Comments on: The Will of the People http://www.gnof.org/blog/the-will-of-the-people/ Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:10:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Albert http://www.gnof.org/blog/the-will-of-the-people/#comment-931 Albert Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:12:05 +0000 http://www.gnof.org/?p=2012#comment-931 Thanks for your question, Mackie. How the government or the chamber of commerce made this decision, I'm not certain. You might want to look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_metropolitan_area" rel="nofollow">this Wikipedia entry</a> (caveat lector!) which raises many more questions than it answers. How and why the Foundation's board made the decision to serve these 13 parishes, I also can't say. It would take considerable digging through our archives to find the origin of this choice and I don't think we'd learn much from the exercise. I suspect the choice was based more on a desire to serve than on any metric. That said, I very much like your suggestion that we "create a conscious sense of unity among the parishes" -- a lovely thought. We need to better understand the myriad ways our destinies are linked together. Thanks for your question, Mackie. How the government or the chamber of commerce made this decision, I’m not certain. You might want to look at this Wikipedia entry (caveat lector!) which raises many more questions than it answers. How and why the Foundation’s board made the decision to serve these 13 parishes, I also can’t say. It would take considerable digging through our archives to find the origin of this choice and I don’t think we’d learn much from the exercise. I suspect the choice was based more on a desire to serve than on any metric. That said, I very much like your suggestion that we “create a conscious sense of unity among the parishes” — a lovely thought. We need to better understand the myriad ways our destinies are linked together.

]]> By: Mackie Blanton http://www.gnof.org/blog/the-will-of-the-people/#comment-865 Mackie Blanton Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:14:10 +0000 http://www.gnof.org/?p=2012#comment-865 I am looking for some transparency on an issue that I believe is very important to developing a sense of the parishes of which the greater metropolitan area consists. In 1980, when I returned home to New Orleans, after sixteen years away, I noticed at the time that the Times Picayune had suggested that Greater New Orleans consisted of seven parishes. But their page-one sidebar eventually disappeared from the newspaper altogether. In late 2005, I notice that the GNOCDC listed ten parishes. Recently, however, I have noticed that The Greater New Orleans Foundation lists thirteen parishes (listed below). So I am wondering which figures are a psychological reality and which are a governmental demographic statistic? Exactly how does one decide how many parishes the greater metropolitan area comprises? What is the metric for deciding this? More important, however, is this: whatever the real number is, shouldn't we begin to create a conscious sense of unity among the parishes by informing all residents that their adjacency and proximity are the source of their greater bond to one another? Why should the real number remain a secret among residents? I am not wondering where the Data Center or the Foundation gets its data from, because the website of each makes that clear. What isn't clear is the discrepancy in the figures. Assumption Jefferson Lafourche Orleans Plaquemines St. Bernard St. Charles St. James St. John the Baptist St. Tammany Tangipahoa Terrebone Washington I am looking for some transparency on an issue that I believe is very important to developing a sense of the parishes of which the greater metropolitan area consists.

In 1980, when I returned home to New Orleans, after sixteen years away, I noticed at the time that the Times Picayune had suggested that Greater New Orleans consisted of seven parishes. But their page-one sidebar eventually disappeared from the newspaper altogether. In late 2005, I notice that the GNOCDC listed ten parishes. Recently, however, I have noticed that The Greater New Orleans Foundation lists thirteen parishes (listed below). So I am wondering which figures are a psychological reality and which are a governmental demographic statistic? Exactly how does one decide how many parishes the greater metropolitan area comprises? What is the metric for deciding this? More important, however, is this: whatever the real number is, shouldn’t we begin to create a conscious sense of unity among the parishes by informing all residents that their adjacency and proximity are the source of their greater bond to one another? Why should the real number remain a secret among residents?

I am not wondering where the Data Center or the Foundation gets its data from, because the website of each makes that clear. What isn’t clear is the discrepancy in the figures.

Assumption
Jefferson
Lafourche
Orleans
Plaquemines
St. Bernard
St. Charles
St. James
St. John the Baptist
St. Tammany
Tangipahoa
Terrebone
Washington

]]> By: Felix del Campo http://www.gnof.org/blog/the-will-of-the-people/#comment-797 Felix del Campo Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:23:00 +0000 http://www.gnof.org/?p=2012#comment-797 Wish you had stayed in the race. Wish you had stayed in the race.

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