No schadenfreude here.
My buddy Harold grew up in New Orleans. He rode in the truck parades with his dad and his brothers. One brother became a doctor in Arkansas, the other a lawyer in Atlanta. Harold got his PhD in computer science, and started out as a professor.
His wife, Verlyn, was (and is) very attractive, and even more ambitious. She started VOB development, what was initially a property management company. Then it became a "house flipping" operation. Dr. Harold was Verlyn's gopher, doing everything from painting to serving eviction notices. He kept wondering what he got that PhD for.
One time he was complaining to me of severe headaches. I told him to take off his glasses and look at them. They were covered with splatters of white interior latex paint. Clean the glasses, headaches are gone.
Finally, Verlyn convinced Harold to leave academe to work full time with her. Mom and Pop weren't too pleased, but at this point, it's more important to keep the wife happy.
Harold lived in Fontainebleau. The house got a lot of water. A lot. Harold's parents' house got even more. His dad went to Arkansas to stay with the MD son. Harold went to Atlanta.
I talked to him a lot, and he expressed doubt that they'd come back to New Orleans.
Now, I'm pretty sure he won't.
They're doing quite well though.
I guess this is one of those things that really irked me about Ron Forman's idea that he'd tap all of this alleged talent that exists outside of New Orleans. Blakely the Buffoon, too. There's so much damned talent here, proportionally far too much for a city of this size, simply because we all want to live here.
Could we at least get them to do some projects in the city? It'd be nice to have them back someday, but right now, what we really need is the housing.
Their Memphis experience clearly shows that they have the chief qualification to work in N.O.: the ability to slap down clueless bureaucratic mooks!
Posted by: KamaAina | 06 June 2007 at 01:22 PM
Intellect was what the Founders had. Intellect is what sparks the changes that create new Worlds, new ways of seeing things.
What we have here in Debrisville is the nucleus of a new Party, the Sinn Fein Party.
We are already wearing ourselves out with the rebuilding... what is the cost of a few new tasks?
Posted by: GentillyGirl | 06 June 2007 at 01:42 PM
VOB is, in fact, building about 450 units (houses and apartments) on da wesbank, in Algiers and Jeff Parish. They break ground at the end of July.
They were trying to build in da East, but nobody wants to invest there.
Posted by: ashley | 06 June 2007 at 06:34 PM
Sorry, unrelated, but there's a new post at The Poorman (generally an excellent blog) by the guest blogger Sifu Tweety which demands somebody get over there and do it justice. Its another one of his "ditch New Orleans" posts. I'm so apoplectic over it I can't even begin to respond at the moment.
Posted by: wintermute | 07 June 2007 at 10:07 AM
Sifu Tweety has been doing this for a while. Ray and I tore him one a while back. That's why the poorman is no longer on the blogroll.
Posted by: ashley | 07 June 2007 at 10:36 AM
Well, The Editors has declared the entire discussion to be the most pointless, ever.
East coast prick.
Posted by: wintermute | 07 June 2007 at 05:49 PM