Drowned city cuts its poor adrift (The Observer)

[Up2Late]

(Yes, this is another New Orleans story, and even though some here are growing tired of the subject of the how the New Orleans poor are being forgotten by our Federal Government, there is some new info on anti-poor tactics here, and the rest should be considered criminal neglect.)

Drowned city cuts its poor adrift

The waters have receded but the mainly black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions and plans that favour the better off, reports Peter Beaumont

Sunday December 11, 2005
The Observer

Miss Mildred's piano lies where the water knocked it down three months ago, amid ruined photographs and clothes. Her favourite chair is jammed in a corner; the wooden tiles of her tiny clapboard house muddy and peeled loose. There is nothing to salvage from a thrifty, industrious life, so she has come to see her home in New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward for one last time.

"I don't have anything to come home to. No food, no water or electricity," said the 74-year-old, whose family has been scattered. "I can't afford to live in the French Quarter and there is nowhere else to rent. I have three more years on the mortgage to pay for this." She will not sell the property, she says, but she also will not return. And Mildred W Franklin is angry. In a city where the wealthy areas are buzzing with reconstruction, her neighbourhood, one of the worst affected, is silent and ghostly. 'They want us to be disgusted. They don't want us to return.'

She is not alone in thinking this. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans it was the city's poor - almost exclusively African Americans - who were left to fend for themselves as the city drowned in a lake of toxic sludge. Now, three months on, the same people have been abandoned once again by a reconstruction effort that seems determined to prevent them from returning. They are the victims of a devastating combination of forced evictions, a failure to reopen the city's public house projects, rent gouging and - as in the case of Mildred - a decision to write off whole neighbourhoods....

(clip)

:hi:...Sitting in the back of the pick-up truck of union activist Jim Prickett, Aaron is on fire with anger. A young black man in his twenties in dreadlocks and a Veterans for Peace T-shirt, he flares out at all around him. "My grandpa died at the airport {during the evacuation}. Now me and my mama can't get into our home. There is a notice on the door. If we try, we are looting. :hi: Do you understand how that must feel?" he shouts. "Do you understand? I live how I can. It has jumbled me up here," he points to his head. "It is genocide and ethnic cleansing. It's the return of Jim Crow...."

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1664630,00.html?gusrc=rss>
(more at link above}

[aquart]

1. It is the essence of evil.

And all participants in this crime deserve to do time up here and burn down there.

[bluestateguy]

2. New Orleans needs its own Hugo Chavez

Someone to just come in, kick ass, put the money grubbers in their place, and make the working classes the top priority.

If this shit keeps up, I will never visit New Orleans again.

[imouttahere]

7. New Orleans will NEVER be the same....

especially if ALL its residents can't return. Do the moneygrubbers think they can make N.O. into some Disney-fied, cheesy Orlando???

[allisonthegreat]

8. love the santos-mcgarry sticker nt

[Skittles]

3. if anyone denies this is racism

I swear I will barf

[awoke_in_2003]

4. And, of course,

classism.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. There should be absolutely no doubt at this point in time.

[KamaAina]

23. Don't barf.

if anyone denies this is racism, KICK THEIR ASS!

[Zan_of_Texas]

6. Check out Friday's Democracy Now for some great testimony.

Local leaders from New Orleans came to Congress to tell what happened, and believe me, they did not mince words.

Amy Goodman played extensive clips of their testimony on Friday's show. Well worth a listen, or a read.

www.democracynow.org

[Digit]

9. This needs to be Michael Moore'd to bring more awareness to the public

It was blatant, indeed, and the survivors continue to get screwed.
I believe also that the death toll was in the thousands but the media has let the
ball drop.

[Karenina]

10. And the public is distracted

by the WAR ON X-MAS!!!

[Maggie_May]

11. This gets me so angry

With billions of our tax dollars being spent in Iraq we can not rebuild our own country. We need our Dems to start shouting this from the roof tops. I want my tax dollars spent here!!!!

[Anita Garcia]

12. Thank you for posting this article

[Triana]

13. Notice how the US lamestream media hardly reports this? (n/t)

[funkybutt]

14. Who here is growing tired of the subject???

I want to know. Stand up and admit it. The people here are suffering and have been for over 3 months now, myself included. The fact that people here are "growing tired" of hearing about it INFURIATES ME. You wanna know who is growing TIRED?? WE ARE! New Orleanians who are getting NO HELP and NO ANSWERS. If you're one of those people, get a flight down here and I'll show you around. Come swim in our sorrow for a few days and then tell US how tired YOU are.

Are you growing tired of Tookie, growing tired of "Merry Chrismas" debates...give me a fucking break!

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. This should be the #1 topic here on DU

We absolutely HAVE TO keep NO on the front page of every newspaper and at the top of the hour on every news show.

This 'recovery effort' in NO and on the Gulf Coast is absolutely disgraceful. I am ashamed to be an American. It is incredibly disheartening to watch a 3rd world country evolve from the hurricane wreckage. I am appalled that people are sleeping IN TENTS while waiting for FEMA to help them.

This is social engineering. And it is repulsive.

[Up2Late]

17. Sorry, I meant no offense to you or the people of New Orleans, all I...

...was trying to express was my frustration how, when I post a news story or start a topic about the situation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, I'm getting fewer and fewer responses and it's really starting to bother me how few seem to care anymore about what's happening to you folks.

Maybe I'm just misinterpreting lack of response for lack of caring, but really it's just that, people just don't know what to say anymore. I hope that's it. I care deeply about what is not being done for you folks and am doing all I can from here in Atlanta.

I would like to invite you to join us and some of your fellow New Orlinians in the NEW Hurricane Survivors Group that I recently helped create. Here's the link and the mission statement:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360>

The DU Hurricane Survivors Group is a place for DU members from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South-west Texas, and Southern Florida and elsewhere who are or have been victims of the recent Hurricanes to check-in, meet each other, trade accounts, offer advice or just show support for their fellow survivors. It is also a place for posting Hurricane related news stories, which seem to have been bumped from the front pages, if they are still being reported at all.

I hope to see you there funkybutt. :hug:

[funkybutt]

28. Thank you Up2Late

I wasn't referring to you, personally, not caring. I've encountered a bit of hostility and indiference toward our plight by fellow democrats here at the DU. It surprised me. I thought Democrats and liberals sincerely CARE about helping people.

I've been told it was our fault for living in a red state, for living below sea level, for trusting the Corps' levees, for asking for handouts, ect.

It's almost driven me to leave DU forever.

I'll head over to the Hurricane Survivors Group.

[Gemini Cat]

16. It's genocide.

Where are all the "right to life" fuckers who claim to care so much about life?

[justasoldier]

18. Why try and rebuild?

hijack
Personally I don't see the value in rebuilding N.O. - I understand the history as well as the sentimental factors involved. My question is: Why set yourself up for failure AGAIN?!? When you try and defy mothernature you lose...maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually you will lose. They should rebuild or whatever somewhere else that ISN'T BELOW SEA-LEVEL.


hijack over

justasoldier

[newspeak]

19. we have been over this before

New Orleans is one of the oldest cities in this country--the culture is unique. It is an important waterway, the mouth of the Mississippi. The city is old and some of the families that live there are generational going back two, three hundred years. If your family lived in a place for one, two hundred years, would you feel so lightly about leaving it? I have been to New Orleans, the culture alone is worth saving it. Now, what organizations are helping in debt relief for the survivors? Are there any? What organization is doing the most to help, especially areas like the Ninth Ward?

[raccoon]

20. I wonder if the Ninth Ward will EVER be rebuilt.

Not only because its residents were poor, but also the area was contaminated by chemicals. I sure can't see the federal gov't coming up with the money for decontamination, and N.O. doesn't HAVE it. LA doesn't have it.

If anyone is knowledgeable about this subject, please share it with us.

[amandabeech]

29. The Ninth Ward also is the lowest-lying land in the City.

I have read that it really should receive at least 10 feet of fill so that it would not be so severely flooded in the future, even in minor floods. The problem is that filled land can't be built on for ten years or so. That would mean building on piles, which is expensive and time consuming. The problem should be under intense study right now, although I doubt that it is.

In the meantime, I just don't understand why as many emergency trailers as possible cannot be located in and close to the Ninth Ward just as soon as power, telephone, water and sewage services are available. Perhaps some backyards are large enough to get a trailer or RV situated.

This is just so obviously an effort to get rid of those who are minority, poor or both.

[Bridget Burke]

31. The city of Galveston was raised after the 1900 Storm.

The city built a Seawall & dredge material was pumped in behind it. Houses & utilities were jacked up during the process. Of course, the process was simpler in the large areas of total destruction.

www.1900storm.com/rebuilding/index.lasso

Perhaps this would help parts of NOLA. Restored wetlands & an improved levee system are also necessary.

But Bush would rather give his pals huge tax cuts & blow remaining funds on killing Iraqis & Americans.

[politicat]

21. You know, the Dutch have lived below sea level for a millenium.

They know how to keep a civilization based on dikes, levees and dams functional. It's not inexpensive and it takes will and dedication and vision from the leadership. They offered to help us do the same for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We rejected the help.

Enjoy your short stay here.

[420inTN]

22. The Dutch don't face hurricanes. eom

[pitohui]

26. they face north sea storms that have killed thousands

in any case it is not open to debate

if usa abandons the northern gulf of mexico, you'd better damn well be prepared to drill and refine oil offshore florida, california, and to develop the tar sands in the rockies, and to get more out of the coal out of the appalachians, i guess you think this won't affect tennessee, think again, coal plants even w. scrubbers contribute to the worst air in the usa, in eastern tennessee (such as knoxville) and western north carolina (such as charlotte) people today have a greater risk of heart disease, even if non smokers, because of the pollutants from coal, if you plan to live a long life, maybe you'd better get off your duff and stop crapping on louisiana because if you abandon the northern gulf of mexico it DOES mean YOUR air quality will be significantly decreased

in other words, you had better be prepared to sacrifice your pretty landscapes, your clean air, and your pampered way of life because you will no longer have the luxury of forgoing those resources if you refuse to protect and use the northern gulf of mexico

[420inTN]

34. And NO has faced Gulf Storms that have killed thousands.

The Dutch still don't face hurricanes.

[pitohui]

25. we have oil

we have chemical plants

we have refineries

if you'd rather die in iraq to import all those things more expensively, then by all means, it's a volunteer army

but an intelligent analysis of our resources proves that if you give up the northern gulf of mexico, you give up the wealth of this country -- new orleans is at a strategic point on the mississippi river, if you don't understand the importance of this river to the usa economy, go back to russia or wherever you're really from until you do figure out, because there is no patriotism in not protecting your most strategic ports and mineral resources -- or at least there is no patriotism to the usa, i sometimes wonder where these negative posts REALLY come from

i doubt you ARE a soldier, as real soldiers know that louisiana and mississippi have volunteered for service far out of proportion to our small population

[KamaAina]

24. The headline is somewhat misleading

it implies that the city itself is responsible for this national disgrace, rather than our scum-sucking, profiteering, soulless, miserable excuse for a federal "government".

Rant off, for now. You can see how tired I am of all this :sarcasm: -- I dreamed about a post on one of the rebuilding boards last night.

[pitohui]

27. yes, i agree it's a misleading headline

the city gov't would be happy to have the poor and working class back, especially the poor and working class black population, because they are the democrats and this was a democratic city

unfortunately part of the purpose of the FEDERAL attack on our city and our people is to destroy the once-powerful democratic party in louisiana

they've been doing this on every level, from petty persecution of william jefferson to the bold lies about gov. blanco spread by karl rove & parroted by nat'l media, it is hard to talk to people from outside this area, they have so many crazy ideas you don't even know where to start!

[Benhurst]

30. Why should I bother my beautiful mind on this when I'm concetrating

my efforts on saving Christmas from the liberals?

:puke:

[peaceatallcosts]

32. citizens adrift???

but I don't understand......

wasn't the mayor of the Big Easy just in Atlanta bribing the outcasts to return to New Orleans??

maybe bribing is a bit harsh....but I heard they haven't even fixed the worst area of town (9th ward) and he want's them to come back already????

something smells...

[Kool Kitty]

33. They haven't "fixed" any of it, that's the point.

President Pinhead stood in front of the cathedral and said that the city would be rebuilt. and what thave they done? All the available money in this misadministation is either going to tax cuts for rich folks that don't need another tax cut or for corporations that don't need another tax cut or for this illegal war in Iraq. This country should be rebuilding schools in New Orleans, NOT in Iraq.