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North America’s other fleur-de-lis city…I come here whenever I can…It’s five hours up the North Way by car.

I think New Orleaneans would feel very at home here…great food, lots of live music, very friendly people…sensual, inclusive, compassionate and all those good things…they know how to live.

New Orleans was actually founded by a Montrealer…and the one Montreal friend who came to visit me in New Orleans last winter loved it.

A typical Montreal event today…

Spain won a big soccer match and the Spanish residents of the city went wild and took over St. Lawrence which is a main thoroughfare for a spontaneous street party…no problem…the cops just rerouted traffic…

(Note to self: Gotta go to Spain. My cousin Frank who was in the merchant marine and has literally seen every port on the world, answered without hesitation when I asked him what was the best place he ever visited: “Spain!”)

I’m back in New York for the summer in search of New Orleans-like events.

The best one so far…the annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island which just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

New Orleans has a lot more parades, but in Coney Island they can take their parade into the sea, which they did.

Lots of New Orleans influences here. Note “St. James Infirmary” being played as the brass band marches back to shore.

Shot with my $95 camera and my crash and bang edit system.

Just discovered this one on YouTube. It’s by someone called BrothaE. It’s called “Dreaming.”

Larry came to our benefit workshop last April for St. John’s Church #5 in the 7th Ward and then went with us to visit the various rebuilding projects they’re working on.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that he’s the new president of NOREIA, the New Orleans Real Estate investment Association.

In my mind there need be no conflict between grass roots entrepreneurship and social justice. In fact, the two forces well-joined can create miraculous changes in material conditions.

Larry is developing a new model for harnessing ethical entrepreneurial energy to bring blighted homes back on the market in New Orleans, a city that needs this desperately. And if the model works in NOLA - and I’m sure it - it will work everywhere.

UC Berkeley Professor Ray Seed discusses what California can learn from New Orleans and how to prevent a similar catastrophe in California and the rest of the country.

This talk was delivered September 12, 2006. Astonishing for its detail so soon after the catastrophe. Astonishing for how few people have had access to this basic information nearly three years later.

“The most costly peace-time failure of an engineered system in North American history.”

“Much worse than most people realize…”