15-yr. NOLA exile wishes to employ his talents in the recovery effort

[KamaAina]

note: not "ex-New Orleanian"; I have lately come to realize that there is no such thing.

Thing is, my talents revolve around brains rather than brawn: I can't drive a truck to haul debris away (no license) or rewire a house (bzzzzzzzzt!) or anything like that. What I could do would be to re-envision the city (and to some extent, its environs) based on my two-plus years spent exploring much of it via RTA and on foot (remember, no license), and to adapt ideas from elsewhere (e.g., my original home town of Baltimore found a workable way to dispose of blighted city-owned property back in the '70s). I was even involved in some political campaigns in which we were far ahead of our time in our attempts to imagine N.O. as a 20th-century city, much less the first city of the 21st century.

Where would I go to pursue such a meta-career? I actually did spot a policy-research position, but this is getting less likely by the day, as the phone call was over two weeks ago. Some measure of my commitment to the cause may be gained from the fact that I would even consider such a move given that I am presently in Honolulu!

[DeltaLady]

1. Obviously

you are one of us; those whom New Orleans has claimed as her own. Keep knocking on doors and the right one will open.

Your homecoming will be cause for celebration!

[KamaAina]

2. It sure had a funny way of showing it back in '90-'91

you are one of us; those whom New Orleans has claimed as her own.

She didn't seem to have much of a problem letting go of me back in the day; then again, the same is true of countless others, a couple of whom at DU are now making concrete plans to return. Besides, if she hadn't, my life would now be in turmoil like everybody else's, and I am spectacularly ill-equipped for that in a psychic sense.

Nice job! Four hearts and only 62 posts. I do believe that is the highest ratio in all of DU (and none of them are mine, only because I donated at the fourth-quarter drive). :loveya:

In case you're wondering, I gave up on the nola.com rebuilding forum after "Chocolate City" when all the racists crawled out from under the woodwork. Ewwwwwwww!