Archive for the ‘Lafayette No. 2’ Category

Well, I suppose the trouble isn’t so much with the cemeteries as with the city.

A pattern has emerged that shows a city employee, Alma Gardner, has been stealing from grieving families. It was Mrs. Gardner’s job to collect the $100 city fee and provide a list of gravediggers to the family.

Frankly, even that sounds rather ghoulish. As in most cities, private- and Church-run cemeteries have diggers on staff, and the family need not worry about that detail- the grave or tomb has been prepared before they arrive, and matters are handled discreetly.

Gardner, however, just told them the fee was $350 over and above the city’s fees and had her grandson do the work. Well, if he could be bothered to show up, anyway:

Seeing that the gravedigger didn’t have any tools with him, the family removed the frontispiece themselves, only to discover a brick wall behind it that obstructed the opening of the tomb. It was at that point, Dumestre said, that the gravedigger produced a mallet and proceeded, rather unceremoniously, to smash a hole in the wall, freeing a barrage of pulverized mortar and brick that pelted family members who looked on in horror.

In fact, it was the Gardner’s lazy avarice that got them caught:

Three weeks ago, eastern New Orleans resident Nanette Nelson contacted the city’s Division of Cemeteries to arrange a burial for her mother-in-law in the family plot in Holt Cemetery. When city employee Alma Gardner told Nelson to bring $350 the day of the service to hire a gravedigger that ultimately didn’t show up, Nelson reported it to higher-ups and discovered that Gardner had violated city law.
Since then, other families have spoken out with similar tales of Gardner’s actions — each involving an ill-prepared or absentee gravedigger that Gardner hired and asked families to pay for.

The original story, which can be read in its entirety on nola.com, includes a picture of the Nelson family digging the grave themselves.

With the possible exception of Lafayette No 1, these are cemeteries that generally cater to the working poor- people for whom $350 could represent a couple of weeks pay, which makes this especially egregious. To take money from people who are already grieving and make their lives even harder? I hope they throw the book at her and will post any updates I see.

I was headed out to the Fairgrounds to drop off company in town for Jazzfest and our route took us past Lafayette No. 2, where equipment trucks were everywhere. On my way back I stopped and chatted with some of the crew, and found out that they’re filming the last episode of the season. They were just starting to get serious about setting up, and I didn’t want to be in the way so I just took a few shots and got outta there. (A little more info here.)

It’s at once heartening and depressing, seeing all this action around a cemetery where you normally have to be very careful. They cleaned the cemetery up for the filming, which is good of course, but it makes its usual abandonment that much more stark.

And (although I’m starting to feel like granny in her rocker warning of doom and gloom around every corner) I do hope it doesn’t make tourists start searching out the filming sites like they did with the Sopranos in NJ- it turned into big business there. In the past 6 months there have been several shootings within a block of the cemetery- it’s not just stage dressing, it’s a genuinely rough neighborhood.

That being said I’m enjoying the series so far- they’ve hired lots of locals not just for in front of the camera, but as consultants and writers. This just might be the first time they’re really going to get this strange old city right.

Both Cemeteries (No. 1 & No. 2) were were originally part of City of Lafayette, a suburb of New Orleans that was absorbed into the greater city. No.1 is in the Garden District, toured daily by many groups of tourists, and has had a dozen movies shot inside its gates.

No. 2 is in Central City- literally down the street and a world away. Now all but abandoned and overgrown with weeds now, it was opened in 1851 when No.1 was deemed to be at capacity. One of the most dangerous housing projects in U.S. stood only 2 blocks away and made this cemetery and its neighbors, St. Josephs 1&2 impossible to visit without putting your life in serious danger.

The projects are gone now, and the neighborhood beginning to stabilize, Post-Katrina, so spring is coming in many forms to Central City.