on leaving new orleans
leaving new orleans was hard… there’s still so much to do, and it was so hard to say goodbye to people i’ve grown close to during my brief few months in new orleans. i’m in chicago now, putting together next steps. i haven’t written to many of you in a long time — it got so hectic in new orleans it was hard to keep up with communications. i’m still surprised at the questions and reactions i get from people that i talk with about new orleans — people asking, “is it worth rebuilding?” or “is there still that much left to do?!”. i’ve included a few pictures in this post… these are pictures from my last weeks in new orleans – pictures of new orleans nine and ten months after the storm. in the end i needed to leave to try to catch up again with the life i’m just starting out in chicago. it is strange being in another city – one with infrastructure that functions, to a degree – after being so consumed by the damage and debris and unmet needs and military presence of new orleans. it does help to put some context into the inquiries i had been getting (is there still really all that much to do there?). it’s hard to imagine how devastated parts of the city are when you aren’t there. it’s difficult for me even after spending several months living in the disaster zone… i came back to chicago and at first had the overwhelming sense of being somewhere where things worked. traffic lights, phones, electricity…. it starts to seem so normal that it seems just absolutely ridiculous that there could be whole communities in the urban united states that don’t have those things and people/media have moved on to other things.
anyway, i’m getting distracted. i did want to share in this post a few updates on the scene in new orleans since i last wrote, as well as a few pictures to help illustrate. i know, everyone has seen the new orleans pictures. i too had seen a lot of pictures of the flood aftermath – the visual story was definitely part of what compelled me to quit my job and go to new orleans to witness and to contribute in some way. i also knew that the pictures and stories that i was seeing and hearing from most media outlets were failing to provide me with the whole story and i wanted to be able to experience part of the story personally so that i could in turn try to share that with others in my network of friends and family. i’d like to write more, but honestly i’m exhausted. here are some starter pictures in the meantime, maybe of things that you haven’t seen (people resisting the government and standing up for environmental justice and the human right to shelter)… i’ll try to add text slowly in future posts, as well as additional pictures of the state of gutting and rebuilding in the 9th ward.
National Guard Reoccupies 9th Ward – vehicles line up in front of a church
St. Bernard – one of several public housing sites slated for demolition by HANO and HUD
Pictures taken July 4, 2006, on a day of protest, rally, and unity for survivors and former residents.
(lots of pics and information available: see also http://survivorsvillage.com/ and http://justiceforneworleans.org/)
People Gather at City Hall to Protest the Fast-Tracked Opening of the Chef Menteur landfill
The landfill site raises environmental justice issues because the landfill will take debris from all areas of New Orleans but is located near the primarily Vietnamese Village de l’Est community, as well as other minority communities in eastern New Orleans. (here’s an article on the event at city hall: http://www.neworleanseast.com/news/article/landfill/landfill1.htm)
