This is the fifth, more or less weekly, installment of "When Care Remembered: New Orleans in the Time of Covid-19," a series of video reports on how it is here now, or was last week. Anything resembling news in these filings will be out of date by the time they hit the air. This isn't news, it's what's happening.
What's happening right now is the reality that festivals and public gatherings, a major economic driver in our city and state, are unlikely to resume this year.
Some are trying to wish away that reality. This morning, a group of old elite local business types took out a full page ad in the paper whining that the mayor should “re-open” New Orleans. The same issue that had twice the usual pages of obits. Among the luminaries signing were the Monteleone Hotel family and failed City Councilman Jay “Not Trump’s Campaign Chairman” Batt, who is apparently more concerned with saving his Joseph A. Banks menswear franchise than the citizens he once represented.
Like the Jeff Parish Chamber of Commerce president quoted in the video, these “sober, conservative” business types are, at best, stunningly ignorant of the basic facts about this virus. They are providing a pretense of legitimacy to the president’s “Liberate” spews and the armed goons they shook out.
Most of our citizens are concentrating on how we can help each other get through this. Those are the people I try to highlight in these pieces.
Thanks for watching, and take care.
If your browser isn’t showing the embedded video, a direct link via YouTube is HERE.
Earlier episodes (collect ‘em all!) can be seen HERE.