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the Riverwalk Mall, which was filled with pre-Christmas Saturday shoppers. It was perhaps the only thing that could distract the city from a particularly bloody Thanksgiving week. Fourteen people were slain in the city, including three young employees at the French Quarter branch of the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, as people were shopping in the French Market just feet away from the restaurant. It was soon determined the robbery was led by a coworker of the three. The savagery of the crime jolted the populace and galvanized a citizens’ march on City Hall, even as African Americans wondered aloud why there hadn’t been similar outrage for murders in black neighborhoods. On Dec. 10, Gambit addressed the violence in an editorial addressed to slain Pizza Kitchen workers Santana Meaux, Michael Witcoskie and Cara LoPiccolo.
1984: The World’s Fair was beset by problems from its inception.
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > DECEMBER 28 > 2010
Photo © Joshua Mann Pailet, A Gallery for Fine Photography
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new casino to NOPD, crime, NORD and more. His proposals are not pie-in-thesky promises, but real solutions forged by a young man who has faced the heat of legislative battle many times since he was elected to the Louisiana house of representatives in 1987. While still a new lawmaker, he was among the first to challenge David Duke’s racist demagoguery at every legislative turn, and he did it with the class and skill of a veteran. — Jan. 18, 1994 Harrah’s New Orleans opened its new “temporary casino” in the Municipal Auditorium in May 1995. Gambit noted
the opening in an editorial titled “A Wary Welcome”: Despite the obvious short-term benefits, we remain concerned about how the casino will play out over the long haul. Will it be the boom that revives New Orleans, or will it become a money drain that compounds our economic woes and social ills? — Apr. 25, 1995 On May 8, 1995, New Orleans was hit with a freak rainstorm that flooded many parts of the city and the outlying suburbs with as much as 24 inches of water. In New Orleans, five people died Monday
in storm-related incidents, including two found under the railroad underpass on the riverbound Pontchartrain Expressway. … Jefferson Parish was hit nearly as hard, particularly along Jefferson and Airline Highways. Some Kenner subdivisions had 90 percent of their homes flooded, and Harahan and Metairie reported widespread flooding, especially along Veterans Boulevard. … If there can be any good news, it is that the storm did not hit the city on Sunday or earlier — when thousands of people filled the Fair Grounds for the annual Jazz Fest. — May 16, 1995 On Dec. 14, 1996, on a clear afternoon, the freighter Bright Field slammed into
To Santana, Cara and Michael, You will not be forgotten. We promise. It is an unfortunate truism in our city today that the outrage of one heinous crime is too soon, too often forgotten by the jarring effect of another. On Thanksgiving Eve, just days before you died, Molly Elliot, a 28-year-old advertising executive, was carjacked, robbed, raped and murdered, allegedly by a parking lot attendant at the downtown garage where she routinely parked her car for work. The day after Thanksgiving, security guards Anaise Wheeler, 40, and Leroy Turner, 28, were both shot to death in the parking lot of an eastern New Orleans nightclub as they tried to stop thieves from breaking into a car. The horror that you and other good people have suffered must not be in vain. We pray that we will have the dignity, courage and wisdom to face the crime crisis that felled you, for we are a more angry and frightened people since you left us. — Dec. 10, 1996
30 years of gambit
1988 sept. 13
Cartoonist Bunny Matthews joins the staff to draw Cayenne (and later Vic and Nat’ly).
1989 June 13
Ronnie Virgets premieres a new column, Razoo (called Virgets in the new millennium).
July 11
Pierre DeGruy is named editor.
1990 feb. 13
Gambit moves to 4141 Bienville St.
1991 Jan. 8
Real Astrology by Rob Brezsny premieres.
feb. 26
Margo and Clancy DuBos, with two limited partners, buy Gambit from Landmark Communications, bringing the paper back to local ownership.
1992 april 1
Clancy DuBos becomes editor.
Dec. 22
Verandah, a new column by Don Lee Keith, replaces Ronnie Virgets’ Razoo.