Conference Issue 2006
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The Real New Orleans
Is the Big Easy getting a little easier? In a word – Absolutely!
By Paul A. Greenberg
Photos courtesy Louisiana Office of Tourism/p>
The first several months following Hurricane Katrina have
been a real challenge for the people of New Orleans. But following a stellar
Mardi Gras and several high profile visits from Washington officials, New
Orleans is on the mend. By early Spring, about one-third of the city’s
restaurants had reopened, and many neighborhoods had been cleaned up and
re-inhabited. The entire downtown, French Quarter and Garden District, and
much of uptown has been painstakingly cleaned and resettled.
Literally every day businesses re-open and residents
return to their homes. Although the hardest hit areas, including the Lower
Ninth Ward and Lakeview are still mostly uninhabitable, the rest of the city
has opened its arms to tourists, and a trip to the Big Easy now is as
fascinating and high energy as it ever was. Bourbon Street makes a non-stop
joyful noise, while historic Royal Street is still home to some of the
finest galleries and high end retail shops in the world. An afternoon stroll
up St. Charles Avenue can include stops at distinctive boutiques, home
furnishings stores, antique shops and outstanding restaurants. The New
Orleans Museum of Art and adjacent Besthoff Sculpture Garden have both
re-opened, as has the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Contemporary Arts
Center.
St. Charles Avenue, the city’s centerpiece, is alive and
well, even though the historic New Orleans Streetcars are not yet running up
the avenue. Streetcars do run along Canal Street downtown, however, and
anyone who visits should see the city from a streetcar. In the residential
sections of the French Quarter, the elegant centuries-old architecture is
intact, and an evening stroll through the narrow streets yields the scent of
night blooming jasmine and the sounds of New Orleans jazz from just down the
road. Street musicians sing their hearts out on street corners, while tea
leaf and palm readers exercise their special craft in Jackson Square. On the
edge of the nearby Mississippi River, the sounds of steamboat calliopes and
soft evening breezes welcome visitors strolling along the famous Moon Walk.
How can you decide where to spend your free time in the
Crescent City? Here are few of the best of the best spots to soak up the
real New Orleans!
Tours & Attractions:
Audubon Zoo -
One of the city’s true gems – 6500 Magazine St. – (504) 861-2537
The Cabildo - The state's most important historical building and site of
the Louisiana Purchase, it’s museum contains over two centuries of Louisana
history. – 701 Chartres St. – (504) 568- 6968
Cemetery & Voodoo
Tour - Discover the mystical side of the city – Walking Tour – French
Quarter – (504) 314-0806
Dinner Jazz Cruise- Two-hour evening dinner cruise up the Mississippi –
(504) 529-4567
Fritzel’s European Jazz Pub - Authentic Dixieland Jazz – 733 Bourbon St. –
(504) 561-0432
Harrah’s
Casino /a>- Not exactly your father’s gambling hall – 8 Canal St., CBD –
(504) 533-6000
Jackson Square
- This colorful cultural center of the old city lays before the historic St.
Louis Cathedral – French Quarter
Mardi Gras World
- Go behind the scenes to the warehouses where Mardi Gras characters and
floats are created – 233 Newton St., West Bank – (504) 361-7821
Pat O'Brian's - Open since 1933 and birthplace of the Hurricane
cocktail. A true New Orleans institution. – 718 St. Peter St. – (504)
525-4823
Fine Dining Restaurants:
Arnaud’s - Fabulous
Creole dining that screams “New Orleans” – 813 Bienville St., French Quarter
– (504) 523-5433
Brennan’s -
Where Bananas Foster was invented and Eggs Hussarde for breakfast was the
thing – 417 Royal St., French Quarter – (504) 525 – 9711
Bacco - Contemporary
Italian with a local twist – 310 Chartres St., French Quarter – (504)
522-2426
Bourbon
House - Authentic New Orleans Seafood and classic Creole dishes in a
lively atmosphere with huge picture windows overlooking Bourbon St. – 144
Bourbon St. – (504) 522-0111
Commander's
Palace - Established by Emile Commander in 1880, the cuisine reflects
the best of the city, both Creole and American – 1403 Washington Ave. –
(504) 899-8221
Emeril’s - Sleek, sophisticated and irresistible. You can’t miss out on
the original Emeril’s, right? – 800 Tchoupitoulas St., Warehouse District –
(504) 528-9393
Galatoire’s -
Timeless French Creole favorites served in elegant dining rooms situated in
the heart of the French Quarter. – 209 Bourbon St. – (504) 525-2021
Red Fish Grill -
A triumph of cuisine, style and design peppered with Big Easy favorites –
115 Bourbon St. – (504) 598-1200
Casual “Nawlins” Dining:
Cafe Du Monde/a> -
For coffee and chicory with beignets, French Quarter – (504) 525-4544
Café Maspero - Big, overstuffed sandwiches, local style – 601 Decatur St.,
French Quarter – (504) 523-6250
Central Grocery - Home of the original muffaletta sandwich, 923 Decatur St.,
French Quarter – (504) 523-1620
House of Blues - Casual, hip and entertaining with mouth watering
classic Southern-inspired cuisine. – 2225 Decatur St. – (504) 310-4999
K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen
- Where renowned Chef Paul Prudhomme offers his world-famous Blackened
Drumfish – 416 Chartres St., French Quarter – (504) 524-7394
Margaritaville - Inspired cheeseburgers and fresh chicken and seafood
dishes. Famous tropical drinks. Free live music daily. – 1104 Decatur St. –
(504 )592-2565
Mother’s - Creators of the famous “debris” roast beef sandwich – 401 Poydras
St., CBD – (504) 523-9656
Mulate’s - Cajun
restaurant with live Cajun Music and Cajun dancing lessons – 201 Julia St.,
CBD – (504) 533-6000
Port O' Call
- World famous for burgers and steaks. Very casual and open daily for
lunch and dinner. – 838 Esplanade Ave. – (504) 523-0120
Shopping:
Cole-Pratt
Gallery - Distinctive local, regional and national artists represented –
3800 Magazine St., Uptown – (504) 891-6789
Feet First -
For every woman who knows the meaning of “shoe lust” – 4119 Magazine St.,
Uptown – (504) 899-6800
Fleur de Paris - European-style boutique offering one of a kind ladies’
hats and couture clothing – 712 Royal St., French Quarter – (504) 525-1900
Lucullus -
Fine culinary antiques and art objects – 610 Chartres St., French Quarter –
(504) 561-8030
Mignon Faget, Ltd. -
Elegant originals by local designer Mignon Faget – 3801 Magazine St., Garden
District
– (504) 891-2005
M.S. Rau Antiques
- Since 1912, one of the largest antique stores in the world – 630 Royal
St., French Quarter – (504) 523-5660
Riverwalk
Marketplace - A half-mile of shopping fun next to the Convention Center
and right along the riverfront. – 1 Poydras St. – CBD
Rodrigue
Studio - Home of the famous “blue dog” – 721 Royal St., French Quarter –
(504) 581-4244
Shops At
Canal Place - Upscale shopping center at the foot of Canal St., CBD
Museums:
Contemporary Arts Center - 900 Camp St., Warehouse/Arts District – (504) 210-0224
The Historic New Orleans Collection - 533 Royal St., French Quarter –
(504) 523-4662
Louisiana Children’s Museum
- 420 Julia St., Warehouse/Arts District – (504) 523-1357
Mardi Gras Museum - 813 Bienville St., French Quarter – (504) 523-5433
(Upstairs from Arnaud’s Restaurant)
National D-Day Museum
- 945 Magazine St., Warehouse/Arts District – (504) 527-6012
New Orleans Museum of Art
- City Park, New Orleans – (504) 658-4199
Ogden Museum of
Southern Art - 925 Camp St., Warehouse/Arts District – (504) 539-9600
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Mission Ready & Steady
The Louisiana State Police Aviation Section
By Master Pilot Robert Barnum
Louisiana State Police Air Support Unit
Photography by Karen Kleinpeter & Lynsey Corcoran
Louisiana State Police Crime Lab/p>
The Louisiana State Police is today looking to the coming
years in a way that the agency hasn’t since it was born out of nothing in
1969. The department is now operating law enforcement’s premier aerial
platform, the Bell 430.
While it’s true that some of the LSP’s future is uncertain at this point,
the abilities of the equipment they are operating are anything but. “Last
year, we started operating those two new Bell 430s,” says Deputy Command
Pilot Brett McCloud. “We just recently started night vision goggle training.
There’s not many 430s that are NVG compatible.”
In addition to night vision equipment, the 430s boast a
modern glass cockpit, color radar, FLIR Ultra 8500s and Nite Sun SX-16s. In
a time when the benefits of airborne law enforcement are as apparent as
ever, LSP officers are proud to be part of the unit and hope to expand well
into the future. But they owe it all to their storied past.
On September 1, 1969, the Louisiana State Police was
experiencing tremendous growth, as was the rest of the country. It was on
this date that a federal grant was received which would allow for the dawn
of a new era in police tactics for the department. The grant provided for
the purchase of three new helicopters. The grant also covered the
maintenance and operational cost of the helicopters for a period of three
years. Also included were the provisions for the hiring of four full-time
pilots.
The stage was set. The bids went out. Three shiny new
Fairchild Hiller 1100s were purchased. The pilots were hired and the
Louisiana State Police was now in the aviation business.
New horizons were opened as the department went right to
work with traffic enforcement being the primary concern. The program became
a huge success. However, it quickly became apparent that traffic was not the
only advantage of the newly acquired tools. The LSP now had an aerial
platform for civil unrest, hazardous material incidents, transporting
medical emergencies, deploying SWAT teams (at that time called the Tactical
Unit), search and rescue and a host of other missions.
The program was so successful that at the end of the
three-year period, the LSP began purchasing one new helicopter per year. The
new helicopters purchased were Bell Jet Rangers. The Fairchild Hillers were
eventually phased out.
The original pilots hired weren’t commissioned troopers
but eventually attended the LSP academy and became fully commissioned LSP
Troopers. With the war in Vietnam coming to a close, new pilots weren’t hard
to find.
By 1980, the unit had expanded to a fleet of six Bell Jet
Rangers, one Cessna 182 and one Maule. The team consisted of six full-time
helicopter pilots and two part-time airplane pilots. The mission had
basically remained the same, with the exception of narcotics becoming more
of a problem, and the Aviation Section (as it was then called) played a
major role in the war against drugs.
The 1980s oil crisis took its toll on the state’s
revenues and the Aviation Section felt the inevitable cuts. The section was
slashed to three helicopters and one airplane. The manpower was cut to three
pilots, and they were forced to be located in Baton Rouge. Pilots and
helicopters that had been located throughout the state were suddenly a thing
of the past. Missions suddenly had to be conducted entirely from
headquarters in Baton Rouge.
With the advent of private operators embarking on the air
ambulance market, the LSP also yielded to their demands and discontinued
transporting medical emergencies.
In the 1980s, the Domestic Cannibas
Eradication/Suppression Program took off, and the aviation section suddenly
had a new responsibility. The LSP Aviation Section fully supported the
mission. Though during the programs’ inception it was difficult due to the
shortage of manpower, the program was very successful and remains so to this
date.
In 1996, the LSP command pilot received orders from the
colonel to submit a plan for the expansion of the unit to meet the growing
demands of the department. A plan was submitted, and within two years the
now-named Air Support Unit was molded. The fleet then consisted of one Bell
Long Ranger L-IV, three Bell 206 B-IIIs, three Bell OH-58s, one Beech King
Air 200, one Cessna T-310/R, one Cessna 182 and three Cessna 172s. The team
then consisted of a command pilot, a deputy command pilot and six other
pilots.
In hiring the new pilots, it was decided that a new plan
of hiring from within the ranks of the LSP would be adopted. The plan called
for anyone with at least two years in the department as a trooper and
possessing a commercial instrument airplane or commercial helicopter rating
to be eligible. Once hired by the unit, the department would provide for the
candidate to obtain whichever rating he or she did not have.
The unit started phasing out the aging Jet Ranger fleet
in 2000. The first Jet Ranger was traded for a new Bell 407. In 2002, this
process was repeated with addition of another new Bell 407.
The determination was made in 2004 that, due to the
ever-increasing threat of terrorism, night and inclimate weather missions
would be inevitable, and the need for IFR twin engine helicopters emerged.
The two 407s were promptly traded for two Bell 430s.
The LSP pilots of today are rated in each and every
aircraft in the fleet, a feat which sets them apart from most police
aviators. They are considered specialists in the department and, once in the
unit, are no longer part of the LSP rank structure. They are started at a
pay equal to that of lieutenant, which provides an incentive to stay with
the unit for their entire career. This also enables air support to avoid
losing someone that it has invested a considerable amount of training
dollars in to promotion elsewhere in the department.
And training is no small matter to the unit. All LSP
pilots regularly attend recurrent training at Bell Helicopter and Flight
Safety and are all trained in NVGs. In-house training is also a big part of
the regular duties.
The LSP Air Support Unit is actively involved in
education. LSP pilots often visit schools throughout the state for
helicopter demonstrations, career days and safety seminars in conjunction
with the local troops.
In 2005, the tragic events of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
put the capabilities of the unit to a challenging test. The pilots flew
hundreds of hours in response to the hurricanes. With the help of brother
aviators from the California Highway Patrol, the Kentucky State Police, the
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and many
others, the mission was able to be completed successfully and without
incident.
And now, the LSP is free to look to the future. There
will be new and unique challenges, and the unit will be ready for them.
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Invaluable Assets
LASER: The Land, Air & Sea Rescue Unit of Jefferson Parish
By Major Robert E. Woods, Commander
Laser Division, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office
For the past six years, the skies over New Orleans have
been patrolled by an OH-58 helicopter from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s
Office’s LASER (land, air, sea emergency rescue) unit. The aircraft has
served brilliantly, most recently during Hurricane Katrina when it led a
flotilla of law enforcement helicopters that made damage assessments,
plucked many from flooded homes, dropped off food and water to sheriff’s
deputies and civilians while flying cover for units on the ground. The
aftermath of the hurricane was perhaps the most challenging situation ever
encountered by the LASER unit.
But today in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, all
eyes are turned to the future, as a customized Bell 407 will be delivered in
late 2006. It will include the latest and greatest in law enforcement
helicopter technology, including a FLIR 8500 with downlink, moving map, NVG
equipped cockpit and pop out floats. The aviation unit had hoped that the
Bell 407 might be ready to show on the floor of the ALEA convention in July
at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, but the delivery schedule
has been delayed until after the convention.
JPSO has worked closely with Bell Helicopter and Edwards
& Associates to create specifications and equipment for a state-of-the-art,
multi-purpose law enforcement helicopter. To house the new 407, the
Sheriff’s Office is building a new, multi-use hangar facility to consolidate
operations and increase efficiency.
The story of helicopters and their use by the Jefferson
Parish Sheriff’s Office begins in the late 1960s through the 1970s when the
JPSO operated several Bell 47s, but these were retired in the early 1980s.
In 1980, Sheriff Harry Lee was first elected to the position he has now held
for 26 years. No one had to convince Sheriff Lee of the potential for
helicopters in law enforcement. He served in the Louisiana Air National
Guard for many years, working his way up through the ranks to the position
of General.
But, in the early years of his tenure, budget limitations
restricted the JPSO to the rental of a Bell 206 from a local operator. While
the Bell 206 was very useful, it was not available on a full-time basis. It
was in that early period of Sheriff Lee’s tenure that the aviation unit
began researching the 1033 program, which eventually led to the acquisition
of the 0H-58. Sheriff Lee approved the conversion of the former Army helo
into a multi-purpose law enforcement platform sporting a new paint job,
interior, Night Sun and avionics. The conversion also included changing the
AC systems to DC.
The OH-58 was merged into the work of the JPSO LASER
Division, which also includes a marine section consisting of boats and
divers, K-9 patrol, explosive detection and bomb squad, as well as
traditional search and rescue.
Jefferson Parish, adjacent to the City of New Orleans, is a modern suburb
with a population of more than 400,000, measuring more than 369 square miles
from Lake Pontchartrain to the north, down to the town of Grand Isle on the
Gulf of Mexico. Jefferson Parish is an inner suburb with many urban
characteristics, yet is one of the safest communities of its size in the
nation. That is a credit both to the 1,300 men and women of the JPSO, and
the willingness of the taxpayers of Jefferson Parish to fund an outstanding
law enforcement agency.
Because Jefferson includes many square miles of marsh,
swamp and the waters of the Mississippi River, a helicopter is essential for
keeping track of both commercial and recreational marine activities. When
hunters or fishers get lost or are reported missing, a helicopter plays an
essential role in search missions, covering hundreds of miles in minutes,
where a patrol boat would take hours to cover the same terrain.
The 0H-58 also works closely with the department’s patrol
and narcotics officers, as well as the SWAT team and crime lab. The
helicopter has proven invaluable in everything from routine patrols to
vehicle pursuits. The 0H-58 has also become vital to the coverage of Mardi
Gras parades in Jefferson. Mardi Gras attracts crowds of more than one
million, along with hundreds of floats parading on the major streets of the
parish. JPSO officers on the ground say that the sight of a helicopter
whirring overhead actually has a calming effect on the celebrants who
realize they’re being watched from the air. Because the OH-58 is the only
local law enforcement helicopter in the region, it is often called upon by
the New Orleans Police Department and other regional law enforcement
agencies. The OH-58 is currently housed at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans
International Airport, which is located in Jefferson Parish.
The helicopter is staffed by a contingent of pilots drawn
from the ranks of JPSO regular and reserve officers. These include pilots
with military experience, an airline pilot, and a military flight instructor
with a CFI. The pilot team includes two full-time regular officers and four
reserves. They use members of the LASER Division as TFOs.
JSPO is looking forward to the ALEA Convention in New Orleans. But, of
course, it is a convention they nearly didn’t host because of the impact and
ravages of Hurricane Katrina, which blew in on August 29, 2005 – a date and
a name we will never forget in Louisiana.
From the first moments of the evacuation through the
worst of the disaster, the JPSO helicopter played a crucial role in
observation and assessment, rescue missions, food and water drops and air
cover. In the early moments of the evacuation, the helicopter monitored the
state’s contra flow movement of traffic that got hundreds of thousands of
evacuees out of the hurricane’s path. After the hurricane struck, with
virtually all communications out of service, the OH-58 enabled the unit to
assess for the first time the full extent of the greatest natural disaster
in American history.
Rescue operations got underway as soon as flood waters
began to cover homes in Jefferson and the City of New Orleans. Members of
the unit will always have a special place in their hearts for the men and
women from sheriff’s offices and police departments across the country that
came to Louisiana as volunteers, often bringing their departmental
helicopters. The full story of the heroic helicopter rescues will probably
never be told, but those of us who lived through it will still be telling
the stories of those rescues to our grandchildren 25 or 30 years from now.
LASER is especially grateful to Knox Country (TN) Sheriff
Tim Hutchinson and his dedicated pilots who flew their Huey and OH-58s in
all kinds of weather, rescuing hundreds of people from rooftops and attics.
By placing JPSO officers on board the helicopters of other jurisdictions,
they were able to create almost immediately a “go everywhere, do anything”
air flotilla that literally worked around the clock.
We pray everyday that no jurisdiction in the United
States will ever again have to deal with anything as terrible as Hurricane
Katrina. But we also know that if there is another Katrina, the men and
women in American law enforcement agencies will once again rise to the task
and cover themselves and their agencies with glory while saving the lives of
countless citizens who otherwise would have perished.
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