Results tagged “hurricanekatrina”

Tonight at Domy Books illustrator Josh Neufeld will discuss his book A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. The book is a portrait of 7 New Orleanians as they deal with the decision to stay or evacuate their homes in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Through his work, Neufeld is said to capture the frenzy, sorrow, and hope of New Orleans during those troubled days. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge has gotten rave reviews from Cornell West and Dave Eggers, and we'd listen to those guys 'cause they seem to know what they're talking about.

Houstonist defends our fair city to naysayers all the time. They say, "Houston sucks. I was stuck at the airport and then at my relatives' place in Pearland." "That's Pearland, jackass. Not Houston," we reply. "You should hang out with us instead. We'll show you our Houston." The Greater Houston Convention & Visitor's Bureau has formalized this approach in the form of the "My Houston" publicity campaign that will involve local celebrities (HELLO! Where's our invite?) telling the world about how great their Houston is. Season Two Project Runway winner Chloe Dao is onboard. That's fierce. Thanks, Miya Shay, for feeding this story to our RSS reader. You show us your Houston. We'll show you ours.

Indie/hip-hop fans will enjoy tonight's line up at Warehouse Live, headlined by Aesop Rock. Tomorrow night, check out local rock band Days Drive at Rudyard's. Originally from New Orleans, but transplanted to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, the Rebirth Brass Band always puts on a horn-filled funk show - catch them at the Meridian Friday night. Songwriter/guitarist Anne McCue lands at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar Saturday night. The alt/rock band Brand New is playing two...

Good morning, Houston. In the mood for a really, really bad promotional video? It's your lucky day: May we introduce you to "The Metro Report", a quasi-Colbert Report-style production in which a host, Elliot Roberts, "interviews people on the street" about why they love riding public transportation. Which makes us wonder: Where'd Metro find all these people? Oh, right, they're actually actors — and, according to KTRK's Wayne Dolcefino, this bit of self-promotion cost...

Houstonist recently kept you abreast of the “Humberto Incident”, where a low pressure system in the Gulf strengthened in less than 24 hours and slammed ashore, with sustainable wind gusts of 85 mph as a Category 1 hurricane, near High Island, causing power outages, localized flooding and wind damage. When storms give you little warning – the choice is already made for you to shelter in place. The media here is rife with preparedness information...

Callaloo, among the top literary magazines in the country, is sending four writers (all faculty from Callaloo's Creative Writing Workshops) to read in Houston for one night only. Terrance Hayes, Mat Johnson, Tayari Jones, and Tracy K. Smith will give a public reading Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ensemble Theatre, located at 3535 Main Street. These four writers have won more than a dozen national awards and fellowships; they are at...

So it's been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans — and, according to the AP, about 5,500 heads of evacuee households in Houston are still unemployed. It's not that there aren't jobs available (city officials say there are 2 million job openings, 59,000 of which don't require a college education) or that the government isn't helping (the city has spent $1.9 million since the fall offering free résumé help, business clothing, job...

Good morning, Houston. If you're a fan of the Early Show, you probably caught Mayor White's national television appearance Monday morning. He appeared on the show seated between two foxy ladies, Caroline Kennedy and Doris Voitier, to discuss his receipt of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Like we told you before, he and Mrs. Voitier are sharing the award for their outstanding public service during and after Hurricane Katrina. This award...

Opening Reception: Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston - Who We Are Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of its first micro exhibit, Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are, an installation of photographs and stories featuring Houston-based evacuees and survivors of the hurricanes, with photographs by Alice McNamara, April 30 – June 15, 2007. Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are is part of a much larger...

Good morning, Houston! Are you a fan of Texas wildflowers? Good news, then: Thanks to a rainy winter, wildflowers are blooming across Central Texas and in parts of North and East Texas. If you're planning a flower-spottin' trip, check out the latest reports of wildflower hotspots — and remember, though it's really not illegal to pick bluebonnets, TxDOT recommends that you refrain from driving into them. Dang. >> Katrina fraud galore: The AP reports...

Lindsay Perth is a transplanted Canadian artist who now resides in Scotland. She is one of the artists whose work is exhibited in the Never Been to Houston show. On the right is one of her photographs from the exhibit. Lindsay answered a few questions about Houston and the show for us. Read on: What was your perception of Houston before you started this project? My perception was of lots of glass and reflections and...

With over a year elapsed since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still dealing with the aftermath of the storm. Despite efforts to rebuild, according to statistics reported by the nation's top three moving companies, more people moved out of the area than moved in last year. The city's population seems to have stagnated at around half it's pre-Katrina 455,000, falling far short of Mayor Ray Nagin's prediction of 300,000 by the end of last year....

The dashing Mayor White needs your vote to win the 2006 World Mayor competition! According to their website, World Mayor "intends to raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as honour those who have served their communities well and who have contributed to the well-being of cities, nationally and internationally." The project, an annual competition, is in its third year. Past winners are Edi Rama of Tirana and Dora Bakoyannis of Athens.

With tomorrow’s one-year anniversary of Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast, Houstonians are well aware of the effect that it had on our neighbors. Many of these neighbors have now become neighbors, literally. Non-profit organization Share Our Strength has teamed up with American Express to sponsor Restaurants for Relief 2. On Tuesday, if you dine at one of the participating restaurants, a portion of your bill will go to help feed those affected by Hurricane Katrina....

Students displaced by Hurricane Katrina who ended up in HISD are finding the transition hard: one in four failed to meet standards to be promoted to the next grade. In a district where normally around 5 percent, of elementary and middle school students are held back, this year it was 18.5%, not to mention the high schoolers (41 percent of high school sophomores affected by Katrina and 51 percent of juniors). Surrounding districts, including Tomball and Katy ISDs, posted similar numbers.

According to a TSU survey, local government might have a hard time taking care of Houston's black population in a hurricane: The survey found that most Houston blacks think hurricane warnings are too confusing to follow and that the government isn't prepared to handle a disaster and would use a storm as an excuse to kick minorities and the poor out of their neighborhoods. Thanks, New Orleans.

The Astrodome has been home to many things. It bore witness to the highs and lows of the Oilers and Astros. It has been credited with helping to change the face of men's college basketball and March Madness. People roped dogies, jumped over cars on motorcycles, cheered on Ronald Reagan and promised to kick things in on the floor of the Eighth Wonder of the World. More recently, it has sheltered evacuees during Hurricane Katrina...

Two Houston men were arrested yesterday for allegedly pocketing about $48,000 they collected by setting up a fake hurricane relief site. And who says you can't make money fast on the Internet? (We guess all those get-rich-quick promoters forget to tell you about the part where FBI agents come haul you off.)

Today is the last day to donate to the 19th Annual KHOU Spirit of Texas Food Drive. All donations benefit the Houston Food Bank, which serves 80,000 people a week. Since September 1, 2005, the Food Bank has provided over 10 million pounds of food to victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and they also provide monthly boxes of food for many needy seniors (over 8,500 in Harris County alone).

Everybody get ready to brag to your out-of-town friends again: For the second week, Houston has the most expensive gasoline in the state. The weekly AAA Texas gas-price survey found the average cost of a gallon of unleaded in Houston went up 4 cents this week, to $2.93 a gallon. That's 8 cents more than the statewide average of $2.85, up about 5 cents over last week and 62 cents over last year's average. The...

The Chronicle reported yesterday that, though the number of parking tickets issued in Houston has declined, more of them are being paid because of better-trained parking cops who make less errors. We can almost hear your collective "Damn!" now.

One of the most disturbing and heartbreaking images from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were the pets who were left to wander the city and die if they weren't rescued. Not because their owners wanted to leave them there, but because they had no choice. At the time, people evacuating were not allowed to bring their pets and had to decide whether to risk their lives and stay with their animals or to leave them...

A new documentary film by Robert Mugge features displaced musicians from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina including legendary band leader, Kermit Ruffins (pictured right), who now resides in Houston. Mugge visited Houston, Austin and Memphis in search of NOLA musicians who left because of Katrina.

So we all know that gas is expensive, right? But it's kind of amazing what it's driving people to do — according to KHOU, Metro ridership has increased 10 percent in the last few months. Since September, the average price of a gallon of gas in Houston has increased about 15 cents, but Metro has recorded 4 million more bus boardings and 600,000 more light-rail boardings than in the same period last year. Of course, the rise in readership may not be totally based on higher gas prices:

Ask around our great nation, and, in-between the stereotypes about cowboy hats and skies that are not cloudy all day, you may well hear that Houston’s a welcoming city. A city that opened its arms — and its stadium — to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, a good city for business, maybe even a city where the American dream’s going strong.

City Journal, a national urban policy publication, recently published a thorough article on the Houston’s success at quickly hosting hundreds of thousands of evacuees from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, along with the challenges our city currently faces. (The article also gives Houston some suggestions on fixing those problems, which, we guess, is what an urban policy rag is supposed to do.)

A man fleeing the scene of a traffic accident was killed in a hit-and-run early this morning in the 5900 block of Hillcroft; police are still looking for the owner of the gray pickup that ran him down Suspected gang leader Ivory "B-Stupid" Harris was caught near New Orleans today; Harris is believed to be lined to homicides in Houston and New Orleans Federal officials gave a Livingston-based utility company $3.3 million in hurricane relief...

Remember earlier this year, when Houston was ranked the seventh-meanest city to homeless people? Today comes word of another point on the side of meanness: Having cleared the homeless out of downtown (which was news to us), police are now working on cleaning up the streets of Midtown.

East Texas and the Spring school district will get $26 million in hurricane recovery funds from FEMA, the state announced today. The bulk of the money — $19 million — will go toward repairing East Texas electric lines, but the Spring ISD will get $1.4 million to help cover the cost of educating 1,225 students displaced by Hurricane Rita. The remainder of the funding will be used for debris removal in Tyler County. The state...

New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas, who a couple of weeks ago said the city didn't want public housing residents who didn't want to work to return, apologized yesterday for his language but said he still believes in what he said.