Netroots and New Orleans

I had a fun time in Pittsburgh and found the Netroots conference to be, as I did last year, a great opportunity and experience. Getting to speak on two separate panels was exciting from a personal standpoint and gave me two chances to talk about our efforts at local progressive political reform and the contributions of this community to local investigative news gathering efforts. I went to several trainings, speeches, and panels. I approached people who I wouldn't ordinarily have opportunities to meet.

The feedback I got from folks that attended one of my panels and from people who I spoke to in lobbies, elevators, bathrooms, and bars was extremely positive and encouraging. When you have the opportunity to do some retail politics about the importance of New Orleans, when you can pose direct questions gauging people's thoughts on what obligation the Left and/or the Netroots has to address New Orleans, they pay attention. They get it.

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I blog about two things really.

I blog about my local environment and I blog about national/ international politics.

That's pretty similar to what most Netroots bloggers do. The difference is other people's local environments don't include New Orleans. Or the South at-large, for that matter.

And unfortunately, New Orleans doesn't fit in to the national political picture for most people anymore except for once or twice a year. That's unfortunate and unfair.

Add it to the pile.

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Upon thinking about my conference experience for the last few days and after reading through a pretty resentful local email thread about the perceived reception for the New Orleans panel, Netroots organizers, or what is perceived as Netroots leadership, I think there are two very bad but easily reversible things going on.

First, I think that the Netroots conference specifically and the Netroots in general face a real crisis about what they want to be. I asked a question similar to this within the blurb I wrote for the New Orleans panel.

Are Netroots progressives chiefly concerned with affecting chance in American communities or more concerned about achieving more electoral victories for Democratic politicians?

A lot of times, those concerns align quite nicely. But a lot of other times, they don't.

It was really an honor to see Bill Clinton speak. I like the Big Dog. It was exciting.

But is it the right thing to do for Netroots to invite President Clinton to keynote but not answer questions or address challenges from the audience?

I will probably try to go to Las Vegas next year. I understand it is fun for a weekend and Netroots is a useful place to exchange ideas with like-minded people.

But is it the right thing to do for Netroots to go to Las Vegas for the second time in five years while overlooking the nation's most challenged communities? Does going to Las Vegas again reflect the progressive principles that drove the 50-state strategy and the overall growth of what could be a larger, more diverse, national progressive movement?

I'm not the only one asking. There are a lot of Netroots attendees vexed by the challenge of what Netroots is and what it should do.

Certainly, it feels to me to be way too much like the Democratic National Convention Lite.

We talk about this stuff.

I... I'm finding it bizarre to type.... twittered... my displeasure with the announcement of Las Vegas as the site for next year. A few hours later, the Chairman of the Board of Netroots specifically sought me out at the bar to talk to me about it. So too, separately, did another Netroots bigwig. I don't like their explanations very much but I see where they're coming from.

They have a tough job. Not inviting Bill Clinton or other big names means less tickets sold and less people attending. They try to go to places with robust local progressive communities. They try to go places that are cheap and accessible via air and road. They try to go places where hotels will offer generous deals. They try to go places that work on attracting them. They go where it is convenient.

Should they challenge themselves to take Netroots to places like New Orleans and Detroit, places where it would matter?

I made the case. They didn't disagree. They know they need to come down South.

I'm going to continue to engage them in a dialogue about it. That's what I'd like to think we progressives try to do.

And that brings me to the 2nd bad but easily reversible trend: our own tendency toward bitterness and isolation.

When the NCAA chooses somewhere else instead of New Orleans to hold March Madness, I don't boycott college hoops.

I don't think it helps us, not just in terms of attracting more attention from national progressives, the Left, and/or Netroots, but in terms of obtaining attention from anybody to immediately go all Sinn Fein anytime anybody does something we don't really like.

I like the idea of ourselves alone. I like it as a local organizing principle and a rallying cry for our work to clean up what's in our own backyard. I wish many more communities would adopt a similar approach to local change. But our problems are bigger than that and are beyond our backyard.

We have problems with the front porch and the roof.

We have problems next door, down the street, and on the next block.

It really matters what the rest of the country does.

I don't see how New Orleans achieves medium-term sustainability, a reasonable quality of life for its residents, or any whiff of justice for what has happened here without federal attention. I don't see how we obtain federal attention without engaging people around the country about what the situation here is.

I don't really post very often to DKos or TPM Cafe or anywhere else that might reach a national audience. Most of us don't. It would be helpful if I and we did that more often.

I'm excited by the conversations I had with other folks that blog about social, racial, and economic justice issues in other parts of the South and other urban areas. I look forward to continuing those discussions over the course of the year about how to better aggregate information on issues of mutual concern and how to organize around policies that might address those issues. I look forward to figuring out ways we can help each other.

And, as I said before, I plan on continuing to engage with conference organizers about coming to New Orleans in 2011 or 2012 or about a smaller, mid-year "salon session."

I'd like to think that they would be welcomed.

I'm curious to see people's thoughts.

Big Dog

From Thursday:

Today's the day

You may or may not be able to tune in live to my panel, New Orleans on the brink, at 1:30 ET, 12:30 CT by going to http://www.netrootsnation.org/.

Video archives of panels are not yet available but I will post from the two on which I served as soon as possible.

Baratunde Thurston just asked Valerie Jarrett if the birthers are crazy, racist, or crazy and racist.

I want that same question posed about pretty much the entire Congressional GOP.

2 Panel Man

In addition to the big Big BIG New Orleans on the Brink panel tomorrow, I am serving on a different panel today about the role of local blogs in reporting on city government.

Local blogs provide a medium to delve into zoning issues, expose local corruption, challenge traditional informational gatekeepers, broaden the knowledge of local political processes and reshape local discussions on governance. While many eyes often focus on national politics, what goes on locally often has a huge impact on all of our quality of life. Take zoning for example: it determines where roads, buildings and mass transit are built and affects the length of time it takes to get to a business, school or home. Hear from bloggers who cover city and county government and discuss the challenges in covering local politics.

It starts at 1:30 ET.

Do you have any points about how the local blogosphere has functioned to improve access to information in New Orleans you think I should make?

Throw up a comment here or hit me up @eliackerman on the twitterz.

Orange Cone Pittsburgh

Coming here to Pittsburgh is a great reminder that most cities, in contrast to New Orleans, have tons of construction in their urban downtown.

I'll be here through Sunday trying to represent new media New Orleans progressives here at Netroots Nation 2009. Our New Orleans panel is Saturday afternoon from 1:30-2:45 ET and video will be available via archive shortly thereafter, if my understanding is accurate.

Check out the rest of the conference here. Bill Clinton will be speaking tonight, Howard Dean tomorrow morning, and Valerie Jarret Saturday morning. There are tons of other brilliant thinkers here - I can be your eyes and ears. Please check out some of the panel lineups and tell me what you'd like me to check out.

For our New Orleans panel, tell me what we should talk about. Leave me a comment here or get after me on twitter @eliackerman.

Netroots Nation '09!!!

Netroots Nation is an annual conference of the nation's top progressive bloggers and leaders of the loose progressive movement partially responsible for the mini-resurgence of the Left since 2004.

You may be wondering: "How the hell did E get invited?"

Well, like an annoying neighbor or relative, it's because I invited myself.

I pitched a New Orleans-centric panel for this year's conference and it got accepted!

So I'm flying my ass up to the wrong side of Pennsylvania in - wow - just over a week and will do my best to rep our fair city.

Of course it's never too late for you to waste your vacation days in Pittsburgh.

Come on up!
It's August 13-16th!

The panel is called New Orleans on the Brink: Why Progressive America Can And Should Contribute To A Sustainable Recovery and the basic idea is to try to communicate where we're at, why we're here, and to discuss where we need to go.

This is how I billed it a few months ago when I submitted the proposal:

While statistical evidence has consistently identified the failed federal response to Katrina as the watershed event contributing to the decline of the Bush administration's approval ratings, progressives and the netroots have largely abandoned the cause of New Orleans as a political and moral issue. The Left has a responsibility to see to it that New Orleans survives and thrives, for the sustainable recovery of this city will be the primary measure used for determining whether the netroots indeed represent a substantive movement concerned with the betterment of American communities or just another vessel for cyclical change in partisan fortunes. As it stands, New Orleans is on the brink. Rates of crime, illiteracy, poverty, imprisonment and life expectancy too closely resemble those of developing nations. Political power remains ensconced in the hands of economic and tribal elites. Basic retention of the population that has been able to return is as pressing a challenge as bringing home the tens of thousands who remain displaced almost four years after the levees failed.

It's always tough trying to find that sweet spot when talking about New Orleans to a national audience. One has to disabuse people of two contradictory notions. Some folks inaccurately believe that New Orleans is a hopeless post-apocalyptic hell scape while others just as inaccurately believe that we've had 'excellence in recovery.'

Similarly there's a tough balancing act when you're talking to a national audience because of the generalizations one sometimes has to impart context to people that can't possibly understand the nuance that locals implicitly know. That's an inarticulate way of saying how tough it is to make honest and critical assessments and acknowledgments of what we need to get straight in our own backyard without undermining the all-important argument about ongoing federal indebtedness to New Orleans for decades of environmental costs associated with shipping, oil, and Mississippi River dams. And then there are the costs associated with the failed federal levees, of course.

So without further adieu, let me introduce you to the panelists.

James Perry: housing advocate, fighter of discrimination, mayoral candidate, and all-star twitterer

Karen Gadbois: news organization founder, 'gadfly,' champion of justice, and all-around superstar

Jacques Morial: renaissance man, world-straddler, and human encyclopedia of New Orleans politics and history

June Cross: professor at Columbia School of Journalism, documentary-slayer, and producer of one of the greatest stories of Post-Katrina resilience, the Old Man and the Storm

Last and certainly least, the conversation moderator:

Eli (Me!) Ackerman: increasingly annoying poser

My job, I think, will be to get coffee and keep time.

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So I think this is an incredibly balanced panel. Insiders and outsiders. Boys and girls. Black, white, and creole. A Mayoral candidate and a barely employable pimple-popper.

What about you all? What do you think about the lineup? Given that we have an hour and will almost certainly devote 40% of that time to audience Q&A, what should we talk about?

Are there any messages you'd like me to deliver to scheduled celebrity pol speakers Joe Sestak, Arlen Specter, Howard Dean, or Valerie Jarret?

What about for your favorite (or most detested) snarky voice from the blogosphere?

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Also looking for your suggestions on how to behave myself at another panel I've been invited to participate in, about the role of local blogs in investigative journalism or something.

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Let 'er rip!

Conference and Panel Season is in Full Swing

Two of the greatest conferences in the entire world occur this month and I'm going to both of them.

One is the 4th annual Rising Tide.

Rising Tide is again going to be at the Zeitgeist on O.C. Haley.

See you on August 22nd, from 9:30 AM onward. I'll be wearing a custom black Valentino Garavani number for the runway and then will be changing into something more casual.

Click the button for registration details.

It'll be sweet!

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Also, I'm going to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh from August 13th - 16th and have organized the New Orleans-related panel. Basically it's going to be about how the Hurricane destroyed the everything, the whole city is below sea-level, and how K-Ville should have never been canceled.

Sound good?

More details forthcoming in a post later on...