Sunday, January 5, 2025

Idiots of the Day

 What can one say? It's the Latoya Cantrell Administration.  The Morning Advocate reported: 

The new bollards being installed along Bourbon Street in the French Quarter are not designed to stop the type of truck attacks that have hit cities around the world and claimed the lives of 14 people on New Year's Day in New Orleans, according to city design documents, meeting minutes and people familiar with bollard system design.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration is replacing the protective poles known as bollards that in 2017 were placed along Bourbon to help prevent against acts of terrorism involving large trucks. The project got underway in November and is not yet complete, which is why bollards were not in place when Shamsud-Din Jabbar turned onto Bourbon from Canal Street to begin his deadly rampage.

The 2017 bollards, manufactured by U.K.-based Heald, are rated to withstand a collision with a 15,000-pound vehicle moving at 40 miles per hour, according to Heald's website. That is roughly the weight of a medium-size delivery truck. When announcing the project, city leaders referenced the 2016 attack in Nice, France, where a cargo truck was driven into crowds, killing 86 people.

To replace those bollards, the Cantrell administration is installing a system rated to withstand collisions with 5,000-pound vehicles moving at approximately 10 miles per hour. The rating of the new system, S-10, is at the lowest end of its rating scale for protective bollards. Jabbar's F-150 Lightning weighed approximately 6,000 pounds and appeared in videos to be moving far faster than 10mph after making it on to Bourbon Street.... Article

You can't make this up.  

 

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a blue city. How much are the kickbacks?

Anonymous said...

“I don’t know any consultant or any engineering or design firm that knows anything about crash ratings that would put an S-10 in a target-rich environment.”"

It makes me wonder who is selling those inadequate S-10 bollards. That may explain a lot.

Anonymous said...

Smart bollards for Smart Cars...

Anonymous said...

BBC says the original bollards quit working after beads and other debris kept getting caught in them.

Anonymous said...

Latoya the 'destroya

Anonymous said...

In 2019 there was a study that observed a specific threat to vehicular ramming of pedestrians in the Quarter. This is a failure of leadership.

Anonymous said...

Does Richard's have the bollard contract?

Anonymous said...

New Orleans = Jackson with Mardi Gras and a working stadium.

Anonymous said...

Yo Todd Gee, sick ‘em

Hmm said...

As someone with first hand experience with bollards, both the mechanical type and type that an average size man can remove and replace manually, the mechanical type are often out of service. There's a lot that can go wrong, especially if not regularly tested/maintained. The old school bollards are 10x better, just make sure the officer working that section and EMS has the key(s) for the padlock(s).

Anonymous said...

I'm still shaking my head about their initial presser.
What an embarrassment for Louisiana in front of the world.

And if a few years worth of plastic Mardi Gras beads can "wear down" a damn concrete barrier ... I wouldn't have mentioned that sad fact to the international press corps.

Anonymous said...

Does no good to have them in the street but not the sidewalks. This is basic. Very, very basic. And downgrading to the lowest level is just asinine.

Anonymous said...

Since when has New Orleans been known for efficiency or common sense? Ever? LaToya is simply the latest. It's New Orleans after all.

Anonymous said...

This bollard thing is an easy target for the media and JJ posters but it’s really a stupid conversation. The French Quarter is a residential area with cross streets and you can’t possibly block every car from getting in. What are you going to do, block all of Poydras Street when tens of thousands are walking to a game? There’s way more people in the Junction or the Grove on game day than on Bourbon St at 3:30am on NYE. Unless you lock people up in their houses Covid style, there is always going to be risk in large groups when some nut decides to be a nut.

Anonymous said...

After 911, airports were required to upgrade security

Anonymous said...

After 911, airports were required to upgrade security with bollards in some instances. Should we assume they aren't capable of doing the job for which they are intended?

Anonymous said...

No problem. When she gets reelected she'll look into it.

Anonymous said...

7:03 - Read the whole article. There are different grades/standards of bollards. I didn't know that either, but I try to keep up. You should, too.

Anonymous said...

There is no bollard issue. The guy drove on the sidewalk where there are no bollards. Where there were or will be new bollards, there was a police car. That said, the idea of low rated bollards was a bad idea, and I assume will be ditched for something more formidable, including placing bollards or the like on the sidewalks.

Anonymous said...

Monday norning hater quarterbacks. No nothings with opinions. Run for office.

WISEOWL said...

0641 Thank you, could not be said any better.

Kingfish said...

Guess no one ever heard of the Maginot Line

Anonymous said...

11:08, I guess you missed the part about a report warning of this very situation four years ago.

It reminds me of the crowd that said no one could have predicted levee failures flooding New Orleans from a major hurricane, one year after the city was evacuated for Hurricane Ivan, and the news was awash in coverage of just such a potential event.

As a reminder:

"Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans was judged poor. At one point, the media sparked fears of an "Atlantean" catastrophe if the hurricane were to make a direct strike on the city."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ivan


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