47 posts categorized "Current Affairs"
Lower 9th Ward Hurricane Isaac Crowd Map: Keep Informed About the Storm
CSED has launched a special map for Lower 9th Ward residents to keep everyone informed about flooding, power outages, and any other problems associated with Hurricane Isaac as it moves through New Orleans. Go to https://neworleanshurricaneisaac.crowdmap.com/ for more information!
USA Today: With Isaac, change is in the air
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
But how much safer is the Gulf Coast from a catastrophic storm like Hurricane Katrina, which slammed the region in 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and drowning 80% of New Orleans?
That question is being asked repeatedly across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as Tropical Storm Isaac gathers strength and continues its slow, plodding northwest march through the Gulf of Mexico toward the coast.
Forecasters predict the storm will make landfall somewhere between southern Louisiana and eastern Mississippi as early as this evening -- almost seven years to the day of Katrina -- as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of up to 95 mph.
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In New Orleans
Meanwhile, residents across New Orleans on Monday tracked weather reports and weighed decisions to stay or go.
In the Lower 9th Ward -- epicenter of Katrina's destruction and the scene of survivors pleading for their lives from rooftops -- residents mostly fled, not waiting to see whether improved levees would work this time, said Linda Jackson, president of the Lower 9th Ward Homeownership Association.
"I think we're OK," Jackson said, referring to bigger levees and flood walls ringing her neighborhood. "But we're not that OK that we want to stay."
The improved flood walls around the Lower 9th are a tiny segment of a massive expansion of the city's hurricane protection system: a series of levees, flood walls and gates designed to protect from a "100-year storm," or a storm that has a 1% chance of making landfall in any given year, said Ricky Boyett, a spokesman with the Army Corps' New Orleans district. Katrina was considered a 395-year storm. Isaac is closer to a 100-year storm, he said.
Unlike the protection system in place when Katrina hit, the current system is designed to handle overtopping of flood walls, Boyett says. Overtopping led to many of the breaches that caused the city to flood during Katrina. The centerpiece of the new protection system is a mammoth surge barrier stretching 1.8 miles across a waterway in eastern New Orleans that cost $1billion to build, he said. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>
via www.usatoday.com
"Jungleland", Really? A Lower 9th Ward Response
(A Response to the New York Times’ ‘Jungleland’ Article, Published March 21, 2012)
By Jenga Mwendo
Recently the New York Times Magazine ran a story on my home, New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, titled “Jungleland”. The article, written by Nathaniel Rich (who claims to be a resident of New Orleans), paints the Lower 9th Ward as an untamed mess of overgrowth. He describes our neighborhood as a forgotten wasteland, where few have attempted to bring order and where the residents seem resigned to the wilderness. He highlights the City’s futile attempts to beat back the endless brush, but doesn’t give half as much mention to the overall lack of government support given to the neighborhood both before and after Hurricane Katrina. Needless to say, this article got under my skin. Although it's taken me a while (I'm not a journalist, and I'm balancing two jobs and single parenting right now!), I'm finally writing a response.
Yes, many parts of the Lower 9th Ward are overgrown and neglected. (And many are actually not, a fact Rich fails to mention.) But a more thorough story, and the story that we actually NEED told, is HOW and WHY this happened. The city, state and federal government basically left this population out to dry.
Millions of dollars have flowed into New Orleans, on the tragedy that was magnified internationally using the Lower 9th Ward as its poster child. And yet, nearly seven years later, the money that poured into New Orleans (and into immediate repairs of the French Quarter and other areas of tourism and affluence) has merely trickled into the Lower 9th Ward. And many of those properties described in Rich’s article actually belong to the City of New Orleans, not the residents.
To add insult to injury, there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t see a tour bus riding through the neighborhood. So not only are those of us who live in the Lower Ninth not being supported in revitalizing our neighborhood and keeping it from converting back into “Jungleland”, but tour companies are actually making money off our tragedy and lack of support.
Shame on you, Nathaniel Rich. You should’ve used this article to take the city, state and federal government to task. You had a national audience, a national stage, and you used that golden opportunity to bad-mouth a neighborhood that hasn’t received the proper support and attention it needs to recover. In your own backyard, at that. You are a New Orleanian, man!
Furthermore, you completely ignored organizations that are working hard (and are largely unsupported by the City) to do positive work here. You mention Brad Pitt’s Make It Right organization as the only silver lining on the dark cloud that is the Lower 9th Ward. What about Common Ground Relief, lowernine.org (which you only mention in reference to Lower 9th Ward tours) and the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) who have been helping Lower 9th Ward residents to rebuild their homes since Katrina? What about the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) which has been organizing volunteers to help homeowners and providing services to help them rebuild sustainably? I wonder how extensive your basic research for this article was, Nathaniel.
What about my own organization, Backyard Gardeners Network, which has been organizing neighbors together to re-connect with one another and the land using our cultural tradition of growing vegetables? What about Sankofa Community Development Corporation? What about the efforts of All Congregations Together (ACT) and A Community Voice? What about All Souls Church and Community Center and the Lower 9th Ward Village Community Center? They may not have the clout and financial power of Brad Pitt, but they are here. These are groups that actually NEED national attention to garner support and resources to continue the work. Yet you used this opportunity to highlight an organization that already has all the support it needs. You talk more about the variety of plant and animal life that have moved in, than the PEOPLE who have moved back to revitalize this neighborhood.
Before you judge us, think about why these lots are empty in the first place. Before Katrina, nearly 15.000 people lived here and, with a higher homeownership rate than anywhere else in the city, most owned their homes. The overwhelming majority of these homeowners were Black. As the foreclosure crisis around the country has taught us, homeowners don’t just casually walk away from their properties. That’s what renters are more likely to do.
Seventy-five percent of the population didn’t return because staying where they had evacuated became far easier than the fight (and expense) it would take to come back and rebuild. It should be noted that many families did actually rebuild and are still rebuilding, and they received very little support to do so. Without the support of the various nonprofits and thousands of volunteers that have helped, more of the Lower 9th Ward might actually be “Jungleland.”
The biggest setback probably had to be that this community started with fewer resources to rebuild. This was no coincidence. The reasons are numerous, but it is well documented that much has been due to legal, well-enforced historical and structural racism that still deeply affects us today. For centuries, people of African descent all over the country, but especially in the South, were generally prevented by law and custom from gaining wealth, education, and basic human rights. If you don’t have much money start with, how do you recoup your losses when tragedy strikes? Many Lower 9th Ward residents didn’t have homeowners and flood insurance. Additionally, the Road Home program, which was supposed to be a lifeline to those displaced after Hurricane Katrina, doled out payments to homeowners based on pre-Katrina property value, and NOT cost of repair. With this scenario, people who owned homes in more affluent neighborhoods (usually White) got larger sums of money to repair less damaged homes than people who owned homes in neighborhoods like the Lower 9th Ward (usually Black). A lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) alleging these discriminatory practices was settled last year, with HUD paying $62 million to Louisiana homeowners. [I don't know anyone who got that money. Anyway, the damage is done.]
The second biggest setback was that the City prevented the rebuilding efforts of Lower 9th Ward residents. Community members were not allowed to return home and start rebuilding a full nine months after other New Orleans citizens were allowed to return. Think about what could happen in nine months. Not being able to return home – and facing increased uncertainty, chaos and financial burden – for a much longer time, people had to get jobs and re-settle in their evacuation locations.
The third biggest setback was the lack of basic amenities in and near the neighborhood after Katrina. Many elderly were concerned about where they would get healthcare. Many parents were concerned about where they would send their children to school. [Thank goodness that Martin Luther King Charter School fought so hard to re-open. There would be no other public school option in this neighborhood] This neighborhood STILL does not have a grocery store. Almost seven years after Katrina, and we’re still dealing with economic blight. The original master plan actually had the Lower 9th Ward slated to be green space!!
Underlying all these setbacks, and deeply intertwined with the aforementioned historic and systemic racism, is the general lack of support from the city, state and federal government to help displaced residents to return. The City could very well provide more support to this community. Perhaps it wasn't/isn't profitable, but it is what's right. Lower 9th Ward lives are just as valuable as the lives of French Quarter or Garden District residents.
Now that Mayor Landrieu is in office, we’ll see what developments take place. I can attest that we’ve had more street repairs in the Lower 9th Ward than ever before (since Katrina). But that’s where it ends for now. I’ve heard promises and seen plans, but the Lower 9th Ward as a community is naturally skeptical. We have become used to broken promises. So we don’t hold our breaths anymore. We don’t get excited anymore. We wait and see.
The French Quarter survived relatively unscathed because it is an affluent tourist area for whites. If the Lower 9th Ward was such an area, there is no way anything as potentially destructive as a barge would’ve been allowed to remain untethered in waters with a storm coming. There is no way the levees wouldn’t have been built to withstand a category 4 storm. It isn’t because the French Quarter is 9 feet higher than the back section of the Lower 9th Ward, as implied in the Jungleland article (keep in mind that the area south of St. Claude Avenue in the Lower 9th Ward did not flood at all during the last disastrous storm, Hurricane Betsy, in 1965). It’s because of racism and classism, which usually go hand in hand.
Sorry, Nate, but you missed the mark. You may have intended to highlight a bad situation in order to somehow help us. But you could’ve done better. When outsiders come in and cover what they think are the sexy stories of an overgrown jungle, they should dig a little deeper. Go back to the journalistic basics: who, what, where, when and most of all, why. For every vegetation covered lot, there is a story, and much of the story is hard working people trying to make the historic Lower 9thWard whole again.
Atlantic Cities: What Cities Looking to Shrink Can Learn From New Orleans
Very interesting essay in The Atlantic Cities. Seems the NY Times Magazine article, "Jungleland", has stirred up a lot of passion as part of the national debate on recovery and rebuilding in the Lower Ninth Ward...and that's a good thing. We need the world to see what's really happening here, as well as the major challenges we continue to face.
By Roberta Brandes Gratz
PHOTO : Roberta Brandes Gratz
Unproven theories abound as to how cities with a diminished population might “shrink” their footprint to ease the financial burden of maintaining an infrastructure created to serve a larger city. By moving the few remaining residents out of the most diminished neighborhoods and into under-utilized spaces in healthy areas, the theory goes, the now-smaller city saves money, strengthens neighborhoods worth saving and prepares for a better future.
‘Unproven’ is the operative word here. History makes plain that if you plan for shrinkage, a city will continue to shrink, not grow stronger.
American cities started losing population after World War II with the creation of suburbs. "Planned Shrinkage," no different than today’s shrinkage strategies, was New York’s solution to a South Bronx that looked like Dresden after the war and other failing neighborhoods. Fire houses, police stations, schools closed, garbage ignored, streets unrepaired.
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Today, one community exemplifies both the consequences and costs of shrinkage and the regeneration path of incremental but veritable re-growth.
That singular place is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, skeptics assumed the worst. Officially, the city did not turn its back on the working-class neighborhood of the Lower Ninth, but few dollars and little energy have been expended there. Residents will tell you that there was not much in the way of city services to shrink.
A recent New York Times Magazine article, “Jungleland,” offered an exaggerated look at what’s happened since to the acres of vacant land in the once heavily populated working class neighborhood. The impression is one of an almost primeval forest taking over. The author ignored blocks of rebuilt houses and clusters of homes scattered among the overgrown lots. But he did highlight the inevitable consequences of the removal of city services: piles of broken up concrete and construction debris, discarded sofas, bags of garbage, toilets, a burnt car and lots of tires are randomly dumped, costs that are inevitable in even a semi-shrunk area. Considerable acreage is reverting to unkempt nature.
But the Lower Ninth Ward is also growing again slowly. Residents have defied expectations and expert predictions and are re-staking their claim. READ MORE >>
WBOK's Crosstown Conversations: On "Jungleland" & the Real Story of the Lower 9th Ward
Crosstown Conversations, on WBOK 1230 AM with host Jeanne Nathan, tries to set the record straight on Nathaniel Rich's NY Times Magazine cover story, "Jungleland" – along with the real progress and many challenges that remain – during the March 29 show.
Missed the show? Listen by clicking on the link : March 29
- Nathaniel Rich described weeds, bushes and trees growing at former homesites in the Lower 9th Ward. Fair enough in the NY Times in his article “Jungleland”, but he failed to mention six years of hard labor by residents, citizens and nonprofits to bring it back.
- Laura Paul - director of lowernine.org shares information about her non profit organization which is helping to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward.
NY Times: Jungleland - The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ‘Urban Growth’
Jungleland?? We're not sure what we think of this cover story in the New York Times Magazine. We welcome the much-needed attention to our ongoing challenge with abandoned lots, blighted properties and illegal dumping. But as we continue to report here, there are many amazing developments happening as well throughout the Lower 9th Ward - setting an example for sustainability for the rest of the nation...and that goes well beyond what's happening at Make It Right. Mr. Richland, we cordially invite you to a complete tour of the Lower 9!
By Nathaniel Rich
“We have snakes,” Mary Brock said. “Long, thick snakes. Kingsnakes, rattlesnakes."
Brock was walking Pee Wee, a small, high-strung West Highland terrier who darted into the brush at the slightest provocation — a sudden breeze, shifting gravel, a tour bus rumbling down Caffin Avenue several blocks east. But Pee Wee had reason to be anxious. Brock was anxious. Most residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans are anxious. “A lot of people in my little area died after Katrina,” Brock said. “Because of too much stress.” The most immediate sources of stress that October morning were the stray Rottweilers. Brock had seen packs of them in the wildly overgrown lots, prowling for food. Pee Wee, it seemed, had seen them, too. “I know they used to be pets because they are beautiful animals.” Brock corrected herself: “They were beautiful animals. When I first saw them, they were nice and clean — inside-the-house animals. But now they just look sad.”
The Lower Ninth has become a dumping ground for unwanted dogs and cats. People from all over the city take the Claiborne Avenue Bridge over the Industrial Canal, bounce along the fractured streets until they reach a suitably empty area and then toss the animals out of the car. But it’s not just pets. The neighborhood has become a dumping ground for many kinds of unwanted things. READ MORE >>
via www.nytimes.com
Japan One Year Later: Echos of New Orleans and Dangerous Comparisions
On March 3rd, 2011 Japan was hit with a 9.0 earthquake, a devestating tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at the now infamous Fukushima Plant. This trio of disasters has truly destroyed certain communities and left many families struggling with the pain of losing loved ones and friends and also facing the challenges of rebuilding their material and emotional lives.
It blows my mind that some in the media and in our country are still talking about the supposed preponderance of looting and violence that occured post Katrina. Immediately following the storm some misguided commentators made the offensive comparison of the behavior of the Japanese following the disaster to the behavior of New Orleanians, despite ample evidence that cultural and racial biases effect whether or not someone was believed to be looting or securing lifesaving provisions. These comparisons ignore the fact that the vast majority of New Orleanians responded nobly, and that a great deal of the violence and racism was actually perpetrated against residents by law enforcement, their fellow more privaleged neighbors and by city, state and federal government actions and inactions. These commentators reveal more about their own misunderstanding of privalege and race than they do offer insight into comparisons in disaster response from both the Japanese and American governments.
It can be challenging and misleading to compare disasters: the factors that contribute to them, the impacts and the responses are all different given a myriad of factors from environmental, to sociological, to cultural to governmental. As I mentioned above people often focus on the wrong things, by making stupid comparisons and racist remarks. However, I do believe that comparisons, when given careful thought, can be enlightening.
Japan and New Orleans both reveal the fact that a lack of proper planning can contribute to the magnitude of the disaster. They both reveal that how the government responds immediately following a disaster makes a huge difference in the amount of lives saved. They both reveal the challenges that residents face in order to rebuild their lives, and both also demonstrate the commitment people have to rebuilding their homes in spite of the challenges.
My hope is that more study will be given to these similarities and differences and that both of our nations can learn from the mistakes and prepare for a more resilient future.
Recognizing a Great Partnership Between Lower 9th Ward CSED and Sierra Club
Tracy Nelson, Executive Director of CSED and Robin Mann, Sierra Club President on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform (Caffin & Florida)
What a thrill it was for CSED to be recognized by an organization as well known and well respected as the Sierra Club. And it was an honor and delight to not only meet Michael Brune and Robin Mann but the board members of both the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation as well. The highlight for me was receiving the award out on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform where so many events, press conferences and influential people have gathered. This platform, built from the desire of the community to be reconnected to the water, shows how great collaborations can bring a project to fruition in situations where very little progress was originally anticipated. In partnership with the Sierra Club, the University of Wisconsin biology students, University of Colorado at Denver design students, Common Ground volunteers, CSED staff, residents and local carpenters, this platform has become a symbol of the ‘can-do attitude’ of one small community. Used daily by residents and visitors alike, the platform is a vital link for our community to the wetlands that border our neighborhood.
If you have not been to this special site within the Lower 9th Ward, it is located at the end of Caffin and Florida Avenue. If you come early in the morning you may, by chance, run into local resident John (Swamp Red) Taylor. John not only maintains the site for CSED but he is an endless wealth of knowledge about the wetlands and how it used to be when he was a coming up.
Left: John Taylor with young gator at site
Right: Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform
Holy Cross School Site Plans Dealt a Setback (via Times-Picayune)
The Times-Picayune this morning reported on a setback to plans coordinated jointly by a team of developers (including Green Coast Enterprises and actor Wendell Pierce) and Lower 9th Ward residents to redevelop the old Holy Cross School property into a multi-use project complete with a green grocery and urban farm.
By Frank Donze, The Times-Picayune
Citing their inability to line up financing, developers have scrapped a proposal to buy the shuttered Holy Cross School campus and bring a full-service supermarket and affordable housing for teachers to the Lower 9th Ward site. A team led by New Orleans-based Green Coast Enterprises signed an agreement to buy the 16-acre tract last year. But the group notified the school's real estate agent recently that it would not be able to meet a late January deadline to finalize the purchase.
David da Cunha, the Property One broker representing Holy Cross, said Friday that the developers were attempting to cobble together several sources of funding, including a loan from a City Hall-administered program set up to provide residents with greater access to healthful food choices.
"It proved to be too slow of a process for them, " da Cunha said, "so they decided to pull out. It was a business decision they had to make.''
Green Coast officials couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Holy Cross officials, who moved the school to a new home in Gentilly two-and-a-half years ago, announced last spring that they were looking for a buyer for the old campus.
Property One established an asking price of $2.1 million for the entire site, including several parcels adjacent to or near the campus.
Site may be broken up
While the school still would prefer a single transaction, da Cunha said there now "may be an opportunity to carve out some of the pieces and sell it less than whole." READ MORE >>
via www.nola.com
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