of the leading third party inspectors in the region, says they have seen a business uptick, in part because of the shortage of city inspectors. And many contractor say, 'no problem'.

“I will always use a third party inspector, it may cost, but i don’t have to wait,” said one contractor who asked not to be identfied.

Contractors say there are many advantages to using a third party inspector. Mainly they say, they can avoid scheduling problems like the one occurring right now, with the city permits office completely dark and shut down due to the cyber attack.

"They can get out there, and get it done, and they seem more proficient with codes, and what's going on," said Erdman.

The state approved the use of third party inspectors, 15 years ago.

"After katrina, we knew that different municipalities, would be short of personnel," said Luther.

Now, those third party inspectors are finding plenty of work, as the city moves to hire at least a half dozen new inspectors.

But, when the regulatory regime is riddled with corruption anyway, you can turn the whole thing over to private, for-profit interests and nobody bats an eye.  It's a familiar cycle and one that only becomes more profitable with each successive failure. Which is how disaster has gotten to be such a growth industry.

"Look, man, after this disaster there is big money!" -Ray Nagin

Mardi Gras Guide Vol 1: State of Unreadiness

Temporary netting protects freshly painted trees along the recently landscaped Napoleon Avenue neutral ground ahead of this weekend's parades

I'm not ready. I mean, I am basically prepared in that I've been going through usual motions of getting things in order around here. I've done some mild house cleaning. Sunday we did what we figure will be the last big laundry load until Ash Wednesday. We've taken household inventory and made trips to Wal-Mart and Rouses to stock up on the basics. We've made sure there are enough paper plates, towels and cleaning supplies. Then there are the staple coping drugs like coffee, aspirin, and pepto... fresh eggs to scramble on particularly hung over mornings. I think we've got what we need there. That much of the punch list is complete today but I'm still not ready.

Carnival is moving into high gear this weekend but many of us are having a hard time catching the spirit. Tripping the light fantastic and such is no easy trick when there is so much dark energy out there to contend with. The city is in a rotten mood.  There are several reasons for this.  Anxiety bleeds into our day to day from the Presidential election, of course, but that's likely the case everywhere that Tuesday is just Tuesday.  It doesn't help matters here but it's nothing we couldn't handle on its own.  If all politics really is local, anyway, then you should be able to say the same thing for angst. So what is it that's clouding the mood?  Let's consider a few items.

On the first day of Carnival 2020, the Advocate ran this attention-getting feature on the growing anxiety of Lakeview residents over what they claim is a sharp rise in vehicle burglaries in recent years. The headlining number is a 57% increase in reported car break-ins from 2018 to 2019.  I think those statistics could use further scrutiny, though. I'm sure we've talked about this many times on this here Yellow Blog, but crime statistics are often as much a reflection of public perception and police recording techniques as they are an actual gauge on the rate of incidents.  Police simply deciding to focus on a particular type of crime can increase the number of recorded incidents. They may also take steps to promote public awareness of certain kinds of crimes thus encouraging people to report more frequently.  If the public, for whatever reason, be it police activity, or media emphasis, just gets the feeling that it's a little more crimey out there, it can generate a feedback loop. Heightened fear of crime leads to more "awareness" leads to more police reports, leads to higher stats, leads to heightened fear of crime.  Here is a very good recent Citations Needed podcast describing the ways new technological trends in surveillance like Amazon's Ring doorbell camera and so-called "snitch" apps like Nextdoor work to supercharge the feedback loop even further.

All of these may be factors in the recent Lakeview hysteria. That came to a head just a few days after the Advocate feature on the "jump in break-ins" ran when NOPD responded to a report of teenagers pulling on car door handles by sending out a SWAT team in full tactical gear. In the resulting confrontation one cop even ended up firing his gun at the unarmed teens. The incident then led to a further crackdown at Juvenile Court where a new policy holds children arrested more than once in jail until they see a judge. The judges announced the policy change with a chilling statement saying their aim is to "rid the community of youth who pose a danger.” The Advocate's newest worst columnist, Will Sutton, capped the week off by publicly thanking the trigger happy police and the paranoid residents who called them.

Since then, matters have only gotten worse. Councilmembers have pledged to apply more "data-driven" policing. The DA is charging one of the teens as an adult. Lakeview residents gathered to yell at everyone and demand even more police and more aggressive tactics. The politics of this is only likely to get worse. I'm half-expecting a future mayoral candidate to promise a border wall at City Park Avenue. Meanwhile, researchers tell us, in order to effectively reduce violence, we would be better served to spend our time addressing our city's intolerable inequalities. But just seeing that situation described reminds us of yet another source of the general anxiety.

Sonita Singh, an associate professor of behavioral and community health at LSU School of Public Health, described New Orleans as “a landscape of inequalities,” which stem from historical and institutional practices and policies that have segregated the city by race and economics. The geography of those inequalities mirror maps showing the concentration of murders.

Transportation, education and access to jobs and training are less accessible in neighborhoods that see the most violent crime, Singh said. Employed people surviving on an inadequate wage, what Singh called “hamster wheeling,” is also common in places like the 9th Ward, 7th Ward and parts of New Orleans East.

New Orleans’ citywide average household income was $67,224 as of 2017, according to The Data Center, a local research nonprofit. In Little Woods, a neighborhood in New Orleans East that saw a large share of murders last year, the average household income was about $40,800. Nearby Plum Orchard’s average household income was $32,900. In the 7th Ward, a neighborhood that perhaps had highest concentration of murders in 2019, the average household income was $33,205.

“In New Orleans, people can work themselves to the bone and still not be outside the poverty rate,” Singh said.

Like I said, the city is in a rotten mood.  It has good reason to be. 

That extends to the city's firefighters who enter this parade season in a fight with the mayor over a whole host of labor issues but mostly centered on the hardships imposed on them by understaffing and forced overtime. The city has pushed back by cancelling vacation time and, this week, pulling fire trucks from this season's Carnival parades which seems unsafe. Also it seems self-defeating since it comes just a few days after Mayor Cantrell promised that the dispute would have no effect on Mardi Gras at all.  Earlier in the week, the mayor's communications staff released a video of her saying that Mardi Gras would be covered and the cancelled vacations and overtime would amount to a "win win" for the city. Is this what she meant? Also how does she figure?

Perhaps for these reasons, or perhaps just for the sake of growing the police state in general, the feds have designated this year's Carnival a "Level 2 Special Event."  According to this DHS document that means we can expect "some level federal interagency support," on the streets during the season. This is different from a Level 1 Special Event where we would be getting "extensive" federal interagency support. What does that means in practice?   Heck if I know. Just be careful who you sell your huckabucks to if you have an unlicensed cart this year. You never know who is watching.


The "Trashformers" collecting recyclable items from parade goers during Krewe Delusion 

For that matter, you might also want to watch where you put your plastic bags out there.

The “prohibited throws” section was updated to prohibit parade riders from thowing: “single use plastic bags meant for throw packaging or paper streamers, or paper products that do not biodegrade when wet, or empty single-use plastic bags. Any package containing bulk throws, including but not limited to doubloons, beads, cups, trinkets, or toys shall be handed to parade attendees and shall not be thrown or tossed. Bulk throws shall be removed from any plastic packaging before being thrown or tossed.” This was proposed to help battle litter along the route, as well as alleviate the possibility of parade participants slipping on the plastic.

This is... kind of stupid.  If we want to be charitable, we can say that it comes from good intentions. It's probably a good thing on balance that people have become more conscientious about the environmental impact of "single use plastic" and the like. And it's only natural that they might examine their own perceived influence on its proliferation.  In truth, though, this is not a problem that can be fixed by subjecting individual consumption habits to strict law enforcement. If the city was really interested in limiting single use plastics, they wouldn't be handing out half a million dollars in tax exemptions to a plastic bag factory. But why worry about that when you can just performatively punish individuals behaviors?  It might not solve anything but it gets you far more "credit" from a PR perspective. And that's what this is all about anyway. That and just general antipathy.  At her pre-Mardi Gras press conference the mayor said the plastic bag policy was about "showing love," which is what she always says when she is ready to hit someone with a hammer.

On the bright side, the new ordinances appear to be more serious than ever about discouraging people from crowding the neutral ground with ladders and tents and couches and such. We'll report back later on how that goes over the first weekend's parades.  I know this website has been home to the annual ladder harangue for well over a decade now. But I've also long contended that there would be far less call for official hardassery if the city would allow the parades to spread back out across the various neighborhoods and take some of the pressure off of Uptown. Which is why we were pleased last weekend to see that the new Krewe of Nefertiti parade was such a success.

West, who graduated from nearby Abramson High School, said the parade was a sort of reunion.

“This is wonderful,” he said. “We’re seeing everybody we grew up with ... and their kids. We’re still here.”

Referring to the displacement of much of the East's population after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he said, “You think everybody moved to Houston, but they’re here.

People in East New Orleans went outside and talked to their neighbors out in the street. That's what this is supposed to be all about. Good for them.  Let's keep that going.

I still don't feel like I'm ready.  We tried to get into the spirit early this year by making the trek across to town to see Chewbacchus for the first time in almost a decade.



Mainly the reason we did this was because, for the first time in a while, we could. A shuffle in the schedule moved Chewbacchus two weeks ahead in the calendar so that it no longer runs opposite any Uptown parades. The last one of these we saw was way back in 2012 when it was still an Uptown parade itself. After it moved across town we didn't see the point.  Anyway, during its time as a Bywater event, Chewbacchus has grown immensely in popularity but also in controversy. Often it has been seen as a symbol of the rapid gentrification and bland commercialized hip aesthetic associated with that neighborhood in the 2010s. (Please see Jules Bentley's "Farewell to the Flesh: Notes on a Cybernetic Carnival" for the definitive explication of this take.) I have to say, though, upon examining this phenomenon in person, it is nothing quite as interesting as that. For the most part it was just fans of various "nerd culture" type intellectual properties out doing cosplay with their children.



I suppose some people really enjoy that. And I guess I can see why some people never will. But the experience is nowhere near as impressive as its gushing fans would have you believe nor as sinister as its detractors would argue. It's really just a little nerd parade. Fine, if you like that sort of thing.  But I had gone to Chewbacchus hoping to see something really cool or something that might make me really mad. Instead I came away not feeling much of anything.  Maybe I just wasn't ready.

Meanwhile literally looming over everything is the sarcophagus of a collapsed Hard Rock hotel building that sits right in the middle of downtown. Originally the project's owners were hoping to have the hotel completed and open in time for Mardi Gras. Now the plan is to implode the structure sometime before Jazzfest. More than anything else, the air of hostility and mistrust between the city, the mayor, and the contractors responsible for the disaster is the main factor the city's rotten mood this Carnival season. Its physical presence can't be ignored as several parades have had to bend their routes in order to avoid it. It has a spiritual gravity as well so strong that it resists even the carnivalesque parody and gallows humor that might otherwise seem a perfect fit for the situation. It's a rare occasion where our own sarcasm seems to have failed us.

Krewe du Vieux gave that their best shot last week when the sub-krewe Comatose put together this impressive-looking "Soft Rock" hotel float.



From all appearances, their hearts were in the right place. But also it is hard not to cringe at this, "Rest In Peace, Amigo" message on the back. Racial problematics aside, just the tone of the thing is off.  If you are going to satirize something as serious as this, you have to lean in harder than this.  There is a way to be funny but it also has to be a little bit angry. A joke about a tragedy needs to achieve catharsis or else it will fail horribly.  This reads more as, "Sorry you died, LOL" and it just feels uncomfortable.



There was a rumor circulating last weekend that mayor tried to have the float removed or at least mellowed in some way. The city ended up forcing KDV to move its ball out of Studio Be at the last minute due to potential safety violations.  This has some people whispering that the mayor was retaliating.  It's hard to know what to believe about that. KDV members often paint themselves as politically motivated victims with little or no evidence. On the other hand, this mayor does have a habit of taking every single thing that happens as a personal affront of some kind so anything is possible. MacCash tells us here that the more mundane explanation is far more likely.  That sounds right to me but who knows.  Anyway the problem with this float is that it is already too mellow which is what makes it seem more insensitive than its intention.

Krewe Delusion was a little better with this "Hard Rock The Boat" theme.



It invokes the idea of righteous anger and there's a little pun in there. It's not overwhelmingly clever, though.  And it still doesn't feel like we're saying what needs to be said. Not that I know what that is, exactly.  But I do hope I will know it when I see it this year.  I hope I'm ready to know.

Won't somebody think of the brand

Hard Rock International is upset about the collapse..... of its reputation.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Cantrell, the casino, hotel and restaurant company took particular umbrage at protesters who have called for boycotting its properties. It threatened legal action for damage to its brand.

"As we have shared privately and publicly, we appreciate the leadership and compassion you have demonstrated," Hard Rock Chief Operating Officer Jon Lucas wrote in the letter. "But four months have passed since the building at 1031 Canal St. collapsed; the resulting tragedy has devastated our community, its residents and tarnished its image around the world."

Cantrell fired back Thursday, accusing the company of failing to assist the city in the months after the disaster.

"Fear of damage to their brand has finally prompted Hard Rock’s corporate leadership to engage with this crisis, four full months after the tragedy," Cantrell spokesman Beau Tidwell said in an email. "Shame would be far more appropriate."

We don't say this often but Cantrell and her team have this one one hundred percent correct. It's refreshing to see them push back against a major corporate entity with real estate interests for a change.  

Of course Hard Rock isn't among the parties here who have made major contributions to the mayor and her political organizations.  The local contractors have done that.  And she is still defending them.

City officials have said they expect the building to be imploded sometime in March. On Wednesday, Cantrell said delays in the demolition have been exacerbated by criticism of the developers that have caused concerns among contractors.

Anyway Hard Rock also threatens, in their letter, to sue over "reputation damage to our name."  Sounds helpful. 

Today at the Hard Rock hearings

Actually this isn't even the controversial inquiry we've been promised into the causes of the building collapse.  There's no date set for that yet.  In the meantime, though, City Council heard presentations from labor representatives Wednesday on what they would like from a long sought after "responsible bidder ordinance" meant to rein in some of the worst contractor abuses in the construction industry.... of which there are many.

Workers rights' groups said safety mishaps, rampant in New Orleans' construction industry, were exposed anew when the Hard Rock's top floors collapsed without warning Oct. 12, killing three people and injuring dozens more.

They described an environment where general contractors can blame construction mistakes on subcontractors and avoid being penalized by the city. They said construction firms also routinely misclassify their workers as independent contractors, in order to avoid or reduce insurance and workers compensation expenses.

"These contractors that keep blatantly violating the law, they get on the next job and the next job and the next job," said Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO President Robert "Tiger" Hammond III. 

We aren't exactly holding our breath waiting for the city to pass the new rules, though.  There was no action taken at this hearing and there is a quote from Cyndi Nguyen saying, "This needs to be done correctly," which the article places in context of council also wanting input from "other interested parties" which we read to mean the contractors themselves.

Also this was curious. 

Though the rules are being weighed in light of the Hard Rock debacle, they would apply only to developers seeking public financing, not those involved in private deals like the Hard Rock.  

Was Hard Rock 100% privately financed? No PILOT? No historic tax credit? Nothing?  Developer tax incentives are such common practice downtown that this would surprise me if it's true. But then if the Advocate fact checked it, it's probably good so.. okay. Still, in that case, that isn't a good threshold if it's going to render the law unenforceable. These rules should apply to anyone just wanting a safety permit.

Meanwhile, the mayor is still mad anyone is even asking these questions at all. It's messing with the plan to blow up the site and clear the land while the developers can maybe still profit from it. 

"The cost (of the implosion) has risen because of the public display," Cantrell told reporters. "And we also had a couple (contractors) back out. And that's what we were warning about."

A City Hall spokesman said later that Cantrell "was referencing negotiations between the (Hard Rock's) owners and a private contractor regarding the anticipated controlled implosion." She was also speaking, he said, about "the demolition contractor’s ability to secure insurance for the demolition, and the cost of that insurance."

Who will investigate the investigators?

So here is an interesting timeline to consider. Ken Polite's independent investigation into improprieties at the city Safety and Permits office that may be associated with the Hard Rock collapse was launched by the city well before the Hard Rock collapse actually happened. We know the Inspector General and the feds were already looking into Safety and Permits themselves so the Polite investigation is probably the city's attempt to at least convey the appearance of a desire to suss out improper behavior.

We knew all of this already.   Or at least we thought we knew that much about a week ago when a Cantrell spokesman told us this.

"Kenneth Polite's law firm, Morgan Lewis, was engaged by the city several months ago to assist with our internal investigation into the Safety and Permits department," Tidwell said by text. "This investigation began prior to the Hard Rock collapse."

So, okay. I guess. This information about the Polite thing only came out because the Cantrell people were upset about City Council threatening to launch its own investigation in the wake of public protests against the city's handling of all of this so far. Anyway today they're saying something different. 

There also remain questions about the timeline and the legal basis of Polite's contract.

When Polite’s hiring was first reported last week, Cantrell spokesman Beau Tidwell confirmed the news by saying the investigation predated the Hard Rock collapse in mid-October. Polite, however, was not hired until last week.

Polite's investigation has been going on for months and months before Polite was actually hired. What?  What on earth is going on?

The contract was entered into outside of normal procurement procedures, under an executive order that allows such actions in “emergency situations.”

A memo justifying that exemption specifically refers to “Hard Rock collapse legal services” in its subject line, though the body of the document justifies the decision based on the need to “promptly investigate” the allegations of bribery in Safety and Permits.

Okay so the Polite's firm "was engaged by the city for several months" but was never officially hired because they didn't want to go through the standard bidding procedure in order to hire him. (Should add here that there have been numerous rumblings about logjams in city procurement stretching back before the cyberattack severely borked everything so this actually isn't very surprising.)  When they finally did hire him, they used the "emergency" declaration in order to ret-con the end run around the rules they were already doing. As they say here, the Hard Rock language only appears in the contract to "expedite" matters.

LeBeouf said the Hard Rock reference was made to expedite the process but that the collapse is not the focus of Polite's investigation.

But here is the thing.  Polite had been working for the city for several months before the collapse. And his hiring wasn't "expedited" until several months after it.  Why, after all that time, was there a sudden need to be expeditious?

Well, remember, the Polite thing did not even become public knowledge until late last month. The reason that happened was because the mayor's people were outraged at the idea that City Council wanted to hold its own hearings.  Why, we asked? Because that might interfere with ongoing investigations, they said.

"The New Orleans City Council is not accountable and have no authority as it relates to investigating Hard Rock,” Cantrell said. “So, I would say, ‘If you can’t help, don’t hurt. Don’t hurt the investigations that are ongoing right now.’”

Which investigations?  Oh you know the secret one Polite has been doing ever since... whoops!

And that is why they had to hurry up and finally officially hire Polite this week. It also explains why Cantrell got as mad as she did about the photographs of the exposed body of a victim of the building collapse after a tarp fell away from the site last month.  If that tarp doesn't fall down, then there are no photos. If the photos aren't shared on social media, then there is no protest. If there is no protest, then there is no City Council hearing. If there's no City Council hearing, then nobody ever finds out about any of this.

I mean we already know the Inspector General wasn't going to say anything about it.  He says today that he was aware of the Polite situation but didn't have any problem with it. That's kind of a strange view to take when your specific job as an IG is to be a stickler about city administration following proper procedures and stuff.

Bag fine recycling

Earlier this week Cantrell Administration officials appeared before City Council where they all commiserated with one another over the millions of dollars in costs incurred as a result of the Cyberattack and Hard Rock disaster.  So far it looks like the costs of computer boo boos will be (barely) covered by emergency funds and insurance. The Hard Rock costs will likely become a protracted legal and political dispute.

Estimated costs from the the Hard Rock collapse came to $11.7 million by the end of 2019. That includes about $4.8 million in costs and lost revenue for the Regional Transit Authority, which had to reroute its buses around the disaster site.

But Montaño told the council that the city plans to get the bulk of the costs for both incidents reimbursed through their cybersecurity insurance, the Hard Rock developers’ insurance and, if necessary, through litigation with the Hard Rock developers if the insurance payments don’t cover everything.

“This will at some point will be handled by a court,” Montaño said. “The city should not bear those costs and we have no plan to bear those costs.”

Montaño went on to say that he is "confident and secure we do maintain a healthy fund balance" even though he seemed pretty fuzzy on the details of that.  He must not be too too confident, though, because he also told City Council he was "going to be cautious" and delay "major expenditures" until after summertime.

That sounds prudent, I guess.

Anyway, I know this is what you might call a different pot of money, but it does look strange for the Council to then turn around that same week and hand a half million dollars in tax breaks over to a plastic bag factory.

The New Orleans City Council on Thursday approved two five-year Industrial Tax Exemptions for a new factory in eastern New Orleans that will produce plastic packaging. The exempted property is worth $7 million, and the city stands to lose out on $435,634 in tax revenue over the first five years of the exemptions as a result of the vote, according to a presentation by Tracey Jackson, the Industrial Tax Exemption administrator for Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Office of Community Development.

We should point out one detail the Lens story doesn't mention explicitly, but the T-PAdvocate does.  This is the first ITE approved by the city under its new wage and job requirements. Although, it looks like the plastic company may have gamed the rules a bit.

Still, the Iriapak deal has irked critics of the tax breaks, who argued that one of Iriapak's subsidy applications didn't meet the city's jobs requirements.

Iriapak actually submitted two applications for the tax exemptions. Its first application was for a $5 million investment, which represented its 80% stake in the project. The second application represents $2 million that an affiliated real estate partner is investing in the project. That firm, Iriapak RE, owns a 20% stake.

Together New Orleans, a group that has long criticized ITEP tax exemptions, argued that the investment partner should be required to meet the city's jobs rules for the construction jobs it is financing. For those and other reasons, the group urged a denial.

That argument found supporters in council members Helena Moreno and Jared Brossett. Both voted against the application.

The larger concern, though, is happy to hand out large corporate tax exemptions during a time of fiscal uncertainty. This is going on even while the city continues to nickel and dime ordinary people playing keep away with ill gotten traffic ticket money, for example.

For another example, we read here that the float riders may be fined up to $500 for tossing plastic bags into the crowd this parade season. Maybe they should just forward those citations to Iriapak so the city can recover its funds.