There goes another one.

Aug 23, 2010 05:12

Donna’s Bar & Grill Closes

Seriously, this sucks. Donna's was the place that I went into if I had just missed the bus and had to wait for the next one. Donna's was the place out of which came the most awesome live jazz, that I would groove out to while waiting for my bus; and more often than not, duck in real quick if only to tip the band. Donna's was the place I would send *cool* out-of-town visitors who wanted to hear real local jazz.
Oh and oh, that bar-b-que! And those red beans!
Fucking slumlords. I have this argument all the time with people, for various reasons and it never fails to completely piss me off: Just because something is not "Illegal", doesn't mean it is not "Wrong". And to cause a beloved local business -two, actually- to finally throw in the towel, because you are just too greedy and lazy to be ethical and repair a crumbling building, well... There is a special hell for bastards like that. 
It's not like we are suffering a surplus of comfortable local venues anymore. It's not like '87... Or '97... when we could just walk three doors upstreet and sit down with the same exact people. No; our resources are just too shaky for that these days. And how the hell are we supposed to encourage more local business -particularly venues for the arts- to establish themselves in our post-apocalyptic wasteland if we can't even help the ones we do have to stay open?! Is this what we really want for our city? Why did we even fight the mega-corps? Why did we insist on maintaining New Orleans as the ma-and-pa Mecca of the South?
And for a business to close because the building is too decrepit... in THIS town? I'm thinking four-foot-tall rats wielding dry-rotted wooden bats encrusted with The Black Mold. I'm thinking sewage back ups and anachronistic wiring. How can a building owner just not care about that? And enough that a couple decides to close their business over it. And there goes that last chance for live jazz on Rampart St. Because of penny-ante laziness and greed.

You remember that great line that Dennis Farina had in Big Trouble where he says, "I'm not talking about the rules; I'm talking about manners", and then he gets to break the cigar guy's finger?
Man, I sure would like to get my hands on this slumlord guy's um... finger.

Goodbye, Donna's. You will be missed.
.

goodbye..., community, music, new orleans

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