To get a firsthand look at the condition of the Mission shelter and how it operates, staff writer Richard A. Webster and photographer Ted Jackson spent the night from 4:30 p.m. Sept. 17 to 9 a.m. Sept. 18. This story documents their experience.
Later that night, Hulitt heard from an old girlfriend of Willie Lee's. She had just received a call from an inmate in OPP. "She told me Willie was dead, that he was killed in the jail," Hulitt said. "It can't be Willie. It can't be. She said, 'Yes, it is.'"
Sitting in the courtyard outside of the American Can apartment building near Bayou St. John, Doratha "Dodie" Smith-Simmons closed her eyes and began to sing. The words came out like a whispered prayer. "We are not afraid," she sang. "We are not afraid."
Buggy driver Maia Settle knew there was a problem when a customer told her Monday (April 21) there was a tour guide inside St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 reaching into tombs and pulling out jawbones to show the crowds.
They are known on the streets as K9 and Dr. Love. One is a solitary figure who dresses like a pirate king and pushes a shopping cart overflowing with treasures through Treme. The other is a gregarious and outrageous soul who calls himself the “Mayor of Jackson Square.”
Less than 10 days before the council was to hold a hearing on the proposed noise ordinance, lawyer Stuart Smith sent Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer an email message pledging to see that she would not be "electable as a dog catcher" if she backed away from supporting the new law.
"There was a fire before, people have been dying here before, the Fire Department has been here before, the ambulances have been here before, the cops have been here before," Riverbottom said. "This is what has to happen."
When asked what she did for a living, after making sure she wasn't talking to a "cop," the dancing girl said for $50 she would do "everything."
Once a vibrant thoroughfare that slowly fell into economic despair, Tulane Avenue could be on the cusp of a renaissance fueled by the construction of the $2 billion medical complex
The Pitards spent the mornings during their first year in business cleaning up syringes, used condoms and human feces left behind their restaurant, chased sex workers away throughout the day and worried every night that perhaps they made a terrible mistake.
"People opening my door, trying to coerce me into buying their crack and drugged-up women. Each night I was awakened to screaming and yelling. The rooms smell like death and to top it all, there were syringes in the desk drawer. Overall, if you stay here after reading this, then there is no hope for you."
Renters who run into conflicts with landlords in Louisiana have few rights to invoke and face an eviction process that moves at a speed unheard of in other states, housing advocates say.
Manis sat in his tiny first-floor room and pointed to the swarms of German cockroaches that covered every surface. The smell of mold was suffocating. He said he hesitated to go public with his concerns, scared that he would be evicted, but it's gotten so bad that he is afraid for the safety of his family.
As Clay took in a forkful, anticipating feta cheese and olives, she tasted something unusual. That's when she looked down at her plate and saw it: half a cigarette nestled among the sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers.
