Hello Ork!!!
My name is Lance Vargas and I am a blogger and artist here in New Orleans, the City That Care Forgot in the Neighborhood Ork Forgot!
http://www.orkposters.com/neworleans.html
See, a friend recently Facebooked (is that a verb?) me the neighborhood poster for New Orleans available for sale on your site (and thank you for supporting local charities) and I noticed a huge section of our city and greater than a half dozen neighborhoods were left out! Whoa! Hey!
Believe it or not there are many New Orleans neighborhoods on the West Bank of the Mississippi River (even though it is actually east of downtown). According to my estimations, the following neighborhoods were left out of your poster…
Algiers Point
Aurora
Old Aurora
Behrman
Fischer Development
McDonogh
Tall Timbers / Brechtel
New Aurora
English Turn
Perhaps your graphic artist had difficulty incorporating the river into his design? I am an artist myself so I can understand the difficulties this natural wonder may present. However, a truly gifted artist will see this as a unique opportunity to exemplify his or her skills! Let this be an inspiration and a personal challenge!
Look what your great artists did with the waterways of Seattle!
http://www.homorazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/seattle-ork-poster.jpg
I was wondering, was the artist who created this otherwise fantastic poster a local New Orleanian? Because his or her omission of these New Orleans West Bank neighborhoods could be indicative of many attitudes of people around here. Many East bankers like to pretend the West Bank doesn’t exist. They like to refer to it as “the Wank” when really it is the “Best Bank” while their side is the “Least Bank.”
Way I see it, if Gentilly Woods can get on the poster, why not my neighborhood Algiers Point? We have some nice parks, a pizza place, a music venue, an English pub, a great levee to walk the dog on and the last three city council persons from District C have lived here in the Point. It’s also colloquially known as the “place bartenders go to die.” I guess a lot of French Quarter service industry workers buy houses and settle here. I do know a couple actually. William S. Burroughs lived here and there are even mentions of it in Kerouac’s great American novel, “On The Road.”
How about making this right yall?
Oh and hey!!! For an enlightening talk on New Orleans neighborhoods please see:
http://vimeo.com/28472866
Thanks and keep up the good work!!!!
Sincerely,
Lance “Varg” Vargas
P.S.: I am posting the text of this e-mail on my blog, thechicory.com
Thank you. Recently I picked up a free, very visually cool pamphlet by a local called “UNSCENE URBAN NAVIGATOR” – touting itself as “America’s new voice for independent business”. It has a really nice listing of local indie businesses by neighborhood with pics and a map. Not only are there zero Algiers businesses listed, the map has an inset of MidCity where Algiers should be! Lordamercy. I’ve been thinking about scanning it & doing a blog post but it was produced by the friend of a friend. It really bugs me, though, and I think it should be corrected. A local should know better.
i hear ya varg. some of the best years of my young adulthood were when i lived in the “pernt” before , during , and right after the worlds fair.
that being said my old eyes can’t get a beam on the poster. the ork site just has a graphic that keeps moving. do yo have a .jpg of the poster? i feel like my hood gentily might have gotten marginalized , specificly gentilly terrace , also a historic part of n.o.
would like to write them with an email in the same vein as yours.
thanks , your pal , rick.
Couldn’t find a decent one that wasn’t animated. I think they do that to keep people from pirating it.
Cool blog can’t wait to see more from you