Back in Biz

People are what make any place special, and give it its strength, in good times and bad. Here, in the New Orleans area, times are tough, to be generous. But so, too, are many of the people. Residents, under the most severe of circumstances, are working to rebuild and get back into their homes. Similarly, business owners, small and large, continue to forge ahead.

I’ve tried to make a point recently to meet and hear the stories from some of those who are working to get a business back on its feet. Their stories are equally compelling and, in some cases, even more challenging.

A year ago, Dave Magri wasn’t nearly as comfortable when he went to work as he is today. His Smoothie King store on Paris Road in shambles courtesy of Hurricane Katrina, Magri and longtime employee Tracy Chadwick decided to run the store out of a trailer less than a mile down the road. Do that, he says, or he wouldn’t stand a chance of ever re-opening his store in St. Bernard Parish.

“I had to keep the store going,” says Magri, who has owned a pair of Smoothie Kings here in the New Orleans area for years. “It was primitive. We had to wash up with a hose at the food store next door, we washed all the blenders there.”

Cramped quarters, a hot trailer and long hours, all in the midst of a Parish that suffered as much water and mud damage as any in the region, were just accepted circumstances, a price to pay if he ever wanted his store back. He had to keep business going and cash flow alive, otherwise he’d have no chance of re-opening the original store.

Magri and I recently sat in his office, looking at the photos from 2005 and 2006, when his store was in ruins, the shopping plaza deserted and the streets and parking lots lined with mud. He talked about the long days in the trailer, which he opened in November of 2005, just a couple of months after Katrina. Six days a week they served smoothies, hot dogs and red beans and rice to the people who were back starting the clean-up, using Sunday to cook and prepare food, as well as rest. As one of the few businesses open, Magri’s trailer version of a Smoothie King did pretty well, taking in he estimates about 60-70% of the revenue his store generated.

He never admitted as much, but I’d venture to say that Magri was helping the community as much as he was his own business. And he had great support. Tracy and her sister, Robyn Saucier, had moved up to Poplarville, MS, into a home of a family friend (Robyn is in the middle, Tracy on the right in picture on top right). Together they drove 70 miles each way every day of the week to come to work, Tracy at the trailer with Magri in St. Bernard Parish and Robyn at his other store over in Gentilly. Tracy recalled how the tips she made from her day’s work barely covered the gas expenses.

It’s amazing what people did to get by, to survive, to rebuild, not just structures but their lives.

Today, both of his stores are open (this particular one on Paris Road in St. Bernard Parish re-opened in September of 2006). Challenges still lie ahead. Magri points out that he's more in debt now than when he opened his first store 16 years ago, thanks to a loan he had to take out through the Smart Business Association. And costs keep rising. Still, while I heard the concern in his voice, he gave no indications he'd be walking away anytime soon, not after all the work this team here put in to get back.

Two, three times a week I walk into what is now a clean and colorful environment, air conditioning booming, helping to take the soppiness out of my skin and clothes that the humidity outside impales on me, even if just for a few brief moments. It certainly wasn’t always like this, not last year. Dave, Tracy and Robyn know that all too well.

Story of the Day

Beginning today I will be providing the links to one or two "Stories of the Day" from the local newspaper, The Times-Picayune. The stories will be relevant to Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts as well as general news from the greater New Orleans area relating to recovery programs, people in the community who are making a difference and so forth. There is a lot of news emanating from New Orleans every single day that my or any other blog could never provide adequate coverage on. I find The Times-Picayune's coverage to be very helpful. Visit its website anytime at www.nola.com.

Today's story has to do with Maps released on Wednesday by the Army Corps of Engineers showing what the different areas of New Orleans can expect in terms of flooding and flood damage. Just cut and paste the below link into your browser to read more about this.

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/06/corps_releases_flooding_risk_m.html

Reasons to Smile

New Orleans is currently associated with crisis, with distress, as well it should be. That will not change anytime soon. But where there is hardship and turmoil, there’s also very likely to be inspiration and achievement. I’m trying to see and focus on more and more of these types of stories. The point is not to ignore reality and what is really going on here, but rather to provide a balance. If I want to use this site to raise awareness, I need to provide the good, as well as the bad and the ugly. This past weekend I had several tastes of the ‘good’.

On Friday I was making some stops in the neighborhoods of Violet. The streets were alive with activity. Neighbors were chatting with each other, Habitat for Humanity houses were going up and groups of volunteers seemed to be everywhere, working on various projects. It was one of those afternoons where the air and energy was all positive.

Turning down on street, I noticed Coach Williams standing on the corner speaking to someone. I know Coach from over at Andrew Jackson Elementary. He’s one of the gym teachers there. I stopped to say hello, and ask him how his summer is going so far. He’s taking the summer off for a much-needed break. I know we sometimes associate being a gym teacher with having a cushy job, but this is not the case for the ones at Andrew Jackson. Three and four classes come in at a time each period, rotating in and out of games of volleyball, basketball, etc. They’re more like free-for-all races than they are organized games. When playing basketball, the kids just run and in volleyball they just throw the ball, at each other. All the teachers can really do is try to keep the kids on the floor from hurting each other while at the same time doing everything they can to make sure the ones waiting to get back on the court are behaving. Coach Williams does as good a job at that as any gym teacher I watched there.

Anyway, while catching up with the Coach Williams I noticed a little shed to my left and could see people in it. I asked what that was, and Coach told me it was a barber shop. A barber shop? Here we are on the corner of a residential street, surrounded just by houses, and sitting there alongside a gravel driveway is a barber shop posing as a shed. Interesting.

I opened the door and peeked, only to see that sure enough, it was a barber shop (see photos above). Orlin Brown’s barber shop used to sit on that very corner, in a much more standard barber shop-type building. In other words, it wasn’t a shed. That structure is gone now, a victim of Hurricane Katrina and a lack of funds. He hopes to have a new one someday, if and when his Road Home or Insurance money ever comes through. But Mr. Brown wasn’t going to sit around and wait, so he went to Home Depot, bought a shed that normally houses lawn mowers and gardening tools, threw some sheet rock up, smoothed out the walls and now it houses a barber’s chair and a mirror.

I couldn’t help but smile the entire time I was in there. No, it’s not the ideal set up for Mr. Brown or his customers. But so what. Here’s a guy who clearly wasn’t feeling sorry for himself and is making the best of his circumstances. There are plenty of Orlin Browns around here, and I’d like to meet more of them.

Reasons to Smile, Part II
On Saturday morning I went by the grand re-opening of the St. Bernard Community Park in Arabie. Operation Blessing, a charity organization which is very involved in the local community, led the rebuilding efforts for the park and a surrounding gym that housed a number of events for the local kids in the past, including boxing and wrestling matches.

Saturday’s event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, soccer matches on the new fields and free boiled shrimp (boiled shrimp is not taken lightly here in the bowels of Southeast Louisiana). I just went to poke around for a bit, get a sense of what it was all about, the participation, etc., and I came away very impressed. There had to be several hundred people there (I’m sure for more than just the free shrimp, too), and the new fields looked great (see pics). Spirits were up, people were happy, having fun and I definitely could sense the feel of real community.

I realize that in most places, attending this would be just like going to any other normal community-type event, perhaps a food festival or the carnival in the parking lot of the local high school -- certainly a fun time but nothing out of the ordinary. Things aren’t normal here, however, and the residents of St. Bernard don’t have this often. There are plenty of events, large and small, to catch in the city of New Orleans. But not right in their backyard. That’s why this one was special.

The fields and new gym are a five minute walk from the old Dominos Sugar Factory and just 10 minutes from the Mississippi River. Let’s hope the water levels stay down during this Hurricane Season and that the folks of St. Bernard Parish don’t lose these new fields or the rebuilt gym a second time.