Category: New Orleans

In your face, San Antonio and Los Angeles

The Saints and the state worked out a deal to keep the Saints in Louisiana until 2025.  No more talk of the Los Angeles Saints or San Antonio Saints.  It seems like not too long ago, we were convinced that the team was leaving.  I was considering what to do if they left: become a Lions fan or an Eagles fan.

New Orleans Saints and Louisiana work out a deal for team to stay at Superdome through 2025

After more than a year of negotiating, the Saints say they have reached a tentative agreement with the state that will keep the NFL franchise in New Orleans through 2025, remove the need for a new stadium by upgrading the Superdome and resurrect an abandoned section of the Central Business District with a refurbished office tower and a new sports entertainment district.

This still has to be approved by the legislature, so it’s not done yet.

Basically, Benson buys the empty office building next to the Superdome and rents it to the state at a higher-than-normal rate.  He also buys New Orleans Centre and its parking garage, and reopens it.  The state pays to remodel the Dome for more luxury boxes.  Most importantly, the deal puts the state’s obligations to pay the Saints on a yearly basis on a sliding scale.  If the team makes more than $12 million in a year, the state pays nothing.  They won’t pay more than $6 million a year.  Right now, everything is paid for by the state.

So yeah, Benson got a sweet deal.  But the state does too.  They pay out less money and the Saints assume part of the risk of operating an NFL team.  And hopefully, there will be a revitalization of that area of the CBD as state agencies move their employees there.

I walked down by the Dome the other day, and there is no one out there except the folks coming out of the LSU clinic in New Orleans Centre.  Just a few blocks south on Poydras, there were office workers every where.

Hopefully the state legislature approves the deal, considering that they like to complain about anything related to spending money on New Orleans or the Saints.

Seriously?!

From this morning’s Times-Picayune:

Charges reduced against trio arrested in Mardi Gras shooting

Prosecutors have dropped the attempted-murder case against the three men arrested in the Mardi Gras shooting of seven people, opting for lesser charges against two of them.

You may remember that Leslie and my mom and dad were on the scene when this happened on Mardi Gras day.  My mom is so proud of Leslie for knocking her down when the shots started.

Way to go DA Cannizzaro.  The city makes the national news for a shootout on St. Charles during our biggest day of the year, and you reduce the charges.  “Yeah, it’s ok.  Shit on just about the only thing New Orleans has going for it these days.  No big deal.  Never mind that you shot 7 people including a toddler.”  Talk about sending a message to criminals.

Gotta keep the brand out there.

Louisiana will not tolerate your science (fiction) research!

Louisiana will NOT allow and Manbearpigs or Pigbearmen or Bearpigmen or Pigmanbears to be created.  Sorry to crush your dreams.

Human-animal hybrid ban sought at Louisiana session

BATON ROUGE — Legislation that would prohibit scientists in the state from creating human-animal hybrids for experimentation — believed to be the first such ban proposed in the nation — has been filed for debate at the lawmaking session that opens April 27.

Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, has filed Senate Bill 115 on behalf of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Conference lobbyist Danny Loar said the bill is designed to be a “pre-emptive strike” against scientists who might want to mix “human and animal cells in a Petri dish for scientific research purposes. . . . It is becoming more of an issue globally.”

We should ban all time travel, teleportation, telekinesis, and resurrection research as well.  These things are an abomination.

Every now and then, I get a nice reminder that the good people of Louisiana are, in fact, idiots.  I should point out that this is just a proposed bill,  and surely it will not pass.

Just so everyone knows

My life is a total mess right now.

I have a job that I really enjoy, in the city that I love.

Unfortunately, my wife lives and work in a different city, one that is about 500 miles away. I also own a house that will not sell in said faraway city. This makes my nice job and lovely city irrelevant.

I feel like I should be enjoying getting what I have always wanted. Instead I am wondering if the price is too high.

This post is dedicated to Amber, who expects a lot from people.

Happy Mardi Gras!

You may have heard about the shooting at 2nd and St Charles today at the truck parades. We were just leaving the parades when it happened. I was at the car, but Leslie, Marnie, Jack were at the parade route. Leslie heard the shots and dived on my mom. Jack ran after the kids (18 and 19) who did it. According to the news, cops found 3 guns at the scene, and the kids were booked with 7 counts of 1st degree murder, and one was also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Susan and I didn’t hear the shots over the sound of the trucks and a band of hippie kids beating on some drums, but we saw a ton of cop cars going the wrong way down 3rd. We knew something was going on, but didn’t know until they came back dragging the rest of our stuff.

Leslie is my hero, and I’m so glad they weren’t hurt.  Thanks to everyone who called and texted to find out if we were ok.  It was an exciting end to a fun day.

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Saints Win Super Bowl

well, the Super Bowl ad contest at least….

From ProFootballTalk.com:

The winner was/is Saints defensive back Usama Young.  His ad, in which he talks about his time spent selling popcorn and candy at Redskins games while growing up, will be aired during the February 1 Super Bowl broadcast.

“I am thankful to have been blessed with the ability to play professional ball,” Young said in a release.  “The fact that I can now share my story with millions of people across the world is an indescribable feeling.”

Here’s a link to the video: http://superad.nfl.com/players/?vid=saints_usama_young

Sadly, this is the only thing the Saints seem to be able to win.

Also sadly, the video is not very good.  Jake Delhomme’s is better. Who dat.

In other Saints news, Gregg Williams is now our defensive coordinator!  Pay no attention to the Jaguars defense he coached last year, he did well with the Redskins and Bills (though not as a head coach) and went to the Super Bowl with the Titans in 2000.  Also, rumor is, he actually calls blitzes during real NFL football games.  He’s known for running wacky hairbrained defensive schemes, so he should fit right in as a nice complement to our wacky haribrained offensive schemes.

Shame!

At the greatest game the Saints have ever played, my mom, Dave, and I had the best seats in the Superdome: the very last row.  Like everyone else up in that last row, we beat the hell out of the wall behind us, so much that my hand was sore and swollen for days.

Today I read this, from the New Orleans blog Library Chronicles:

Over my many years of watching and attending Saints games, I’ve been accustomed to seeing or hearing fans in the top row of each section bang on the metal walls in order to create noise when the opposing team has the ball. When we purchased our season tickets in 2006, we selected seats in the top row so that we could participate in this time-honored bit of idiocy which has been in practice basically since the Superdome opened in 1975. During the second quarter of a crucial Monday Night game in 2008, Superdome security decided that it was time to crack down.

A few minutes into the second quarter, for no apparent reason, a uniformed security person shouted at everyone in our section that the next fan seen banging on the wall would be thrown out of the stadium. We were mystified. Is this some bizarre interpretation of the NFL’s notorious new “Fan Code of Conduct”? The section adjacent to ours is typically filled with fans of the visiting team. Did one of the Vikings fans complain? If so, why? And also fuck them. Over the past three seasons, the Superdome has become an ever-more fan-unfriendly environment. What can be done to reverse this trend?

Seriously?  That is just terrible.  Why on earth would the Superdome security shut down such a great, fun, masochistic homefield advantage?

Also, like me, Library Chronicles, is a strong supporter of the Saints’ correct gold pants.

Also:

He looks like someone here, but I can’t place it.  Ralphie after he shoots his eye out maybe?