tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-219252052024-03-13T14:08:48.341-07:00HOODOONOLAArt, Music, Magic, Politics and Economy
in New Orleans......Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-69553504343332982652015-01-29T13:41:00.002-08:002015-01-29T13:41:32.170-08:00The Need for Producer and Worker owned cooperative businesses in New OrleansA number of recent statistics indicate the need for producer and worker owned business in the arts, music, culture and tourism and hospitality in New Orleans, the industry sectors that are experiencing the greatest poverty. <br />
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Let's consider first the recent study by Bloomberg, that ranks New Orleans <a href="http://www.theprogressiveparadigm.com/economics/income-inequality-in-new-orleans-must-be-confronted/" target="_blank">"second worst in the U.S. behind Atlanta in income inequality. Although second worst, income inequality in New Orleans has increased at a faster rate." </a><br />
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Then there is <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-big-comeback-is-new-orleans-americas-next-great-innovation-hub/274591" target="_blank">New Orleans entrepreneurial start-up rate that continues to expand, reaching 501 business start-ups per 100,000 adults in the three-year period ending in 2012 - a rate that exceeds the nation by 56 percent.</a><br />
Are these statistics related? How we can have more new businesses and poverty and income inequality rising simultaneously? <br />
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A look at just the restaurant sector of the tourism and hospitality industry highlights the disparities between the city's owning class and working class ~<br />
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According the recently released report, <a href="http://rocunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ES_The-Great-Service-Divide_NEW-ORLEANS.pdf" target="_blank"><i><b>The Great Service Divide</b></i></a>, by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans, " Despite the industry’s growth, restaurant workers occupy six of the ten lowest-paid occupations in New Orleans according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<br />
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The restaurant industry employs nearly 57,000 workers and is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the New Orleans economy.<br />
Restaurant workers experience poverty at nearly three times the rate of workers overall, and workers of color experience poverty at nearly twice the rate of white restaurant workers.<br />
Sixty-one percent of workers of color who work as bartenders and servers earn below twice the poverty level, compared to 48% of white workers.<br />Twenty-five percent of Black workers and 23% of Latino workers are unemployed, compared<br />to only 3% of white workers, among bartenders and servers currently on the job market.<br />
Workers at or below twice the poverty level<br />White 47.5%<br />Black 61.2%<br />
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Like restaurant and other tourism and hospitality workers, creative workers in arts. music and culture, exploitation, labor abuse, wage theft, marginalization and poverty is rampant. For instance, for indigenous cultural workers: <br />
<br /> • 42% of the African American indigenous cultural community is not employed or is out of the labor force (including retired); 13% for whites.<br />
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• Average household incomes of culture producers is approximately $24,000.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RI6x2W_Ns7g/VMqk_wiUEiI/AAAAAAAAARg/8HKtBuRHCjM/s1600/Indian%2B%26%2BSkeletons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RI6x2W_Ns7g/VMqk_wiUEiI/AAAAAAAAARg/8HKtBuRHCjM/s1600/Indian%2B%26%2BSkeletons.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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Within neighborhoods along the Claiborne Corridor, some of the city's most significant in terms of the production of the creative cultural products and services the city and its tourism industry most rely upon, <b>38% of households live at or below the poverty line</b>, compared to 21% of all New Orleans residents.<br />
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Adding to the social and economic stress these working families experience is rapid gentrification and the housing speculation that goes along with, causing rents to rise -Figures for 2011 showed that 54% of renters in the city were paying more
than 35 percent of their pre–tax income on rent and utilities in 2011,
up from 43 percent of renters in 2004. Meanwhile, it's still on the rise, while wages remain stagnant ~ "<i>Average renters in New Orleans can expect to hand over nearly 41 percent of their income to landlords next year, essentially the same as 2014, according to a report released Tuesday (Dec. 23, 2014) report by real estate data service RealtyTrac.</i> "<br />
<br />For more see my paper <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7508749/NEW_ORLEANS_POVERTY_and_THE_NEW_CULTURAL_ECONOMY" target="_blank"><b><i><span class="a" style="left: 637px; top: 907px;">NEW ORLEANS POVERTY & THE NEW CULTURA<span class="w6"></span>L ECONOMY</span></i></b></a> (2005) <br />
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My next blog entry next week will explore the possibilities multi-stakeholder cooperative businesses owned by producers and workers in art, music and culture and tourism and hospitality can turn things around in New Orleans in the run up to New Orleans 2018 Tricentennial. Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-62704799739370656672013-11-16T12:00:00.002-08:002013-11-16T12:25:56.511-08:00<b>The New Orleans Cooperative Development Project</b> is working toward forming a coalition of individuals and grassroots groups to bring more worker-owned businesses to the metro area. While the metro area prides itself on innovation, we have neglected the area of economic innovation, especially in creating the necessary economic pathways that could serve to stem our rising poverty among the working class. Other regions are engaging actively in opening up and building economic pathways that create greater community wealth. Take a look at some of these initiatives and groups ~ <a href="http://cooperationtexas.coop/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Cooperation Texas</a> and <a href="http://sgeproject.org/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">The Southern Grassroots Economies Project</a>. <a href="http://The Philadelphia Cooperative Alliance" target="_blank">The Philadelphia Cooperative Alliance</a> is notable in their numbers ( 100 in the Philly area, 4 of which are worker-owned) and in their effectiveness and how they have teamed with their area legislators to garner support. Their congressional representative, Congressman Chaka Fattah introduced the <a href="http://campaign.coop/" target="_blank">CREATING JOBS THROUGH COOPERATIVES ACT of 2013</a> this past June. The bill will promote job creation and economic development in underserved communities through cooperative business development. In addition, The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA) worked with their city council on a resolution supporting cooperative development as part of 2012's International Year of the Cooperative ~ See: <a href="http://www.philadelphia.coop/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Resolution-on-Co-ops-IYC-adopted-January-26-2012.pdf">http://www.philadelphia.coop/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Resolution-on-Co-ops-IYC-adopted-January-26-2012.pdf</a><a href="http://www.philadelphia.coop/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Resolution-on-Co-ops-IYC-adopted-January-26-2012.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.philadelphia.coop/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Resolution-on-Co-ops-IYC-adopted-January-26-2012.pdf</a><br />
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The recent much heralded election of Bill de Blasio as New York City's new mayor indicates how the rising tide of the new collaborative and cooperative approaches is transforming cities, as <a href="http://www.nycworker.coop/" target="_blank">New York City is currently home to at least 23 worker cooperative businesses </a>employing over 2000 workers in Manhattan, The Bronx,
Brooklyn, and Queens. This video<span style="font-size: small;"> by Grit TV <span class="watch-title yt-uix-expander-head" dir="ltr" id="eow-title" title="A Co-op Story: People's Construction in Rockaway"><a href="http://youtu.be/4cqZAUKWuQI" target="_blank"><b>A Co-op Story: People's Construction in Rockaway </b></a></span></span><br />
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of a cooperative development effort following the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy indicates the growing movement in that region. <br />
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Then there is Jackson, MS! Yes, that is Mississippi! Jackson's new mayor, Chockwe Lumumba, elected on June 4, 2013 has this in his winning platform:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="color1"><b><u>Economic Growth</u></b></span></i> <i><span class="color1"></span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="color1">
The growth of the Jackson economy is necessary
to improve the living standard and prosperity of the entire city. <b>
Economic growth must be accompanied by economic justice.</b> Growth in the
economy of the City must be shared by Jackson residents regardless of
economic statics, race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or
nationality.</span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span class="color1">
To achieve economic growth the following should
be implemented in addition to programs and policies suggested elsewhere
in this document.<br />
Create an economic mission of business persons
and workers who seek investors nationally and worldwide who will
establish industry and business in Jackson.<br />
Develop through the planning department and
other relevant city agencies <b>the capacity for Jackson to expand and
create public works projects</b>, particularly infrastructure projects.
Also develop the capacity to create green industry and green jobs.<br />
Grant tax incentives for Green energy innovations and improvements by businesses and home owners.<br />
<b>Establish job training programs particularly in green industry, construction and recycling.</b><br />
Develop new industry particularly in recycling,
alternative energy and in other productive fields.<b> <u>Develop consumer and
producer cooperatives.</u></b></span></i></blockquote>
Lumumba, in his former professional life, prior to becoming Jackson's mayor, was counsel for the late Tupac Shakur. <br />
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Let's begin building a more inclusive, collaborative and cooperative economy here too New Orleans! Email your contact info to: nolacoop@gmail.com <br />
We need folks who will serve the New Orleans Cooperative Development Project's steering committee and other committees too ~ Be part of the change! <br />
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<span class="read-more"></span>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-89897714360120146172013-11-16T10:47:00.001-08:002013-11-16T10:47:23.593-08:00New Orleans Rising Poverty .....<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.gnocdc.org/" target="_blank">The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center</a> examined 2012 demographic data recently released by the U.S. Census
Bureau and identified important trends in metro area parishes. The data indicates that Orleans Parish's poverty rate in 2007 was 21%, one percentage point above the national average. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">However, by 2012 the city's poverty rate had jumped to 29%. How could this happen in the midst of all the rebuilding, entrepreneurial activity and a supposed unemployment rate of 4.5%? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Those of us involved in finding new economic pathways that are more inclusive believe that our indigenous entrepreneurs are being shut out as local economic and workforce development entities work instead toward attracting entrepreneurs and businesses from outside the region, rather than growing from within. Because tourism and hospitality remain as New Orleans largest employer we continue to have a workforce that is paid abysmal wages that are made worse with the frequent occurrence of wage theft within the sector. Local economic development entities routinely put forth how awful the city was prior to Katrina citing its poor educational system, its crime, etc., all the while ignoring the significant production activities and positive contributions of long time residents that has made the city so attractive to this newly arrived entrepreneur class. This is why there is a growing call for the worker-owned business model to be made central to both our economic development and workforce development strategies in the New Orleans metro region. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Our official economic and workforce development entities also continue to ignore the effects this influx of new entrepreneurs has had on those who resided here before Katrina, such as the precipitous rise in rental costs, leaving 36% of the city's renters now spending more than 50% of their pre-tax income on housing costs. The national rate for '</span>severely cost–burdened renters' is 24%. However, most of the newly arrived continue to cite the music, art and culture here as one of the primary reason for relocating to New Orleans to start their businesses.<br />
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Our economic and workforce development system is a mess nationwide, but much more so here in Louisiana and New Orleans especially. Ted Howard, Executive Director of the <a href="http://democracycollaborative.org/" target="_blank">Democracy Collaborative</a> at the University of Maryland estimates the U.S. spends <b>$37B</b> on workforce development and, the more astounding figure of <b>$80B</b> on swaps - the public money, in the form of various subsidies spent enticing companies to relocate from one region to another. Businesses, i. e., corporate welfare. Businesses are making out like bandits while tax payers and workers are raked over the coals. In addition the workforce development system is very employer centric, leaving workers in a situation where they are routinely channeled into low-wage jobs at a high public cost. For more on the high public costs of such economic development strategies see: <em><a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/publiccosts/fast_food_poverty_wages.pdf">"Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry,"</a>
</em>an October 2013 report sponsored by the University of California,
Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education and the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Urban & Regional Planning,
with funding provided by<em> <a href="http://fastfoodforward.org/">Fast Food Forward</a>.</em><br />
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In Louisiana, 73% of fast food workers receive some form of public assistance - the highest rate in the nation. In addition, 37% of these workers have some college education. Many fast food workers are also expected to work several hours per day off-the-clock, stocking and cleaning, at the beginning and end of their shifts. None are allowed to work a 40 week, as that would mean their employers would have to provide health insurance for them. That has become an increasingly common situation in most industry sectors, even for those with college degrees, indicating how important the Affordable Care Act is to many Americans. <br />
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Fast food workers, restaurant workers, hotel workers and retail workers and increasing more and more workers in other sectors are receiving poverty level wages with no benefits, living pay check to paycheck and not being able to make ends meet, while being characterized as lazy. These workers are our hardest working Americans, working far harder and longer than the shareholders of the companies they work for...<br />
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Is there any hope within this abusive system? Not really. The hope lies within our own communities, with us and with our own initiative to change the system. We work within this system and know best the changes that need to happen so that our families and neighborhoods may live decent lives. We can build our own economic system from the ground up ~ one that is inclusive and that serves ourselves and our families and our communities rather than some small group of far-flung corporate shareholders. We can build our own democratic workplaces, we can HIRE OURSELVES, through building worker-owned businesses in our communities. That is what we are working toward in forming the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewOrleansCooperativeDevelopmentProject" target="_blank"><b>New Orleans Cooperative Development Project.</b></a> Please join us as we build this movement here and around the nation. We can join together and collaborate and cooperate on a more equitable way forward ~ and create work and jobs ~ jobs with ownership, democratic workplaces with the kind of flexible workplaces parents, families and all workers need. We can bring back quality and craftsmanship to the products and services we produce and have pride in our work once again. <br />
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<br />Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-68784276772122610442013-08-01T10:39:00.001-07:002013-08-02T11:51:18.846-07:00Economic & Workforce Development System is BROKEN!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vAFmqnCzwd8/Ufqb6mWO4aI/AAAAAAAAAPE/hPNqI9GomMA/s1600/Hoodoonola+Blog+8.1.13+1.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vAFmqnCzwd8/Ufqb6mWO4aI/AAAAAAAAAPE/hPNqI9GomMA/s400/Hoodoonola+Blog+8.1.13+1.tiff" width="400" /></a></div>
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Fifty years ago this nation was concerned about those living in poverty, but now 50 years later the undoing of that national concern for marginalized communities is almost complete. Workers are now experiencing a so-called modern economic and workforce development system that is so politicized, and has been so privatized, that it undermines every effort workers make at supporting themselves and their families. Last week we watched as the city of Detroit was forced into declaring bankruptcy and now this week we watch as fast food workers in cities all over the U.S. have risked arrest by going out on strike and protesting the abysmally low wages that keep so many American workers in poverty, while the corporations they work for experience record profits.<br />
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How did this happen? It seems to have begun with the almost immediate decimation of the very programs meant to help the jobless and working poor lift themselves out of poverty, programs put in place following the <b><i>The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom</i></b> that occurred 50 years ago this month .....<br />
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The Johnson Administration responded to this growing popular grassroots movement for civil rights, for social and economic equality, with a broad array of antipoverty legislation.<br />
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" The Economic Opportunity Act (1964) provided the basis for the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Upward Bound, Head Start, Legal Services, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Community Action Program (CAP), the college Work-Study program, Neighborhood Development Centers, small business loan programs, rural programs, migrant worker programs, remedial education projects, local health care centers, and others. The antipoverty effort, however, did not stop there. It encompassed a range of Great Society legislation far broader than the Economic Opportunity Act alone. Other important measures with antipoverty functions included an $11 billion tax cut (Revenue Act of 1964), the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Food Stamp Act (1964), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the Higher Education Act (1965), the Social Security amendments creating Medicare/Medicaid (1965), the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (1965), the Voting Rights Act (1965), the Model Cities Act (1966), the Fair Housing Act (1968), several job-training programs, and various Urban Renewal-related projects. " - Kent B. Germany, See: <a href="http://faculty.virginia.edu/sixties/readings/War%20on%20Poverty%20entry%20Poverty%20Encyclopedia.pdf" target="_blank">http://faculty.virginia.edu/sixties/readings/War%20on%20Poverty%20entry%20Poverty%20Encyclopedia.pdf </a><br />
<a href="http://faculty.virginia.edu/sixties/readings/War%20on%20Poverty%20entry%20Poverty%20Encyclopedia.pdf" target="_blank"><br /></a>
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"AFTER President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he
reportedly turned to his press secretary and lamented that Democrats 'have lost the South for a generation.' Johnson's judgment was
optimistic. Despite brief flashes of strength during the presidential
elections of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama,
Democrats—particularly white Democrats—have been losing ground in the
South for half a century." <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17467202" target="_blank">The ECONOMIST, Politics in the South, The Long Goodbye ~ Is the white Southern Democrat Extinct, endangered or just hibernating? Nov. 2010mocrats</a><br />
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Not only have Democrats lost ground, it seems many have defected and remain Democrats, particularly white southerners of the party, in name only, wearing the clothing of equality and democracy while capitulating to the same moneyed private interests as Republicans. Southern Democrats are as responsible for rising joblessness and poverty as Republicans, despite their rhetoric.<br />
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It was Nixon however, a short time after his election that began the dismantling of the Office of Economic Opportunity by putting Donald Rumsfeld in charge of the office, who then hired a young Dick Cheney. The rest is history as we know it. <br />
Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-48843510114661529952013-03-17T16:07:00.001-07:002013-03-17T16:07:27.374-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DxeZ3iVK5U8/UUZMfFe35JI/AAAAAAAAAN4/5RB9Jpi6U7E/s1600/Wild+Man%21+3.17.13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DxeZ3iVK5U8/UUZMfFe35JI/AAAAAAAAAN4/5RB9Jpi6U7E/s320/Wild+Man%21+3.17.13.JPG" width="252" /></a></div>
Thanks to Maureen Rice for this telling pic .... <br /><br />Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-55449785803623345562012-04-20T14:42:00.001-07:002012-04-20T14:51:56.479-07:00United States Income Inequality Map<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TuiuJhIJ9Bs/T5HZ_FUXzGI/AAAAAAAAAKg/8xDVuZo6cio/s1600/$+Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TuiuJhIJ9Bs/T5HZ_FUXzGI/AAAAAAAAAKg/8xDVuZo6cio/s320/$+Map.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://visualizingeconomics.com/2007/07/17/united-states-income-inequality-map/#.T5HYGKPqgPs.blogger">United States Income Inequality Map</a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-15865288713679898832012-03-07T07:35:00.001-08:002012-03-07T07:35:14.548-08:00Economic Democracy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Economic democracy refers
to a socio-economic arrangement where</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">local economic
institutions are democratically controlled <b>by </b>those engaged in the local</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">economy.
These economic institutions include business, finance, research and</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">development,
and education.........economic democracy also refers to the</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">cooperative ownership of the local economy <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">by </span>all who participate</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. For many, this is a</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">radical
notion, one that carries unfortunate political baggage that has stymied a
healthy</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">debate about the merits of this type of economic organization.
Economic democracy</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">does not reject the role of markets, but
because of the wide ownership structure, it</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">alters the primacy of the
profit-maximizing motive among economic decision makers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Proponents of this form
of economic organization argue that <b>the realignment of</b></span><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">interests
that takes place begins to reconcile conflicts between the owners of</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">productive
assets and laborers, while rooting wealth in local communities. Cooperative</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">businesses
are one of the more natural firm types fitting within the model of economic</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">democracy,
be they worker, producer, consumer, or housing cooperatives.</span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Promoting
Worker-Owned Cooperatives as a CED Empowerment Strategy: A Case Study of Colors
and Lawyering in Support of Participatory Decision-Making and Meaningful Social
Change</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma;">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #00349b; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=890602">Carmen Huertas-Noble</a>, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;">CUNY School of Law, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;">Clinical Law Review, Vol. 17,
No. 1, 2010 </span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<!--EndFragment-->Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-24792218296811351652011-09-20T12:38:00.000-07:002011-09-20T12:40:40.063-07:00More on wise economy, work, labor, magic, hoodoo, art, music... dancing the dance ...<a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2011/09/long-road-recovery/154/">The Long Road to Recovery, by Richard Florida, author of the best-selling book, RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS</a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-70320940860556597372011-09-19T06:58:00.000-07:002011-09-19T06:59:00.960-07:00 Given the regular precipitous plunging of the global economy and the distinct possibility of its demise as we know it ( a demise that will be celebrated by many and lamented by the few who actually benefit ~ the so-called job creators) the following may be of interest:<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/152360/3_ways_to_create_an_economy_that_works_for_all_of_us,_not_just_the_rich/?page=1">Three Ways to Create an Economy That Works For ALL of US, Not Just the Rich</a>", from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a class="economy" href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/" style="color: #565451; text-decoration: none;">YES! Magazine</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">/</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><em>By</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><em><a class="economy" href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/8397/" style="color: #858f3e; text-decoration: none;" title="View all stories by Sarah van Gelder">Sarah van Gelder</a></em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><em><a class="economy" href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/7989/" style="color: #858f3e; text-decoration: none;" title="View all stories by Doug Pibel">Doug Pibel</a></em></span><br />
<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-3">Less Work, More Living </a>~ <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-3">Working fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet", from </a>from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a class="economy" href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/" style="color: #565451; text-decoration: none;">YES! Magazine</a>, by</span><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-3"> Juliet Schor</a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-72044490500569697632011-07-08T11:45:00.000-07:002011-07-08T11:45:20.358-07:00Jobs I haven't been posting here as I have been so busy working various jobs, developing projects, looking for jobs and projects and more. Whew! It all gets weirder and weirder everyday ..... unemployment is, it was announced today, at 9.2%, though we all know it is considerably higher than that, especially for those working in the creative industries, given the self-determined and independent nature of the sector. Joblessness and unemployment is also much higher among women and people of color, given the increasingly (again) racialized and genderized nature of the good ole US of A. Just about every economist on the planet, both the Nobel laureates and the quacks all say we are poised for a 'jobless' economic recovery. How does that work? If it is jobless how is that any kind of a recovery???? <br />
<br />
In the next few weeks over the course of the summer and the run-up to Labor Day, I am going to be posting my ideas for an economic recovery that can provide jobs and a better quality of life for our families and in communities. <br />
<br />
Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-52545887575465906472011-03-28T11:48:00.000-07:002011-03-28T12:01:48.632-07:00Freret Street Festival, this Saturday, April 2, 2011<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freret-Street-Festival/179334215436484">New Orleans Freret Street Festival</a> is coming up on Saturday, April 2, 2011. This fest is one of New Orleans' best long running neighborhood festivals, with great music, crafts, food and more.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.freretstreetfestival.com/music">The music line-up this year is as follows:</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Lagniappe Brass Band<br />Free Agents Brass Band<br />101 Runners<br />Tanglers Bluegrass Band<br />Sunpie & Louisiana Sunspots<br />Tin Men<br />N’Fungola Dance & Drum<br />Billy Iuso<br />Creole String Beans<br />Big Sam’s Funky Nation<br />The Help<br />Debauche<br />Los Poboycitos</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; border-collapse: collapse; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><h4 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px; ">Where</h4><h3 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(86, 167, 46); font-size: 15px; "><a href="http://nola.humidbeings.com/places/detail/885/Freret-Market" style="color: rgb(81, 171, 32); text-decoration: none; ">Freret Market</a></h3><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 16px; ">Freret St & Napolean St<br />New Orleans, LA 70115</p><h4 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px; ">Price</h4><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 16px; ">Free and open to the public</p><h4 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px; ">Time(s)</h4><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 16px; ">Saturday April 2 (12:00 PM - 05:00 PM)</p></span></span></b></span></div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-19961683706014278122010-08-22T15:02:00.000-07:002010-08-22T19:25:36.926-07:00Katrina V 2010<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I started this blog while living in Memphis in the fall of 2005, having evacuated there from New Orleans just before the hurricane hit. Five years on, a lot of things have changed for the better, but at the same time some things have stayed the same or gotten worse. Just as many of us were getting back on our feet, the 2008 financial collapse proved a set-back that many have been unable to overcome, and then, that was followed by the April, 2010 Big BP Oil Spill. South Louisiana has been besieged by one disaster after another, of one sort or another, in the 5 years since Katrina made landfall. These disasters have brought change both positive and negative. On a hopeful note, at the grassroots we have come together as a community and restored our faith in ourselves, our creativity, culture, skills and abilities, and our resiliency. I remember reading a piece about New Orleans shortly after arriving in Memphis. It was written by a woman who was an anthropologist. I do not remember her name or much about the piece, but have never forgotten the term she used to characterize the city and our greatest asset as the </span><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"Improvisational Impulse"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.<br />We are more confident now, and more creative than ever and employing our improvisational impulse in ways that will keep us resilient and bring New Orleans a sustainability we haven't had for awhile, if ever. Poverty, neglect, racism, joblessness, social and economic inequality were all on the rise before Katrina and the disaster caused by the failure of the Federal Levee System only made matters worse in the years since. </span><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the months leading up to Katrina I had gone back to school at the University of New Orleans to further my work in developing a thesis and a workable program model for developing the region's cultural economy in a way that would be inclusive and serve to alleviate the long held historic poverty of the city. That first semester at UNO I took two courses that would influence my post-K work - The History of New Orleans Music, with professor Connie Atkinson, the former of publisher of the city's great music magazine, </span><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Wavelength</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, and Public Culture, with professor Nick Spitzer, also the producer of the syndicated public radio program </span><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://americanroutes.publicradio.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">American Routes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. For Spitzer's class, my term paper was titled </span><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">NEW ORLEANS, A STUDY OF POVERTY & THE NEW CULTURAL ECONOMY, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> following is that paper:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style:italic;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">New Orleans is a city of contradictions. A place where opulence and poverty, sin and salvation, celebration and depression coexist. A city known both for its richness of culture and the poverty of its populace, a city where at the dawn of a new century racial and class divisions continue and where the income-gap has become a yawning, ever-widening abyss, contributing to a host problematic social issues. Mention New Orleans anywhere in the world and you’ll receive instant acknowledgment of its wealth of musical and cultural attributes , followed quickly by an inquiry as to how the city is coping with its ongoing problems of poverty, crime, and poor public education. This paper is concerned with this question in the context of what has been termed the new emerging ‘cultural economy’, and will attempt to explore possible ways the city’s music and culture may be utilized within various current economic development efforts to reduce the incidence of poverty in the city. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">What is the new cultural economy? Definitions can be hard to come by, as it remains an emerging concept that in many respects is still developing, so it is worth looking into several that have been put forth in recent years. Severyn T. Bruyn, (http://www2.bc.edu/~bruyn), offers one definition: </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Cultural economy is about how a symbolic life is generated in midst of scarcity and about the tension of differences among people in everyday life. Culture is linked with the economy through symbolic interaction and broadly, through human history. This broad inquiry begins with primitive symbols and rituals and moves forward through history to include today's market system.”</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;"></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The World Bank offers a two definitions of culture in relation to their Culture-Poverty Initiative: </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“The term "culture" has two usages or definitions within the World Bank. The first, wider, definition describes particular shared values, beliefs, knowledge, skills and practices that underpin behavior by members of a social group at a particular point in time (with potentially good and bad effects on processes of poverty reduction). The second definition describes creative expression, skills, traditional knowledge and cultural resources that form part of the lives of people and societies, and can be a basis for social engagement and enterprise development. These include, for example, craft and design, oral and written history and literature, music, drama, dance, visual arts, celebrations, indigenous knowledge of botanical properties and medicinal applications, architectural forms, historic sites, and traditional technologies. The research-learning program includes both usages of the term culture, to the extent they affect the Bank's core mandate to reduce poverty and should potentially affect how we do business.”</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">However, in discussing local and regional economic development efforts within the cultural economy, the following definition of the ‘creative economy’ may be most useful: </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“At the core of the creative economy are those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, and which have their potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” – Creative Industries Task Force, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Creative Industries Mapping Document </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">(Dept. of Culture, Media and Sports 1998 U.K.)</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">But how can these definitions be applied to the development of workable and effective strategies for poverty reduction? As </span></span></span><span style="font: 12.0px Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Bruyn said, “</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">culture is linked with the economy .... broadly, through human history.” So a look back is warranted.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Karl Marx developed the ‘Mode of Production’ theory in which he said that the key element within the industrial economy was the discovery and application of new sources of energy. Manuel Castells brings this forward into the information age to introduce the similar concept of the ‘Mode of Development’ in which the key element is developing new forms and sources of information. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Where are these new forms and sources of information, knowledge, and ideas? And how can they, upon discovery, be applied in a way that generates jobs, meaningful livelihoods and wealth for individuals and communities? Discovering the answer to that question seems to lie initially in doing away with old assumptions and developing new definitions of what knowledge is..... and where it is, who has it and who doesn’t. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It seems from the various definitions of the creative and cultural economy that have been put forth in recent years, such as those cited above, that one of the old assumptions that needs to be done away with in order to unearth these new sources of knowledge and information essential to the new economy is that the poor are poor because they are unknowledgeable and therefore have nothing to offer. The notion of doing away with such an essentially baseless assumption is one that Albert Murray fiercely advocates in </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Omni-Americans</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and is also the basis of Paulo Friere’s classic, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Pedagogy of the Oppressed</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, both of which members of the New Orleans School Board and local economic development leaders would do well to read, and re-read, given their own obvious low level of comprehension. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The recent emergence of grassroots innovation networks, that are bottom-up initiatives that recognize that innovation does not come solely from the province at the top, provide evidence that the old assumptions, and with them old ineffective economic models, are beginning to be placed in their proper place in the past. In addition, these grassroots innovation networks provide an alternative to urban growth coalitions that are typically made up of business leaders acting ostensibly in the interest of community, but in actuality more in their own self-interest as revealed in the research of John Logan and Henry Molotch. One example in New Orleans of a grassroots innovation network is the recently formed Central City Renaissance Alliance, made up almost exclusively of people who live and work in the long neglected area of the city, where Census Bureau statistics reveal a median household income $1,000.00 below the Federal poverty line of $16,000.00. And while the area has been largely neglected since the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, its location, bordering the Garden District and the CBD, has it of late being eyed by developers as large portions of the Magnolia and Guste housing developments are torn down, raising the distinct possibility of many long time residents along with their vital culture being displaced in the process. However the area also has a long tradition of successful resistance to dominance by outside forces that will hopefully prevent future displacement. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In order to address the concepts within the context of the local New Orleans cultural economy, again, a look back at the city’s rich musical and cultural heritage is necessary. The World Bank, as cited earlier, maintains in the second of its two-fold definition of culture as an asset and resource for poverty reduction, that the, “... second definition describes creative expression, skills, traditional knowledge and cultural resources that form part of the lives of people and societies, and can be a basis for social engagement and enterprise development.” Henry Kmen in his paper, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Music in Early New Orleans</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, details the popular and well-attended Balls, held with such frequency in the city that new American Governor Claiborne felt compelled to write to then U.S. Secretary of State James Madison of his concern that residents of the city spent entirely too much time engaged in frivolous rather productive activity, indicating his feeling that some regulation of such activity was called for. However, the Balls served an important function to New Orleans in general, and to its economy, as music and dance allowed the ethnically diverse population of the time to transcend the language barriers that prevented other avenues of social engagement. And this frequent manner of social engagement created many spin-off businesses, or ‘enterprise development’ in the words of the World Bank, from the making of costumes and masks for attendees to wear to the balls, to the employ of musicians and bands to perform at the balls, transportation to and from the balls, and more. By 1840 there were more than 80 ballrooms or dance halls in the city. In turn many musicians from throughout the region migrated to New Orleans knowing there was abundant employment for them here, that in turn spurred the opening of many music stores that sold and rented instruments and led to the development of a thriving music publishing industry to keep up with the demand for sheet music. It appears in retrospect that the balls were responsible for the formation of the initial agglomeration industries that today serve the city’s tourism industry so well. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Similarly, the city’s long held tradition of social aid and pleasure clubs can be viewed as a predecessor or early model of today’s grassroots innovation networks. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">New Orleans R&B heyday from the late 1940’s to the early 1960’s provides another example of grassroots innovation and enterprise development stemming from social engagement and within an area of concentrated poverty, as such areas are usually referred to as, centered as it was around the Dew Drop Inn across the street from the Magnolia housing project. Another way of looking at the developments if thus time and another term that might be applied, to do away with old assumptions and within the context of the cultural economy, might be ‘concentrated creativity’. The Dew Drop Inn was also a hotel and and many of the musicians that played there on a regular basis also lived there, or in the surrounding neighborhood, fostering the regular social engagement and interaction that led to innovation and enterprise development of the kind that then attracted business, as independent record labels flocked to the city to record the New Orleans sound. Frank Pania was more than just a night spot and hotel owner, he was also a booking agent, regularly booking regional tours for the musicians that performed at the Dew Drop. And for a period, many of those New Orleans artists dominated the national music charts. Some credit the British Invasion as the reason for the descendency of New Orleans music, but Dr. John, in his book </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Hoodoo Moon, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">describes the times following the election of District Attorney Jim Garrison, who despite being elected with support of the city’s club owners, chose to engage in regulation of the social engagement that was occurring around the city’s many music clubs, raiding clubs for violation of the Jim Crow laws and regularly arresting musicians, leading many, including Dr. John, to head to Los Angeles or New York, causing a weakening of the grassroots innovation network of the time a lessening of the social engagement and interaction that produced such an abundance of creative activity.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Following this period, the area’s oil and gas industry was thriving, providing employment for many. But this was employment of a different kind, organized in a different way that was unlike the independent self-employment and entrepreneurship that had been engaged in by generations of New Orleans craftsmen, artisans, and musicians. In addition, the new markets that emerged from the oil and gas industry were so capital intensive that entry and participation in them required the investment of huge amounts of financial resources unavailable to those that had for so long engaged in independent self-employment. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The oil bust however once again brought to the fore the value of the city’s creative industries as tourism moved in to take the place of oil and gas and give rise to what is now being increasingly viewed as - the cultural economy! Although this position of the tourism industry as the region’s now dominant industry and largest employer presents a number of problems, perceptual and otherwise, in utilizing music and culture to reduce poverty, as well as address the problems of the city’s failing public educational system. The tourism industry’s sustainability as the city’s dominant industry is dependent upon the continued maintenance of large pools of low wage labor, making it in turn necessary to devalue the individual creativity activity it depends upon. And as the largest industry and employer in the city the tourism industry has the attention and ears of the city’s leaders and decision makers, resulting in its overriding influence in the direction of the development of the creative industries. Examples abound, the most notable being Richard Florida’s Creative Index in which he ranked the top 50 most creative cities in America and in which New Orleans ranked number 42. Civic and business leaders were aghast at the ranking with many referring to Florida, a professor of regional economic development at Carnagie Mellon University, as a quack. However, the index was not based on the number of creative people in a given city but rather whether those creative people that resided there were valued by the community and able to earn a living through their creative efforts and such is not the case in New Orleans, where the music industry is not thought of as an industry in itself but rather just a part of the tourism industry, thus accounting for the feelings of many of the city’s musicians that they are just sharecroppers to the tourism industry. Another example of the domination of the tourism industry is direction of development of the music industry is the August, 2004 Jazz Town Hall meeting held by the city’s Office of Economic Development/ Arts & Entertainment/ Music Business Development. Tourism industry officials were present in full force and the entire discussion, directed by Scott Aiges, Director of Music Business development for the city, centered around ways to import audiences to New Orleans, ostensibly so musicians will have more employment and be able to earn more. However, this notion runs contrary to the music industry rule of thumb that audience development and expansion, (that results in increased income), requires musicians to regularly release product (CDs) and to tour in promotion of their products and services, ideally hitting each market twice per year. Musicians present at this meeting expressed much frustration with this, feeling that their needs were being ignored in favor of the tourism industry’s needs. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">While there have been numerous efforts over the last decade or so to develop the city’s music into a full-fledged industry in its own right, most of these efforts have proved ineffective due in large part to the lack of accurate identification of primary and secondary stakeholders, and outreach to and inclusion of these stakeholders in the development process. An example of this is Greater New Orleans Inc.’s (formerly MetroVision) formation of an arts and entertainment industry cluster to develop a strategic plan to move the development of the creative industries forward. Greater New Orleans Inc. is the economic development arm of the Regional Chamber of Commerce. Out of the approximately 40 cluster members there were only one or two who were working musicians and as a result there was much distrust of this cluster within the city’s music community, which in fact proved warranted as the cluster met for 14 months and paid Dadco Consulting $50,000 to develop the strategic plan, only to never meet again toward implementation upon completion.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Similarly, there is a distinct lack of interface and collaboration within city government to marshall resources that could result in effectively moving development of the music industry forward and creating spin-off entrepreneurial activity and jobs. An example of the lack of interface includes that between the City's office of Music Business Development and Arts and Entertainment with the City of New Orleans Department of Economic Development, the Workforce Investment Board or the city’s Job 1 office, which provides the area with workforce development and training. A large component of the Workforce Investment Act passed by Congress involves entrepreneurial training and provides for investment into entrepreneurial activity. The development of microlending groups and organizations, such as the Newcorp and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s SEED (Supporting Enfranchising Economic Development) locally and MEDAL (Microenterprise Development Assoc. of Louisiana) state wide, grew out of the entrepreneurial investment component of the Workforce Investment Act and concerted interface by the city’ s Department of Economic Development’s offices of Arts and Entertainment and Music Business Development that should be considered essential to developing the music industry and creating artist enterprises, small businesses, and jobs. Nor is there interface between the Workforce Investment Board and Job 1 and the Music Business Co-op , a cooperative endeavor between the City and the Tipitina’s Foundation. Dialogue and interface between these two should begin toward effective collaboration on training the city’s low-income, unemployed and underemployed in non-performing aspects of the music and entertainment business in preparation for and to facilitate the effective entry and participation of this population into the new markets of the emerging growing cultural economy. Currently the sole target of the Music Business Co-op has been musicians. Musicians interviewed by the New Orleans Blues Project have expressed frustration with this, as it seems to most that the city expects them to be their own booking agents, managers, record labels, marketers and promoters, accountants, secretaries, publicists, and floor sweepers, feeling that is too many hats to wear and wondering why the same expectations are not heaped upon producers of products and services in other industries. Wearing that many hats leaves musicians little time for their primary endeavor and fails to expand the creation of the jobs base that potentially surrounds the area’s large talent base and allow for the retention locally of the economic benefits of the music. Higher earning artists in New Orleans currently all have managers, booking agents, publicists, and in many cases record labels, located far outside the region, resulting in an economic drain of million upon millions of dollars from the local economy annually. Most of these higher earning artists would much prefer to have managers, agents in publicists locally, but there are none to speak of...indicating that is imperative that we must foster and facilitate the development of this type of activity and employment to stem the drain. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">A glaring example of the lack of interface is the one by principals within just the city’s Department of Economic Development - the July, 2003 RFP for groups or partnerships to consult, develop, and implement the city’s “Comprehensive Event & Municipal Marketing Plan” that came from the city’s Marketing Department which, like the offices of Arts and Entertainment and Music Business Development, is part and parcel of Department of Economic Development (and physically located in the same hallway) yet several inquiries about the progress of the plan and the possibility for integration of producers within the city’s creative industries in the development and implementation of it, have resulted in blank unknowing stares - they literally have no idea what is going on in an office just a couple of doors down the hall !</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The following is an excerpt of a study done by Steven Tepper in relation to strategies for developing a region’s creative assets, especially those of music, that puts forth a more worthwhile strategy than many of those developed locally:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">(full text available at www.culturalpolicy.org)</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Creative Assets and the Changing Economy - </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Steven Jay Tepper</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> "</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Finally, I would argue that it is better to think about the creative industries</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">at the local and regional levels, where policy issues related to economic and</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">workforce development are more obvious and where it might be easier to find</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">synergies between the different parts of the sector—nonprofit and commercial,</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">large and small firms, new media and old media. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As one example of a local strategy, Walter Santagata (2002) has argued for the importance of “cultural districts” as sources of sustainable economic growth (furniture districts in Italy, textile districts in Milan, or wine districts in France) and has identified several policy interventions to help cultural districts thrive.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">There are also numerous examples from European cities (Manchester, Glasgow) of policies designed to build an infrastructure to support small and emerging cultural businesses in such areas as design, music, digital media, and broadcast. Such policies range from establishing industry forums for the identification of sectoral needs to creating publicly supported venture capital funds dedicated to the promotion of products and services made by creative industries. Other strategies include investing in digital media labs; creating low-cost production facilities; supporting art and technology studios; arranging expos to showcase new designs or local design talent; organizing trade missions around particular products or services; </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> providing business development support and training</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> ; </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">creating employment bulletins</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">; </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">providing managed workspace and cheap short-term leases for artists;</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">and </span></span></span></b><span style="text-decoration: underline"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">offering tour support for new musical acts</span></span></span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">These types of local policies, described by Justin O’Connor as 'cultural production strategies', are where the rubber hits the road in the creative industry debates—and where industrial approaches to the cultural sector make perfect sense."</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I came upon Tepper’s study as I was developing the Blues Project’s program model, “Community Development Through Music” designed to be a workforce development and entrepreneurial training program in non-performing aspects of the music and entertainment business. Additionally, it is an initiative that is targeted toward the low-income unemployed and underemployed and those considered low-educational achievers in the traditional institutional sense. Despite being considered low-educational achievers, this population exhibits a high creative acumen and qualified understanding and knowledge of the music and culture of the city that can be employed to offset the negative effects of their low educational achievement. Also within that high creative acumen is a highly developed independent entrepreneurial spirit that is made evident by looking at the history of creative activity engaged in within the cities poorer neighborhoods like Central City and Treme, and both of which have had grassroots innovation networks in place for many decades in the form of social aid and pleasure clubs, neighborhood music clubs, vernacular churches, Mardi Gras Indian groups, that, in the words of Michael P. Smith, “.... continue to be a watershed for rhythm and consciousness and a source of constant inspiration”, as he wrote in his piece, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Behind The Lines: The Black Mardi Gras Indians And The New Orleans Second Line</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. </span></span></span><span style="font: 11.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> These traits can easily be viewed, in Manuel Castells’ ‘Mode Development’ line of thinking as the key element of ‘new forms and sources of information’ that forms the basis of the information or cultural economy and its related new creative markets. These new creative markets are easier to enter for the low-income, as they are, as mentioned earlier in this paper, less capital intensive, and as a result possess great potential for entrepreneurial and small business development within poorer neighborhoods like Central City and Treme. That potential is heightened by the growing mico-lending movement as cited earlier, providing access to capital to those normally excluded as result of their low-incomes and lack of financial assets. There is beginning to be recognition within the cultural economy that an individual’s creative abilities are an asset. In Central City, the location of the Hope Credit Union by the Enterprise Development Corporation of the Delta there, and its offering of Individual Development Accounts where upon an individual saving $1,000.00 a match of as much as an additional $3,000.00 is provided, may spur the independent entrepreneurial activity that develops into small businesses that provides jobs. Certainly such developments within the micro-lending movement provides much-needed resources toward the development of artist enterprises and lends the best hope to continued growth of the area’s music industry. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Additionally, within the music and entertainment industry at large, one of the primary forms of investment is sponsorship, and a source that has not been explored or exploited locally. Entertainment sponsorship is an $11 billion dollar industry in North America and can be a source of investment to provide the tour support for musical acts that Tepper encourages in his study. Developing sponsorship as a source of investment however will likely require an effective collaboration between local grassroots innovation networks and the larger, non-grassroots public and private sector decision makers, a difficult task given the mistrust at the grassroots of city’s business and civic leaders, but perhaps not insurmountable, as the top, perhaps, within the new cultural economy needs the bottom more now than ever before. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></p><p></p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span>Look for my next post on.....<br /><br /><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/THGvfJmkPEI/AAAAAAAAAH0/6DOFAe2EAZQ/s1600/blog+photo+on+Econ,+Katrina+V.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 276px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/THGvfJmkPEI/AAAAAAAAAH0/6DOFAe2EAZQ/s400/blog+photo+on+Econ,+Katrina+V.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508376768939310146" /></a><br /><br /></div></div></div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-41960628660252025712009-10-14T06:51:00.000-07:002009-10-14T07:02:53.683-07:00IT TAKES A WOMAN!<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091012/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_nobel_economics">Elinor Norstrom is the first woman to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize in Economics</a>. It's about time. She won for her research in economic governance and how people and communities manage resources much better than governments or private companies. Norstrom's work is very similar to my own and what I've been doing in terms of organizing <a href="http://www.culturepac.com">CulturePAC as a New Orleans Public Action Coalition for Economic Equity & Opportunity </a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-35437692914420728472009-10-05T11:26:00.000-07:002009-10-05T11:56:06.338-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sso77oSBe2I/AAAAAAAAAHc/a24HBtVRo3s/s1600-h/archive.derrick.tabb.cnn.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 292px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sso77oSBe2I/AAAAAAAAAHc/a24HBtVRo3s/s400/archive.derrick.tabb.cnn.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389185799713553250" /></a><br />Support New Orleans music & culture...right now there are several ways - the first is to vote for Derrick Tabb as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive09/derrick.tabb.html">CNN's Hero of the Year</a></span>. Derrick has been nominated for his dedication to our city, its neighborhoods, music, culture, traditions, kids and our future in forming, along with <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold; font-family:'lucida grande';">Allison Reinhardt,</span> the RO<a href="http://www.therootsofmusic.com/">OTS OF MUSIC</a>, a tremendous program that gives kids musical instruments and teaches the long-held New Orleans musical and social tradition of marching bands. ROOTS OF MUSIC is an after-school program that busses kids from their schools and also provides instruction in teamwork, tutoring in educational subjects and more.....so click the link and vote ~ vote often too! Pass on the link and get your friends, family and neighbors to vote too!<div>Also, New Orleans community radio station <a href="http://www.wwoz.org/">WWOZ</a>, probably the best radio station on the planet, starts its annual fall fundraising campaign today. Tune in, listen and donate to keep New Orleans music flowing around the world!<br /><div><br /></div></div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SspAZxIKUCI/AAAAAAAAAHs/q5Kf8N9_9Bc/s1600-h/safe_image.php.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 130px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SspAZxIKUCI/AAAAAAAAAHs/q5Kf8N9_9Bc/s400/safe_image.php.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389190715530694690" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SspAPWVXjDI/AAAAAAAAAHk/8KqvbJOvdWQ/s1600-h/safe_image.php.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 130px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SspAPWVXjDI/AAAAAAAAAHk/8KqvbJOvdWQ/s400/safe_image.php.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389190536539638834" /></a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-65563954721633929522009-09-20T14:06:00.000-07:002009-09-20T14:33:59.124-07:00Billionaires for Wealthcare<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SradvI8M4dI/AAAAAAAAAHU/upQMiev3JdY/s1600-h/Billionaires2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 247px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SradvI8M4dI/AAAAAAAAAHU/upQMiev3JdY/s400/Billionaires2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383663837747405266" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SradnFdnPNI/AAAAAAAAAHM/UyQPW6pGuK8/s1600-h/Billionaires.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SradnFdnPNI/AAAAAAAAAHM/UyQPW6pGuK8/s400/Billionaires.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383663699374849234" /></a>This is a joke, but at the same time, NOT........ as, to paraphrase a tune, "Era of the Artificial Heart" by blues 12 string singer songwriter Paul Geremia, "..... human rights are on the auction block, in the era of the artificial heart...", from labor and income to healthcare and housing, it seems inequality is on the rise in America and everything is about profit....<div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1I9xsV-g9Y&feature=player_embedded#t=113">This great music video is "Brought to you by Billionaires for Wealthcare, a grassroots network of health insurance</a> CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We'll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to healthcare, if we ain't broke, why fix it?<br /><br />For more visit:<a href="http://www.billionairesforwealthcare.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.billionairesforwealthcare.com" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 100%; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 51, 204); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; ">http://www.billionairesforwealthcare.com</a><br /><br />Credits<br /><br />Video:<br />Shot by Brian Fairbanks<br />Edited by Jesse Freeston<br />Produced by Marco Ceglie & Andrew Boyd<br /><br />Song:<br />Lyric and Arrangement by Felonius Ax<br />Vocals by J. Paul Geddy Lee<br />Chorus: Rhea Cission & X. S. Profette<br />Electric guitars & bass: Djingle-Djangle Reinhardt<br />Acoustic guitar: J. Paul Geddy Lee<br />Snare drums: Georgie O'Marauder<br />Recorded and mixed by Georgie O'Marauder<br />Produced by Felonius Ax<br /><br />Full lyrics by Felonious Ax:<br /><br />Battle Hymn of the Health Insurance Companies <br />(AKA Let's Save The Status Quo)<br /><br />(to the tune of Battle Hymn Of The Republic)<br /><br />Rejoice and let us glory in the profits we attain<br />By rationing the remedies for suffering and pain.<br />And no one's gonna mess with all our monetary gain.<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />Chorus:<br />If our healthcare corporation<br />Never faces regulation,<br />We'll be brimming with elation!<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />We bought a bunch of senators and congresspeople too.<br />They serve our corporate interests and we tell them what to do.<br />This gravy train will stop the day a healthcare bill gets through.<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />Chorus: If our healthcare corporation (etc.)<br /><br />Our PR team is crackerjack. Were framing the debate!<br />Were spreading lots of lies and were unleashing lots of hate.<br />Well drive a stake into the bill the day it leaves the gate.<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />Chorus: If our healthcare corporation (etc.)<br /><br />A decent public option is an option we wont bear.<br />And Medicare for Everyone would kill our market share.<br />Well never win the game if all the rules are just and fair.<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />Chorus: If our healthcare corporation (etc.)<br /><br />In every other wealthy nation healthcare is a right.<br />But not here in America, no not without a fight!<br />Were fighting for the right to monstrous profits day and night.<br />Let's save the status quo!<br /><br />Chorus: If our healthcare corporation (etc.)<br /><br />Lyric by Felonius Ax<br />Minister of Musical Manipulation<br />(TheBillionaires.org)</span></div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-46526012299259680212009-09-18T12:32:00.000-07:002009-09-18T12:49:25.240-07:00Save Charity Hospital<div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SrPhIUBkwkI/AAAAAAAAAHE/xPkmzAvWIeM/s1600-h/n161412584637_6863.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 259px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SrPhIUBkwkI/AAAAAAAAAHE/xPkmzAvWIeM/s400/n161412584637_6863.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382893512568390210" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Come on out on Saturday Night<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">September 19, 2009 at 8:00pm</span></span> to Howlin' Wolf! Show your support for saving Charity Hospital and have a great time with some great music ~ just $5!<br /></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">DJ Captain Charles warms the crowd. Other featured artists take the stage including Harold brown, Lee Oskar, BB Dickerson, Howard Scott and other special guests.<br />Then the LOWRIDER BAND takes the stage, consisting of the original multi-platinum recording artists of hits like ‘LOW RIDER,’ ‘WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS,’ AND ‘THE CISCO KID’ .</span></span></span><br /></div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-48191688989350559852009-08-21T11:31:00.000-07:002009-08-21T12:35:05.456-07:00Send 'em the medical bills you can't afford to pay!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/So7oJKKL2UI/AAAAAAAAAG8/NRp1Fgg3KUg/s1600-h/Me+%26+Cao.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/So7oJKKL2UI/AAAAAAAAAG8/NRp1Fgg3KUg/s400/Me+%26+Cao.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372486649543121218" /></a>H<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#32424489">oodooNOLA's Sneakin' Sal confronting Republican Congressman Joe Cao on Health Care Reform and his relationships with insurance industry lobbyists, Billy Tauzin & PHARMA</a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>More...............from Susan<a href="http://centab.headonradionetwork.com/2009/08/16/nola-town-hall-turning-a-vote/"> "</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; "><a href="http://centab.headonradionetwork.com/2009/08/16/nola-town-hall-turning-a-vote/"> I would suggest to everyone who is trapped by the healthcare machine that they do the same thing that Sally did. Send your unpaid bills to your Congressman or Senator! Tell them to pay the damn bill or fix the health care system. Send the bills to the President! </a><strong style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://centab.headonradionetwork.com/2009/08/16/nola-town-hall-turning-a-vote/">Send them the bills!"</a></strong></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><p style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-align: left; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; "><a href="http://centab.headonradionetwork.com/2009/08/16/nola-town-hall-turning-a-vote/">~Susan~</a></p></span>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-65942720585829587782009-08-14T11:33:00.000-07:002009-09-18T11:57:07.189-07:00U.S. Rep. Cao on Health Care<a href="http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2009/08/us_rep_ahn_joseph_cao_says_hes.html">More on healthcare in America..... and in New Orleans</a><div><br /></div><div>OK... I subscribed to ADSENSE here on my blog hoping there might be a few bucks that could trickle in around it...Life is tough here in the Big Easy these days... thanks to cats like David Vitter, who has done nothing to help create jobs or make life better for anyone other than a few of his ideologically close cronies....giving rise to ever greater rates of inequality in our (un)fair state...so what does ADSENSE do, put David Vitter on my blog - this is a note to let all who read this know that I think the senator is the very definition of a creep. In fact, come election time - PLEASE VOTE DAVID VITTER OUT OF OFFICE! </div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-61964977671043424612009-08-13T13:27:00.000-07:002009-08-13T13:27:35.557-07:00HOODOONOLA: We Need Social Economy Initiatives<a href="http://hoodoonola.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-need-social-economy-initiatives.html#links">HOODOONOLA: We Need Social Economy Initiatives</a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-16598056618245988822009-08-13T13:25:00.000-07:002009-08-13T13:26:42.806-07:00We Need Social Economy Initiatives<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html?_r=1">Socialism? </a>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-29797937107978271842009-08-07T11:20:00.000-07:002009-08-07T12:06:29.421-07:00Economic Development in New Orleans<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold; font-family:'lucida grande';font-size:11px;"><a href="http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/nagin_kills_proposed_economic.html">Mayor Ray Nagin kills plan to form partnership N.O. economic development council - NOLA.com</a></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold;font-family:'lucida grande';font-size:11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); font-weight: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/nagin_kills_proposed_economic.html">Mayor cites lack of diversity even as City Council prepares to offer nominees</a></span><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">Shutting this down is the best thing Ray Nagin has ever done for New Orleans. This was all the usual suspects,the business and economic elite, working for the most part to maintain and continue the status-quo of poverty, low wages and inequality that has plagued the city for so long. They just had a different rap this time around, employing a more contemporary lexicon and such phrases as 'best practices, but there was nothing best practices about any of it. The process was seriously flawed and exclusive from the get-go. The joint effort between the Horizon Initiative and the City, (primarily Councilman Fielkow), can only be described as abysmal and if it was any indication of the future of this new economic development council and agency - then we all, as a city, were in deep dodo....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">This public private partnership's initial efforts were pathetic and in no way could they be considered best practices - stakeholder identification and outreach beyond the elite business class was wholly inadequate, as was any effort toward making the development of this new agency inclusive and citizen driven. Attendance at required public meetings in December '08 was practically nil, because the groups involved failed to adequately inform the public. Very few of New Orleans' citizens were aware of what was happening here and it all looked as if a fast one was being pulled. The entire effort seemed driven by monied private interests and all-in-all it looked to be an impending raid on the public coffers by these private interests, more than anything else - there was nothing public about it. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">Councilman Fielkow is now claiming the suspension of this development is retaliation for the Council's veto to move City Hall to the Chevron Building..... but he is just playing politics in the usual way too.... no different.....<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">I remember Councilman Fielkow warning folks at a Horizon Initiative membership meeting in January of the 'nay-sayers' in the community, of which <a href="http://www.CulturePAC.com/">CulturePAC</a>, a group I am with that works for economic equity, was one. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">Similarly, when a few of us questioned certain tactics and inadequacies at December's public meeting we were also quickly branded 'negative' and 'nay-sayers', also. Our legitimate concerns that there were no mechanisms to deal with the problems and social ills of poverty and rising economic inequality or no mechanisms for building wider community wealth were simply dismissed as negative. "Say something positive ... we want to hear something positive", said the company women in their do's, power-suits and spike heels. Geez, it was more like a high school pep rally than a public meeting. We knew then that this effort, despite the Rand report that said the problem with economic development in New Orleans was its historically EXCLUSIVE nature, would all, never-the-less, remain that way. I was personally concerned that this was a group that had long ago deemed themselves smarter than everyone else in the city, and therefore they should continue to be the exclusive decision-makers on all things economic - despite more than 150 years of poverty-making by these cats and their forebears.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">It is truly the time for change, but this is not the way, this is no change at all - no innovation, new ideas, alternatives, just the same old, same old.... so kudos for Nagin for doing the right thing and preventing this raid on the public coffers. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">I and<a href="http://www.CulturePAC.com/"> CulturePAC</a> will continue to work to ensure that economic development processes in New Orleans are inclusive, equitable and citizen-driven, allowing for new voices, new ideas and new pathways toward wider community benefit than in the past. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 78, 92); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-20598756301858924082009-07-15T14:25:00.000-07:002009-07-15T14:59:27.850-07:00HANO SUCKS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sl5NpYerjmI/AAAAAAAAAG0/X5_-DuJyfIE/s1600-h/dsc00206.jpgmid.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sl5NpYerjmI/AAAAAAAAAG0/X5_-DuJyfIE/s400/dsc00206.jpgmid.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358805979958578786" /></a>~ HOUSING IN NEW ORLEANS ~ RENTS RISING ~ HOUSING INSECURITY ~<div> VULNERABILITY, JOBLESSNESS & HOMELESSNESS ON THE RISE</div><div> THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS - HANO -</div><div>Can they be more ineffective??? That's what many folks are wondering these days - the pic above is from <a href="http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2009/07/14101.php">New Orleans Indymedia.org</a> 0f a gathering/protest at HANO headquarters - </div><div>Try moving from DHAP to Section 8 in this city...... and you will find out just how ineffective HANO is - get the word out about Friday's board meeting - bring your friends, family and neighbors and let's hold these public servants/arrogant bureaucrats accountable. New Orleans and its economy will never get better if everyone has to struggle daily with this kind idiocy while also struggling to survive in such an environment of concerted business and government depravity that has brought so many to their knees. Time to RISE UP! </div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-64394568830546486772009-07-05T07:38:00.000-07:002009-07-05T08:22:00.122-07:00WAGE THEFT in New OrleansI went to the City Council Special Projects/Economic Development meeting last week, where one of the agenda items was Wage Theft in New Orleans. This item was on the agenda because of the recent study <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.splcenter.org/legal/undersiege/">" Under Siege: Life for Low-income Latinos in the South"</a> </span>by <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp">The Southern Poverty Law Center</a>.<div><br /></div><div>This was some of the most eloquent, articulate and impassioned testimony I have ever heard in the New Orleans City Council Chambers. It was sad though that only two members of the City Council were present for this testimony at a time when so many of the residents of the city are dealing with such abuses of the private market and at a time when there is an initiative to form a new public private economic development agency, one that we should all hope will move us past such abuses, past the Plantation-Sharecropper economic model the region has employed for more than 150 years - one whose very foundation is built upon exploitation and continues the poverty-making status quo. Council members Feilkow and Willard-Lewis were the only members present.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately this impending new economic development agency looks to be more of the same. As I testified at a recent City Council Economic development Committee meeting, if the stakeholder identification, community outreach and public information efforts of the group forming this new agency are any indication of their future efforts, we're in deep shit, as very few people in the city are aware of this important development. It has not been a democratic or transparent process at all, despite the millions of dollars committed by The City.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.CulturePAC.com">CulturePAC</a>, a Public Action Coalition for Economic Equity that is seeking to ensure this new agency is inclusive and citizen-driven and is calling for 30% of the seats on the board go to the low-income, since that is the percentage of city residents living in poverty. CulturePAC contends that those who are able to amass capital and wealth, who have exclusive access to vast amounts of private capital are not always the smartest in the room, and are often times the most complacent. Our low-income community is made up of many of our best and brightest, our most creative, with new ideas and awareness of beneficial alternative economic pathways, with knowledge, skills and abilities in innovation, adaptability and sustainability. </div><div>Please join CulturePAC in making life in New Orleans better for all, rather than just a select few. Join CulturePAC in developing inclusive economic development policies, strategies and initiatives that will build a more diverse, just and sustainable economy for our region. </div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-82773511925639647192009-06-27T12:22:00.000-07:002009-06-27T12:49:15.362-07:00Old Economy v. New Economy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SkZ2RkvuCLI/AAAAAAAAAGs/ANZuZ6h8kDY/s1600-h/YES!.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 74px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SkZ2RkvuCLI/AAAAAAAAAGs/ANZuZ6h8kDY/s400/YES!.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352095251470092466" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SkZyGHgAFcI/AAAAAAAAAGk/c16cfRj6vyE/s1600-h/Old+Economy+New+Economy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 175px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/SkZyGHgAFcI/AAAAAAAAAGk/c16cfRj6vyE/s400/Old+Economy+New+Economy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352090656594466242" /></a><br /><br /><br />This is what we're talking about! We need creative cultural producer-worker cooperatives in New Orleans in order for our creative cultural products and services not be appropriated and corrupted, for producer worker autonomy - musicians, artists and activists are an independent and suspicious bunch in New Orleans and across the region and for very good reason-<br />We need producer-worker cooperatives for an equitable, fair and just economy for New Orleans and our nation - for social and economic justice.<br /><br />Martin Hess in a 2004 piece titled, ‘Spatial’ relationships? Towards a<br />reconceptualization of embeddedness, for the journal Progress in Human Geography, cited Karl Polayni, writing:<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Activities that began as social i.e. of a non-market economy with their forms of reciprocal and<br />redistributive exchange, were constituted on the basis of shared values and norms that had<br />their roots in social and cultural bonds rather than monetary goals, societies based on<br />market exchange reflect only those underlying values and norms that consider price. They do<br />not recognize any other obligations. Therefore, Polanyi conceived market economies as<br />disembedded from the social-structural and cultural-structural elements of society.<br />...... while historically preceding economies were embedded in society and<br />its social and cultural foundations, Polanyi argues that modern market economies<br />are not only disembedded, but ‘instead of economy being embedded in social<br />relations, social relations are embedded in the economic system’ (Polanyi, 1944:<br />57).<br /></span><br /><br />And that is what New Orleans and so many other regions, cities and towns across America needs so urgently now - an economy that is "reciprocal and redistributive ...... constituted on the basis of shared values and norms", based upon, "social and cultural bonds" rather than - strictly "monetary goals."<br /><br />For more on the New v. Old Economy go to the Summer 2009 issue of YES! Magazine and the U. S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives (See: Links & Resources section at the right of <div>page ) .....</div>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21925205.post-16951766061109307982009-05-27T11:26:00.000-07:002009-05-27T12:06:05.516-07:00Missin' Snooks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sh2G_1zj_OI/AAAAAAAAAGU/VkmrkQC5qgE/s1600-h/100_8965.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sh2G_1zj_OI/AAAAAAAAAGU/VkmrkQC5qgE/s400/100_8965.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340573164464504034" /></a><br /><P> Deacon John and June Yamagishi perform at Snook Eaglin's service at the Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans, Feb. 27, 2009<P> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sh2GWR0ybTI/AAAAAAAAAGM/LgM8o6yRgLM/s1600-h/100_8931_1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 298px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3gtN7NHFPqo/Sh2GWR0ybTI/AAAAAAAAAGM/LgM8o6yRgLM/s400/100_8931_1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340572450431331634" /></a><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a1jiG66DVaM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a1jiG66DVaM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Salhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669562068104334491noreply@blogger.com0