More from N'Awlins...
The tourist areas are fine. Some restaurants and hotels have not reopened, and many of the bigger stores in the Quarter (like Saks Fifth Ave) were looted (and torched) and have not re-opened yet. There are only 200,000 people in the city now, so it seems empty--like a Saturday or a holiday, but on a weekday. There are billboards everywhere advertising lawyers to sue insurance companies (my favorite said "Wind or Rain...Attorney Bob Jones can help YOU." Bob Jones is helping himself obviously, because by the time he gets a settlement from insurance and takes his third, there will be nothing left for anyone to rebuild with). I saw a lot of signs in store windows that said things like "CNA Insurance SUCKS!" or "AllState only paid us $10,000."
I drove through one of the worst neighborhoods on my way to the airport (not the infamous 9th ward, but an area just north of uptown where many of the rappers are from originally) and it's devastated. It needs to be razed and rebuilt, but because of the proximity to downtown, I know it won't be rebuilt for poor people, so I am reluctant to suggest demolition. The shotgun houses are destroyed, and have that curious coded graffiti all over the front that we saw on CNN ("one dead" or "dog inside", etc), yet still have people living in them, like squatters would live (but in their own homes). I saw one house with no front door, no windows, and a blue tarp on the roof to cover a gaping hole, with 3 young kids sitting inside what would have been the living room. It was over 100 degrees outside.
The mosquitos are intense at dawn and dusk, and the smell in certain areas is like a fish market (or worse--that's the nearest smell I can relate it to). No one should have to live like this. I half expected to see Sally Struthers come walking out from behind a house the way she does on the Feed The Children commercials from Africa. That this can be happening in the US is unbelievable and unacceptable. With the wealth that exists in this country, it is hard to believe we have poverty anywhere in the world, let alone in the US. New Orleans just reconfirms the disparity and lack of caring by the have's for the have not's.
The tourist areas are fine. Some restaurants and hotels have not reopened, and many of the bigger stores in the Quarter (like Saks Fifth Ave) were looted (and torched) and have not re-opened yet. There are only 200,000 people in the city now, so it seems empty--like a Saturday or a holiday, but on a weekday. There are billboards everywhere advertising lawyers to sue insurance companies (my favorite said "Wind or Rain...Attorney Bob Jones can help YOU." Bob Jones is helping himself obviously, because by the time he gets a settlement from insurance and takes his third, there will be nothing left for anyone to rebuild with). I saw a lot of signs in store windows that said things like "CNA Insurance SUCKS!" or "AllState only paid us $10,000."
I drove through one of the worst neighborhoods on my way to the airport (not the infamous 9th ward, but an area just north of uptown where many of the rappers are from originally) and it's devastated. It needs to be razed and rebuilt, but because of the proximity to downtown, I know it won't be rebuilt for poor people, so I am reluctant to suggest demolition. The shotgun houses are destroyed, and have that curious coded graffiti all over the front that we saw on CNN ("one dead" or "dog inside", etc), yet still have people living in them, like squatters would live (but in their own homes). I saw one house with no front door, no windows, and a blue tarp on the roof to cover a gaping hole, with 3 young kids sitting inside what would have been the living room. It was over 100 degrees outside.
The mosquitos are intense at dawn and dusk, and the smell in certain areas is like a fish market (or worse--that's the nearest smell I can relate it to). No one should have to live like this. I half expected to see Sally Struthers come walking out from behind a house the way she does on the Feed The Children commercials from Africa. That this can be happening in the US is unbelievable and unacceptable. With the wealth that exists in this country, it is hard to believe we have poverty anywhere in the world, let alone in the US. New Orleans just reconfirms the disparity and lack of caring by the have's for the have not's.
posted by Ricky Ross at 4:44 PM
1 Comments:
Not only does New Orleans 2006 point to the current inequity but to the compilation of past inequities. People were struggling before Katrina. Katrina lifted a veil, in a way. Now that we know how pronounced the disparity in prosperity really is in our country, what can be done about it?
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