Regionalism
In putting forth the term in my note pad and then later adding bullet points that relate to the idea I was then struck with a two fold issue. The scope of my point is too broad to cover with any one communiqué and secondly that I am thinking generally in very broad terms with many points all swimming around within. Perhaps it is a tenet of my work or training, but in making maps you grow comfortable with a huge amount of information in a package that is demanding of flexibility and a flexible wide scope.
So in deference to clarity and some degree of brevity I offer some observations on regionalism from the New Orleans point of view. These points will lead to an argument that is rich with material for greater discussion and reportage. None of these items are exactly temporal in nature or dependant on a complicity in worldview or geographically situated perspective. The first point to make here is that regionalism is very complex and profound in its scope. It may be that a parallel analogy of regionalism is the humanness of being socially engaged and active. No matter your location, creed or the agenda that you bring to the fore.
This notion begins with an afternoon trip to Waveland Mississippi to visit a colleague at a birthday party. The uncle’s camp is newly rebuilt on the edge of the Jordan River, the weather is fine and the boating activity adds a routine to view like watching a tennis match and tacking the ball back and forth. We should all have a camp like this on the Jordan River somewhere.
So the camp is built by folks from New Orleans and most of the camps in the area are being rebuilt by folks form New Orleans. In fact, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Clairmont Harbor are all areas that were well frequented by New Orleanians where working class families could save a little and put up a Summer home for all the kids to enjoy. The sleepiness of the place remains today and the community is largely back in order after the cleanup effort following the storm’s quiet. Spending time in Waveland brings up some points about life In New Orleans only viewable from the nearby perspective of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.
The impact that New Orleans has on the region near and far from the city is still intact. The economic, cultural, social interactions that come about from week end recreation and business are still in place. New Orleans is not dead and laying in squander and its populous is actively restoring their connections to the regions near and far from their home base. The activity is the positive point. After languishing some time in a pool of self pity and a swill of bureaucratic ineptitude, New Orleans systems as we know them are picking up steam. The sense of influence on nearby communities may be in a state of change though.
Waveland is in Mississippi and there is certainly a difference to the lifestyle, the idioms, Sunday dinner menus and last names. There is something afoot in Waveland that maybe of note enough to help shape the scope of an investigation into the regionalism of New Orleans. Waveland may be feeling ripe enough to make its own way and define its own standards and habits. The thing is that local folks nearby to New Orleans are not identifying themselves comfortably as being “in the shadow of New Orleans” and prefer to be regarded as a group or clan apart from the social system of the Crescent City. Normally there may be something like strife developing here where lines of those inside vs. those outside these groups are delineated, but the growth of the identity of folks near New Orleans is moving ahead without having to rely on reference or approval from an old neighbor. Waveland was largely dependant on economic ties with New Orleans for annual summer visitors and passersby that were heading on to the beaches or the casinos. I think today they are getting salty and many see themselves as content to live apart form the old ways of association with the Ol’ Maid by the River.
This trend that splits the reference of identity and influence will continue around New Orleans and may come back to town here and impinge a new stress that we have not considered, one that demands that we rewrite how New Orleans presents itself to the region’s communities near and far. The degree of arrogance that New Orleans flexes is changing. Folks in Mississippi are not absorbing the old attitude and folks in New Orleans are not always aware of the impact of their past habits. Most of this attitude creates a pressure that pits an historic behavior with conditions that require action presently. There is no time for whining and the thing that Katrina affected me more than you. This historic sense of comparison and worldview is now largely operating only in memory as new communities once closely associated with New Orleans define new directions and influences that they decide as important.
When returning to the city and passing over the short stretch of the lake after Slidell I decided to take a queue form Waveland and not wait for any influence or idea to shape the future. Rather, I will actively search and borrow from what ever influence seems worthy and reshape a future that satisfies and stands in good terms with values and cultural patterns that make sense. This sounds that I am declaring a pact because of the storm. Actually, Katrina was only a catalyst for the changes already underway and changes that needed attention. I think Waveland has it about right. I think that New Orleans needs to sensitively review its influences and curtail the historical attitude of grandness that does not hold as well today. Dialog within New Orleans will bolster this sense that we are OK and more interaction with our neighbors will allow us to return home with greater appreciation for the standards that we hold dear. Our neighbors will not go away nor will the cultural patterns of New Orleans. Waveland likes to sell beer to everyone that has a camp and we like to drink it all. There is likely much change for the future though, and this is something simply natural and important.
Fernando
So in deference to clarity and some degree of brevity I offer some observations on regionalism from the New Orleans point of view. These points will lead to an argument that is rich with material for greater discussion and reportage. None of these items are exactly temporal in nature or dependant on a complicity in worldview or geographically situated perspective. The first point to make here is that regionalism is very complex and profound in its scope. It may be that a parallel analogy of regionalism is the humanness of being socially engaged and active. No matter your location, creed or the agenda that you bring to the fore.
This notion begins with an afternoon trip to Waveland Mississippi to visit a colleague at a birthday party. The uncle’s camp is newly rebuilt on the edge of the Jordan River, the weather is fine and the boating activity adds a routine to view like watching a tennis match and tacking the ball back and forth. We should all have a camp like this on the Jordan River somewhere.
So the camp is built by folks from New Orleans and most of the camps in the area are being rebuilt by folks form New Orleans. In fact, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Clairmont Harbor are all areas that were well frequented by New Orleanians where working class families could save a little and put up a Summer home for all the kids to enjoy. The sleepiness of the place remains today and the community is largely back in order after the cleanup effort following the storm’s quiet. Spending time in Waveland brings up some points about life In New Orleans only viewable from the nearby perspective of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.
The impact that New Orleans has on the region near and far from the city is still intact. The economic, cultural, social interactions that come about from week end recreation and business are still in place. New Orleans is not dead and laying in squander and its populous is actively restoring their connections to the regions near and far from their home base. The activity is the positive point. After languishing some time in a pool of self pity and a swill of bureaucratic ineptitude, New Orleans systems as we know them are picking up steam. The sense of influence on nearby communities may be in a state of change though.
Waveland is in Mississippi and there is certainly a difference to the lifestyle, the idioms, Sunday dinner menus and last names. There is something afoot in Waveland that maybe of note enough to help shape the scope of an investigation into the regionalism of New Orleans. Waveland may be feeling ripe enough to make its own way and define its own standards and habits. The thing is that local folks nearby to New Orleans are not identifying themselves comfortably as being “in the shadow of New Orleans” and prefer to be regarded as a group or clan apart from the social system of the Crescent City. Normally there may be something like strife developing here where lines of those inside vs. those outside these groups are delineated, but the growth of the identity of folks near New Orleans is moving ahead without having to rely on reference or approval from an old neighbor. Waveland was largely dependant on economic ties with New Orleans for annual summer visitors and passersby that were heading on to the beaches or the casinos. I think today they are getting salty and many see themselves as content to live apart form the old ways of association with the Ol’ Maid by the River.
This trend that splits the reference of identity and influence will continue around New Orleans and may come back to town here and impinge a new stress that we have not considered, one that demands that we rewrite how New Orleans presents itself to the region’s communities near and far. The degree of arrogance that New Orleans flexes is changing. Folks in Mississippi are not absorbing the old attitude and folks in New Orleans are not always aware of the impact of their past habits. Most of this attitude creates a pressure that pits an historic behavior with conditions that require action presently. There is no time for whining and the thing that Katrina affected me more than you. This historic sense of comparison and worldview is now largely operating only in memory as new communities once closely associated with New Orleans define new directions and influences that they decide as important.
When returning to the city and passing over the short stretch of the lake after Slidell I decided to take a queue form Waveland and not wait for any influence or idea to shape the future. Rather, I will actively search and borrow from what ever influence seems worthy and reshape a future that satisfies and stands in good terms with values and cultural patterns that make sense. This sounds that I am declaring a pact because of the storm. Actually, Katrina was only a catalyst for the changes already underway and changes that needed attention. I think Waveland has it about right. I think that New Orleans needs to sensitively review its influences and curtail the historical attitude of grandness that does not hold as well today. Dialog within New Orleans will bolster this sense that we are OK and more interaction with our neighbors will allow us to return home with greater appreciation for the standards that we hold dear. Our neighbors will not go away nor will the cultural patterns of New Orleans. Waveland likes to sell beer to everyone that has a camp and we like to drink it all. There is likely much change for the future though, and this is something simply natural and important.
Fernando
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