I particularly love the cover this week — conceived and executed by art director Dora Sison.

Inside:

Interviews with filmmakers Harry Shearer and Spike Lee, whose documentaries The Big Uneasy and If God is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise both make their debuts this week — plus a review of The Big Uneasy.

A look at the state of medicine in New Orleans, five years later.

Clancy DuBos examines the reforms made after Katrina. Chris Rose asks the unanswerable: What if it never happened?

Noah Bonaparte Pais remembers big-box music stores and reflects on how music retailing has changed since the storm. Lauren LaBorde surveys local booksellers and gets their picks for the best post-Katrina literature.

Dalt Wonk on post-K theater; D. Eric Bookhardt on post-K art; Ian McNulty on the restaurants that vanished in 2005 and never came back.

It’s a good issue. Pick it up around town starting Sunday afternoon, or check back Monday for the online edition. And next week: the annual Best of New Orleans.

In Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s State of the City speech, delivered July 8 at Xavier University, he addressed the current state of the New Orleans Recreation Department with these words:

“When I was a kid, NORD had great playgrounds and sports teams and even theater, dance and music programs. But when I came into office 67 days ago, I found a recreation department that would make you weep, one that is under-funded and under-prioritized. We found many of NORD’s facilities are in shambles — swimming pools without filtration systems, no restrooms and no shower facilities.”

For the three weeks before the mayor’s speech, Gambit had been looking into the state of NORD facilities around the city, visiting 25 of them in representative neighborhoods around New Orleans and recording the conditions there.

What reporter Matt Davis found was more than “swimming pools without filtration systems” or a lack of restrooms and showers — it was vacant lots officially listed as playgrounds, abandoned buildings and dangerous structures, concrete holes that were once swimming pools, rusty playground equipment, bulldozed lots listed as playspots, and, in one case, a open manhole just feet away from a slide, large enough for a child to fall down.

In our cover story, Davis looks at the history of NORD — from its founding in the 1940s, when Life magazine hailed it as the nation’s finest summer recreation program, to its current state of neglect … a neglect so profound that it was FEMA, not the City of New Orleans, who could provide us with the most up-to-date list of NORD’s own facilities. We talked to city councilmembers, to city officials, and to the neighbors of these blighted properties; we took photos, video, and ranked each property.

Landrieu and other city officials want to make a change to the city charter (which will be taken to the voters Oct. 2) to turn NORD over to a public-private partnership; and NORD just received its fourth director in two years — but will it make a difference this time? Is it possible to double the NORD budget when the city coffers are facing a $67 million deficit? And if NORD can’t even manage to keep the grass cut on its existing properties, what does that say about the city’s stewardship of even more money for the program?

There’s more in this week’s issue — from a first-person account of what volunteering to help oiled wildlife really entails to a fun Gambit interview with burlesque queen Dita Von Teese — but we really hope you take the time to read about the current state of the New Orleans Recreation Department.

Here’s a quick video of what we found — and please keep in mind that these aren’t abandoned or defunct playgrounds: these are active NORD facilities, this is is where the city of New Orleans expects its children to play, today … and this is only the first installment of what we expect will be an ongoing series of reports.

Some quick housekeeping: Someone wrote wondering what the music is behind the trailer for Tremé. It’s called “Ring Shout — Peace of Mind,” and it’s the opening cut from the 2007 album Congo Square, featuring Wynton Marsalis, Yacub Addy, Odadaa! and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. There’s a DVD of the whole performance on Amazon, but for the CD itself you may have to go to the iTunes Music Store (where the individual song can also be downloaded for 99 cents). Also: WWL-TV has the list of St. Joseph’s altars that will be open on Mar. 19, and if you’re new in town and have never experienced a St. Joseph’s altar, feel free to drop in on any of these and get a little bit of history.

Anyway. In this week’s Gambit:

• The Louisiana Public Service Commission and sustainable-energy advocates have been at sixes and sevens over the state’s master plan for setting alternative energy goals — and the LPSC punted on voting on those goals this week. Will we remain behind the rest of the country when it comes to establishing 21st century energy policies? Alex Woodward talks to both sides and spells out the arguments ….

• Clancy DuBos charts the Winnas, the Loozas, and the draws in the most recent round of elections, and analyzes what the results mean in the chutes-and-ladders of New Orleans politics …

• Chris Rose looks at the latest dustup between the NOPD and the Mardi Gras Indians …

• The Idea Village is sponsoring its Entrepreneur Week beginning Mar. 20. Brandon Meginley previews …

• The great documentarian Les Blank comes to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art this week, and Ken Korman talked to the filmmaker in advance of his visit …

• … and Ian McNulty chows down, World War II-style, at John Besh’s American Sector restaurant.

There’s more, of course. Check it out on the newsstand beginning Sunday afternoon, or check back on the main Gambit site Monday afternoon. Later.

That title? Check this story from WWL-TV about the upcoming construction around the Causeway, which looks like it will turn the normal commuting headache into a full-blown traffic migraine. And it’s going to last two years. Pack an extra Thermos of coffee and make sure your iPod is charged.

Anyway … what’s coming up in this week’s Gambit?

• The Anthony Bean Community Theater is turning 10 years old. In our cover story, David Winkler-Schmit profiles the man who built New Orleans’ only African-American community theater, which not only produces original and classic works, but provides a much-needed outlet for teenage drama students …

• “Heil Hitler” salutes and racial and religious slurs in the workplace directed at a Jewish employee? It happened in Jefferson Parish, and the supervisor who admits to overseeing all this was a parish employee. In a Gambit exclusive, Allen Johnson Jr. examines the depositions in a case reminiscent of other official Jeff Parish working environments over the years, including the “noose neckties” worn by Jeff Parish prosecutors in 2001 and the whipping post case investigated by the FBI in 2007 …

• Chris Rose reminisces about Barry Hannah, the Mississippi wild man of letters who died last week …

• Clancy DuBos looks at the mayor-elect’s task force for selecting a new superintendent of police. Can the new chief come from the ranks of the NOPD, or will he or she have to come from elsewhere? …

• Gov. Bobby Jindal is redoubling the state’s effort to crack down on sexual predators. A good thing — or just a way to avoid making some hard decisions about the state’s fiscal crisis? Our man in Baton Rouge, Jeremy Alford, looks at the guv’s priorities in “To Catch a Panderer” …

• Noah Bonaparte Pais previews the upcoming Foburg Music Festival, and Will Coviello gets a sneak peek at the Contemporary Arts Center’s new production of Fantastic Mr. Fox …

… and it’s Election Day in Orleans Parish, at least if you live in City Council Districts A or E. Early indications are exceptionally low voter turnout, so you’ve got a chance to make a big difference. Polls are open till 8 p.m., and we’ll Twitter the results as soon as they come in. Have a great weekend.

The past few weeks have been chaos for Roots of Music. The program moved down the street from its comfortable space at the Cabildo to a one-room auditorium at the U.S. Mint, and instructors had to get more than 100 students ready for six parades. Add the usual headaches — arranging transportation, feeding 100-plus mouths, tutoring — and a grim reality: If program directors can’t scrape together funding within the next few weeks, March looks bleak. In this week’s cover story, I followed Roots of Music as its 2010 class prepared for its Mardi Gras debut, and hopefully not its last.

The free program for at-risk students ages 9 to 14 helps low-income families get their children on the right track. Derrick Tabb (Rebirth Brass Band drummer and CNN Hero) and Allison Reinhardt founded Roots of Music in 2007, and it includes (among other things) free transportation from school (and back home), meals, tutoring (required) and a world-class music education from Tabb and New Orleans musicians like Edward Lee from Soul Rebels Brass Band, as well as Allen Dejan Jr., Shoan Ruffin and Lawrence Rawlins. Oh, and Trombone Shorty and Phil Frazier serve on the board.

Gambit photographer Cheryl Gerber documented the band’s three-step parade prep: rehearsal, dress, and the finale — marching and playing in Carnival 2010. (Hit the jump for the photos.)

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