Photo by Kat Arnold

In 2011, a lot of the old maxims about New Orleans' resistance to change got thrown out the window. From Freret Street to Mayor Mitch's office to the Krewe of Chewbacchus, the City showed us that changing with the times, if not desired, is at the very least inevitable and therefore necessary. Waters around us have grown and all that. To be sure, many of the old vanguards of the city will live on past this period. But there are a few who came later that didn't live up to the hype. That doesn't mean they won't be back around again. As EWE taught us, you can always come back and marry someone who makes you look good. So, without further rambling, here's a list of who's in and who's out in 2011, and what to look out for in 2012.

Louisiana Pols

OUT: Billy Nungesser - In 2010, rage was all the rage and Billy Nungesser was our man in Plaquemines Parish. We were all angry about the Big Oozy, and Pinky had no censor button when it came to venting anger. There he was commandeering boats. There was Pinky in the tarry night. There he was turning the bookmobile into a command vehicle. Unfortunately, anger only goes so far without solutions, and Nungesser became a tired trick when he tried to move onto a larger stage.

IN: Edwin Washington Edwards  In a year that saw Louisiana Democrats lose all the lustre of its populist past, one of the great lions of yore came roaring out of prison to remind them how it was done. Edwin W. Edwards emerged from a halfway house to declare he was getting married, joining Facebook and submitting to an 84th birthday roast by Republicans, Democrats and captains of industry alike. The rest of us were powerless to resist gawking. If only EWE could've run for governor, it might have been an election cycle.

WATCH LIST: Bobby Jindal - Cue the music. He’s baaack. Jindal never left us, but after his Mr. Rogers-esque attempt at a rebuttal to a 2009 Obama speech, Jindal laid low for a bit. He even spent some time in the state he governs. But with a landslide victory under his belt and an inauguration that's getting upstaged by football on the horizon, Jindal's already out of state on the 3rd day of the year campaigning in Iowa. With a presidential election upon us, look for his attention to once again be diverted elsewhere. What does that mean for the state's pressing problems? Well, it's an election year!

Theatre
Trending Down: Good ol' fashioned Classic American Realism: A Trip to Bountiful and the upcoming Streetcar are the exceptions not the rule. There is a dearth of the sort of work made famous by Miller, Williams, and Albee in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing even less of this material until Le Petit gets back on its feet. A lot of those young theatre companies are simply not interested. The realism that is being done involves small casts and seems to be either living room drama or terse minimalism. Theatre that used to be a staple is quickly becoming a rarity. 

Trending Up: Site specific, company generated, conceptual work and Shakespeare: With productions like The Future is a Fancyland Place, A Midsummer Night's Dream,Pchile Goyin, and Titus Andronicus, young companies are gravitating towards do-it-yourself highly conceptual approaches to theatre. It is encouraging, because it shows that they understand that in order for theatre to compete in New Orleans, it must be an event. It is going to amp up further with the five company collaboration of Taylor Mac's Lily's Revenge arriving next fall.-Jim Fitzmorris

Streets

OUT: Frenchmen St - Sit down kids, and we’ll tell you a tale of the days
before the Storm: a time when Frenchmen was not much at all. Frenchmen was a great secret for locals, but time passed and it grew. Then, the TeeVee people came to town. Now, Frenchmen is verging on Bourbon Junior. None of the club owners are complaining about huge weekend crowds, but the air of cool that was once attached to this Marigny strip seems to be a thing of the past, for now.

IN Freret St - Make your YUPPie jokes, but the Freret Renaissance is a post-K success story that will be touted for years to come. The new food establishments opened rapid fire in 2011 - sometimes in the same week. Now that many of the Freret spots are up and running, other thoroughfares like Oretha Castle Haley will surely try to follow suit and garner their own success.

WATCH LIST: St. Claude Corridor - The streetcar may be shelved for now, but the building boom that anticipated its arrival has quickly made St. Claude a destination. Between the strip of clubs and performance spaces around Elysian Fields like Shadowbox Theatre, Allways Lounge and Siberia, the New Orleans Healing Center and the obligatory arrival of moped rentals up toward Press, the neighborhood is quickly turning the corner. But with the exception of a few old stalwarts, most of this change is new. For many of the up-and-comers 2012 will be a make-or-break year.

NOLA Pols
OUT: C. Ray Nagin - Nagin’s departure was celebrated for a full year before his term ended. When the Lombardi Gras parade rolled, it was the Mayor-Elect at the helm, not Nagin. A paranoid, self-published memoir did not provide the boost that C-Ray hoped for, and this year's convictions of people involved with his technology department only further tarnished his legacy. As the year ended, Nagin was looking to sell his house.

IN: Mayor Mitch - In 2011, the honeymoon ended, and Mayor Mitch got to work. There was the DOJ report to contend with, and his first Mardi Gras to navigate. Also, he had potholes, budgets, and crime to tackle. The Mayor performed well, and the veneer has yet to wear off. National notice has not escaped the Landrieu dauphine either; Mayor Mitch made the Sunday morning rounds in 2011, and talk of southern Dem make run at POTUS has started in beltway circles.

WATCH LIST: Kristen Gisleson Palmer - With larger stages in Mitch’s distant future, and term limits looming for Jackie Clarkson, Palmer is causing a stir amongst the Tea Leaf readers at the DefenderPlex. A clear path to the City Council Presidency and then onto the Mayorship seems wide open for Palmer (especially with Fielkow out of the picture.) Palmer’s work with smart cities has been a big step forward for NOLA, and we think that said rise could be good for the City.
 

Sports
OUT: Jeremey Shockey & Reggie Bush - Once, the women of New Orleans chased Shockey, and the men of New Orleans wanted to be like Reggie. But by the 2011 season, they had worn out their welcome in Loomis' stable. With Tweets that showed bad feelings, we only felt betrayed. Luckily, this story had a happy ending.

IN: Darren Sproles & Jimmy Graham - As Wang put it so eloquently, Sproles and Graham took all of Shockey and Bush's potential, and raised it to unfathomable levels. The pair seem poised to help bring NOLA another Super Bowl victory, and it's of no surprise that they occupy the exact positions on the field where the stars in the previous category once played.

WATCH LIST: The Honey Badger - Debate raged in the NoDef HQ about whether Tyrann Matheiu belonged in 2011, but ultimately he landed in 2012; there is much, much more to come with Mathieu, a true sophomore. For example, we’re hoping for a Heisman. (The Honey Badger takes what he wants; unfortunately, this includes synthetic weed which may have hurt his chances.) But, first, we're looking forward to the NOLA born and bred Badger leading us past the Gumps to a BCS Championship next week.

Eating

OUT: Street Food - 2010 was the year of street food. Tacos, tamales, and even some classic hot dogs were sold out of carts, trucks, and Bywater bicycles at every hot corner in the city. But, Mayor Mitch wanted permits, and the more successful streetfood moved inside to pop-ups and permanent locations. Well, at least Cafe Negril was saved.

IN: Donald Link - The maestro of meats had a banner year in 2011. A James Beard award came Cochon’s way, a new restaurant opened in Lafayette, and Butcher’s popularity skyrocketed. Link kept working hard, but never forgot his roots; we even saw him Cajun 2-stepping after one event.

WATCH LIST: Pop-Ups - Like Freret restos, pop-ups came fast and furious in 2011. From the folks at Dante's Kitchen to an upstart baker who calls himself the Pie Guy, their irregular delight seems to have struck a cord in a city where following weekly gigs around is never an issue. More pop-ups are set to open in 2012, so we'll see if they have the staying power necessary for success.
 

Tech & Startups
OUT: CBe (LauchPad, Goldman Sachs, et al.) - A burst of money from much maligned I-bankers, Goldman Sachs, and the launch of several incubators in the CBD (cum CBe) has rightfully garnered much press. However, we have seen little more than press; results are scarce raising the thought that an incubator is necessary only because the CBe’s birth was premature... like the hype. Further raising hackles (and the heckle at hand,) are the vast overlaps in rosters between the affiliated organizations. The same people and places constantly congratulate one another with awards and lists giving their organizational charts the look of a West Virignia family tree.

NoDef was particularly amused at one CBe member’s recent comment,

“Seriously, if you are doing anything substantial in NOLA, you are part of the Idea Village team. If you're not, and you are doing something amazing - then you will be part of it soon!”

Res ipso loquitor.

There is plenty of tech innovation in NOLA; unfortunately, the CBe’s inheritancces seems better suited for the Busines District's fine dining establishments. 

IN: Neighborland/Civic Center -Capitalizing on the popularity of her Great Blight Hope, local artist Candy Chang teamed up with James A. Reeves to form Civic Center. One part design, one part urban planning and one part conceptual art, the Center looks to provide art that's helpful. Case in point: this year, they used a board to solicit ideas from the community about how to use a vacant Bywater building that had become the butt of a joke about Starbucks, and gave those ideas to the neighbor. The Center plans similar kinds of acts in 2012. With the edition of a gallery and physical headquarters, their work should be all the easier to find.

WATCH: SDT IV - Yes, Those letters do stand for Sydney D Torres the Fourth. Yes, that is the one SDT, the man who introduced lemony fresh to the Quarter, Kid Rock to advertising, and music videos to the waste industry. Sydney got out of the garbage game, (selling out to ART,) and has now opened a venture capital firm. The man made debris dashing, and we are excited to see what he does for startups. (Drone Golfcarts anyone?)

Parades

OUT: Second Line as a Franchise - A little recognition for NOLA’s culture is a good thing, but a line looms, and we are in danger of crossing it. In the last couple of years, NoDef observed a “second line” on the Brooklyn Bridge, one marching krewe launching a NYC chapter, and agency representation for individual buckjumpers. We even witnessed two second lines for Coco Robicheaux. The community element is exactly what defines secondlining, and when we lose that, the rest just becomes a drunken march. Let a y’at p-pop in peace! 

IN: Chewbacchus - The Intergalacatic Krewe of Chewbacchus is the face of a new, even more inclusive Carnival. We've already made the moves from old racists to glitter-throwing mamas. But with a new population of New Orleanians comes a new generation of marching club. Do Whatcha Wanna includes marching as a Mardi Gras Storm Trooper, and in 2011, this Krewe at least revealed itself to the masses.

WATCH LIST - Old Line Backlash - With one lawsuit already filed by Rex against its petit predecessor, the message seems to be clear: "Get off our Mardi Gras." The late addition of the Krewe of Nyx to the parade calendar shows an openness to change we didn't suspect. But don't bet one doubloon that any of the Superkrewes are happy about it.

Art
OUT: Prospect - Prospect held a lot of, well, prospects. Billed as the largest art show in America, the canvas may have simply been too large. A revamp failed to drum up additional in-town excitement. A series of anniversary shows and galas at the established museums further overshadowed the event and Director Dan Cameron resigned. New curator Franklin Sirmans has a lot of work to do to deliver on the downpayment of this bold event's dream.

IN: Retrsospective Shows - In 2011, we saw seminal artists like George Dureau featured in major retrospectives. Not to be outdone, NOMA launched at retrospective of their century long existence. The arts have a storied history in Louisiana, and we were thrilled to enjoy these reminders.

WATCH: Public art - The art buzz in recent months has been about public pieces, mystery benches on Magazine, (Prospect’s most popular piece) streetlight sculpture, and the ever popular Candy Chang installations. The media seems to mesh well with NOLA’s sense of community as well as the DIY mentality.