Super Don versus the Grey Ghost.

Local hero Don got fed up with New Orleans’ self apointed graffiti czar. Fred Radtke, AKA the Grey Ghost, has been painting Grey blobs over graffiti and stickers on buildings, street signs, vehicles, and just about everything else in the city for years. Don decided to take action by requesting paint from property owners, and then painting the property to cover the Grey blobs. We caught up with Don as he painted the building at 1225 Decatur, which is owned by the Le Richelieu Hotel and serves as their laundry facility. He plans on establishing a community bulliten board to house the many flyers that are posted here everyday.

Super Don

Mules Gone Wild : Lower Decatur Edition

This Wednesday a mule pulling tourists through the French Quarter got spooked on Lower Decatur Street. They turned around on the 1200 block and went against traffic down the street bashing a minivan in front of Cafe Envie. A passenger jumped to safety near the Mint, and was later seen being checked out by EMS. Then the mule and empty carriage went the wrong way up Esplanade hitting several cars until, finally stopping when they impaled the side of a small car.

Damaged minivan on Decatur Street
Mule 1 Cars 0

the wild mule after aprehention
What me?

Stopped at last
STAY BACK 15 MILES

Even more Site Updates

  • A ‘Link to Us‘ page has been created. This allows folks to make a link back to LowerDecatur.com without any knowledge of web publishing. If you have a business on Lower Decatur with a web presence linking is strongly suggested.
  • The ‘Lower Decatur Links’ page was created. It uses the same database that generates the links on the sidebar. This most likely will be replaced in the future.
  • The EzStatic plugin has been disabled and removed, as it was discoverd that embedding the map into a page is possible without this plugin. Several links to the map on the site were updated to reflect the change.
  • The word press Searchall plugin was installed to improve results when using the search form on the site. For some unknown reason neither the current ‘Lower Decatur Links’ or the sidebar links are searched, but they are still indexed by search engines.
  • Installed an RSS feed plugin that currently grabs information from the Lower Decatur group on LiveJournal. It’s located in the right sidevar. Ideally each venue with events in the neighborhood would have a simple blog account somewhere that produces an easy to integrate RSS feed. There is also the posibility of using WWOZ’s data with a google/ical calendar.
  • A search engine landing feature is in the works that hopefully makes it easier for visitors from search engines (a lot of our traffic) find relevant information on the site.

French Market Update

There has been some work done to the Produce Market shed over the last two weeks. It’s not exactly a rush job, but you can see some progress if you compare the photos below with the first article about the renovations. All of the walk-in coolers have been ripped out, more electrical outlets have been added, and lines marking vendor stalls have been painted. Most of this appears to be in preparation for the Flea Market vendors to make their temporary move to the Produce Market’s shed.


French Market progress

French Market Progress

Also, City Business has an article about the renovations and their impact on the Flea Market.

According to Richard McCall, outgoing French Market director, renovations should be completed by July of 2007. That’s a long ten months. Stay tuned for more updates.

Citywide WiFi news.

Normally, I wouldn’t post this sort of general news, but considering that the Lower Decatur neighborhood is “New Orleans’ WiFi Hotspot“, it just made sense to mention the competition.

President of EarthLink Municipal Networks, Don Berryman, spoke last night at the Louisiana Technology Council’s EarthLink Wi-Fi Tech Tuesday event. They discussed the planed service areas, bandwidth, and pricing. Apparently 300kbs will be free for all, but 1Mbps service will be available for a fee. It looks like $21.95 for a month, while smaller units of time are also available. Some of the details are mentioned at Earthlink’s corporate blog.

Particularly interesting:

… are the special radios (4210’s) that can be mounted in police, fire, and rescue vehicles and draw power from the vehicle. This makes an individual vehicle into a mobile hotspot, allowing rescue personnel to download things like blueprints and building plans at the scene, and a group of these vehicles can provide a temporarily internet access zone wherever it’s needed.

Interested residents can call 866-936-WIFI for information and network support, and there is this Earthlink site where you can get information about the rollout, and sign up to be notified when service is available in your area.

Also worth noting is BellSouth’s WiMax service. While not quite as portable it’s a great solution that’s available today.

Mary Jane's Emporium makes seven.

Our little neighborhood tobacco shop, Mary Jane’s Emporium, is celebrating seven years in business this week. According to Lower Decatur Street lore the shop opened it’s doors at 1229 Decatur Street on September the 9th, 1999. In honor of the occasion they are having a Party Like It’s 1999 Sale, which means a 17% or more discount on many of the items in the shop, with the biggest exception being tobacco. “We’re already too damn cheap on smokes”, laughs the manager. Sale ends September 30th.

Mary Jane's Emporium at night.
Smoking in the French Quarter since 1999

Congratulations guys, and good luck with the next seven years!

MySpace users reprint their Katrina related journals

Many users of the insanely popular online social networking site MySpace.com have recently, in recognition of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, posted reprints of their evacuation from and return to New Orleans journals. A couple of the better ones that mention spots on Lower Decatur Street area are listed below.

The one who calls himself M. Bevis writes this tale.

As we made the approach to Coop’s, we noticed that Molly’s at the Market was open. This was a popular bar amongst the hip underground set, so it made us feel a little at ease to see that they were at work. We spoke with Jim Monaghan Jr., the owner of Mollys; he told us that Coop’s was talking about preparing the food, but with the water being out, it was not looking good. He told us there were cigarettes and beer for sale in his bar and that we were welcome as long as Molly’s was open. One of Jim’s friends made a joke after I thanked him for his generosity and sanity that that might be the first time anyone has said anything like that to him. I don’t care. Either way, I meant it then, even more so now.

The user called “the insatiable Ms. Juli!” posted this one with the permission of her friend.

It’s hotter than Pavaratti in a corduroy suit at an all you can eat buffet. The Abita Restoration Ale seems to help, either because it’s cold, or because it’s making me not care anymore. Business at Coop’s Place on lower Decatur Street seems much the way it did in July of 2004, when I suffered through a sweltering summer in that kitchen. Locals fill the bar stools checking out the Saturday night special menu. The plates and bottles thump down on the bar, the juke box pounds out my latest DJ attempt a bipolar mix of Charile Parker, Twisted Sister, Dave Brubeck, and Journey. Over the accumulated din of jukebox, conversation, video poker, shouted drink orders, pool table arguments, and overloaded air conditioner, my friend Joey manages to shout “Let’s step outside!” We stumble out into the moist, musky embrace of Saturday night in the French Quarter. It almost feels like nothing has changed, but we all know better than that