Cleaning Up the Trash

Cleaning up continues throughout the Gulf Coast, and folks up here in North Jersey and much of the Northeast can commiserate after our soaking over the past week. Some areas in the Northeast have gotten more than a foot of rain. Not fun for folks near some of the rivers around here.

Six weeks later, and Biloxi may see a condo boom.

The first phase of the proposed project will have a 30-story tower with 286 units. The second phase calls for a similar-sized building and a marina.

Sanders said the plans now will go before the city's planning commission. If approved, the Biloxi City Council would then be asked to sign off on it.

If everything is approved, Sanders expects construction to begin in early 2006.

"We could start working on the site sooner, but we are looking at construction beginning in the first quarter of 2006," he said.

Sanders said the total cost of the project hasn't been determined.

"With material costs changing, right now that is a moving number," he said. "Once we receive approval we will be able to have a better idea of what the costs will be."

Vue Crescente is an example of how developers are viewing Biloxi's potential, said city spokesman Vincent Creel.

"This is very encouraging," Creel said. "It shows the vitality of the market here in Biloxi."

New Orleans hopes to get back to business just in time for Mardi Gras. The legal system is slowly being restored. That's a good thing as investigations into possible euthanasia cases at area hospitals progress. The investigations are an offshoot from the revelation that the St. Rita's Nursing Home failed to evacuate numerous patients, and 34 died in the rising floodwaters. The owners of that nursing home are being held on 34 counts of negligent homicide.

The Twin Spans over Lake Ponchartrain will be reopened to traffic for the first time on Friday.

Boh Brothers Construction crews are working today on final safety checks and lane markings before the span opens to the public between 3 and 4 p.m. Friday, said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Development.

The eastbound bridge, on which traffic flowed from New Orleans to Slidell before Hurricane Katrina, will reopen for two-way traffic. The new speed limit will be 50 mph.

Lambert said highway department Secretary Johnny Bradbury is pleased with Boh Brothers’ first phase of the $30.9 million contract to restore the shattered twin spans. The contractor will receive $1.125 million, the maximum incentive, for finishing the first phase more than 15 days before the original completion target of Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, just what we need - a Spike Lee joint:

New Orleans will be on camera again soon, filmmaker Spike Lee told CNN. Lee is planning to make a documentary for HBO on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - and Lee said his film will even consider whether the government's response was deliberately slow.

"I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans," he said.

I don't find it too far fetched that Spike's movies went into a downward spiral after he did those Michael Jordan commercials. Or that he'd be peddling the same nonsensical ravings that Farrakhan and his associates were saying about how the government blew the levees all to get rid of the black man in New Orleans.

But that's the great thing about conspriacies. They're impervious to facts and logic.

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