new orleans
 

my bike got stolen.
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5...ainbike0zj.jpg

it's a yellow mountain bike frame- an older model Voodoo Hoodoo. http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5...ainbike0zj.jpg
i let a friend borrow it while we were volunteering in the 9th ward and somebody cut the lock after it had been sitting for two weeks.
i love this bike.
i miss it immensely.
it had some stickers on it, it was rigged up as a single-speed, it had a rigid fork, and it had flat pedals on it.
(i wouldn't be surprised to find out that the frame's been stripped and built up completely differently, though.)
i asked around about it when i was there for the fourth of july, and i'm pretty sure that it's still around the city.
if anyone's in N.O., please keep an eye out for it.
and if anybody in N.O. has spare time to help me with posting signs, please please please PM me!!
thanks.

9th ward??? That says it all.
I feel your pain.
Check with the crack dealers, maybe someone traded it.

Why did you leave a bike you love sitting anywhere for two weeks? That one is asking for trouble.

Ouch, wouldn't be surprised if someone thought i was junked or something and figured the owner was long gone.

Really, you were asking for trouble there. My bike's not out of sight for two minutes, let alone two weeks.
Sorry you lost it, and truly hope you get it back, but it is the longest of longshots.

If your bike sits for two weeks, it will get stolen. New Orleans is full of of thieves. Today when i was in the city, I saw a guy walk by a bike and pull out a pair of lock cutters out a fanny pack. I didnt see if he acually got the bike.

Not sure what this means. There are lots of very nice, respectable people in the 9th Ward, and it's not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity since the flood. In fact, a lot of the crime in badly flooded areas has been perpetrated by out-of-town contractors.

I'll keep an eye out for the bike.

i guess this wasn't clear enough, but i lent this bike to a friend.
for the record, i wasn't the one who left it locked for 2 weeks.
and yes, it does seem that the people who cut the lock thought nobody would care.

thank you!

Sorry to hear about your bike but if you really loved it then you would have never lent it to a friend for two weeks. And he is not much of a friend if he leaves something that is not his unattended. I would be knocking on his door with the replacement cost of a new bike. Anyone worth being your friend should be willing to make things right.

[rant]
And could people please use the SHIFT key? It is not hard to do and it makes a message so much more readable.
[/rant]
OK now I feel better, sorry. ;)

Why didn't you call the police? OK they would probably not care but at least you can make the call.

Because I was in a vehicle I wasnt driving. If I was on my bike I would of went and stopped him.

spider-man]Not sure what this means. There are lots of very nice, respectable people in the 9th Ward, and it's not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity since the flood. In fact, a lot of the crime in badly flooded areas has been perpetrated by out-of-town contractors.


So you would walk through the 9th Ward aloone at night with out any aprehensions?

Also, the crime that left the 9th is now being committed in Houston, Baton Rouge, San Antonio, and all the other cities that opened their doors to these Welfare Rats.

I've walked through the 9th Ward many times. I ride in the 9th Ward frequently, at all times of day, "aloone" and with friends. There's a thriving bicycle culture there. My fiancee works there on a daily basis, rides her bike to work sometimes. Ever been there?

Suggesting those cities didn't have crime before people whose homes were destroyed evacuated to them is ridiculous. Would you have left people to fend for themselves in the flood that resulted from Army Corps of Engineers negligence? Only evacuated the rich people? You don't happen to work for FEMA, do you?

If lived in San Diego I'd be more concerned about the crimes congressman Cunningham committed by steering my taxdollars into the pockets of his bribe-happy businessmen pals .

When I lived in New Orleans I went through parts of the Ninth Ward. In the daytime. In my car. Not stopping. That was 15 years ago. Ninth Ward was synonymous with "Don't Go There". New Orleans was on track for 400 murders that year and 90% of them were in the Ninth Ward. Not that the rest of the city was a stroll in the park. I got mugged a block from Tulane. My downstairs neighbor got mugged in our driveway and then somebody tried to crawl through his back window. My car was broken into. I lived Uptown on Prytania behind the Touro Synagogue between Milan and Marengo streets. To what part of the Ninth Ward are you referring? The neighborhoods just East of the Quarter? St. Bernard? Desire? Anything North of Rampart?


And you can look at the crime rates in the cities in Alabama that hosted refugees from New Orleans and tell when they arrived.

...guess this wasn't clear enough, but i lent this bike to a friend.
for the record, i wasn't the one who left it locked for 2 weeks.
and yes, it does seem that the people who cut the lock thought nobody would care. -onceinalifetime Location: tallahassee, florida!!!!!

Some friend. I would think you would have at least an offer by now from your friend about replacing the bike. Instead of squabbling about who is at fault here, let's take a closer look at what is to be learned from your unfortunate experience.

*don't let others use for short or long term time period your highly valued bike. They usually don't value it as much as you do and would not take even basic percautiouns about securing the bike or whatever.

*As for the theif's frame of mind, who can say? My bet is they simply don't care one way or another about your feelings or personhood. They just want the bike.

...we were volunteering in the 9th ward...

Your intentions are very nice and all. Unfortunally, volunteers are usually the ones screwed in these types of situations. You (or rather your "friend") left a nice bike for a long period of time in an, even before the disaster, a problem area where you may or may not be familiar with since you are from out of town and previously tended to be crime ridden. You have no recouse for assistance for yourself in an even of a major problem (bike theft consitutes a major problem). You have no legal or employment protection since you are not paid to do the clean-up work that other agencies are contracted to do. I think you are very lucky to come out of it with no physical danger or violation of your body (getting shot or knifed).

Our country begs it's citizens for volunteering in all types of situations that may not be in the person's best interest. The middle class sometimes tend to get caught up in well meaning good intentions-then get screwed by the people they are trying to assist, as well as even their own goverment! What's wrong with this picture?

Yeah, I'd be asking for a check from that "friend."

Here we go.:rolleyes:
I lived in Belle Chase for 3 years. And it was not the Army Corps of Engineers at fault. It was your beloved Mark Morial (spelling, sorry), Ray Nagin and the other sellout politicians that wanted the Casino money instead of safety for ALL the citizen of NOLa. They diverted the money from the Feds into other special interests. The levies were only built to withstand a fast moving Category 3. Nothing more. Anything larger would mean a need for a total evacuation. Look to your joke of a mayor Mr. Nagin and the pitiful Mrs. Blanco. Louisiana had a great chance to turn around their economy with Bobby Jindal and they were afraid to vote for a Republican with immigrant parents from India. Instead the fine "people" stuck with the old guard and nothing changed. When you elect second best you get second rate performance.
I am a military weather forecaster by trade. Our office gave Hurricane presentations every year to groups and major businesses, and no one took us serious. Don't even try to say that only the rich were evacuated. Simply put, if you wait until it starts raining to think about evacuating from a Cat 4 hurricane then you are not the sharpest tool in the shed. The weather reports started to seriously name NOLa as a target 4 days prior.
An overwhelming percentage of the population lived of off welfare and drug money by choice. I don't feel sorry for those sponges of society. If you try to deny that then you are either blind or think the whole world is stupid. I do however feel sorry for the old people who were abandoned by their own families. You can't rely on government to do everything for you, but you should be able to count on family. I am absolutely sure there are fine people in that part of town, to bad they are overshadowed by the gutter rats.
I biked in NOLa the entire time I lived there, and never once new of a ride planned through the 9th. Actually, it was quite the opposite. In spite of the dislike I had for being shot at or mugged, I even purchased a bike on the east bank, at Bayou Bikes. (Excellent store)
No, I don't work for FEMA, but I don't rely on them for my safety during the first 96 hours of an emergency either. I never said that the cities I mentioned didn't have crime. I said that the crime increased drastically when the NoLa thugs arrived.

And as for "Duke" Cunningham, he got off way too light.

I look forward to your comments and hope at the end of it we can agree that NewOrleans could be a great city with a few changes.

http://neworleans.areaconnect.com/cr...an+diego&s2=CA

Crime stats comparing NO with San Diego and the national average. Let's just say, I won't be moving to NO anytime soon.

I'll keep my eyes pealed.
 

onceinalifetime-I'll keep my eyes pealed.I doubt it was stripped.The thief is riding it, or he sold it to a buddy.It is almost certainly being ridden around NO somewhere.
Make sure you file a Police Report.If they pick it up for some other reason it will just be sold off as unclaimed after 12 months.
There aren't that many Voodoo framed bikes on the streets of NO.
The most of ninth ward really was not too bad/dangerous; it was mainly single family houses-some doubles-most were owner occupied.I worked on St Claude Ave for years-not quite down as far as the ninth ward, but same sort of area.The ninth is largely depopulated now-not very dangerous-there isn't anyone there.
dbolden-not wanting to pick a fight, but the Army Corp admitted that their floodwalls(in general it wasn't the earthen levees failed in NO, it was floodwalls) failed despite the load not being anywhere near design limits.This is pretty much as close as it gets to admitting fault. Of course, the Corp of Engineers (the USA taxpayers really) aren't legally liable for any failures.When the law was passed that ordered them-(The Corp) to build flood control structures(after the 1927 Mississippi floods,I think) it legally exempted them from any liability should they fail.This is a good law-it would cost $200,000,000,000 to undue all the damage from Katrina-lawyers would get very,very rich.Buy flood insurance(S-happens).
The basic failure was in the sheet pilings.They were waaaaay too short-only 11 feet below seal level-and they were unsupported-they just drove them down, and capped them with concrete(the canal bottoms were lower than the bottom of the sheet piles by a foot or two). The new sheetpiles are driven 55 feet below sea level,and they are supported by beams on the backside. What happened-according to the Corp-was the water(only 10 ft above seal level and 2-4 feet from the top of the floodwall-) bent the wall back, and opened a space between the water side earth and the sheetpile.At the same time it was opening the space on the water side wider,the water was pushing at the top of the wall, while digging away at the bottom of the wall.It was just as you might remove a post by digging out one side of it.Dig out one side-push on the top of the post in the direction opposite your hole and it will push over.
The new piles are much deeper-and they are anchored on the landside by close to right angle steel piles welded on.
Nagin actually isn't too bad a mayor.He is pro business-a good thing.He isn't corrupt either.Not great, but not bad either.
I'll keep an eye out for the Voodoo.Luck,Charlie
PS-the storm surge was only about 10-11 feet at 17th street canal-I think that is no more than Cat 2.Katrina weakened considerably before it got to NO,and in the hours before landfall.

I am not trying to pick a fight either. So no offense taken,I just happen to have a liitle more insight, being a military weather guy I have more access to information than the average citizen. I have had the luxury of before and after (both first hand in person). I could take hours and explain the entire storm and the decisions needed to save lives broken down by the hour, but that is not beneficial to either of us (unless you want me to:)).
I will leave you with the same thoughts on this as I used to tell our audiences at our presentations.
1. The hurricane preparations made by the City of New Orleans was to buy 300,000 body bags.
2. At the end of a meeting with the Army CoE, and other disaster prep. officials Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish Disaster Prep., wrote the letters "K Y A G B" on a planning board in his office. When asked what that was supposed to mean, he replied "Kiss Your A$$ Goodbye".