Legislation supporting high-speed passenger rail lines along the Gulf Coast and between New Orleans and Baton Rouge could soon reach Gov. Bobby Jindal’s desk.

Louisiana House Bill 1410, would create a board of directors responsible for finding alternative sources of revenue to fund portions of the project rather than relying heavily on federal funding. Jindal had criticized a previous proposal to connect rail lines because it included an application for $300 million in federal stimulus money. He said he supported the idea of high-speed rail lines, but he wanted the funds to come from a different source.

The bill will go to the Senate floor for a vote on Thursday.

State Rep. Michael L. Jackson, I-Baton Rouge, sponsored the legislation, which outlines perceived inadequacies in federal funding for larger transportation projects, many of which have strong support from Louisiana business owners.

“Public sources of revenues, including federal funding, that provide an efficient transportation system have not kept pace with the state’s growing population and transportation needs,” the bill reads.

At a news conference Tuesday, Mayors Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans and Kip Holden of Baton Rouge pledged their support of the rail line, saying that it would bring much-needed business to both cities. The line is part of a larger proposal to create high-speed travel along the Gulf Coast that was drafted by the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission in partnership with the Mississippi and Alabama transportation departments. The total cost of renovating and rebuilding existing rail lines among the Gulf states would be $447,789,409, according to a March report by the commission.

Under this proposal, the New Orleans-Baton Rouge line would travel at a maximum speed of 79 mph, with eight stops between the two cities. Fares would be $10 one way, with a travel time of one hour and 24 minutes, about the same time it can take to drive the approximately 80 miles between the two cities.

Jackson said the public response to the rail proposal has been generally positive.

Once the state passed up the opportunity to apply for federal stimulus funds for the rail project, Jackson said, state legislators had more time to develop interest in the rail line.

“The bottom line is that this needs to happen for a lot of obvious reasons,” Jackson said. “We’re glad to be in a position now to have as many people as possible on board to say this transportation effort is going to happen.”

Jackson said he was confident Jindal would sign the bill.

Estimates on when construction on the rail line could begin are still up in the air. Jackson’s bill does not include specific language indicating when the line would be completed. Instead, the bill is intended to be a step toward funding and implementation of the passenger line in the future, Jackson said.

Warren Flatou, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said, “The states alone are making a determination whether they are going to seek funding for any purpose.” He said that “in subsequent rounds it’s conceivable that the state may seek federal funding, but we have no way to predict what the state will or will not do.”

Jackson said language that would lock the state into a timetable for building the line had to be omitted from the bill to ensure Jindal’s signature.

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The Treme neighborhood in New Orleans, the setting of the new HBO hit series, is among the nation's oldest African-American community, where free people of color could own property as early as the 18th century. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

Residents in the city of New Orleans stopped when it came on. Some gathered together in apartments, some watched it at bars, hangout spots, by themselves, even in a funeral home. Eve Kidd Crawford watched it on her couch, sitting with the same group of friends who witnessed the Saints winning the Super Bowl together.

“We were all pretty somber,” she said. “We had the lights down and we were all drinking. We knew it was going to be hard to watch.”

The HBO logo appeared on the screen. Images of floodwaters crashing through corridors of a home, water lines decorating the walls of a dilapidated house like twisted artwork. Footage of black bandleaders dancing to the blare of saxophones filled the TV.

Crawford was almost moved to tears.

“That was the first indication that they were really going to get it right,” she said.

As it prepares to wrap up its first 10-episode season on June 20, “Treme,” the HBO drama series directed by David Simon (“The Wire”) about musicians rebuilding their lives in post-Katrina New Orleans, has garnered acclaim as one of the most accurate TV representations of the storm’s aftermath.

Simon’s series does not specifically focus on the neighborhood of Treme, a wide misconception, but rather the stories rooted in artists and performers who live in the area. Antoine Batiste, played by Wendell Pierce, is a broke trumpet player with a penchant for picking up low-paying gigs. Albert Lambreaux, a Mardi Gras Indian played by Clarke Peters, deals with the harsh reality of returning to a hurricane-stricken neighborhood. These and other characters all call the historic sector home.

Known as a hub for both free and enslaved Africans in the 1700s, Treme soon became a cultural mecca for the African community. Blacks would interact with one other in an area of the neighborhood that became Louis Armstrong Park, dancing the Bamboula, a traditional African dance, and discussing their lives.

Today’s Treme is very much a reflection of its past. The neighborhood is not all second lines and feather boas, but remains reminiscent of a battered community that used music and revelry as a means of spiritual survival.

Tom Piazza, a writer for “Treme” and author of the books “Why New Orleans Matters” and “City of Refuge,” said the use of local musical artists and bands captures the liveliness of the city. During his affiliation with the show, he realized the impact it could have on America’s perception of the city.

“Most of the country has moved on to a degree from Katrina and don’t even think about it anymore,” Piazza said. “Some people think the town is lying in ruins, some think it’s just fine. There’s a lot of grim reality in this show, and just by good fortune it is airing now during a season where New Orleans really had a wonderful spirit. It’s going to direct people’s attention back to the city.”

In the eyes of some locals, the music, the food, the vibrancy and the horror of devastation is all there, but the show’s success also comes with criticism and scrutiny, most of it from the community itself.

Naydja Bynum, president of the Historic Faubourg Treme Association, said once she heard about the show, she immediately contacted the producers to ensure the community would be an active part of the production process. The association, which hosts screenings of “Treme” for residents who don’t have HBO, offered insight to the creators during its early filming stages.

“The culture they’re trying to exemplify associated with Treme,” she said. “We needed to be involved with that.”

She’s still skeptical of aspects of the show, including its title, which she finds misleading. But she said it’s potentially a positive for the area.

“I can’t say it’s excellent because I’m still processing it,” she said. “There are so many characters they are developing.”

Before the pilot episode aired, Simon wrote a letter to the Times-Picayune in which he addressed residents like Bynum who might be uncertain about the show’s authenticity.

“Beginning tonight you are the ultimate arbiters — the only ones we really care about — on the question of whether our storytelling alchemy has managed to make anything precious or worthy from the baser elements of fact,” he wrote.

The show comes after several television series and movies attempted to capture the heart of New Orleans. “K-Ville,” a show about cops in New Orleans that premiered in 2007, and “The Big Easy,” a 1987 cop-centric film, were both criticized for overuse of New Orleans clichés — not everyone calls people “chére” around here, for instance.

At the same time, the productions brought attention and revenue to the area, and “Treme” promises to do the same. HBO and “Treme” raised $76,000 for the New Orleans Musicians’ clinic at a sold-out event on March 27.

Associate producer Laura Schweigman said the show could help the city further revitalize itself.

“There’s a good chance that the film industry could thrive here,” she said. “It can bring in a lot of money, and we’re hoping to do our part.”

The series captures minute details locals will recognize but outsiders might miss. For instance, the pride of Mardi Gras Indians is a recurring theme in the show that may resonate with anyone with a sense of belonging in a community.

Lolis Eric Elie, a writer for the show known for his work on the popular documentary “Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans,” said though the series is an insider’s show in some regards, it is still accessible to anyone willing to learn about the characters.

With this insider’s focus, the writing team has had to sacrifice some facts and chronology in the name of art and aesthetics. In one scene, Janette, a restaurant owner and chef played by Kim Dickens, orders one of her staffers to serve a Hubig’s pie. Hubig’s Bakery did not reopen until February 2006, a year after the episode takes place. The scene was criticized as a blatant inaccuracy.

“Our real loyalty is not to the specific facts that happened, but it’s to the quality of the story,” Elie said. “It is through telling a good story that we’re able to raise these issues and discuss these questions that need to be discussed now, even so long after the storm has passed.”

Schweigman got a sense of that particularity when a resident who had survived the storm approached her about one scene in the pilot.

“She watched the scene when Lambreaux walks into his house,” Schweigman said. “She smelled her house when she saw the scene, but was able to make peace of it.”

With a second season already approved, the writers of “Treme” seem ready for the challenge. And the residents they asked for permission to enter their homes, their lives and their community seem to echo one resounding sentiment: Keep going. We’ll be watching.

“These incomprehensibly hideous things have happened,” Piazza said. “The mechanism by which New Orleanians survived in the face of this was through these cultural expressions that involve a defiant grace, wit and beauty, which is essentially a way of saying ‘You’re not going to kill my spirit.’”

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Cuong Nguyen, a fisher and shrimper for 22 years who speaks only Vietnamese, has had his livelihood threatened by the devastating BP oil spill. Faced with a bureaucratic claims process and red tape stretching as long as the Gulf Coast, Nguyen said the prospects of getting money and assistance seemed daunting.

But he and dozens of other fisherman and workers, many of them Vietnamese, braved the heat and lined up at 8 a.m. Monday to attend an informational fair for oil spill victims, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La.

Rosalind Peychaud, deputy chief of staff for Congressman Cao’s office, said that with the recent closings of Gulf fisheries the congressional office knew it had to act fast to assist the people.

“There’s all kinds of things happening for resources,” she said.

With interpreters stationed around the Alario Center in Westwego, La., the event featured briefings on the oil spill, arrangements for filing reimbursement claims, training for spill cleanup and information booths staffed by local health and social organizations.

BP, whose oil rig exploded in the Gulf last month, sent several representatives to take questions. The company relayed basic information regarding the oil spill and told the audience that the dispersants used to clean the oil were no more toxic than the oil itself.

During the town hall meeting that opened the fair, Larry Thomas, BP ‘s general manager of public and government affairs for the Lower 48 states and the Gulf of Mexico, tried to counter the impression that his company had not aggressively responded to the crisis for Gulf residents.

“People aren’t asking for handouts,” Thomas said. “There are some passionate folks and we understand the issues. There’s this perception that we’re sitting around and not doing things. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Mayor John Shaddinger Jr. of Westwego said he was pleased that Congressman Cao’s office had planned the event so quickly.

“Similar events have been taking place, but not to this magnitude to include Vessels of Opportunity, food stamps and training,” he said. “It’s really, from what I understand, the only one of this type.”

Nguyen, who lived through Hurricane Katrina was now facing a new disaster and needed information fast. He said, through a translator, that the fair had made it convenient to get that. But even with more resources at their disposal, he said his community fears most what no one knows – just how bad things will get.

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Every stride that Louis Chavira took was another step into oily waters. His boots were covered in chocolate-colored mulch mixed with dirt and his hands were encased in grimy gloves. Leaning in to scoop up another shovelful of oil and dirt, he let out a deep sigh.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” said Chavira, a resident of Grand Isle, La. “I’m a lifetime resident of this parish, and I’ve made a lot of my living on the water. If this doesn’t get under control very fast, we could lose all these wetlands.”

After more than a month of oil spewingfrom a BP drilling site in the Gulf of Mexico, communities such as Grand Isle, on a small barrier island off the coast of Louisiana, are experiencing the direct effects of an ongoing struggle between an approaching oil slick and protective containment booms.

Chavira and other residents from nearby areas have flocked to Grand Isle looking for ways to help clean up the dense oil accumulating in the Gulf. Some come for the $10-an-hour jobs with BP. Others are trying to save their community’s coast and protect threatened wildlife and marshes.

“My intention is to work here as much as humanly possible without jeopardizing any safety issues,” Chavira said.

Shortly after the oil rig exploded, the Grand Isle Community Center opened its doors to BP officials looking for workers to aid in the cleanup effort. Jennifer Cox, a BP official based in Baton Rouge, was at a table in the center’s front lobby on Saturday. She said applicants were still coming in, although the pace has slowed.

On Friday, government officials closed the beaches along the seven-mile stretch of land indefinitely, clearing the way for cleanup crews to work. On Elmer’s Island, a bit of beach east of Grand Isle, about 100 temporary employees and volunteers for BP have been busy scooping and shoveling sandy oil.

On the streets of Grand Isle, local residents who depend on the food harvest and fish for themselves wait for new developments. A lack of government intervention angers some residents.

Throughout the year, vacationers and tourists came through Grand Isle and rented properties for fishing and leisure.

Pat Childress, 75, and Roy Williams, 77, are two of the few permanent residents on their street. They’ve seen visitors pack up and leave because small pockets of oil make it unhealthful to fish and swim. Down to their last batch of fish, the couple said they refuse to go out for more until the water is completely clean.

“I’m not afraid of the oil,” Williams said. “I’m afraid of the chemicals they are using to clean the oil.”

As a hotspot for tourists, Grand Isle could face difficulties in the months to come if the oil spill is not contained.

Zee Lafont, a waitress at the Starfish Restaurant and a Grand Isle native, said that in just a month, the business has seen a 60 percent decline in attendance. Much of the shrimp, oysters and fish sold at the Starfish come from local shrimpers and fishermen.

And with the approaching hurricane season predicted to be an especially active one, those numbers could go down even more.

“Tourists aren’t coming down,” she said. “One of our major concerns is a hurricane. If that oil comes on this land, we will be devastated and that’s really scary. What we need here is a miracle.”

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Left to right Deputy Commander Marlon Defiloo, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas discusses crime statistics of the levels of crime at the ComStat meeting. (April Buffington/NYT Institute)

In a move he said was aimed at making the New Orleans Police Department more transparent, Police Chief Ronal Serpas convened the first department-wide crime statistics meeting on Thursday that was open to the public.

The meetings are intended to give district commanders an opportunity to share information on different issues and trends among themselves and with other elected and appointed officials. The move to open the meetings to the public followed Monday’s announcement that the Department of Justice had begun a sweeping review of police corruption, at Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s invitation.

Two district-level meetings were held earlier this week.

“This is about the future of the city of New Orleans,” Landrieu said at Thursday’s meeting. “It’s as threatening to the future of the city as the oil spill is and we have to be outspoken to fight this fight. It’s got to be done with intensity and aggressiveness that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Though Landrieu and Serpas touted the meeting as a way for citizens to become part of rebuilding the police force from the ground up, no time was set aside for public comment while the two were in attendance. And the press and police outnumbered the public.

Noel Rivers, a community activist who lives in the Fourth District, was one of the few citizens who attended. Rivers said there is more work to be done, but was pleased that Landrieu was open to airing issues in front of the public and the police force.

“Anything that brings visibility to crime issues,” Rivers said, “is helpful in the city of New Orleans.”

Standing in front of the audience, each of the eight district commanders outlined crime levels in their respective areas at Thursday’s meeting in the Victor H. Schiro Municipal Training Academy on City Park Avenue.

The officers used an interactive graphics presentation -– called ComStat –- to illustrate everything from the increased concentration of residence burglaries to the possible need to redraw police district boundaries.

Landrieu said later, “We have to rethink our boundaries because crime doesn’t know them,” he said.

Serpas has made it no secret he intends to expand the use of computer technology, like ComStat, to help forecast crime.

“ComStat is useless if you only focus on the numbers,” Serpas said. “The numbers drive how you become effective. We have to break the mindset of just talking about what happened.”

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AirTran Airways announced Tuesday that it would begin nonstop service to New Orleans from its Milwaukee hub, beginning in October.

The service would make AirTran the only airline to offer direct flights from New Orleans to Milwaukee.

AirTran’s announcement comes just three months after Midwest Airlines, which stopped service to New Orleans five years ago, announced it would resume flights from Kansas City to New Orleans later this month.

Larry Johnson, commercial development manager for the Louis Armstrong Airport, said the new airline service was the latest sign of a slow but steady recovery for the airport and New Orleans’ tourism industry, which suffered steep declines in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Aviation Board reported that in August 2005, the month Hurricane Katrina hit, 361,079 travelers from around the world landed at New Orleans’ airport. That number dropped to 22,735 in September 2005.

Last February, authorities said, the number of travelers climbed back close to pre-hurricane levels, at 307,089.

“It’s often a game of follow the leader,” said AirTran spokesman Christopher White. “Our competitors are watching us closely to see how we perform on this route and if it’s successful I would expect increased competition.”

The new service will be an afternoon flight from Milwaukee, returning from New Orleans a few hours later. AirTran also flies from New Orleans to Atlanta and Baltimore-Washington.

In the next few years, Johnson said, the airport will expand its concourses to better accommodate the increasing number of flights.

“We have things in the works to deal with the increased services,” Johnson said. The question is, “Will that demand catch up to us before we have it ready?’”

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