Inside New Orleans (not everyone starving)

[kskiska]

Sneaking past the police lines, we find a surreal scene where tourists are sleeping on bridges, restaurateurs are eating high on the hog, and looters lurk on every corner.

Nineteen miles west of New Orleans, near the LaPlace exit on Interstate 10, there's a roadblock where harried police officials check vehicles and press credentials. We tell an officer we're with the press, although we don't have an official badge. "You'll be in the way," he responds, and turns us back. But we manage to enter the city by state Highway 90, slipping into the cracks of a porous rescue operation.

(snip)

While chatting with some of the National Guardsmen, another guardsman approaches and informs us that a woman is in the middle of a stroke around the corner. The guardsmen shrug. There is no emergency medical tent in the downtown area, and many people in need of medicine have no way of getting what they need, even inside the shelters. On our way into the French Quarter, a wild-eyed man flags down our car, begging us for insulin or information about where some can be found. We cannot help him.

(snip)

We walk half a block down Royal Street from the Eighth District headquarters and come upon Brennan's Restaurant, one of New Orleans' most venerable dining institutions. The Brennans are a high-profile family of restaurateurs and run several of the highest-end eateries in town. Jimmy Brennan and a crew of his relatives are holing up in the restaurant along with the chef, Lazone Randolph. They are sleeping on air mattresses, drinking Cheval Blanc, and feasting on the restaurant's reserves of haute Creole food.

The atmosphere in the French Quarter, while relatively quiet, is decidedly tense, but Brennan isn't worried. "We're not too concerned. The police let us go over to the Royal Omni, to take a shower, freshen up, and we cooked them some prime rib. We take care of them, they take care of us," says Randolph. Two Brennan emissaries whisk past, bearing multilayer chocolate cakes, headed toward the precinct. "This has been working out real well for us," says Jimmy Brennan.

more…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/neworleans/index.html

[elehhhhna]

1. note to self re: hurricaine preparedness. Buy a restaurant.

[kikiek]

2. Almost too much to take in. Time for the revolution.

[alarimer]

3. Eat the rich

Why does it disgust me so much? I mean that food they have is going to rot but can't they at least share with some of the people who are STARVING???? WTF is wrong with these assholes? "this has been working out real well for us"????

SO they bribe the cops with chocolate cake and drink wine while people starve and die of thirst. Remind me never to patronize that restaurant. They probably don't let riffraff like me in.

[Lindacooks]

4. It's time for our version of the French Revolution.

These people need to be lined up against the walls. That is the most disgusting thing I have EVER read - Jimmy Brennan, I hope you burn in hell.