More About Gert Town.

The Board of Health initiated systemic garbage removal and the institution of a port quarantine for arriving ships. Prior to this, packs of dogs and feral hogs kept the streets free of garbage and ships came and went, willy-nilly, sailors sniffling in every whorehouse.

Not only was the Board of Health initiated in New Orleans, it was the year the city got street numbers. It has taken this long for people to use them. The zip code did not come along until 1963. Imagine living in a world without zip codes...

The last yellow fever outbreak in New Orleans was in 1910. The city has the New Orleans Mosquito, Termite & Rodent Control Board to thank for that. It was instituted by Mayor Maestri in 1944.

Louis Philippe de Roffignac was Mayor of New Orleans 1820-1828. He left office with a cocktail named in his honor. To this day, a person can walk up to a bar anywhere in New Orleans and order a roffignac. It is a sophisticated sipping person's cocktail classic alongside the sazarac, the Ramos Gin Fizz, the brandy milk punch, the hurricane, the hand grenade, and the frozen daiquiri. It is made with raspberry vinegar and whiskey. You should try it.

Roffignac Street is in the Lower 9. It is a few blocks downriver from Fats Domino Avenue, in zip code 70117.

You should try a Roffignac. It will put hair on your chest. It will make you sound intelligent.

Gert Town is a bastardization of "Gherke's Town." Except when it was the Macarty Plantation, Gert Town never really had a name. It was the backatown. There were no street numbers. There were no streets. There are still unpaved streets in Gert Town. The only phone in the neighborhood was at Gherke's General Store.

Having the only telephone within walking distance was good for business. Even in the 1920s, this was a remote part of New Orleans. People expected to see a Colapissa Indian. There were no Colapissa Indians by then.

Mr. Gherke had bought out and evicted the Colapissa from their last encampment on this side of South Carrollton Avenue. They moved to be with their brethren in Hollygrove. What happened to them remains a mystery.

Nobody beat Gherke's prices or convenience. They delivered. The plot where Mr. Gherke built his general store has been continuously zoned for retail grocery operations since he pulled the first permit. If a property is out of commerce for six months, it needs to be rezoned.

To add insult to injury, the Save-a-Lot grocery chain that currently occupies the lot isn't even located on Colapissa Street, which ends without warning in the back of a defunct payday loan outfit that had a cartoon cow for a mascot. Sav-a-Lot's address is 3033 South Carrollton Avenue. Would you like further proof we are not in Gert Town?

The zip code is 70118.

Easter is coming.