During those 3 years, technology has continued to move forward at a blazing pace.  As we attempted to keep up with it all, we found that some of the coolest tools we could offer to home buyers and sellers were not available to us as agents, but were restricted to real estate brokers.

So, we took the plunge.

And we are proud to announce the formation of the newest real estate brokerage in New Orleans

Have no fear!  We will still be providing all of the information you’ve come to expect at West Bank Living and plan to add even more bells and whistles in the coming weeks.  We can’t wait to show you everything that is store and hope that you’ll stick around.

While the hamsters are working behind the scenes on the upgrades, you can continue to reach us quite easily via phone or email for any of your home buying or selling needs.  Our new office number is 504-327-5303 and we hope to hear from you soon.

Don’t stress about the tinsel being perfect or the table looking like it should be in a design magazine.  Instead, soak up the love and laughter of family, friends….those are the greatest gifts any of us can receive.

Got that?  Live and let live.

I’m not in the position to tell anyone how to live their life, raise their kids, vote in an election or find their soulmate.  I am, however, in a position to quickly turn my back on someone who, in praising the recovery efforts of Galveston from Hurricane Ike, takes the time to poke at the good people of my city with a stick.

“Galveston and New Orleans both got wiped out by storms. Galveston got to work, like Texans, do. New Orleans, well, the Big Easy took it easy.”

Can you see me giving this person the virtual finger?

I don’t believe that the people who were cooking for everyone that showed up after the storm were taking it easy.

I don’t believe that the first responders, with no communications and few police or fire stations to go to, were taking it easy.

I don’t believe that the folks who volunteered to help friends and family gut their homes were taking it easy.

I don’t believe that the people who have put together grass roots groups to make New Orleans better than ever are just kicked back, taking it easy.

In a stream filled with comments like:

“Galveston never got: a 3 star general and martial law after the city government totally collapsed, billions of FEMA bucks, charity conventions, to wit: back to back NAR conventions, race cards flying so thick you couldn’t see the sky…. and Ike happened in 2008 just 3 years ago. We Texans are proud that our little Texas seaport is recovering without drama. Brad Pitt hasn’t even been here, although we would certainly welcome him and his family”

and

“…NOLA can’t won’t take care of itself without money from elsewhere? The GalvestonSeawall which mitigated Ike’s damage was built a century ago with Galvestonian money. “not my job” is a pretty lame excuse for a great city. If the city is worth protecting, you just git er done. The Corpse of Engineers knew their levees were substandard for decades and NOLA sat by and built tourist attractions on a hope and a prayer.”

I realized that there are still too many Americans that don’t understand the cause of flooding in our city during Katrina, don’t understand how the levee system works AND begrudge us every single bit of progress we have made to recover.  They look down on us as a charity case that wouldn’t be where we are without government bailouts and intervention.

Believe me, I know that we wrote the book on how NOT to handle a major disaster, with failures at the local, state and federal level.  The city went to hell in a handbasket overnight, with the world watching.

But it wasn’t everyone.

We, those of us who love this city, all cringed at the videos on television of looters, knowing that the image being projected by a select group of people was going to taint our reputation with too many.  I remember sitting there, watching the aftermath, crying.  All I could say was “My city….look at my city”.

We, who love this city, have stayed instead of taking the easy way out and moving to some vanilla suburbia with a Starbucks on every corner and the same stores, in the same malls that you’ll find anywhere more than 100,000 people live.

We, because of our love affair with New Orleans, CHOOSE to continue to make this home, to continue to fight for improvements, to continue to invite anyone and everyone to visit and experience the joie de vivre that we live every single day with.

We, because we almost lost it, have more pride in our city than any other place could ever dream of.

We, because we’ve been there, done that, will be the first to offer a hand to another instead of a criticism of how they are doing it.

We, the people of New Orleans, will not give up or give in or sit by while someone praises a recovery effort and uses us as the “dont’”.  Unless you know all of the facts, I wouldn’t advise picking on New Orleans with someone who lives here.

If you haven’t been here, if you haven’t experienced this city, if you haven’t been captivated with our culture, our music, our food, our love of life…if you haven’t done any of those things, then I don’t want to hear you complain about what we do or don’t do.

You are welcome to sit in your little slice of Americana and pontificate about your own city to your heart’s content.

But, to have the gall to paint every New Orleanian as someone who sat on their ass and waited for a FEMA check to arrive is unfair, untrue and disingenuous at best.

I guess that’s why Facebook created the “unfriend” button.

Most of us have had that experience of poor customer service from a city employee.  Or a terminal wait on hold only to be disconnected.  Or getting the run around on who is responsible for a problem in our neighborhood.  Recently, the city added a section to their website asking for suggestions from residents on how we can make our city better.

From Mayor Landrieu:

We all know that the City needs to fundamentally change how we do business – we need to find strategies and initiatives that harness our ability to continually improve and innovate in government.  We need your ideas to cut the red tape, waste and abuse.  We want to hear directly from you, the customer, about what works and what doesn’t.

Please click here to share your ideas.

In order begin this process, we enlisted the help of David Osborne and the Public Strategies Group.  David Osborne is probably the best expert in the country in helping governments of all shapes and sizes find strategies that unleash their ability to become more efficient and entrepreneurial.

PSG’s report takes a hard and honest look at many of the major challenges we face—challenges like red tape, woeful IT systems, and a legacy of poor management that cripple our ability to reach our potential. It then identifies an agenda of ten strategies designed to fundamentally transform how the City of New Orleans does business…

Give your opinion on how to cut red tape in New Orleans and let’s all work together to make New Orleans better than ever.

This site has been a work in progress over the last few years, while I moved things around, learned how to do some things better and hopefully taught our readers a few things along the way.

But, as amateur web masters will do, I messed some stuff up.  Too many categories and too many tags made it hard to navigate and find what you are looking for.  There was no easy way to get to the heart of whatever real estate topic you were interested in and that’s certainly not what I set out to do.

So, we hired the most kick ass web designers around and are proud to roll out the new and improved West Bank Living for you.  Easier on the eyes, easier to navigate and still filled with all of the information about the West Bank of New Orleans that made you visit in the first place.

Take some time to cruise around the redesigned digs and we’d love to get your feedback on it.  Also, if you are in need of some help getting your site up to snuff, give Ha Media a call.  They’ll make your site rock too!

Just in from the City of New Orleans:

This Saturday, June 11, the City will sponsor a Household Hazardous Waste Day from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at 2829 Elysian Fields Avenue.

On Household Hazardous Waste Day, the Department of Sanitation will collect a number of every day household items which are no longer in use by residents and should not be thrown away with regular garbage or in curbside recycling containers. Some of the items accepted include batteries, televisions, paint, light bulbs, oil, mercury devices, aerosols, pesticides and household cleaners.

This is a safe way of disposing with materials that could be hazardous to residents, and we encourage people to drop them off to us this Saturday.

For more information on Household Hazardous Waste Day, please email Sanitation@nola.gov or call the Department of Sanitation at (504) 658-3800. To register for recycling services, visit http://recycle.nola.gov or call the Department of Sanitation.

This is a great time to clear out that stuff hanging around in your garage that can’t be thrown in the normal trash.

It’s not just gardens that can be affected by the drought…as the ground dries out, it can shift under slab homes, causing problems with foundations.  Even if you aren’t trying to keep vegetables or flowers alive, you still need to water close to your slab at least a couple of times a week until our normal rain patterns return.

Stay cool!

From the office of Senator David Heitmeier:

The 2011 Louisiana Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday will take place on Saturday, May 28, and Sunday, May 29. On these two days, shoppers can purchase specified emergency supplies free of the four-percent state sales tax in preparation for the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins on June 1.

During the two-day holiday, tax-free purchases are allowed for the first $1,500 of the sales price of each of the following items:

• Self-powered light sources, such as flashlights and candles
• Portable self-powered radios, two-way radios, and weather-band radios
• Tarpaulins or other flexible waterproof sheeting
• Ground anchor systems, straps or tie-down kits
• Gas or diesel fuel tanks
• Batteries, sizes AAA, AA, C, D, 6-volt, or 9-volt (Automobile batteries and boat batteries are ineligible)
• Cellular phone batteries and chargers
• Non-electric food storage coolers
• Portable generators
• Storm shutter devices (Materials and products manufactured, rated, and marketed specifically for the purposes of preventing window damage from storms)
• Carbon monoxide detectors
• “Blue Ice” (and similar re-usable cooling products)

The 2011 Louisiana Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday does not extend to items or supplies purchased at airports, public lodging establishments, hotels, convenience stores, or entertainment complexes.

The Louisiana Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday is an annual event. The 2011 sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 29.

Here’s hoping for a quiet season…

While our lives may be a bit different than they were back then, there are still neighborhoods in and around New Orleans that offer front porches just made for sitting, visiting, people watching…..remember, a few years from now these will be the good old days for our children or grandchildren.

If you can’t see the video above, click here.

The West Bank is a part of us.  It’s our little piece of small town while still living in a modern, metropolitan area with all of the arts, culture, music and entertainment that you would expect.

Just the other day, my daughter called and told me “the lady at the car wash said I just missed you”.  I love that.  I loved that not only did the lady at the car wash know me, she also knew my daughter well enough not just for the obligatory “how’s your mom ‘n nem” but enough to let her know that she’d seen me.  It’s the same thing when any of our kids are at work.  Without fail, at least once a week one of them passes along a hello from someone that recognized them and knew they belonged to me.

That’s a feeling that you don’t get everywhere.  But we have it here.  I think I’ll stay for a while longer.