Time to let NOLA go?

[Born to Run 6569]

I'm sure several posters in this thread urging the end to NOLA also live in Houston, or go to Galveston (which got nuked from orbit) and post this garbage with zero sense of hypocrisy (and I'm from Houston).

Yall might remember Hank but forget about the other Williams boy, Tennessee.

[Jkwellborn 6713]

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

[Wulaw Horn 19127]

On 9/24/2023 at 11:03 AM, Biff Tannen said:

This is going to be a massive issue in the next decade or so.  Climate change is also going to bring us problems we haven't even imagined yet.  It's going to be a huge test for humanity.  I don't think we will pull it off, at least not without a LOT of death.  

There are less deaths caused by nature every year than the year before. We basically have nerfed the earth for human habitation. We already have pulled it off and will continue to meet the challenge. 

[Texzilla58 4740]

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

My Nola friends will tell you the best thing that happened to the city was the relocation of many criminals to parts unknown.

[Texzilla58 4740]

The best account of the Mississippi, the Corps of Engineers efforts to harness it, and the many societal changes wreaked by the great flood of 1927 is Riding Tide. I suggest it as a fascinating read.

As said before the issues of the river, the delta, and New Orleans are complex and rooted mostly in the destruction of salt marshes and Corp efforts to maintain navigation and the commerce of the port. The issues aren’t from recent “climate change” events but of much older actions.

I love New Orleans and the area. It’s important from commerce on the river and culturally as well.

[wild_turkey 3168]

So economically does it make sense to invest in the area?  Obviously, this depends on the cost of the improvements, but losing 82 billion in GDP sure isn't great. 

In a worst case scenario, if New Orleans became completely uninhabitable and lost, that 82 billion wouldn’t vaporize or go to China. American citizens would still spend most of it on vacations and long weekends to other domestic locations.

[YGIFS 19452]

This sounds like the plot of an "Arrested Development" reboot.  Instead of Wee Britain, we'll rebuild it as 'Petit Orleans' and put it in like Nebraska or Florida or some other redneck backwards shithole.  

[BamaATL 16593]

4 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

 

In a worst case scenario, if New Orleans became completely uninhabitable and lost, that 82 billion wouldn’t vaporize or go to China. American citizens would still spend most of it on vacations and long weekends to other domestic locations.

 

There is validity to this point in that its not as if the people living there and the tourist dollars wouldn't go elsewhere.  However, the cost would be greater than just the loss of the GDP in area, it would also include the loss of value of property, etc.  Just on the property end, the losses would be in the trillions, and crippling to the banking sector.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Born to Run said:

5 hours ago, Porterhouse said:

Petty. I'm not a doomsdayist. It serves no purpose. New Orleans notwithstanding, climate change is not going to be “a massive issue in the next decade”. 

It already is bro...

No. It’s not. 

[BamaATL 16593]

37 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

There is validity to this point in that its not as if the people living there and the tourist dollars wouldn't go elsewhere.  However, the cost would be greater than just the loss of the GDP in area, it would also include the loss of value of property, etc.  Just on the property end, the losses would be in the trillions, and crippling to the banking sector.  

Got me curious, so a few quick Google searches and I came up with a few things:

1.  In New Orleans proper there are approximately 156k households

2.  Of those households, at least 44k a private residences (a smaller percentage than the national average)

3.  The median house is approximately 650k.

A couple of assumptions regarding these numbers.  Based on that I figured 20% equity for every home.  The total mortgage obligation under this scenario for just private residential housing would be a shade under $23 billion.  

Of the remaining 112k of housing it's a bit harder to quantify because at least a good portion is public housing.  In an admittedly half hearted and feeble attempt to quantify this, I just cut it in half.  55k of apartments is what I figured.  These prices vary considerably, so for the sake of ease of math, I just went with 100k per door (which I think is likely considerably low).  This came to a cost of $5.5 billion

So if that is remotely correct (and I have a tendency to miss carrying zeros), the residential cost of mortgage costs would be less than I would have that thought.  Somewhere between $25 billion and $50 billion.  

However, none of these figures takes into account the commercial side of property, which of course varies far more wildly.  I think this would represent significantly more cost than the residential side of the equation.

In any event, my statement of trillions lost in banking appears to be well overstated, so I was wrong.  

 

[Pods 7586]

The Mississippi isn't going to stay in it's channel long term and there we are limited in our ability to stop/slow it. 

Rivers move back and forth across their floodplains. These curves are all abandoned meanders of the Mississippi. 

Anyone who thinks we can contain this kind of power forever is completely delusional.

Further, many of the Army Corps of Engineers previous attempts to increase navigability and control the channel of the Mississippi River have been extremely counter productive. One of the big reasons the delta is eroding is that the Corps made the river too deep and the flow is now too fast, so now a huge percent of the sediment that would deposit and rebuild deltas and wet lands shoots off the continental shelf into the deeper water instead. I had a hydrogeology professor that was apoplectic about it, because the Corps wouldn't listen to him, or any other outside experts and the flow ended up doing exactly what they predicted. I had a hydrogeology professor that was apoplectic, because the Corps ignored all of their warnings and created an even bigger mess. 

It's not just life that finds a way, Nature eventually does too. 

[texasdago 7575]

You can try to tame water but water remembers...

http://www.savebuffalobayou.org/?p=7549

...and as for Galveston, it's a barrier island. They're screwed too.  

[fattyflattie 4639]

2 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

My Nola friends will tell you the best thing that happened to the city was the relocation of many criminals to parts unknown.

I know exactly where they went - Houston resident. 

[fattyflattie 4639]

3 hours ago, Deej said:

How long before we get "Swamp People: New Orleans" on Discovery?

Apparently, in the next decade. 

[UpperWestside 6171]

2 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

 

In a worst case scenario, if New Orleans became completely uninhabitable and lost, that 82 billion wouldn’t vaporize or go to China. American citizens would still spend most of it on vacations and long weekends to other domestic locations.

 

A nice long weekend in Biloxi or a trip to the exotic locale known as the Florida Panhandle.

[Biff Tannen 45692]

57 minutes ago, Pods said:

The Mississippi isn't going to stay in it's channel long term and there we are limited in our ability to stop/slow it. 

Rivers move back and forth across their floodplains. These curves are all abandoned meanders of the Mississippi. 

Anyone who thinks we can contain this kind of power forever is completely delusional.

Further, many of the Army Corps of Engineers previous attempts to increase navigability and control the channel of the Mississippi River have been extremely counter productive. One of the big reasons the delta is eroding is that the Corps made the river too deep and the flow is now too fast, so now a huge percent of the sediment that would deposit and rebuild deltas and wet lands shoots off the continental shelf into the deeper water instead. I had a hydrogeology professor that was apoplectic about it, because the Corps wouldn't listen to him, or any other outside experts and the flow ended up doing exactly what they predicted. I had a hydrogeology professor that was apoplectic, because the Corps ignored all of their warnings and created an even bigger mess. 

It's not just life that finds a way, Nature eventually does too. 

Sweet Jackson Pollock painting/album cover. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

11 hours ago, YGIFS said:

This sounds like the plot of an "Arrested Development" reboot.  Instead of Wee Britain, we'll rebuild it as 'Petit Orleans' and put it in like Nebraska or Florida or some other redneck backwards shithole.  

Serve up a heaping’ bowl of some Maine Justice

 

[MissingInAction 25118]

13 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

I volunteered to pass out clothing and food to Katrina refugees,  and motherfuckers were complaining about not getting Jordan's. 

.

[Braff Zacklin 13628]

13 hours ago, YGIFS said:

This sounds like the plot of an "Arrested Development" reboot.  Instead of Wee Britain, we'll rebuild it as 'Petit Orleans' and put it in like Nebraska or Florida or some other redneck backwards shithole.  

They should just lean to simplicity and call it New New Orleans.

 

And, yes, the italicization would be part of the official spelling.

[Poe It Up 126]

14 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

Holy shit. Our school district did the right thing and absorbed quite a few refugees. How were we rewarded? Gang fights and metal detectors became the norm. Cool. 

[Deej 76847]

14 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

 

[HiggyBaby 2541]

I don't believe this is accurate.  Humans have been altering and adapting the landscape to meet our purposes for a long time now, with some level of success, and the truth is we are getting better at it.  Again, this isn't done with environmental consequence, but to say that we incapable of doing this sort of thing simply isn't true.  Belgium is a prime example, and that's been done for hundreds of years now.  Venice is another prime example, it's taken massive investment, but it's been done (one might say that potentially this is only temporary, and you might be right).  NYC has part of it that are also pumped out.  We've created dams, drained lakes (see the southern California issue), built canals, have earthquake and hurricane codes for building, etc.  We know how to desalinate water, it's just incredibly expensive.  
That's not to say that nature isn't incredibly powerful, and humbling, I'm just not of the opinion that is an impossible situation.  Mother nature can win, but to say it's hopeless and isn't within our imagination to come up with solutions isn't true either.  

Don’t forget the Dutch. They built a whole damn country under sea level.

[bolverk 29694]

19 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

Fuck that. Is there a place the took in refugees from Katrina that didn’t have increased crime?

 

15 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

I know exactly where they went - Houston resident. 

 

Not a Houston resident, but I got curious. The data points to a short-term rise in murders (which was almost exclusively "evacuee-on-evacuee), but the rest of the data is a total wash and shows a long-term decrease in overall crime among the various types. 

https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/tx/houston/murder-homicide-rate-statistics

 

Texas Tribune article from 2010: https://www.texastribune.org/2010/08/30/five-years-houstonians-conflicted-about-katrina/

The myth of a widespread post-Katrina crime wave has been largely debunked. Earlier this year, a study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice concluded “the contention that displaced persons altered a city's crime problem found limited support.” Moderate increases in homicides were detected in Houston, but not a pattern of crime that could be attributable to the new population. In San Antonio — which took in roughly 30,000 evacuees — no significant crime increase was detected.

In 2007, Stein, at the request of then-mayor Bill White, prepared a memo detailing how apartment complexes that housed large populations of New Orleans transplants did experience a spike in crime. But the acts were almost exclusively evacuee-on-evacuee, with no spillover effect. “You had a lot of crime,” Stein says. “But it was so contained that you could literally live two blocks away from the apartment complex and — unless you were there when the police car entered the complex — you wouldn’t know about it.”

[fattyflattie 4639]

Having lived in a neighborhood who’s few nearby apartment complexes catered to and were soon overrun with the refugees, I’ll respectfully disagree.  Luckily it was another poster here who owned the house, and took that fucking on his resell.  There’s a whole lot of things that can go to shit before pointing to no appreciable increase in…murder. 

[bolverk 29694]

4 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Having lived in a neighborhood who’s few nearby apartment complexes catered to and were soon overrun with the refugees, I’ll respectfully disagree.  Luckily it was another poster here who owned the house, and took that fucking on his resell.  There’s a whole lot of things that can go to shit before pointing to no appreciable increase in…murder. 

Again, I've never lived in Houston (though I was conceived there), so I can't speak to your or others' lived experience. There may well have been some highly localized impact in certain neighborhoods, but the rest of the data (click on those various crime indices in the link provided) show no real discernible impact for the city as a whole other than a short-term blip on murder. That's pretty remarkable, considering they estimated 250,000 initial refugees in Houston, among whom 150,000 became permanent residents. I'm just sensitive to the notion of labeling a whole group of people criminals.

I also just now looked at the same data for New Orleans, and HOLY SHIT! 😲, it looks like the actual criminals went back home a year or two later. 

https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/la/new-orleans/murder-homicide-rate-statistics

You might disagree, but I'd venture to guess that long-term the presence of evacuees in Houston didn't have a long-term negative impact on your town. I'd also guess you might've gotten at least a few good restaurants out of it to boot.

[RDCanecutter 26454]

1 hour ago, HiggyBaby said:

Don’t forget the Dutch. They built a whole damn country under sea level.

Everybody thinks the damn Dutch are so hard-working but dammit tell me why 99% of damn Doggerland is still underwater?

[babysdaddy 2725]

Go there multiple times per year to visit family and love the city.....for about 60 hours.  Then I'm ready to gtfo.  Awful place to raise kids, culture centered around fucking off and drinking, and they now have about 1/2 the needed police force.  Criminals run rampant in city hall.  It should've been the center of commerce for the entire southeast due to the river and they fucked it up.  

[Biff Tannen 45692]

3 hours ago, bolverk said:

Again, I've never lived in Houston (though I was conceived there), so I can't speak to your or others' lived experience. There may well have been some highly localized impact in certain neighborhoods, but the rest of the data (click on those various crime indices in the link provided) show no real discernible impact for the city as a whole other than a short-term blip on murder. That's pretty remarkable, considering they estimated 250,000 initial refugees in Houston, among whom 150,000 became permanent residents. I'm just sensitive to the notion of labeling a whole group of people criminals.

I also just now looked at the same data for New Orleans, and HOLY SHIT! 😲, it looks like the actual criminals went back home a year or two later. 

https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/la/new-orleans/murder-homicide-rate-statistics

You might disagree, but I'd venture to guess that long-term the presence of evacuees in Houston didn't have a long-term negative impact on your town. I'd also guess you might've gotten at least a few good restaurants out of it to boot.

Everything you said goes against his preconceived notion and will be ignored.  Facts?  GTFO with your facts.  

Edited September 26, 2023 by Biff Tannen
less CR? not sure why I have to do this

[Poe It Up 126]

7 hours ago, bolverk said:

Again, I've never lived in Houston (though I was conceived there), so I can't speak to your or others' lived experience. There may well have been some highly localized impact in certain neighborhoods, but the rest of the data (click on those various crime indices in the link provided) show no real discernible impact for the city as a whole other than a short-term blip on murder. That's pretty remarkable, considering they estimated 250,000 initial refugees in Houston, among whom 150,000 became permanent residents. I'm just sensitive to the notion of labeling a whole group of people criminals.

I also just now looked at the same data for New Orleans, and HOLY SHIT! 😲, it looks like the actual criminals went back home a year or two later. 

https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/la/new-orleans/murder-homicide-rate-statistics

You might disagree, but I'd venture to guess that long-term the presence of evacuees in Houston didn't have a long-term negative impact on your town. I'd also guess you might've gotten at least a few good restaurants out of it to boot.

Good fucking lord. 

[Poe It Up 126]

3 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Everything you said goes against his preconceived notion and will be ignored.  Facts?  GTFO with your facts.  

Haha, I’ve never lived there but let me tell you what it’s like living there. 

[Zepol87 9188]

Love NOLA, lived there for 2 years including 9 months assisting with Katrina recovery when I was in the navy. Cousin is high school football coach and I go often, hope it never goes away but I am also comfortable in places most of surly would cry at like fair park after sun goes down 

[flatdawgs 1279]

8 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Everybody thinks the damn Dutch are so hard-working but dammit tell me why 99% of damn Doggerland is still underwater?

Brexit.

[bolverk 29694]

3 hours ago, Poe It Up said:

Haha, I’ve never lived there but let me tell you what it’s like living there. 

Everything I've stated is based solely on data with the caveat that I'm not from Houston. Do you question the cited numbers? Do you have another source? I've backed my statements with both data and quoted articles. Who are you to say otherwise? What evidence do you provide?

16 hours ago, Poe It Up said:

Holy shit. Our school district did the right thing and absorbed quite a few refugees. How were we rewarded? Gang fights and metal detectors became the norm. Cool. 

Or would you prefer to stick only with stories about metal detectors, which have now been placed in schools all across the country over the last 18 years in direct response to the increased threat of school shootings by troubled teenage souls with access to guns? You do realize that it's not only in Southeast Texas that this has happened, right?

Seeing that Katrina happened 18 years ago, how would you know what happened in the schools where you live now? This question is particularly pertinent given the age that you've previously stated the approximate age your kids are now. In other words, how would you know?

What exactly is it that bothers you about people from New Orleans being evacuated to the Houston area? Is there a particular characteristic that makes them stand apart in your community?

I completely understand that some localized shit happened, which sucks, but we're talking about things from almost two decades ago which have shown no long-term discernible impact on crime rates in Houston (again, based on the data). 

All of this is to say, "Back your statement up." If you've got something tangible, I'm willing to listen. Otherwise, I'm forced to believe you simply have some sort of prejudice against New Orleanians for some unspecified reason.

[Poe It Up 126]

4 hours ago, bolverk said:

Everything I've stated is based solely on data with the caveat that I'm not from Houston. Do you question the cited numbers? Do you have another source? I've backed my statements with both data and quoted articles. Who are you to say otherwise? What evidence do you provide?

Or would you prefer to stick only with stories about metal detectors, which have now been placed in schools all across the country over the last 18 years in direct response to the increased threat of school shootings by troubled teenage souls with access to guns? You do realize that it's not only in Southeast Texas that this has happened, right?

Seeing that Katrina happened 18 years ago, how would you know what happened in the schools where you live now? This question is particularly pertinent given the age that you've previously stated the approximate age your kids are now. In other words, how would you know?

What exactly is it that bothers you about people from New Orleans being evacuated to the Houston area? Is there a particular characteristic that makes them stand apart in your community?

I completely understand that some localized shit happened, which sucks, but we're talking about things from almost two decades ago which have shown no long-term discernible impact on crime rates in Houston (again, based on the data). 

All of this is to say, "Back your statement up." If you've got something tangible, I'm willing to listen. Otherwise, I'm forced to believe you simply have some sort of prejudice against New Orleanians for some unspecified reason.

Neat data, but we Houstonians lived it. 
 

I graduated high school that year and I also had a younger brother that attended. It was really awesome getting to see Blood gang fights in person, you guys missed out. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Poe It Up

[YGIFS 19452]

And you were so brave   

Remember when all those pesky Jews fled Europe in the 1930's and ruined our cities with their cheapness and banking prowess?  Then took over our entertainment sectors?  Never mind the Vietnamese immigrants who came to Houston and made it arguably the greatest culinary destination/engineering & medical hub in the U.S. outside New York.  And speaking of crime spilling out of other cities into heartland towns like Houston...remember when those drunken donnybrook Irish came to middle America?  Whew.  That was a scene man, quite a scene.

[SydneyCarton 48112]

1 hour ago, Poe It Up said:

Neat data, but we Houstonians lived it. 
 

I graduated high school that year and I also had a younger brother that attended. It was really awesome getting to see Blood gang fights in person, you guys missed out. 

Exactly what part of town were in you, and where were you going to HS? Becaues I've lived in Houston every year of my life from 1979 through 2023, save for 4 years at UT Austin between 2022, and part of 2025 when Katrina hit. But I was back in Houston in December of 2025, and haven't left. 

I've got to say, I remember seeing plenty of signs of displacement, lots of jammed full hotels etc. But I never ran into any gang fights by the Bloods, and I don't remember reading about them in any of the area of where I grew up, in Spring/Klein. At the time I was living Heights Adjacent, which wasn't exactly the nicest place in the world and still very much gentrifying, but there wasn't any rampant crime, different than what we see currently. The biggest wave of crime I can remember in my part of town hit in 2010 and 2011. And as a kid in his 20's, who was going out drinking all the time, hitting Washington bars, living in a gentrifying area, I never ran into any roving gangs, any fights, anything. I do remember lots of people referencing anecdotal crime and blaming Katrina refugees, and I'm sure that happened for awhile. But the fact of the matter is that crime statistics in houston have been falling consistently for years. 

So, I'm as Houstonian as anyone alive. My experience for living it doesn't seemt to jive with your experience of living it. How do you account for that? Just stubborn insistence?

[YGIFS 19452]

Wait, there's another Katrina coming in 2025?  What year is it dammit?  Who are you?!?!?  Wait, how does UT do in that year?

Yeah, between the rampant turf wars a la "The Warriors" movie some of you in Houston experienced and how often you feel the need to carry a firearm with you, I'm starting to wonder where the fuck some of you live?  Like, I don't judge.  I grew up in a working class/lower middle class neighborhood just outside Chicago.  I don't judge somebody by where they can afford to live if it's an honest iiving.  But what hellscapes do some of you Houstonians hail from?  These displaced toddlers from Katrina just roaming the school hallways of Houston nowadays just blasting people over dime bags of weed?  And good guys having to pack heat to take out all the rapists and thugs on the reg between Wal-Mart and Family Dollar?  I mean, I've been drunk in some shady areas of Houston a few times back in my youth.  But I never thought, "Oh shit, school kids with knives from New Orleans, where's my Glock?"  Seriously, if y'all need help moving to a better area...maybe Surly can start a fund for "Houston Refugees seeking Refuge from New Orleans Refugees who sought Refuge from Katrina who is for some reason coming back in 2025."  

[Poe It Up 126]

5 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Exactly what part of town were in you, and where were you going to HS? Becaues I've lived in Houston every year of my life from 1979 through 2023, save for 4 years at UT Austin between 2022, and part of 2025 when Katrina hit. But I was back in Houston in December of 2025, and haven't left. 

I've got to say, I remember seeing plenty of signs of displacement, lots of jammed full hotels etc. But I never ran into any gang fights by the Bloods, and I don't remember reading about them in any of the area of where I grew up, in Spring/Klein. At the time I was living Heights Adjacent, which wasn't exactly the nicest place in the world and still very much gentrifying, but there wasn't any rampant crime, different than what we see currently. The biggest wave of crime I can remember in my part of town hit in 2010 and 2011. And as a kid in his 20's, who was going out drinking all the time, hitting Washington bars, living in a gentrifying area, I never ran into any roving gangs, any fights, anything. I do remember lots of people referencing anecdotal crime and blaming Katrina refugees, and I'm sure that happened for awhile. But the fact of the matter is that crime statistics in houston have been falling consistently for years. 

So, I'm as Houstonian as anyone alive. My experience for living it doesn't seemt to jive with your experience of living it. How do you account for that? Just stubborn insistence?

Conroe area, less money than Klein to be sure. I can’t remember the exact amount of students we absorbed, but it was, um, enlightening. 

[YGIFS 19452]

1 minute ago, Poe It Up said:

Conroe area, less money than Klein to be sure. I can’t remember the exact amount of students we absorbed, but it was, um, enlightening. 

well then, you're gonna absolutely fucking love School Vouchers.  Wait until the same type of "absorbed students" come en masse, and this time they're bringing cold, hard cash to boot.  

[SydneyCarton 48112]

3 minutes ago, Poe It Up said:

Conroe area, less money than Klein to be sure. I can’t remember the exact amount of students we absorbed, but it was, um, enlightening. 

So anecdotal evidence, at best. And let me tell you, the "money" in Klein has migrated elsewhere in Houston, or elsewhere in general, in the last 20 years. Conroe is on the up, though, I hear/read. That proximity to the Woodlands, yo. 

But yeah, anecdotal evidence is all you have, which doesn't match my anecdotal evidence, which also doeasn't match general statistics compiled over the years. So...cool. 

[Poe It Up 126]

1 minute ago, SydneyCarton said:

So anecdotal evidence, at best. And let me tell you, the "money" in Klein has migrated elsewhere in Houston, or elsewhere in general, in the last 20 years. Conroe is on the up, though, I hear/read. That proximity to the Woodlands, yo. 

But yeah, anecdotal evidence is all you have, which doesn't match my anecdotal evidence, which also doeasn't match general statistics compiled over the years. So...cool. 

Lake Conroe has also really changed the landscape, there was a lot more poors back in the day. It’s cool, no worries. I got to learn some neat gang signs, so I have that going for me. 

[Poe It Up 126]

8 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

well then, you're gonna absolutely fucking love School Vouchers.  Wait until the same type of "absorbed students" come en masse, and this time they're bringing cold, hard cash to boot.  

My kids aren’t in private school. CISD had changed for the better in recent years, though. Still, I won’t send them to Conroe High, that’s child abuse. 

[YGIFS 19452]

We now go live to Conroe community enforcer, Poe it Up, flashing his gang signs to establish street cred:

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13515]

I heard the stories of the Katrina refugees causing havoc in Houston but I personally saw none of it. I definitely recall a few murder stories on the news that I assume really did occur but then again plenty of Houstonians kills each other as well.

there was also talk of criminals surprised how they were kept in jail awaiting murder trials and they spoke of only 90-day NOLA jail stays while awaiting trials that may or may not ever occur.

[bolverk 29694]

2 hours ago, Poe It Up said:

Neat data, but we Houstonians lived it. 
 

I graduated high school that year and I also had a younger brother that attended. It was really awesome getting to see Blood gang fights in person, you guys missed out. 

Cool. I'm happy to hear you weren't actually involved in any hard-core altercations with those people.

Personally, I graduated in 1989 and saw Bloods/Crips fights at my small town, West Texas 4A high school (it was on a drug trade route). Hell, I even had a loaded revolver pointed at me late at night, rescuing my coked-up friend, Martha, at some dealer's house in the same town. I've got to say, though, that none of those people were from New Orleans.

I will say that I got in a fight one time with an Indian doctor's kid in the eighth grade because he talked shit about my mamma. He knew her because she was a middle school math teacher.

There was also a good friend named Scott (not from New Orleans), who got in a drunk-driving accident after graduation that killed another guy. That messed him up for life. He was found dead several years later on a courthouse square. We think it was a meth overdose.

And then there was my childhood best friend, Jason (also not from New Orleans), whose family moved away to San Antonio after our sophomore year. He got mixed up in some shit, and I'm pretty sure he OD'd. All his mom told me is that he went to sleep at a house party and never woke up.

We did, however, have one guy who was from New Orleans who was peripheral to our group of friends. Unfortunately, he lost in a game of Russian roulette shortly after graduating when he went there to visit (RIP Charles, you dumbass).

All that to say I'm sorry you saw some fights in high school though. I'm not hard, so I understand that must've been traumatizing.

[Poe It Up 126]

10 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Cool. I'm happy to hear you weren't actually involved in any hard-core altercations with those people.

Personally, I graduated in 1989 and saw Bloods/Crips fights at my small town, West Texas 4A high school (it was on a drug trade route). Hell, I even had a loaded revolver pointed at me late at night, rescuing my coked-up friend, Martha, at some dealer's house in the same town. I've got to say, though, that none of those people were from New Orleans.

I will say that I got in a fight one time with an Indian doctor's kid in the eighth grade because he talked shit about my mamma. He knew her because she was a middle school math teacher.

There was also a good friend named Scott (not from New Orleans), who got in a drunk-driving accident after graduation that killed another guy. That messed him up for life. He was found dead several years later on a courthouse square. We think it was a meth overdose.

And then there was my childhood best friend, Jason (also not from New Orleans), whose family moved away to San Antonio after our sophomore year. He got mixed up in some shit, and I'm pretty sure he OD'd. All his mom told me is that he went to sleep at a house party and never woke up.

We did, however, have one guy who was from New Orleans who was peripheral to our group of friends. Unfortunately, he lost in a game of Russian roulette shortly after graduating when he went there to visit (RIP Charles, you dumbass).

All that to say I'm sorry you saw some fights in high school though. I'm not hard, so I understand that must've been traumatizing.

It was my first encounter with actual gang members and not the “affiliated” kids I knew. It was less traumatic and more chaotic I think. We had designated areas for fighting and that comes with the territory. But this was everyday and involved knives, hence the metal detectors. The graffiti and stealing were on such a large scale that I think most of us were in a sort of culture shock. It was unbelievable.

[YGIFS 19452]

Show we with this Sharpie where on the map the hurricane violated you.  

[Poe It Up 126]

4 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Show we with this Sharpie where on the map the hurricane violated you.  

Just tell the hurricane to please return my new sneakers. I got stuck wearing hand me downs that year. 

[Born to Run 6569]

Neat data, but we Houstonians lived it. 
 
I graduated high school that year and I also had a younger brother that attended. It was really awesome getting to see Blood gang fights in person, you guys missed out. 

I graduated High School in the early 90s, nawf side holla, and dealt with gang shit my entire life.

Katrina may not have helped, but it's ridiculous to blame refugees entirely.

[RDCanecutter 26454]

3 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Remember when all those pesky Jews fled Europe in the 1930's 

One of my weird-ass hobbies is finding and reading old travel books from the early 1900s-1940s for Mexico and points south. As near as I can tell, there were almost no regular hotels or restaurants with menus before Jewish and other refugees settled in Latinamerica. Before that, you'd travel with letters of recommendation and stay at somebody's house, if you were upper class, or with the mule-drivers at the posada if you weren't. What they were cooking that day is what you ate.

Think about that next time you rampage through Tijuana.