I used to write a lot of diaries about New Orleans.
I was part of the Daily Kos Kohort who came to this website shortly after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, known more accurately as The Federal Flood when it comes to New Orleans.
There was some amazing writing by citizen journalists — bloggers — coming out of New Orleans in the years immediately after the Federal Flood.
Detailed reports of the destruction of the precious and vital Black community, every kind of financial corruption on the part of the highest levels of federal government — this was when Halliburton really made quite a killing, literally.
One of the more interesting blogs was from a blogger who somehow reminded me, in her rigorous nature, of Empty Wheel. Karen Gadbois wrote a blog then called Squandered Heritage (now called “The Lens”) where she documented hundreds, if not thousands, of homes that should not have been demolished, but were, and recorded in excruciating detail, the injustices on just that one issue.
The NOLA housing developments were demolished even though they didn’t suffer extensive water damage from the Federal Flood, but this was the Bush era of open season on the rubes who used to be the citizens. Of course they promised to replace them with even BETTER affordable housing. It is to laugh.
Anyway, there’s endless stories, many of which are gathered in our own DKos archives, endless issues, endless irreplaceable people. Suffice to say New Orleans is very close to my heart.
Even though I don’t blog about NOLA any more, I still receive a weird daily news aggregator: “Google Alert — new orleans”” that gives me a list of around ten or fifteen stories, most of them about the Saints.
Yesterday there was a story listed there: “Mystery of Christmas Lights at Abandoned New Orleans Hospital Solved.” It was about Charity Hospital, a place that had served poor Black communities and at the same time was considered a model teaching hospital.
Well Charity is now pretty much a haunted house (see previous link for the reason why) — the “mystery” was that someone noticed in the blacked out building, a light coming from a window. It seemed like Christmas decorations so the story got out there was a “ghost” at Charity Hospital.
You can read the “mystery” story at the link above. They haven’t completely solved the mystery yet but did find the lights, which were taped to some boards, and in this particular article it shows an instagram with the caption: “someone seems to have snuck in and put lights on some 2×4’s. A photo of the outside of (probably) this room is going viral and people think these lights are a ghost Christmas tree. The only thing scary about this is how much the City of NOLA spends to keep the power on.”
I dunno, Instagram person, I find a lot of things scary about this.
Just reminiscing, is all, on New Year’s Eve.