A Jazzfest Diary, part 6

Hard to keep up a diary during the last week, the days and nights too full, and the city's vaunted free wi-fi system too recalcitrant. But some conversations too disturbing not to be reported on stand out from the last few days...

Flying back into New Orleans from Boston last Friday morning, I overheard the fellow in front of me saying to his seatmate: "Chevron executives tried four or five times to call the mayor's office to share their concerns, and they never got their calls returned." On landing, I saw the headline in that morning's Times-Picayune: "Chevron to Leave N.O."

This a day after the fourth-ranking finisher in the primary election endorsed Ray Nagin as the candidate for mayor who would be better for business.

Then, there was my friend who told me late that evening that all her "uptown white country club friends" were voting for...Nagin. The reason; they could never bring themselves to vote for a Landrieu. I bounced this report off a number of friends and acquaintances over the weekend, and only one looked askance at it. Several others sighed knowingly, and spoke in lowered voices of the 'real reason" for this seemingly counter-intuitive response: those folks, it is alleged, have never forgiven Mitch Landrieu's dad, Moon (the last white mayor) for desegregating City Hall.