Terrific piece by Roberta Gratz on the passing of civic hero Bill Borah.
"To this day, Bill told me, the social and business establishment continues to question what he did and why. He was seen as the errant son when, in fact, he should be celebrated as a civic hero.
"Bill, with his white hair and penetrating blue eyes, was tough on the city he loved and spent his life trying to protect. In no other city, perhaps, did the establishment impose so high a social and economic price for defying it.
“New Orleans’ social structure is so interwoven and interconnected,” he mused, citing Carnival as the loom on which that weave is made so tight. “If you’re born in the right family and keep your mouth shut, you can feed off the economic trough and social scene for life. You can ride it from cradle to grave,” he said.
On occasion he spoke of it as a “velvet rut.”
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