Nathan Rothstein

Asking Y

2010-03-04T16:36:00.000-08:00

I have a new blog over at Trueslant.com

News Alert: Millennials Change their Mind, and that is OK

A recent Pew Research Center study describes millennials as: “Confident, Connected and Open to Change.” Not surprisingly, our generation (those born after 1980), are very different than the boomers. Most of the findings are not groundbreaking. We text more. We tweet more, and many of us have online social profiles. Many of us voted for Obama in 2008, but like the rest of the country, we have not voted since. Part of the reason Scott Brown won in Massachusetts is that only 15% of millennials voted in the election. The decrease in participation can be attributed to “change” is slow, and progress does not come over night and we are not patient.....Read more

Social Innovation, Poverty and the HBS Social Enterprise Conference
While many Americans gathered around for the final hours of the Olympics, I walked into the last session of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Conference. Throughout the day, I had attended a variety of conference sessions that tackled some of our world’s most pressing issues. It was inspiring to hear talented practitioners, but I was also overwhelmed by the problems we were facing.

Why the Celtics should trade the Big 3

2010-02-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

It's sad to even write, but sometimes, what is most difficult, is the right decision. The Celtics have not been the same since Ray Allen sex tweeted, and lost the focus to hit open jumpers. Paul Pierce had more fun at the all-star game untying people's shoes and winning the 3point contest than winning playoff games, and Kevin Garnett scored 9 points last night in Sacramento. Something needs to give.

I have this fear that the Celtics, if they do not make smart decisions, will digress into the Celtics from 1994- 2007. The best part of those years was seeing Antoine Walker in the parking lot in Waltham, MA and my friend offering him a cheeseburger from Mcdonalds. It was the one time in his life he turned down Mcdonalds, and then he did the wiggle back to his car.

Now that the Cavs just traded for Antawn Jamison, they are unstoppable. They are the best team in the NBA, and the Celtics will not beat them. If the Celtics trade now, they can get draft picks and players that will get them back to the NBA Finals sooner, rather than fourteen years later. With Rajon Rondo, Big Baby, and Perkins, they will still be an exciting team to watch, with a lot more potential. It is always more fun to think about a brighter future, than to painfully watch as the Celtics over the hill players struggle to beat the Kings.

Danny Ainge, do something crazy, and pull the trigger.

Jerry West to Mark Twain

2010-02-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

I got a haircut today on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. The barber was 47, a Laker fan because "Jerry West was the best player ever,"and in 1984 joined the US army and was stationed in Germany.

According to Wikipedia, we have 50 Military Installations in Germany

One is called Mark Twain Village. Mark Twain was a pacifist,

He once wrote,

"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."

So I doubt he would be pleased if he knew a military base was named after him, least of all in Germany. Despite knowing the language, he called it "awful." On February 3, author of the new book about Twain's late chapters in life speaks emphatically about this subject, and many more on NPR.

This post is random and some would say unnecessary. In college, I had to do an exercise in Creative Writing, where you emulate an author's writing style. This writing is based on Dan Shaughnessy's "Picking up where we left off."

What 6/11 teaches us

2010-02-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

On September 11th, everyone remembers where they were when they heard planes had (deliberately) crashed into the World Trade Center Towers. First one, then the other, less than an hour later. It changed the course of our country's history. But there may have been a different date that shall remain as Roosevelt would say, "in infamy."

In Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Looming Tower, he tells a story about a meeting on June 11th, 2001 that could have prevented the events on 9/11. The CIA was meeting with the FBI in New York City in order to share information about the U.S.S Cole bombing. At one point a photo was displayed of suspected terrorists. The FBI asked if anyone in the room knew any of these faces. The CIA members did, but did not have clearance to divulge the information. They did not want to turnover their case to the FBI, afraid they would give up their sources, and ruin their investigation. After yelling and shouting, all parties calmed down, and another name was brought up- Khalid al-Mihdhar. Two months later Mihdhar would be one of the five hijackers, but on June 11th, he was a name the CIA would not turnover. As Wright explains this photo presented "the fact that al-Qaeda was inside the US and planning to strike."

Throughout the last hundred pages of the book, Wright painfully details the sparring between the FBI and CIA that prevented a cohesive solution to handling intelligence that could have prevented 9/11. It is almost too much to bear to think of how different our country would be, and how many lives and dollars would not have been spent in two wars, if all the evidence was made transparent. While 9/11 teaches us about the dangers of religious extremity, 6/11 teaches us about the need for government agencies to work together and not let personalities get in the way of making our country safe.

Zinn's words in 1980 ring true in 2010

2010-01-28T09:12:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Howard Zinn passed away. But like with all great writers, his life lives on with his words. Zinn wrote many great books and articles, but in the last chapter of A People's HIstory of the United States, he masterfully summarizes the problems in our country in 1980 that still ring true today.

Democrats all over the country have felt the pain of this month's losses. Many of the reasons for our defeat are due to what Nixon called, the "silent majority,"-the white working class population that feels alienated, and ultimately, has helped move our country to the right in the past forty years.

In one of many paragraphs that predicts our current problems, Zinn writes,

" In the mid-seventies, another study (Donald Warren, The Radical Center) found that alienation has spread upward into families above the poverty line. These are white workers, neither rich or poor, but angry over economic insecurity, unhappy with their work, worried about their neighborhoods, hostile to their government-combining elements of racism with elements of class consciousness, contempt for the lower classes along with distrust for the elite, and thus open to solutions from any direction, right or left."

After re-reading Zinn's last chapter in A People's History of the US, I am in awe of his ability to summarize the problems in 1980 and predict the ones in 2010. He knows that once all the oppressed groups can align themselves, a new people's movement that acts on the behalf of the majority, without race or class acting as a hindrance, is attainable. He writes,

"In the past, aggrieved groups had been set against one another, preventing that unity which was necessary to combat the power of the elite. Was there a new possibility, now, for such unity?"

Let's honor Zinn and Obama's words in the State of the Union, and find new ways to form coalitions that put a stop to an establishment that does not benefit the majority of American citizens.

State of the Union Eve

2010-01-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

Obama's first State of the Union is upon us, and it has been quite the year for the 44th President. We all had high hopes after a groundbreaking campaign, but we also knew the scope of problems that he was expected to fix. After Scott Brown's surprise win in Massachusetts, the Tea Party is setting high expectations for the potential of their political power (see this week's New Yorker article). To others, we fear what that may mean. Thomas Friedman wrote last September about the sentiment against Obama that has become angrier and more hateful. It reminds him of the months leading up to Rabin's murder in Israel in 1995.

"I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing...Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly. Our leaders, even the president, can no longer utter the word “we” with a straight face. There is no more “we” in American politics at a time when “we” have these huge problems — the deficit, the recession, health care, climate change and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that “we” can only manage, let alone fix, if there is a collective “we” at work."

Why can't we, the American people, agree that we are getting screwed? How many people voted for Scott Brown who have been denied access to an affordable health care plan because of a previous illness? How many people in Massachusetts rail against health care when they have been receiving benefits from the government to make their lives easier? The anger coming from the Tea Party is scary and out of control. Obama must feel helpless. No matter what he says, he does not reach people who scowl at his presidency.

In a March 11, 2009 New York Times Book Review Article, Michael Tomasky reviews a book that analyzes what the lobbying industry has done to Washington and our country. At the end of his review, he looks at the road ahead for Obama.

" Obama's approach on health care and other matters is to bring all interests together and tell everyone up front that they'll be heard but won't end up getting everything they want. This openness may well end up being a weakness. The President's bet- and he might be overestimating his own powers of persuasion- is that he can use his high approval ratings and popular support for reform on these matters to force outcomes that are negotiated in more or less good faith. "

Almost a year later, it is sad to see the opportunity that was squandered and those who have stood in his way, for no other reason, but a political one. While Friedman examines the pressures that Obama feels, Tomasky accurately predicted the mistakes he made. Obama no longer believes he can use his popularity to bring about change. Instead, he should return to the skills that allowed him to emerge from the trenches of Chicago city politics. In a time of crisis, our country needs strong executive leadership. No more consensus building moderate positions. We may not agree on everything, but we elected Obama to fight for us, and we hope he will.

Deconstructing Parties and Cars

2010-01-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

If Coakley doesn't win today, the Democrats must deconstruct their strategy, just like Damian Ortega did with the Volkswagen Beetle.

10 in 10 Version 2

2010-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

A slightly altered version for Invade NOLA, the new brain child from Curious Tribe. I met Justin Shiels several years ago, and asked him to design flyers for NOLA YURP.

His work was always very impressive. I've been wrestling a lot with the future of media, and this online magazine has a lot of potential.

10 to Watch in 10

2009-12-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

Land of Opportunity

When I arrived in New Orleans in the summer of 2006, I started attending every planning meeting I could. While sitting there witnessing history, an American city trying to rebuild itself, I thought to myself, someone should be making a movie about this. And someone was. Land Of Opportunity has been spearheaded by Luisa Dantes, and follows the lives of several New Orleanians over the past few years. They also try to make sense of what it means to rebuild New Orleans. Watch the trailer (they have footage of inside the council chambers the day the council voted to demolish the big 4 public housing complexes).

Tradition is a Temple

Not only has Darren Hoffman's company, Tutti Dynamics, created the first iphone App in New Orleans, but he is also working on the finishing touches on a beautiful and powerful documentary about jazz in New Orleans. It includes new performances by legendary artists, Jason Marsalis, Shannon Powell, and the Treme Brass Brand. Watch the trailer

The Right Question Project

Most people assume that the average citizens' only way to participate is at the voting both. Yet, each day, millions of Americans have interactions with the welfare office, food stamp officials, community health centers and public schools. In most cases, citizens do not have the tools to actively participate and get the answers they need. They feel disempowered and helpless. The traditional approach is to tell people how to solve the problems, but The Right Question project has developed a tool that gives each participant the ability to ask their own questions and actively seek out the answers they deserve. This method treats each individual equally and prepares citizens "who expect accountable decision-making and have specific skills to use to try to insure that there are good decisions and accountable decisions being made. The hundred million encounters individuals have with public agencies on a micro level – currently the endpoint of their interaction with decision-making in the public sector - can be transformed into examples of Microdemocracy."

Crescent City Cafe

When we started NOLA YURP a few years ago, we looked for ways that young people from all over the city could connect with each other. The founders of Crescent City Cafe have not only found a way for young people to connect, but they also help feed the homeless with dignity while they are at it. Recently, the media has taken notice, and they are starting to get the attention they deserve.

Next American City Magazine

Many improvements to cities can be drawn from the best practices of others. We can learn from their mistakes, while taking into account what others do well. Next American City has provided that blueprint, with academic, but readable investigative stories. They also combine their print magazine, with conferences and workshops around the country, and a superb website with daily blogs.

James Perry

With the field set, there is nobody else that will bring the change that James believes in. It is easy to criticize the candidates and to swing back and forth with every move they make, but James has consistently shown he has the policy knowledge and awareness that the others lack. New Orleans deserves politicians who understand what the average citizen is going through, and know the issues. Watch James at a recent debate

The Lens

A key ingredient to a healthy democracy is a news source that reports fairly, accurately and does not mind asking the tough questions. With many dailies cutting their investigative journalists, the public is in danger of being led astray. We need journalists to hold elected officials accountable and The Lens in New Orleans will keep this crucial tradition alive.

Budrus

This documentary showcases a non-violent movement that portrays a partnership between Israelis and Palestinians. It already has won several awards and gives an accurate depiction of different sides of the conflict. You can read the synopsis, here

Green Street

Three and half years ago, I sat in their studio (upstairs bedroom) watching them mix records and talk about their music. This past year, they won the UMass Battle of the Bands and had some great performances in New York. I've been watching from afar and look forward to seeing what they come up with in 2010.

TBD

Over the past few years, we have seen the power of the email list. A good list is now worth a lot of money, and can be a valuable tool to spreading your product, organization or message. Unfortunately, most of the times, we are flooded with emails that we hardly even bother to read. What gets people to sign up to receive your information? According to people at TBD, inside information about a great cause. It's often hard to filter what is out there, and it helps to have a trusted source.

Joe Biden may be on to something

2009-12-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

What is happening to Joe Biden's skepticism? From the Sunday NY Times

"The deep skepticism he expressed at that opening session was reinforced by Mr. Biden, who rushed back overnight from a California trip to participate. Just as he had done in the spring, Mr. Biden expressed opposition to an expansive strategy requiring a big troop influx. Instead, he put an alternative on the table — rather than focus on nation building and population protection, do more to disrupt the Taliban, improve the quality of the training of Afghan forces and expand reconciliation efforts to peel off some Taliban fighters.

Mr. Biden quickly became the most outspoken critic of the expected McChrystal troop request, arguing that Pakistan was the bigger priority, since that is where Al Qaeda is mainly based. “He was the bull in the china shop,” said one admiring administration official."

Will we look back at Biden's caution and be remorseful? I watched Nightline the other night and saw young American soldiers sit in tanks, a few explosions, and a profile on the medic. In Vietnam, the media was used for the first time to show the horrors of war. Viewers at the time saw limbs torn off, and the awful cruelty of war. What I saw the other night was mild, eery, and tragically dull. I understood there was a war going on, but it was not happening on screen. Why aren't the images that leave soldiers with severe PTSD being shown to the American viewer?

Again, why are we there? Frank Rich and Thomas Friedman don't know either. Do you?

Bold

2009-12-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

There is so much on the internet. Where should I find stories of interest?

Sometimes all it takes is nytimes.com

Point, Shoot, Retouch and Label?

"VALÉRIE BOYER is 47, a member of the French parliament and a divorced mother of three. She is tall, fashionable and, dare we say it, slim.

But she has also created a small furor here and abroad with her latest proposal: a draft law that would require all digitally altered photographs of people used in advertising be labeled as retouched."

This woman proposed some bold, innovative legislation. I will continue to follow this story

John Brown: 150 years later

2009-12-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

I was always fascinated with the story of revolutionary John Brown. Apparently today, so was the NY Times.

David Reynolds, who wrote the piece today, is also behind, John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

Barbara Ehrenreich, who just spoiled America's obsession with positive thinking in her latest book, captured Brown's story and the way Reynolds re-created it, eloquently, ""[F]or all its wealth of detail and scrupulous attempts at balance, [JOHN BROWN, ABOLITIONIST] has a shockingly simple message: Far better to have future generations complain about your methods than condemn you for doing nothing."

Mayor: No Mas

2009-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Baltimore’s Mayor Is Convicted

No Mas

Blakely- Mayor, Problem Solver, Recovery Tsar, Police Chief and Heartbreaker

2009-11-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

In December 2006, New Orleans hired someone to lead the Recovery. After more than a year of planning, there was a glimmer of hope when Dr. Ed Blakely arrived. He appeared to be confident, emotionally stable, and seemed to have the technical skills to take the planning and turn it into implementation. As an Americorps volunteer, I went to listen to him, on January 29th 2007, introduce himself to the people of New Orleans.

"Tonight at the University of New Orleans Alumni Center, Ed Blakely spoke to New Orleans residents about his new role as "Recovery Tsar." He began by apologizing for having to run out early, but the mayor had a "fire drill." Several interpretations of that phrase could be made, but it was actually supposed to mean a meeting between the city and the tourism industry. But his main point for the twenty minutes that he spoke was, he was the new sheriff in town, " I've been involved in post disaster planning, California after the earthquakes and New York City after 9/11...rebuilding cities is my kind of bag, it's what I do."

At that point, the 150 people in the room gave a huge sigh of relief and at least for one moment, thought the city was going to be rebuilt tomorrow. A few minutes later, Blakely stated his three vital necessities to improving and rebuilding the city. On each necessity, he received a couple forceful claps from a man in the back of the room, but the rest of the crowd was not ready to worship the newest man to take the heat away from Nagin.Vital necessity #1- Rebuilding of our port to support international trade. Vital necessity #2- Make Health Care a Major Export. Vital necessity #3- Tap into the Digital Economy-export New Orleans music. Once the floor was opened to the public for questions, just two, because Blakely had to go to his fire drill, reality set back in.

The first question, asked by a professorial-type middle aged white man, was about how HANO was not allowing
people to return to their public housing units. Blakely said firmly that he is going to Washington to figure it out. Next question. A middle-age black woman, asking what he was going to do about people stealing copper from her home? Very quickly and confidently, he told her that the "police can't do the work the community must do themselves...take a picture," then he got ready to walk out, " and send it to me, and I will put them in jail." Blakely marched over to the woman, shook her hand, and as she tried to kiss him on the cheek, he stormed out of the building as if there was a fire alarm. Mayor, problem solver, recovery tsar, police chief, and heart breaker!"

Almost three years later, he made some alarming comments in an interview conducted by the Cal-Berkeley public access station. Maybe he didn't think New Orleans would see it. The video was posted on October 16th. We almost missed it. But the Times-Picayune analyzed his inflammatory interview yesterday, and it set off a firestorm. I can only imagine the frustrations he faced when he tried to implement his vision. Yet, he was never able to build the diverse coalition that is mandatory to push for reform.

There is always a fine line between emitting confidence and acting arrogant. I know there were people who really respected his work, his intellect and his hope for the city, but he always seemed to over promise to the citizens. We needed hope, but we also wanted public officials to be honest with us about the reality of the recovery. Too many times in New Orleans, public officials promised us the world, but then couldn't even get a major intersection light fixed. As you can see above, he may have been correct about our "vital necessities" for recovery. But by saying in his recent interview, that he wanted to leave more than a year earlier than his summer of 2009 departure, Dr. Blakely mentally checked out prematurely, and ultimately, acted his role, as heartbreaker.

A Retrospective on Planning in New Orleans

2009-10-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend planners and academics are gathering at Tulane to analyze all the planning that has occurred since Katrina. It should be interesting to all, especially those who sat in hours of steering committee meetings, voted for their favorite planner, and pressed a button at the Community Congresses.

Three years ago, on my second night in New Orleans, I sat in the St. Joseph's Church on Tulane Avenue and listened to a planner tell residents to write out a wish list, and it will come true. About a month later, the Lambert Plan had turned into the UNOP plan. The first city wide meeting was to be held at the Pavilion at City Park. This blurb was taken from a piece I wrote three years ago. You can find more of the photos and a review of the plans at the site created by Jed Horne and Brendan Nee at nolaplans.com

"When I arrived at the Pavilion at five minutes to twelve, there was already a long line stretching out the door. It had the feeling of voting day in any city where the polling stations are inefficient and under supplied. Some people were registered and could just walk in once they received a packet, but others had to wait in line to register. By 12:30, people were still streaming in. In the middle of the room were two large tables with food and drink. On each side, were makeshift dividers, that made six sections on the left side, and seven on the right. The thirteen total "rooms" signified the number of planning districts in the city. I found District 4 and was told to put on the map a red sticker where I lived. It was quite amusing to see a bunch of older citizens with small red dots in their hands trying to get them off their fingers and on to the map. Once everyone had a sticker on the map, it was clear there were too many concerned citizens in our district. While other districts had empty seats, district 4 was over capacity. People crowded around the edges and leaked over into other districts. Behind me was the district that included Lakeview. After Concordia welcomed everyone and gave a brief overview of the process, our district 4 session began. Right from the beginning, it was clear that the citizens had a better understanding of the planning process than the facilitators. Carlos, our facilitator wearing a guavera, a short white moustache and thin reading glasses, began speaking, but was quickly interjected.Nobody could hear him. All of the chatter around the room was quickly invading our privacy, and communication was breaking down. Carlos was way over his head, and was very confused about the process.

Throughout the meeting, he had to look down at his notes to see what to do or ask next. He also still had a red dot on his forehead. Somehow it had not landed on the map. It was embarrassing. Thirty minutes into the meeting, a representative from Concordia had to get on the microphone and tell people to use an "inside voice." I felt scolded. When we were allowed to speak again, we were told by Carlos to break off into small groups and write down what the most important criteria is for picking a planning team. We were also given colorful markers! People wanted planners with experience in urban planning, the ability to implement projects, skills to decode the funding matrix and having the background to address issues of racial and economic diversity. Carlos really liked how we all had our thinking hats on! As I walked around the room listening to different conversations, there was a variation of responses to this organized chaos. In some districts, people were literally yelling at each other, in others, people were just yelling to be heard. Every five minutes, the noise level would rise, and never fall back to the old volume. But wherever I went, I heard similar criticism. People felt patronized. Grown men and women were being treated as children. By 3pm, many people were already too frustrated by the process, and had left. Two Sisters Pavilion had begun to empty out, making it easier for the people remaining, to hear each other. By the time 4pm rolled around, people were fed up and ready to go home. They needed a break since they would be back in just a few days. As people left, you could feel the concern and reservations people had about the process."

Around the Globe According to my Gmail Inbox

2009-10-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

A digest of my inbox 10/19/09-

Erica Trani, owner of In Exchange is having a Super Sale

Phoenix of New Orleans (my first job in New Orleans) is making a big push to finish in the Top 10 of America's Giving Challenge.Help them out!

Groundwork NOLA is having an event on October 22nd to showcase their rain gardens.

Very Short List introduces me to "One Love"

Idealist.org is having a graduate school fair at Tulane on October 29th

Moveon.org is telling me to call FED EX ((901) 369-3600) and encourage them to leave the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is spending a 100 million to stop the public option.

Service Nation announces a partnership with Banana Republic.

Mangos with Chilis is showing Wednesday night

Integrated Planning Webinar by Synthesis Partnership

GRN'S Cruising for the Coast Fundraiser

Trying something new

2009-10-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Sam Yoon, who I had the chance to meet in February ( the cover of the Boston Phoenix when I was there, was Yoon being carried by Obama and Patrick), came in third last month in his bid for Mayor. When we met in his corner office at City Hall, I was impressed by his humility, and graciousness. He listened, as James Perry(who has now raised money from nearly 600 donors!) explained his story and they bonded over the belief that the old guard had had their moment. It was time for a new generation of leaders. More than six months later, it has been inspiring to watch from afar, as Yoon has joined hands with his former rival, Michel Flaherty. If Flaherty wins, Yoon will join him as the Deputy Mayor.

Today, I got a call from one of their volunteers, asking, with a strong Boston accent, " Since you are a Yoon supporter, will you consider voting for Flaherty?" Yes, I would, but I live in New Orleans. She asked me about the weather, which I replied, "It's hot."

I like their game plan. Also, Alan Khazei is battling for a spot as the new Senator from Massachusetts. Last September, I joined hundreds of others dedicated to national community service in New York City, for a conference that Khazai's group, Service Nation put together. It was an impressive guest list, so when he reported that he raised a million dollars in one week, it did not surprise me. He is still an underdog, but worth watching, and rooting for.

Since Obama is in town, he may want to take a look at recommendations for a New Orleans Cabinet

Images

2009-10-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

Photography by Noah Cameron Ksiazkiewicz

Music by Floopy Head

The making of one of the greatest magazine covers

This is what I read this weekend... sometimes out loud

2009-10-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

How Taylor Branch decides to spend hours with Clinton in the White House, and then produces this magnificent tome. Chapter two of The Clinton Tapes

The New Yorker had an overview of Larry Summers career and what it means that Obama has picked him as the head of the NEC. This excerpt was worth reading out loud. This is even more provocative than the certain comment he made over a decade later as President of Harvard.

"At the World Bank, in 1991, Summers’s penchant for provocation had led him to sign a memo written by a subordinate, which argued—in a tone that was meant to be outrageous, in the hope of stimulating debate—that developed countries should ship their pollution to the Third World. “The economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable,” the memo said, citing the mutual benefits of such an arrangement between developed and undeveloped countries (one group had lots of waste; the other needed ways to make money). It was the kind of argument that would thrill a college debater but which in the world of public policy can be a killer. The so-called “toxic memo” was leaked to the press in 1992, precipitating an avalanche of outrage from columnists and environmentalists. Al Gore, the incoming Vice-President, made it clear that Summers was not welcome in the new White House."

Read the article to learn about what he told Cornel West to make him flee Harvard for Princeton. Just as good as the juice above.

Chapter 2 of The Given Day. The first chapter was read at an airport a year ago. It describes the scene during the first world war of Babe Ruth's train breaking down, and he finds a group of African-Americans playing pick-up. He joins. For me, a year later, the second chapter is set in South Boston. The police, like today, were not paid enough and needed to have intramural boxing matches to raise funds.

The first chapter of Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography, describes his fallout with his brother. His brother had started one of Boston's first newspapers, but Franklin was excluded, for being too young. He ended up falling out of graces with his publisher brother, and painfully details his horrific, yet character building, travels to Philadelphia. The rest is history, inventions, government, and enterprise.

Worthy enough to note-

Gusman finally gets the media tongue lashing he deserves and Next American City recaps the Feast in NYC

Tutti, Twitter and Things

2009-10-08T10:35:00.001-07:00

Tutti Dynamics

My good friend Darren Hoffman's company is the first to create an iphone App in New Orleans. "Super Looper." He is also finishing up a documentary about Jazz in New Orleans. Watch the preview

My dad's organization, The Right Question Project, hits the Social Media Universe with a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter Page

Erez Horovitz, who spent a month blogging and photographing for nolayurp last September

is back in New Orleans capturing photos. He has been traveling around the country, beautifully capturing our country's best and worst attributes. Here are some photos from his first day on the trip. You have to request his friendship to see them. Don't be afraid, I will encourage him to accept.

This opportunity was passed on to me from my friends at Startingbloc, check it out

Katrina Op-ed in NY Jewish Week

2009-09-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

By Nathan Rothstein

In late August of 2005, a hurricane started brewing in the Gulf, gained momentum, and struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana. As we now know, the levees that the Army Corps of Engineers maintained, failed, and the rest is history. Deep in the comfort of my college bubble in Amherst, MA, my connection to New Orleans was as weak as the levees that had failed the city. I saw the images of black people waiting at the Superdome and Convention Center -- but then I switched the channel.

Sometimes a college student still needs some pushing from his mother to make social change. I was no exception. In the fall, my mother had received a newsletter from the Hillel about an Alternative Spring Break Trip to the Gulf Coast. She picked up the phone and encouraged me to sign up. The Jewish community, like many other religious communities, had responded immediately to the disaster, in many ways shaming the government's failure to assist Americans in the disaster zone. By January of 2006, Hillel was already sending down hundreds of college students from around the country to do relief work.

Full Article

On the Campaign Trail

2009-02-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

From New Orleans to Boston to New Haven....campaign season heats up. And this is only the beginning.

A New Role

2009-01-26T14:41:00.001-08:00

As of this month, I will now be the Political Director for the James Perry Mayoral Campaign. Right now, we are testing the waters, getting input, and trying to raise money. Here are some photos from the past few weeks

You can find some more, here and here

Marketing New Orleans

2009-01-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

I spoke to students from Brown who are doing service work in New Orleans about the leadership vacuum in New Orleans.

Ted Hornick, Gill Benedek, Daniel Hoffman, Tess Monaghan, Jon Grayboyes, Hampton Barclay and James Perry spoke about why New Orleans still matters and what needs to happen to more the recovery faster.

Not on Drugs

2008-12-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

...finally, someone can verify that, yes, I'm not on drugs...

Coming to NOLA: Bostonian tries to attract, keep young people here

03:29 PM CST on Saturday, December 27, 2008

Michael Luke / Eyewitness News

New Orleans is an impossible place, a place up against the odds environmentally and long forgotten economically, a place where vanishing wetlands have left the city’s chin exposed and guard down like a tired prizefighter and with the next big storm playing the role of knockout blow. A bastion of crime and poverty, the city has been up against the odds since Bienville tried to carve out a home here. Then it was yellow fever, today the epidemic is violence. It takes a special sacrifice to live here, and is not for the faint of heart.

So why live here? Why live in a town where the job market perennially stinks – whether or not the national economy is tanking – the levees leak like sieves, the public education is comparable to Bolivia, the murder rate is akin to Mogadishu and the government is rotten like a festering Katrina-soaked house in the Lower 9?

I asked all of this and more to Nathan Rothstein, a young man who arrived in New Orleans from Boston when the floodwaters of Katrina ebbed.

In fact, Rothstein spends most of his days convincing young people to stay here and others to come. Is he on drugs? Not that I could tell. He seemed pretty level-headed, just another person, who, for better or for worse, fell under the spell of New Orleans.

A 24-year-old man, Rothstein heads NOLA YURP -- the New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiatives -- a job network that connects young people with one another in New Orleans and whose mission is “to connect, retain and attract young professionals from diverse backgrounds for a sustainable New Orleans,” according to the website, which is quite the challenge pre-Katrina, but an even greater one post-Katrina, as people scattered all over the country, many to never return.

With a membership of over 2,800 people, the organization was started in spring of 2007, when he, Zach Kupperman and Ross Cantor started a website that featured young people and why they were here. They created a social network, where people could share job information and leads. He had been speaking to young students and many were looking for opportunities in the city but didn’t know where to look. The idea was born and planned to counteract the negative press New Orleans was getting from the Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill murders.

The Wild, Wild West

“It was empty, and there were not many people here. It kinda had that wild, wild west feel to it,” he said of his early reactions of being in the city. “I was also around a group of people – some came to help out and were struck by what happened, some came because there was really nothing else to do.”

Two weeks removed from UMass-Amherst, he arrived in June of 2006, ten months after the Big One, working for Americorps gutting homes, settling in the rough and tumble, heavily flooded Tulane-Gravier area of Mid-City, but quickly became interested in rebuilding plans, such as the UNOP meetings.

“I went to every neighborhood meeting possible,” he said. Rothstein had wanted to get involved in city planning and organizing in college and here was a city with its canvas wiped clean, a perfect opportunity for a young man ready to change the world straight out of college.

“The city was basically investing in people,” he said of the input that was being asked at planning meetings, and that stirred the juices for him to want to stay. “They were raising the expectations for what people can do.”

Looking back to find that moment that crystallized his desire to stay, he recalled the UNOP plans he was participating in and attending: “At those moments when it was like, ‘What do you think would be best?’ or ‘How can we work together to make things happen?’ that was when I had feeling that I want to be a part of this.”

He went home for a week to Boston, but said that it didn’t feel the same. He quickly returned.

Saying that it was exciting being at the table, fresh from college, as plans were being drawn up to rebuild in New Orleans, he, however, quickly learned changing the world or fixing New Orleans wouldn’t be so easy.

“At the first UNOP meeting you could already see it going wrong,” he said. “They invited the whole city and put it in a room for 200 people.” What he was finding out was there wouldn’t be a social utopia built from the ashes; rather it was the decades-long divisions – class, race, politics and neighborhoods – that stratify the city emerging once more. Just like Rothstein, others saw the Katrina as their moment too, a moment to settle old scores, or grab power in a vacuum, or return power to the elite who run the city. It was a lesson no classroom could teach, but he was not deterred, and he isn’t now, feeling there could be ways to overcome those boundaries.

Initial Buzz

In addition to being apart of New Orleans’ rebirth, the culture grabbed him as well, especially the party atmosphere that many seek out in the city. While he sought to help create order in the city, the chaotic nightlife was an early attraction. “There are even less boundaries -- there are no rules,” he said of the nightlife which rivaled and surpassed the party school culture of UMass. “You can go out every single night of the week until 4, 5, 6 in the morning, and, I remember, we did.”

After the initial buzz wore off from lax rules and late nights at Ms. Mae’s, Rothstein learned something important enjoying those nights on Frenchmen Street, seeing music and having a good time. “There is something about a city, even now, that everyone that is here, in someway or another is connected in the sense they’re all sacrificing to be here: the roads don’t work, the health care is inadequate, the schools are bad, the job market is lousy. You’re probably making less than what some of your peers are making in New York and Boston.”

But with all of these problems, Rothstein believes, there is a bond unlike those other places that keeps the important sacrifice alive and the city relevant, and it burns in the hearts of many outsiders and natives alike.

So why sacrifice? Why not move somewhere else where the grass is greener, aside from the unique culture?

"There is a certain opportunity in the city right now because there is no blueprint for how to rebuild a city,” he said. “History is happening right now, and we’re going to look back and talk about this forever. The case that I make to young people, whether they’re from here or not, is you have the chance to be doing this -- given the responsibility -- that people won’t give you for 5, 10 years.”

(WWL-TV.com is profiling the new New Orleanians, people who have moved to the city post-Katrina for a variety of reasons, from charity causes to capitalist ones. If you know someone who has moved to the city since the storm, contact us and tell why this person should be profiled at mluke@wwltv.com)

My Hannukah

2008-12-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

What are we celebrating when we light candles? Presents, donuts, candles, family…what? Are we enjoying our assimilation into American culture where they have Christmas and we have Chanukah so we can see our family and get unwanted clothes (well, in my case, the only clothes that make me look presentable)? Or are we remembering a crucial moment in Jewish Identity history, when the fate of our people could go in two directions. Do we succumb to the Seleucid Empire and accept their customs or do we stay the people of one god and keep our traditions?

Where our story picks up, the Jewish people were having a problem. There was no strategic plan and the vision was lost. The massiveness and wealth of the Hellenistic Empire was rubbing off, and some Jews felt that the Jewish Priesthood was out of touch with new ideas. But Judah and his Maccabeus felt passionate about the preservation of our traditions. He probably thought what Herzl had believed many years later after the Dreyfuss Trial: no matter how much we assimilate, we will always be Jews. If we do not know our traditions or our history, who are we? And this question can lead to a new role for Hanukkah. I think these are the things that we should celebrate. We should ask ourselves, and talk to our friends and family about what will it mean to be Jewish in the future. What problems do we see and what can we do to change our internal problems within the Jewish leadership and how do we have better relations with outside communities?

Growing up in the wealthy suburbs of Boston, I always felt uncomfortable when Hanukkah time came around. I knew my rich Jewish friends would receive gifts every night and my rich non-Jewish friends would receive excessive gifts with the latest in technology, music and anything else you could possibly want. But in my house, Hanukkah was not considered to be the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. I could see the struggle my parents had. Do we assimilate into the Americanized version of Hanukkah and give our children gifts or do we help shape their identity and allow them to appreciate how they are different? As I got used to the fact that I was not going to get a lot of presents, I would quickly reply to my friends questions about what new gift I would not be playing with, “ well, Hanukkah is not that big of a deal in our house.” But now I understand the importance.

As young people who are shaping our identity and our relationship to Judaism, we have to find parts of the story that are relevant. This story has everything to do with not assimilating and is once again a lesson to be learned. Nobody Jewish should tell us how we should practice Judaism, while at the same time, we cannot practice our religion based on what everyone else is doing. The oil burning for eight days is a nice story, but let’s also talk about the story of a problem, discontent amongst our people, and ultimately, what makes us unique as a Jewish people?

Young Ambassadors of New Orleans

2008-12-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

A lot of groups have come together to try to create a diverse coalition of young people who can act as ambassadors to the city. The people most likely to move to the city are recent college graduates and the people who are most likely to convince them are their peers. We have compiled a great group of steering committee members and are now calling for applicants to complete the team. We did not just want to make decisions about who would be the next leaders of the city, and instead are allowing everyone to apply. Our first event will be an Economic Development Tour on January 30th, where the team will meet with leaders from the business community, NASA, and the Port.

Apply here

Making Connections

2008-12-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

This past week, I spoke at Harvard and NYU about New Orleans. More than three years after the failure of the levees, New Orleans and its issues are still relevant to the rest of the country.

At Harvard, students were eager for knowledge about a place they had heard that needed them, but had no network to connect them to the city. For many students, who are idealistic and want to work to equal the playing field, Teach For America has done an extraordinary job of appealing to them. Some of the workshop participants were planning to go to New Orleans as part of the TFA corps, another was a football player from New Orleans, and there were also several young women who wanted to go to New Orleans, but did not know where to start in their job search.

During the undergraduate experience, college students spend hours developing their intellectual capital. They are reading, discussing, writing, thinking critically about current issues, but if they want to pursue their passion in fighting for economic and social justice, it is not clear how they can continue to grow intellectually as they enter the job world. In many cases, even in the non-profit and public service sector, their intellectual potential is not cultivated. I understand the importance of experience and building capacity through time spent on the job, but College career centers need to do a better job of figuring out ways to connect students to jobs that allow them to pursue their passion.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers, he writes about how great success can be attributed to “extraordinary opportunity.” New Orleans provides this opportunity for thousands of young people from around the country. The failure of levees was a tragic event that damaged 80% of the city, leaving an American city to have to rebuild itself from the ground up. With no precedent or guidebook, creative solutions were applied to solve the city’s most serious problems. The city is still ripe for change and is the perfect city for young people across the country to contribute to this revitalization and act as agents for change and advocates for the people of New Orleans.

Another exciting part of doing these workshops at college campuses, is to get people who are all interested in New Orleans, in the same room talking to each other and getting to hear what they are working on. In New York, the people in the room all were passionate about New Orleans- some were from New Orleans, some had spent time there, and some were moving there and wanted more information.

I also participated in the Professional Leaders Project first Skills Summit. I helped co-chair the Community Organizing Track led by Scott Sherman.

The New New Orleans

2008-12-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

Instead of promoting an event with a flyer and facebook, I am working with the people at All Day Buffet to create a web page that explains the event, and then allows people to sign up. We can see who is coming, and then get their email. My friend Mike Karnjanaprakorn and I will speak to students about the exciting ideas and projects that are coming out of New Orleans and how they can get involved. RSVP here

Erin Fitzpatrick, came down in March 2008, to photograph Umass alumn in New Orleans. Here is her article.

Israel/New Orleans/ The American Dream

2008-11-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

Young Israelis tell us about their immigration process. They have similar problems with new immigrants learning the language, the culture and the history while at the same time feeling resentment from the immigrants before them.

The people of Israel are fascinated by New Orleans. While I was there, they never asked, "why are you rebuilding the city?" The questions always was, "how is it coming along?" I tried to give a presentation at the Kol Dor Conference about building coalitions across diverse populations, but they were more interested in hearing about the series of events after the levees failed.

Immediately stepping off the plane, I gave a presentation at the Words and Music Festival with Shantrelle Lewis and Nolan Marshall. The theme for our presentation was The Great Gatsby and the American Dream and what it meant to the young professional today. To prepare for my presentation, I read the required reading, The Great Gatsby.

An interesting theme came to mind when thinking about the book in the context of post-Katrina New Orleans. Many of the characters in the book are not from the New York area, they are mostly from the mid-west, and they all seem lost in their new home. They are aimlesslesly searching around to find some meaning in their life, but can't find it. The big city is a giant that they do not connect with, and their downtown finance jobs do not allow to make any type of connection with the city. They could be anywhere, and that is what is different about New Orleans right now. People who came from other places got involved immediately with the city's people. They learned about the injustices that occurred and felt the perseverance of New Orleanians. It was addictive and as many of our peers live in big cities they do not connect with, young people in New Orleans feel very much a part of the city they live in.

Homework for....

2008-11-09T22:17:00.000-08:00

Contributor to the New York Times, Bruce Fuller, also a professor at Cal-Berkley suggests some homework for Obama. And it may just be the type of homework where you actually learn something, instead of doing it just to get it done. Why? Fuller takes Obama's pork barrel scrapple and applies it to our education system and then makes the case for why a cohesive plan to reinvest in public education can be the true economic stimulus package. Most encouraging, he references a New Jersey analysis that "shows how 9,000 new jobs are created for every $1 billion invested in school repair and construction.". He also finds a way to focus the conversation on how to retain and attract young talented teaching professionals.

Equally urgent, Washington should aid states in attracting smart and diverse young graduates to go into teaching. To retain them, educational institutions must become professional and supportive workplaces, not simply test-prep centers. This won’t be accomplished through attractive gimmicks, like more money for charters schools which, on balance, have yet to outperform regular public schools.

What is the lesson? Sometimes solutions do not need to be found outside of existing institutions. The new type of social entrepreneurship can be created to fix the problems of some our greatest public services that have seen steady decline in the last fifty years, but are not worthy of completely destroying. One way the public sector can retain its young talent is by raising the expectations for what they can achieve and change in the current structure. Allow teachers to create their own lesson plan, devise new strategies for reaching their students, and most important, do not pressure them to teach only to "standardized" tests. Whose standard is it anyway? We need students and teachers who can think independently and ask the right questions. In this country, we reward entrepreneurship (which means someone is thinking creatively to find a niche in the market), but then tell young professionals to wait their time and go with the flow until they are "experienced" enough to give their opinion. This was the same argument used against Obama to discourage him from running, but he has won and it is now time for the rest of country to get up to speed and continue to see how we can raise the expectations and allow everyone to get their homework done. Not just to do it, but to learn something.

A few class suggestions

2008-11-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has an article this morning, titled "Tough Times Strain Colleges Rich and Poor." , which delves into how the financial crisis is going from Wall Street to the Main Quad. The most interesting contrast in the text is the difference between the schools that see the economic pitfulls, and become more stingy with their financial aid packages, as opposed to the schools who make financial aid a higher priority.

" This fall, more universities are taking steps to increase affordability. Benedictine University, a Roman Catholic institution in Illinois, is freezing tuition; Vanderbilt University will replace loans with grants; Boston University has expanded scholarships for students who graduated from Boston public schools; and the University of Toledo announced free tuition for needy, high-performing graduates of Ohio’s six largest public school systems."

Now that college is a more of a financial investment than ever before, here are some courses that I think should be mandatory for students in order to best prepare them for the working world. Or classes that I wish I took.

Financial Literacy 101- All students, whether they are going to be doctors or writers, should understand what they should do with their money, how their money can make or lose money, and where they should put their money. What kind of health care plans should they buy into? Where should they invest their money? How will the current financial crisis affect their money? Here are a few websites that can supplement this course ( Vanguard, Qvisory, Generation Debt, Mint.com

How to get your first, second, third and maybe 4th job- We don't live in a country anymore where you get a job, work thirty years, and then retire. Many young professionals who graduate from school, by the time they are thirty, have had several jobs. Colleges, and especially their career centers should adapt to this new economy. Career centers should offer classes that are credited that allow students to hear from young professionals in the community about their work experience, learn about the positive and negatives of different careers, and also teach best practices for being more entrepreneurial. We encourage our students to be critical thinkers, but then do not give them the tools to start their own businesses or non-profits.

I will be on http://www.crescentcityradio.com/ at 6pm CST today to talk about these issues and others with DJ Westley Bayas on YURP Radio

Barack Obama's New Orleans Cabinet

2008-11-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

As Barack Obama starts to put together his cabinet to mend our country back together, it makes me think about the next generation of leaders in New Orleans that can help our 44th President rebuild this city.

(Pictures taken from the WPA Photograph Collection at the New Orleans Public Library)

Housing
New Orleans had a very large rental population before the storm, and still does. In order to re-populate the city and build more affordable units that can support the working people of the city, we need to push our tactics to be different from what has been in done in the past. To analyze what the city is doing and how to enforce landlords to fix the thousands of blighted properties, we could ask Andrew Holbien. We also must be realistic about how much affordable housing costs and how it to build it so it lasts. When the city built public housing in the 40s, it was designed to sustain the "100 year" storm. The team behind Green Coast Enterprises should help us build the type of housing that will be sustainable, affordable and will last. Others to add to the team, Yasmin Bowers and Andrea Floyd from Consciously Building, Tess Monaghan from Build Now, Hampton Barclay- Homebuilder's Association, Futureproof and the Greater New Orleans Fair Action Housing Center.

Community Development/ Neighborhood Collaboratives/ The Arts

Since the storm, there have been many powerful examples of how neighborhods in New Orleans have responded to adversity. In order to make government more effective, neighborhood organizations/stakeholders must have a strong influence in the city's decision making. Our president should consult with Timolynn Sams and Gill Benedek from the Neighborhood Partnership Network to see how to empower neighborhood associations, but also how to find common ground with people from different locations who may have opposing views on city ordinances.

The key to recovery is who has access to information, and the team from Whence The Studio has been instrumental in creating web portals that share information with all users.For government to work, we need innovative, easy to navigate websites. We can also use websites to give suggestions for policy the city should undertake. For example, see Zach Kupperman's led Policy Pitch. In addition, an important part of rebuilding a more equitable city, is getting groups from different backgrounds and geographic locations meeting and working together. Many of the organizations ( Urban League Young Professionals of New Orleans, Young Leadership Council, NOLA YURP,Puentes, Young Friends Society) geared towards the young professional demographic have started to collaborate in meaningful ways and should be asked more to take part in the decision making for the city.

A crucial part to rebuilding a city, and strengthening neighborhoods during an economic depression/recession is investing in the arts and music (see the rest of the WPA Photo Collection). Here are several of the many projects and people that Obama should find ways of supporting and seek advise from- ( New Orleans Creative Alliance , Trombone Shorty, Sweet Home New Orleans, Defend New Orleans, New Orleans Kids Camera Project, Faub.org, DJ Soul Sister, The George and Leah Mckenna Museum of African-American Art

Education, Health Care, Small Business Development- Coming Soon- Please Send your suggestions

What's coming up

2008-11-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Israel Kol Dor Conference

New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiative - Nathan Rothstein
Eshel
The mission of the New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiative (NYI) is to create a support network to connect, retain and attract young professionals from diverse backgrounds for a sustainable New Orleans. Through innovative programming, NYI seeks to attract young professionals to the city and, once they are here, connect them with a thriving network of New Orleans locals and other newcomers. Nathan Rothstein, the co-founder and Executive Director will speak about the challenges and opportunities in New Orleans and how to build effective coalitions across race, class and religion.

New Orleans- Words and Music Festival

Friday November 21st

11 a. m. -- Hotel Monteleone, Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom West
THE AMERICAN DREAM: What it Means to the 21st Century's Young Professionals
Led by Nathan Rothstein, founder and Executive Director of of the New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiative (NOLAYURP). Rothstein and his team of young New Orleans professionals will read The Great Gatsby in advance of this round table session and compare their aspirations to the underlying themes of the novel. Q & A session follows discussion. Among your leaders joining Nathan will be Shantrelle Lewis, the Executive Director and Curator of the McKenna Museum of African American Art in New Orleans and an adjunct professor in the African World Studies Department at Temple University. The Philadelphia Tribune selected Ms. Lewis for its “Top Ten Most Influential Leaders Under 40” Award in January of 2006 and she has been featured in Essence Magazine as a "Woman of Purpose." Nolan Marshall is the Associate Director of Common Good, a partnership of religious, nonprofit, neighborhood and higher-education organizations dedicated to building consensus and promoting action for the rebuilding of New Orleans across the lines of religion, ethnicity and class. He is also the President Elect of the Young Leadership Council, a civic organization founded in 1986 to develop leadership through community projects. The YLC has risen over $25 million for community projects since its inception. In addition, Nolan serves on the board of Court Watch Nola, a program whose creation he chaired, is President of the Board of Trustees at Einstein Charter School, Chairs the Leadership Council of Greater New Orleans and serves on the board of the Audubon Institute and Summerbride New Orleans. Prior to Hurricane Katrina Nolan was the president of NAM-It LLC, an advertising specialties and graduation supplies company and served on the board of the Independent Scholastic Sales Association. He received a Presidential Scholarship and graduated from the School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University in 2001. Nolan is currently pursuing a Masters in Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans.