Annunciation | NOLA

What have I done? I’ve been my neighborhood association’s secretary for about 3-4 years. Recently, our president has stepped down due to health issues. I was the only sucker to step up. Actually, one other person was interested but can’t do it right now due to other obligations. I told her she’s welcome to take over whenever she’s ready. She’s serving as VP and I found another sucker, er, person, to be secretary. Our usually quiet and safe neighborhood has seen an up tick of crime, drugs and shooting (what neighborhood hasn’t?) and people are on edge. One problem property produced a firestorm of emails from neighbors and it was decided to do something about it. So much for easing into this position. That wasn’t so bad, but a back-and-forth e-mail exchange broke out between two people that was unpleasant and unnecessary. This is the part of being president of an organization I dislike –dealing with people’s egos. I’ve served on board before, but not for something like a neighborhood group, with widely different personalities and an issue so passionate-your home. You’ll be seeing a lot more neighborhood-oriented stuff up here.

That up tick in crime? There was a gunfight between two cars the other night. Cursed Tea lives a few blocks away and describes it (link). We didn’t hear a thing. Another neighbor reported that the shooters rammed another neighbor’s truck, and:

A bullet had entered my house about 32" from the center of the front door and went into an antique secretary and lodged in the other side of it. I called the police and the crime lab came out. After walking around the perimeter we noticed another bullet hole in my wooden fence by the cast iron fence. The bullet that went through the fence was the same one that broke the window on Mike's house then went through the window in the back of his house.

The police state these cars could have met up anywhere but happened to be on our corner.

Yikes!

Once again, I go to my happy place “JazzFest, JazzFest.” Even with the rain we had a blast last Sunday. The first thing we did when we arrived was get cochon de lait po-boy. It was AMAZING. Later I got a Seafood Mirliton Casserole and a Fried Crab Cake w/ Smoked Tomato & Jalapeño Tartar; they were both OK. A couple celebrity sightings… We saw Jane Krajkowski from 30 Rock walking around. When we were leaving the fairgrounds, a black stretch limo pulled up. A window went down, Al Green stuck his head out and said, “How was my timing?” Everyone cheered. We are definitely going Sunday... maybe Friday but not sure yet.