Drove through the Ninth Ward in New Orleans the other day - took some pictures

[proud2BlibKansan]

Just got back from 4 days in NO. Oh how I love that city! It was raining one day so we got on the cable car and rode it all over town for most of the afternoon. We rode with a guy who told us all about his family's Katrina experience and some other pretty interesting things.

The Ninth Ward was so sad. There was maybe one house on every block that looked livable. The vast majority of the houses we saw were destroyed. Many still had the circles and Xes painted on them right after Katrina, while they were rescuing folks.



















The guy we met on the cable car said he evacuated his elderly mother and that evening when the weather man on TV said the danger was over, they came back home. Then in the middle of the night they woke up to flood waters in their house. So they went up in the attic and were there for 3 days before being rescued.

Then he started talking about the levees and the French Quarter. He said the French Quarter is the "economic engine that drives New Orleans" and there was no way they would have let it flood. I told him I was amazed by how close the Ninth Ward was to the French Quarter and it was hard to believe that one neighborhood was destroyed while the other one sustained so much less damage. He said "when they blew the levees" they knew exactly where the water would go. I asked if he believed they really did blow the levees on purpose and he said he didn't know anyone in NO who didn't believe that. He said people could hear the explosions. He also said everyone knew that more than 12 feet of water would flood the French Quarter so they timed the floodwaters so they were not above 12 feet. But the Ninth Ward got hit by both the river and Lake Pontchartrain, so the damage was especially horrific.

After we drove through the Ninth Ward, we went over to the Mississippi Gulf and spent the afternoon. There was an even mix of tearing down and rebuilding going on. This was a store we remembered going in the last time we were in the area (fall of 2004). It was interesting. To the left of this store was a brand new strip mall.



We also met a couple groups of students staying in our hotel who were there for spring break doing volunteer work rehabbing. Made me feel guilty. But I did boost the economy while I was there :)

[NightWatcher]

1. I havent been back for a visit since Katrina. I lived there '99-2000

I absolutely loved that town and went back often through 2004 (or 05).

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Something that amazed me

The first thing I noticed as our plane landed was how green NO was! I live in the midwest and we are at the end of winter. It's still brown here. So I loved all the green grass and plants and gorgeous flowers.

Then in the Ninth Ward the first thing that struck me was those houses had no yards! Here in a city that would be a gardener's heaven, they had built an entire residential section and put no yards around the houses! It reminded me of my grandma's house that was in a similar neighborhood. It sat within feet of the street but she did have a back yard.

I just found that sad - on top of everything else.

[flvegan]

2. 3 1/2 years later, and still...

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[Horse with no Name]

4. Heckuva job bush and brownie

:cry:

[merh]

5. You should have let me know you were in town.

Where did you stay when you were on the MS Gulf Coast?

Our rebuild efforts have been more successful than NOLA's, I believe that is because our repub gov was so close to bushco and we didn't have a choice, we had to get the jobs done to have a place to live. Most of us from the coast didn't want to relocate, we wanted to stay home and get the job done.

The volunteers have been godsends, don't think we would be where we are without them.

thanks for giving to the economy :hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I thought about you when we were in MS!

My friend I was with thinks it is "bizarre" that I talk to people online. LOL So I didn't suggest contacting any area DUers.

We drove through some beautiful areas. You could see a definite difference in the progress of the rebuilding. Also noticed most of the casinos are back.

My traveling companion is a huge Jimmy Buffet fan so she was thrilled to see his new casino going up.



Also heard tons of sirens! Lots of emergency vehicles on and off all afternoon.

[merh]

23. That casino is on hold, the economy has impacted a great many

rebuild, new build projects. The financing isn't available.

If you went by there, you weren't only about 5 miles from me - next time I hope you call before you come. I'll meet you for coffee or lunch or dinner at the Hard Rock or one of the other casinos.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Sounds like a deal.

I will talk my friend into it :)

She has met most of my DU friends who live here. And she likes them. :)

We ate at the Beau Rivage. Crab leg night!!

[merh]

28. did you play at the casino

I used to go a lot when the casinos first came here, not so much now.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Enough to not want to talk about it.

If you get my drift. :)

[merh]

32. gotcha

:hi:

[intheflow]

45. I also think MS rebuilding was helped by the fact

that residents weren't shipped out of state on a one-way ticket, as New Orleans residents were when it became apparent the water was going to take a month or longer to recede. Because MS folks were still in the area, and your neighborhoods were "only" flooded during the storm itself, it was easier to band together and organize and demand money from the government and insurance companies to rebuild. Not that it was easy in any way, of course I know that, but I do think that contributed at lot to Mississippi being much further along in recovery than New Orleans.

Is the confederate jasmine blooming yet? Oh, how I miss that smell greeting me in the morning!

[merh]

49. That's what I meant - we didn't have to leave, we were able to

stay and rebuild - we weren't stuck in some strange evac center in some strange city.

The jasmine are blooming and it has been gorgeous here.

[intheflow]

58. This is the most beautiful time of year on the Coast.

Did you take that photo from your deck?? I really loved watching the pelicans skim above the Gulf. We actually have some here in Colorado, every time I see them I think of Mississippi.

[merh]

80. just down the street

near bayview & forest, the pelican condos - a collection of pilings and broken piers that Katrina left behind.

[intheflow]

85. Hey, I heard a tug took out

the Popps Ferry Bridge! Good thing you work near your home and not on the other side of the bay.

[uppityperson]

59. prehistoric birds, dinosaurs didn't die out, they became pelicans.

[merh]

79. there is a resemblence.

:hi:

[intheflow]

84. If there's such a thing as a miracle of evolution,

it's that dinosaurs became birds! :thumbsup:

[stillcool]

6. So frigging sad.

I think watching New Orleans drown affected me more than any other event that has happened in my lifetime.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. My DH came in and turned off the TV one day

I was watching it and sobbing. He said "enough" and made me calm down before I turned it back on.

It affected me as deeply as watching the Civil Rights struggle in the 60s, when I was a kid. So so sad.

[stillcool]

24. I remember needing to get some..

fresh air and I walked to the store..crying here and there. When I got to the store, I asked an employee where they were accepting donations... food, water, whatever..and was shocked when she didn't know what I was talking about. So I cried more on the way home.

[Merlot]

52. Me too.

It took me a couple years just to get over it. And by get over it, meaning I don't get upset, angry, or want to cry about it.

There is a song that played during the telecast for funds. To this day when I hear that song I get taken right back to that time.

And I know no one from NO, and have never been there.

[leftstreet]

7. K&R

[acmavm]

8. Oh God, that's sad. What happened to those that owned those

homes? Is there no agency to help them rebuild or repair? Have these people been run off for good?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. The guy we met on the cable car told us 65% of the people in NO have come back

He said he thought most of the rest were dead. I asked how many he thought had died and he said at least 10 times more than the official count. He said a lot of his neighbors have just disappeared, no one has heard from them, not even their families. And there were so many people who were washed away into the river and the gulf that we would never know how many really died.

[acmavm]

12. Damn. Sounds like the ethnic cleaning worked. (You may think

that's a little strong, but I believe that's exactly what it was.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I completely agree

I believed it all along. Now I saw it first hand. Just makes me sick.

[dysfunctional press]

17. i would take a lot of what the cable car guy said with a grain of salt...

a lot of people also moved away and built new lives in new locations.
and as far s the levees being 'blown' is concerned- i certainly wouldn't put it past the past administration to do something like that- but when large concrete structures fail in certain ways, it can definitely sound like an explosion, even when it isn't.

a guy i used to work with was SURE that there was a button they pushed when a black man bought a lottery ticket that would keep those numbers from coming up in the drawing...:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. I have believed all along they blew the levees

It was just too convenient that the French Quarter was saved.

[dysfunctional press]

19. that's your perogative...

look how many people believe in things like god and ghosts. :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Normally I am not a conspiracy theory person

I have never got on board with the 9/11 MIHOP stuff. And I don't believe chemtrails are going to hurt me plus I love fluoride. :)

But I honestly believe they blew those levees.

[dysfunctional press]

34. i always wonder if future generationswill ever know the actual truths about our times...

because i doubt that any of us will.

but- that assumes that there will even be future generations.

[rudy23]

31. You know, they already did it once, in '27.

I personally don't believe they did it this time, but once they do something like that the first time, it's out of the realm of the supernatural.

[dysfunctional press]

33. yes, i was aware of that history...

and i do believe that the past administration was capable of doing so as well...but i agree that that doesn't mean that they did.

[uppityperson]

22. French Quarter is a tiny bit higher than upper 9th

of course Lower is much lower. I wonder if the original building of levees was done better by French Quarter also.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. He said that was true.

He also talked about the Spike Lee movie and said Spike explains it in the film.

[intheflow]

46. The French Quarter is on higher ground,

I think that was the primarily reason it survived. I'm neutral about whether or not the levees were blown. I agree that concrete giving way could naturally make an explosive sound, but I can't dismiss the fact that they've blown levees in the past in that area to save the white folk upstream without regard to the brown folk in the lowlands. Without witnesses, it's conjecture either way at this point.

[kestrel91316]

72. The French Quarter was saved because it sits on the highest land in the area.

That's why the French built there. The rest of the area was all swamp.

[tosh]

77. The French Quarter was the original part of the city and was built

on the highest ground - 3 to 5 feet above sea level.

The ninth ward sits well below sea level.

It is true that poor neighborhoods have been been historically relegated to "inferior" locations, but I think that the French Quarter was saved simply because of its geography no matter what might have been the true cause of the levee breaches.

[DatManFromNawlins]

82. Meh

Let me guess, you watched the flood on TV, saw a few people complaining about the treatment their great grandparents got in the mid 20s, and then came to the conclusion that the levees were blown to drive the poor people away, right?

Because it makes SO much sense, regardless of political bent, that a city which has become tourism oriented over the past 30 years would prosper if only we got rid of all these poor people who fill our service industry positions, right?

The French Quarter is the last place that would flood in New Orleans, regardless of any other flooding occurring in the area. It is the highest part of the city. Even if everything else flooded, it would stand as an island.

Conspiracy theorists would have more ammo at their disposal if they targeted the Garden District or Lakeview or English Turn as their reason for why they believe "the levees were blown," but then, Lakeview flooded anyway.

BECAUSE THE LEVEES WERE BUILT BELOW SPECIFICATION AND MR. GO WAS NOT CLOSED, NOT BECAUSE OF DIABOLICAL PLANS.


Some people have their tin foil hats on way too tight.

[comrade snarky]

83. Part of the reason the French Quarter survived

Is that it's on higher land. It's an older part of the city build before the modern flood controls. The 9th ward is in a lower bowl formation seriously susceptible to flooding. Not a good area to have built in the first place.

I don't put anything past the Bush administration but the theory that the city was intentionally flooded just doesn't sound right. It's a lot of risk for too little gain and seriously hampered the last years of the Bush reign. What would be the purpose? Plain evil? A desire to kill black people? Ending a democratic stronghold?

I just can't go to a conspiracy to explain what massive incompetence combined with racism and a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose and scope of government explains so well.

[pitohui]

56. there are no cable cars, i'm from new orleans, your chain is being yanked

there are no cable cars in new orleans, to start with, the whole story is not true -- this person didn't talk to a cable car person, there is no such -- there are street cars, but the street car driver is like a bus driver, he's operating a vehicle full of human lives not chatting with a tourist

as far as why the french quarter didn't flood, because people are not actually stupid fuckwits, the first part of the city to be settled was the HIGHEST part of the city

the slums that were developed by evil men without a conscience in the 20th century were such places as the lower 9th ward and new orleans east, low places that they KNEW were destined to be destroyed, but which they were happy to sell to those who had few options

[dysfunctional press]

57. she never said that he was the driver.

and i could understand her saying 'cable car' when she meant 'street car', so that's not such a big deal anyway. :shrug:

i can easily believe that she met such a person- i used to work with the same type of people...but i'm not buying into the blew up the levees stuff.

[proud2BlibKansan]

64. I never said it was the driver

Just a guy we met who rode with us for awhile. And unlike some commenters here, he was quite friendly :)

[Merlot]

53. I always thought about 10X more people died than the official number

If they would have published the true number, people would have been horrified. So they kept the number lower so that this disaster wouldn't look as bad as it was.

I remember reading that something like 10K body bags were ordered and shipped.

[donheld]

54. The cable car man only said what

many of us here at DU and other places have long believed. It's really so very sad.

[winyanstaz]

75. Are the owners of those homes still locked away in camps?

I saw articles and photos on the www after New Orleans that told of a large group of Katrina survivors (mostly African Americans) that had been rounded up and sent to government camps way out in the middle of nowhere. I also understood they were unable to leave.
I have never been able to find out what happened to those families. Could they be the missing people of New Orleans? I keep hoping to hear that we have not left human beings locked up in concentration-like fema camps some place. How can we not look for the missing people?
There must be a way to get people to sign up to let everyone know they are alive somewhere. I don't know about the rest of the world but I care and I want to know. Where are the lost people of New Orleans?

[uppityperson]

11. k&r thank you for the pictures, the report and the economic stimulation.

If you have more picts, more to say, please do so.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Thanks

Yes I have lots more pics of NO. Took some great pics at the aquarium :)

[pacalo]

20. It's really awful. This neighborhood is just on the outskirts of the city.

I wish there were enough money to completely redo the entire neighborhood while maintaining the original architecture. And the leaders of New Orleans should be organizing people to do the work.

There's just so much to be done. One Saturday last year I went with a friend whose group completely re-painted the gym bleachers & locker room of O. Perry High School in New Orleans.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I can't even imagine.

That's so great to see so many good people like you help out.

[pacalo]

36. Frankly, I wish I had more time to help out in other ways.

[KamaAina]

30. Took a side trip to SF, did you?

It was raining one day so we got on the cable car and rode it all over town for most of the afternoon.

Oh well, at least you didn't call the streetcar the "trolley" like most visitors do. Extra points for originality. :P And the streetcar doesn't really go all over town, just Uptown, then right past my old place in Carrollton, and now also along Canal St. to the Cemeteries and City Park.

Then he started talking about the levees and the French Quarter. He said the French Quarter is the "economic engine that drives New Orleans" and there was no way they would have let it flood.

(sigh) The Quarter is the economic engine that drives New Orleans because it's the old, historic area that people want to see. It's the old, historic area because it was built on the "highest" ground in the area: up to five full feet above sea level! (Yes, the city actually slopes down from the river: you can stand right in Jackson Square and look up at the ships passing in the river.)

The nickname "Crescent City" comes from the fact that, for the first two centuries or so of New Orleans' history, most building was concentrated on the relatively high ground along the river, now known as "the sliver by the river", or better still, "the Isle of Denial". (That's why directions like "west" or "east" are eschewed in favor of "uptown" or "downtown".) Wealthier white folks tended to cluster near the St. Charles streetcar line: not right by the docks, but not so far "back of town" that flooding was too frequent. Guess who ended up "back of town", and later in other low-lying areas, including Lower Nine??

That, and not any :tinfoilhat: conspiracy to blow the levees, is why the Federal Flood disproportionately impacted poor African Americans. The whole "they blew the levees on purpose" meme dates back to the Mississippi River flood of 1927, when they actually did blow the levees in St. Bernard Parish, just below Lower Nine, to save New Orleans. This is SOP in (river) flood management, to take the pressure off the levees at key points like major cities.

'K, now that we're done with the snark and the history lesson :-) , what were your impressions? What might we (both as a country and as the DU community) do to help? I've been wondering if a struggling neighborhood might try to lure artists and other creative people through a program similar to the successful one a few hundred miles upriver in Paducah, Ky.

http://www.paducaharts.com

New Orleans, unlike Paducah when this began, is already an established art market (centered on that economic engine, the French Quarter). Of course, local Paducah banks and the city government cooperated in the program, which would be extremely difficult to arrange in New Orleans, at least until Nagin is term-limited. :eyes:

[Behind the Aegis]

41. THANK YOU!

Thanks for setting so many points straight. As someone who lives outside the French Quarter and works there, I see LOTS of tourists and they are the ones who are usually bringing up the absurd conspiracy theories.

If we can ever get the corrupt assholes out of City Hall, we might be able to get somewhere. Did you hear the latest about the "email conspiracy?" Oh brother, what a doozy. People are actually wandering the halls of City Hall (what a G-d awful looking eyesore) looking for lawyers because they are afraid they may be indicted or called as a witness. It is bizarre.

It is very interesting that you brought up the nickname of the city, the Crescent City. If people look to maps of flooded New Orleans (make sure you (other readers) get Katrina flooding and not Ike and Gustav pics), the non-flooded (or lightly-flooded) areas kind of show (IMO) the "historic" New Orleans, the crescent.

[KamaAina]

43. Well, I am sort of a "ringer"

as I alluded to, I lived three blocks from the Claiborne end of the cable car streetcar line for two years, from 1989-91. Since the Federal Flood, I have reclaimed a sort of "dual citizenship", and have been poking around to see if my skills and talents might be employed in the rebuilding effort (obviously to no avail as yet :( ).

In particular, I am an active participant in the city's incomparable blogosphere, including The American Zombie:

http://theamericanzombie.blogspot.com

which has lots of good inside dope on what he's calling the "E-maelstrom". :P

[Behind the Aegis]

44. I know "who" you are. I have read many of your posts on our city.

I will have to check out that site. Seriously, the email thing is just bizarre. My partner and I just sit watching the news, mouths agape.

Keep poking around, you may find something yet. However, it is really tough here right now. Many restaurants and shops are doing what they did for the year following Katrina, which means it is 'hit or miss' as to when something will be open. Some antique and art stores are now only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Things were finally starting to show some signs of normalcy, then came Gustav and Ike, and then, like the rest of the nation, the economic situation.

[nolabear]

76. Thank you for the link!

I was back in N.O. a few weeks ago too, sad as always about my city and happy as always about how damned tenacious it is. Been wearing my water meter necklace and eating gumbo and reading "Nine Lives" and "Heart Like Water" and wondering if I ought to pursue the fantasy of buying a little apartment in the quarter and leasing it out (my sister, who's still there, would love that).

There's so much you can't explain until you experience it. I wanted to get into Jazzland because the idea that an entire Six Flags amusement park could be flooded and abandoned is just astonishing and I wanted to take photos. I didn't know whether to smile at Brad Pitt's efforts in the Lower Ninth or cry. Do people know that people can't come back because there are so few medical services in the outlying areas now? In N>O> East I saw the damnedest thing; a medical facility set up in an abandoned Wal-Mart parking lot, just a bunch of mobiles, but all they've got unless you want Grandma to travel for miles when she falls out.

Two of the three places I lived when I lived there no longer exist. I think my end of Esplanade made it but I didn't get a chance to see.

FOr the record, I don't think they blew those levees. But they neglected those people to death. Still are.

Damn, damn, damn.

[bvar22]

71. Another problem with "they blew the levees"...

Some of the most affluent WHITE areas were also destroyed.
Lakeview, Elysian Fields, City Park, Bayou St John, Carrollton uptown

Some of the wealthiest New Orleanians lived in Lakeview....and this is OLD New Orleans money, and almost exclusively conservative white Republicans.

[Rex_Goodheart]

35. I live in New Orleans every weekend

"I asked if he believed they really did blow the levees on purpose and he said he didn't know anyone in NO who didn't believe that."

Huh? I know a LOT of New Orleanians who know that's a crock of baloney.

And, oh, by the way... New Orleans is an amazing place to visit. So glad you enjoyed your visit.

[Delphinus]

37. That first picture reminds me of the book:

Earth Without People.

So, essentially, there's no rebuilding of the 9th Ward, correct?

I'm glad (that's not really the right word, but it's the only one I can think of) that you found someone who said they blew the levees. I remember watching a short video of two people saying the same thing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. No there was some rebuilding going on

but not nearly enough.

[newtothegame]

38. 2nd picture; RIP Kenal aka Gold Mouth? n/t

[newtothegame]

39. 2nd picture; RIP Kenal aka Gold Mouth? n/t

[arcadian]

42. Great pics, proud!

Thanks for the report. I'd like to go down and check out for myself sometime.

[Jackeens]

47. Extraordinary photos and a fascinating report - thank you so much. n/t

[Generator]

48. We went last year with our "stimulus check"

I figured there was no better place to spend ill gotten gains from the Bush admin. I had been to NOLA before-15 years ago-my husband had not. Had a good time, and did a drive through the ninth ward. Felt weird and wrong to be a tourist in ruins but I wanted to see it first hand. What got me were the numbers still painted in red on some houses for bodes found or not. And the two things I will never forget-a school just outside the ninth ward with a marquee that had a date for back to school August 19th, 2005. It had never reopened and the sign was the same. Oh and heartbreaking tag on a house even though the people lost is so much more-"No dog found."

[babylonsister]

50. Damn. Thanks, proud.

We all need to be reminded. Often.

[Olney Blue]

51. Thank you for letting us know about the city.

[Telly Savalas]

55. There are areas in KCMO just as bad, and we haven't had a hurricane here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

65. Where?

I have never seen anything this bad in KCMO or KCKS. And I drive into the hood every day.

[Bushfire]

60. my recent NO trip report can be found here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=155x3880

nice pics Proud2B btw...

[Raine]

61. Hopefull with Obama as president

there will be improvement, now there is at least hope.

[Vinca]

62. And the governor doesn't want to take stimulus money.

[Name removed]

68. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pleah]

63. K&R Thought you might like to read this:

HURRICANE KATRINA
FRANK JONES, 20, WAS ‘STRENGTH’
Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove identified his county’s last unknown victim of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday, giving closure to the family of 20-year-old Frank Jones, a Gulfport man buried on the storm’s one-year anniversary under the name “Strength.”

STORY: SUNHERALD TV: Katrina Victim Identified
GALLERY: Katrina victim identified

[aikoaiko]

66. They have to buy those properties up via eminent domain, tear them down, and plant grass seed.

And then let individuals and developers rebuy and rebuild. Leaving unlivable houses like that is just making things worse.

[proud2BlibKansan]

67. They could definitely use more green space.

[kestrel91316]

69. I was in NOLA for a conference last July but I didn't have a car so

I didn't get into the worst damaged areas. I wish I had been able to take an extra couple of days to participate in some of the animal shelter rehab that they had organized for the vet conference attendees.

[Hepburn]

70. OMG........

.......:cry:

There simply are no words....

[MorningGlow]

73. One of my favorite cities, Proud

Mr. MG and I used to visit every year--and even seriously talked about moving there. The last time we went was in '03, before MG Jr. came along. I cried my heart out during Katrina. Mr. MG may be going to NOLA for a conference in a couple of weeks. I told him I'd be jealous, but then again, I'm not sure I'd be able to bear seeing such a beautiful city still suffering.

[jwirr]

74. I have been through a small flood so imagine what the inside of those

homes look like if the outsides are that bad. Mold likes closed damp places. This is still terrible.

[960]

78. I'm glad there are students volunteering over spring break. It gives me some hope.

But what if we used some of our war money or rich people welfare money to rebuild the city and economy?....talk about JOBS JOBS JOBS

.... and not just NO, but other down and out cities.... I guess it wouldn't be right to spend the money on average Americans.

[AzDar]

81. George W. Bush LET an American City DROWN.

Never forget that.