Tag: Post-Katrina Coast

We Broke It on Slabbed First and Now It’s Official: The Mockingbird Remains Open

Jean Larroux from the Lagniappe Church was kind enough to stop in yesterday with us to share the good community news that Alicein and Martin Chambers had decided to keep plugging along with their coffee shop/eatery with an assist from Jeennie Deen at Peoples Bank. Here is the Sun Herald story on the change of events and here is Jean’s blog entry which contains a fair amount of detail for those so interested.

If you have been to Bay St. Louis as a volunteer then there is a good chance that you have spent the better part of one or many evenings enjoying the porch and the culture that surrounds the Mockingbird. I recounted to Martin (one of the owners) how I hoped that one day Lagniappe would be as beloved as the cafe’. It may be hard to get your mind around, but as Jean IV recounted to me, “Dad, there were hundreds of people there Thursday night- everyone was there.

He is right about the everybody, I understand even Henry the Great was there. 😉 Continue reading “We Broke It on Slabbed First and Now It’s Official: The Mockingbird Remains Open”

WLOX on the Mockingbird Closing

In many respects it duplicated the Seacoast echo reporting but contained a dirty secret well known to those of us that belong to the local Chamber of Commerce: Times are very tough with the high costs of insurance and small businesses are closing as a result robbing the community of needed jobs in the process. Al Showers reports for WLOX with quotes from our good friend Steve’s sister, executive director extraordinaire of the local Chamber:

“I think I speak on behalf of the community when I say we all feel like we’ve just lost our best friend,” said Tish Williams, Executive Director of the Hancock Chamber.

“It means a lot to us too, and we love being here for everyone,” café owner Alice Chambers said.

Chambers and her husband Martin opened the Mockingbird Cafe’ two years ago. They say a sluggish economy, coupled with the $28,000 yearly cost to insure their building made it impossible for them to keep the doors open. Continue reading “WLOX on the Mockingbird Closing”

The Mockingbird Cafe Sings it’s Swan Song

I leaked the beauty shop rumor the Mockingbird was closing to the certain members of the media months ago. It’s offical and tonight is it. The Seacoast Echo has the story:

Old Towne Bay St. Louis was rocked Tuesday as word spread of Mocking-bird Cafe’s closure this Friday. The unique cafe — owned by Alicein and Martin Chambers— became a staple for many the two years it has been open with the sandwiches, locally brewed beer, live music and poetry readings.

“Financially we couldn’t afford to keep it, we have put everything we had into it,” said Mockingbird co-owner Martin Chambers. Continue reading “The Mockingbird Cafe Sings it’s Swan Song”

The Mockingbird Cafe Sings it's Swan Song

I leaked the beauty shop rumor the Mockingbird was closing to the certain members of the media months ago. It’s offical and tonight is it. The Seacoast Echo has the story:

Old Towne Bay St. Louis was rocked Tuesday as word spread of Mocking-bird Cafe’s closure this Friday. The unique cafe — owned by Alicein and Martin Chambers— became a staple for many the two years it has been open with the sandwiches, locally brewed beer, live music and poetry readings.

“Financially we couldn’t afford to keep it, we have put everything we had into it,” said Mockingbird co-owner Martin Chambers. Continue reading “The Mockingbird Cafe Sings it's Swan Song”

The State of Our Post Katrina Economy: Hurry Up and Wait

The Sun Herald held their quarterly business round table yesterday and had local business community movers and shakers share their take on the state of things here in South Mississippi. For those looking for relief from the double whammy of high fuel costs and it’s impacts on pricing at the gas pump and grocery store and the cost of insurance there is no need to read more because you’re still out of luck. Small businesses, especially those in sectors hard hit by bad economic times like restaurants will continue to struggle mightily for some time to come.

However if your time frame is long enough things are considerably brighter as the Sun Herald panel pointed out:

Though the nation’s economy is keeping much of the business world holding its breath, South Mississippi’s economy is in a position to move forward, thanks to stable banks and cooperation among sectors, members of the Sun Herald Business Roundtable said Thursday at their quarterly meeting.

Architect and Airport Authority Commissioner Frank Genzer noted keen interest in an area near Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.

“There’s a tremendous amount of interest in and around the John Hill Boulevard area,” he said. The road was a dead end, but since easement was acquired for extension, commercial frontage has been added to a route to the new air-cargo facility and the general aviation area of the airport. There have been “tremendous inquiries” from “aviation-related commerce.”

What’s happening with the airport can benefit the state Port of Gulfport, and vice versa, roundtable members said, especially after the Panama Canal opens for bigger ships. Continue reading “The State of Our Post Katrina Economy: Hurry Up and Wait”

The Clarion Ledger Editorializes on Bushies Visit to the Coast: Good Job Brownie!

My personal opinion is this piece is spot on as is today’s Marshall Ramsey cartoon. However, I’ll start off with Marshall’s blog entry on today’s cartoon:

I’m glad the President is dropping by the Coast to check on things.  I just wanted to let him know that sky-high insurance costs are drowning many people’s hope of rebuilding their lives.

The content of the the related Op-Ed is very painful for blind Bushie lovers though:

As President Bush gave his upbeat take on the Coast’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday, he must somewhere deep inside wonder how he got into such a fix – or how it all went so wrong.

From the very first, the storm was a nightmare for his presidency, starting with his ignoring the reports in Crawford, Texas, that a potentially devastating storm was heading for the Gulf Coast.

A later video tape of his being briefed about the storm contradicted his assertions that he knew nothing about it.

Then, there was the storm hitting, and his people who were charged with handling the emergency couldn’t even decide the extent of the damage – even denying the levee at New Orleans had been breached, while news crews showed live footage of water streaming into the 9th Ward. Continue reading “The Clarion Ledger Editorializes on Bushies Visit to the Coast: Good Job Brownie!”

Another Casualty of our Dysfunctional Insurance Market….

The 147 employees of Future Pipe Industries learned today the company will close its Gulfport location by the end of the year.

In a state that is hurting for jobs and tax revenue what reason do you think they cited to the Sun Herald for closing down their Gulfport plant, their first in the US and one of 11 worldwide? Continue reading “Another Casualty of our Dysfunctional Insurance Market….”

Not what you see but what you don't…the post-Katrina coast

For someone who can be a real “chatty Cathy,” I sat quietly with my camera in my lap as Sop drove me down Beach Boulevard – the first time I’ve done that on the post-Katrina coast and the road still isn’t completely open, it’s just no longer blocked.

Gulf side of Beach Boulevard August 2008
Gulf side of Beach Boulevard August 2008

Before the storm, there wasn’t a prettier stretch of highway in America. I’m convinced of that. With the Gulf on one side and one beautiful home after another on the other, it was a sight to behold.

The Gulf side is as beautiful as ever; but, not so the other where all that remains of many of those beautiful homes is a drive way and an otherwise vacant, weed-filled lot.

By the time we headed into the Bay-Waveland area, I’d seen more slabs that I could count and was feeling like an empty lot myself, the experience was so draining.

Lot on Beach Boulevard 3 years after Katrina
Lot on Beach Boulevard 3 years after Katrina

What made it so draining and me so sad was how much those vacant lots looked like those I saw right after the storm almost three years ago.

If this slab was the place I once called home, I can only imagine that I would have been overwhelmingly sad; leading me to believe that the empty lots on the Coast leave others empty and sad – depression is the clinical term.

According to cognitive-behavioral psychologists, depression in humans may be similar to learned helplessness in other animals, who remain in unpleasant situations over which they’d initially had no control.

Once we began to eat, meet, and greet, it wasn’t possible to be sad; and I bounced back and took these pictures the next day. However, others on the Coast are having more than the just a brief depressing experience like my encounter with the empty lots. WLOX, Biloxi television, ran a related story the day before I arrived. Continue reading “Not what you see but what you don't…the post-Katrina coast”

Sun Herald says housing market stagnet, I say not – it's heading south as fast as it can go

South Mississippi’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina has stalled. And no sector of our economy is more stagnant than the housing market.

No mention in the Sun Herald editorial of the repos that were the hot topic during my recent visit, or the birdhouses, vacant lots, and the stock of Katrina-was-yesterday homes. You can read their editorial – and my points in these pictures. You just have to “read around” to get the logic as the last photo caused a shift that I’ll have to correct later. Continue reading “Sun Herald says housing market stagnet, I say not – it's heading south as fast as it can go”

Speaking of genius, there's one in Picayune who cleans air!

Bill Wolverton is his name; and, you find him at Wolverton Environmental Services in Picayune. WLOX told his story back in June. I happened on it today after reading the current news about discussion of Katrina cottages by Biloxi’s City Council.

Dr. B.C. Wolverton has spent more than 30 years as a civilian scientist with the military and NASA. Since retiring from NASA 18 years ago, Dr. B.C. Wolverton has developed high-efficiency plant-based air filtration systems. He says he has the solution to eliminating formaldehyde inside FEMA trailers…

When formaldehyde problems began cropping up in FEMA trailers, the Sierra Club contacted Dr. Wolverton. In October of 2006, the Sierra Club placed one of Wolverton’s EcoPlanter systems in a Bay St. Louis family’s FEMA trailer. The results were amazing. Continue reading “Speaking of genius, there's one in Picayune who cleans air!”