New Orleans        In the post-Katrina living in the Bywater neighborhood and working in Marigny, the neighborhood between mine and the French Quarter, we are sometimes reminded that we have been gentrified on the high ground now.  And, if not gentrified, then at the least we have become some kind of hipster, tres chic address in the city.  Around the corner from us an old sewing factory (Bill Becker may he rest in peace, the former head of the Arkansas AFL-CIO remembered running a strike there back in the day!) is now called the Art Lofts and rents to low income eligible artists.  The place is starting to fill up.
    Driving to work this morning along Burgundy Street I noticed something else that is a sign of these new and different times.  In a whole stretch over a number of blocks the fire hydrants had become something very different with polka dots and bright colors.
    Check it out and welcome to the “new” New Orleans and the Bywater neighborhood.