Rebuild Green / New Orleans
UPDATE FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS:
DECEMBER 2006--FEBRUARY 2007
NEWS
- Renovations in the Upper 9th Ward and Central City
- New, Hurricane-resistant construction in Upper 9th Ward
- Recycling-of-Plastic site to be based in the Lower 9th Ward
- Jonathan Richman concerts for Rebuild Green in Memphis,
Tennessee February 22 and Austin, Texas February 27 - T-shirts, posters, cards
Dear Contributors to Rebuild Green,
First, I apologize for the long gap in communication.
We've been fairly busy here.
We have three renovations going in the Upper 9th Ward and Central City of New Orleans--2324-26 Congress Street and 2305 Congress Street in the Upper 9th and 7013 Fig St. in Central City.
We're to begin our first new build around March 5, 2007 in the Upper 9th, a ranch-style house of 2020 square feet that will employ Structural Concrete Integrated Panels (SCIPs) and that will be elevated 8 feet above ground by continuous walls of SCIPs. Such construction has already withstood 220-mile-per-hour Hurricanes in the Caribbean. We think that it offers New Orleans' home-owners the best defense in housing against storms and floods.
RENOVATIONS
Let me tell you about the renovations first.
Melveline Gaines' double-shotgun house at 2324-26 Congress has been the biggest
job. We've now completed electrical work on the entire house and walls, floor and ceiling for the half of the shotgun that Mrs. Gaines is to live in. We've saved cabinets that date from the 1940s and installed Mrs. Gaines' choice of Jazz Blue tiles for her kitchen. ("Jazz" is also the name of the barking and hopping Miniature Poodle that vociferously protects Mrs. Gaines' FEMA trailer.) Photos with identification of main workers are below.
The 600-square foot house of William and Glynda Lynch at 2305 Congress has been a more
rapid project. We now have a team that's grown skillful in working together. Most come
from outside Louisiana and most have spent months in doing free work at their trades
to help residents' recovery after the Hurricanes and floods of 2005. They are Sophocles Fragakis and Wesley White of Florida, Elijah Reeves and Dave Alberts of Ohio, Glendon Thomson of New York, and O. C. Draughan and William King of New Orleans. At 2305 Congress we're again doing walls, floors, ceilings, electrial and plumbing.
7013 Fig Street in Central City--some three miles southwest of the Upper 9th Ward as a Red-Tail Hawk might fly--was the boyhood home of drummer Tyrone Henry. He's making this small double-shotgun ready for his mother and aunt. Tyrone heard about Rebuild Green from a long-time friend who works with actor Danny Glover. We've done electrical, walls and ceilings at 7013 Fig.
NEW BUILD
The house that's to be built on Robert Legier's lot at 2521 Piety in the Upper 9th Ward
can be a breakthrough.
It will be the first post-Katrina house in the Upper or Lower 9th Ward with its living quarters elevated at least 8 feet above ground. It will be the first to be made of Structural Concrete Integrated Panels that resist Hurricane-force winds and floods. SCIP walls also are impervious to mold and termites and other life-forms that flourish in southeast Louisiana. They also offer 40% savings in energy-use during both hot and cold weather. And SCIP walls are substantially more sound-proof than "stick-frame" 2"-by-4" construction.
Please see the website of Rebuild Green's partner, M-2 USA, a subsidiary of Emmedue in Italy, http://www.m-2usa.com/ , for more information on building with SCIPs.
RECYCLING PLASTIC IN THE 9TH WARDS AND ST. BERNARD PARISH
A project pushed by Pete Ash of Habitat for Humanity's Camp Hope in Violet, LA
will base a center for recycling plastic nearby New Orleans' Industrial Canal. The center
thus will serve residents of the Lower and Upper 9th Wards and of St. Bernard's Parish
most immediately. Partnered with a company on mainland China, the center will provide
recycled material for the Chinese economy and will pay those who recycle their plastic
in Louisiana ('Plastic! Everything 's gonna be made out of plastic!' Woody Guthrie wrote
65 or so years ago). It will be the first recycling center of its kind in Louisiana.
JONATHAN RICHMAN CONCERTS TO BENEFIT REBUILD GREEN
Jonathan's latest album, Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love, a fine and sweet and bittersweet one, all of its instruments acoustic, came out on Vapor Records three years ago.
He's touring in the month of February from New York City (four dates at the Knitting Factory) to Austin, Texas. His shows at the Hi-Tone Cafe in Memphis, Tennessee on February
22 and at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas on February 27 are benefits for Rebuild Green. Jonathan has been a friend since we met during Matt Gonzalez's campaign for Mayor of San Francisco in 2003.
Other remaining dates on his tour are:
2/17 and 2/18 Atlanta, Georgia, The Earl
2/20 and 2/21 E. Nashville, Tennessee, Radio Cafe
2/23 Little Rock, Arkansas, Sticky Fingerz
2/24 Dallas, Texas, Gypsy Tea Room
2/26 Austin, Texas, Continental Cafe
More information about Jonathan and friends is available at:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
http://jojofiles.blogspot.com/ (a site maintained by fans).
Also, I see on his Not So Much To Be Loved ... CD, this site, an expression of his commitment to Mumia Abu Jamal: www.freemumia.org.
T-SHIRTS, POSTERS, POSTCARDS, CORNCOB PIPES
Finally (and finally), we now have T-shirts, posters and postcards that deliver an image
created by Mac McGill of Brooklyn, New York. Mac gutted houses with Common Ground
Relief in the Lower 9th Ward for two weeks last May. He returned to New Orleans with artists Seth Tobocman and Chris Cardinale for an Ashe Cultural Center show around the first anniversary of Common Ground last September. He brought at that time this inspirational vision of an angelic figure blowing his/her horn into the not-malevolent eye of a hurricane.
We can send you T-shirts for $10 each, sizes Small, Medium, Large and E-Large, and for $12 each, 2 XL and larger, with a poster and five postcards included. You can of course contribute more than the asking price if you wish.
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