Fourth Anniversary of the Levee Breaking

Man Made Disaster Remembered in New Orleans

Four years and the media is remembering the aftermath of Katrina. The Lower 9th is slowly rebuilding, but are they safe for the next hurricane? I found this article interesting that the current New Orleans police commander urges people to leave the City in a future hurricane. Over 1,400 died as a result of the flooding of the City. The New York Times magazine did a long feature on the decisions made at the Memorial Medical hospital and explored the question of whether the individuals who died there were murdered or euthanized.

New Orleans lost most of its public housing and a large number of subsidized housing units. It lost a sizable portion of its poor population and many African Americans. There are still FEMA trailers, and a great deal of overgrown land. They never did get Memorial Medical hospital back, but at least the Saints came back. The levees are still not rebuilt to the point that they can withstand a major "storm event." There are vacant houses all over town much like the devastation wrought by the foreclosure crisis in Cleveland, but unemployment is 3 points below our fair city. And still we wait for the prosecutions for those who left the Big Easy so ill prepared. Do we need a truth and reconciliation commission for New Orleans? Someone needs to be held responsible for all of the destruction caused by the poorly constructed levee system, and the inability to evacuate the city. The City is still not restored after four years, and we cannot even tell the residents, "Never again."

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

I Just Do Not Understand

I Guess I Don't Understand Home

As we mark the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we must remember that New Orleans is still the "home of the homeless" as Harry Shearer says every week. I think back to the late 1980s earthquake in San Francisco, and remember that the city was much better off in 1992 than New Orleans is today. Why do we still have people sleeping in trailers in New Orleans? There were no trailers used in San Francisco. Why are large numbers sleeping in tents in New Orleans? Why has the infrastructure not returned? Why haven't the levees been replaced by a solid concrete levee system similar to the one used in Holland?

I find it amazing with Gustav bearing down on the region how attached people are to the city of New Orleans. I love Cleveland, but if a tornado destroyed my house, and there was a high likelihood that it would happen again, I would be outta here. I talked to a number of people who said that they would have never returned to New Orleans after Katrina and the rest said they would never return if they were forced to evacuate a second time in three years. I guess that I do not understand the value of "home." Will this be the knock out punch for New Orleans? What is so attractive about a place that a person would risk repeated property destruction in order to live? I admire that kind of loyalty, but I do not understand it.

I do not understand how anyone, Republican or Democrat, can say that they want smaller government after witnessing the results of small government in the Gulf Coast. We could have used a bigger government forcing the improvement of the levees. We needed a bigger government to evacuate and deploy resources after a crisis. We need government to provide a safety net and to provide for the common defense. Those who preach smaller government during elections, should be consistent and say, "Hey, New Orleans this is a new era of small government. All of you will have work through this disaster by yourselves. Why should all the rest of the United States taxpayers have to help one region?"

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

New Grapevine Hits the Streets this Week

A Taste of the Upcoming Grapevine

The Homeless Grapevine #85 is now at the printers, so it will be hitting the street in a matter of days! In it, we have an update on North Point at the 6 month mark, a tribute to Anthony Waters who was killed, an interview with a vegan who has been through the shelter system, a large section devoted to the photographs taken by graduates of NEOCH’s photography class, and much more. Just to give you a taste, here’s part of a feature on Grapevine vendor Raymond Jacobs by Bernadette Janes:

"Before Raymond Jacobs became a vendor for the Homeless Grapevine, his varied careers were packed into his one lifetime like pieces of an old southern parlor game. It all started in 1947 in New Orleans, Louisiana, with an Ethiopian mother and a white German-Jewish father. Growing up in the South half black and half white was not easy. Within the multiple hues of that population, Raymond was categorized as Creole.

After finishing high school, Raymond and six buddies, all of them seventeen years of age, celebrated their freedom by going on a fateful lark. Swilling down quarts of cheap wine, they ran, screaming, through startled neighborhood, and suddenly found themselves in front of a Marine Corps recruiting office. Deeply inebriated, they decided it might be fun to drop in and visit a while. With the Vietnam war going on at the time, the group of robust seventeen-year-olds looked like fresh meat to the Recruiting Officer on duty.

He welcomed them in and immediately began pouring Jack Daniels whiskey into them, regaling them with promises of fantastic benefits if they would enlist. By the time they started for home, they understood nothing of the import of papers the recruiting officer thrust into their hands for their parents to sign. All the parents signed the papers readily and sent them in. Days later, stone sober and realizing the depth of the hole they had fallen into, the boys tried to get the papers back, but with no success.

They were now United States Marines!"

To read the rest of this article and much more, please pick up a copy of the Homeless Grapevine issue #85 from any of our registered vendors!

Josh

Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

Katrina Homeless Story on NPR

New Orleans Homeless Told to Relocate

There was an interesting story on NPR's All Things Considered tonight (can be found here). One thing that was not mentioned was that the deadline for movement out of the park is National Homeless Memorial Day. The day that we all remember those who passed away over the last year is the last day that over 150 people will be kicked out of one of the Downtown parks in New Orleans. Four days before the most famous birth-as-a-result-of-a-forced-migration story in history is celebrated the officials from New Orleans are kicking out a large number of homeless people. How stupid are these guys? In Cleveland, landlords hold off evictions around Christmas, and I doubt that bankers are delivering move out orders after a foreclosure during the holidays. Why? Because of the extremely negative publicity associated with crushing someone during a time of peace, joy, love, and all that holiday stuff. In addition, the majority of perfectly usable Public Housing in New Orleans is slated for destruction in the next few weeks. By comparison to the destruction heaped on the people of New Orleans by state, local and federal officials, the hurricane was just a hiccup.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

Marketing Breakdown

New Orleans to Host Conference about Suicide

Now, I would be the first to admit that marketing is not my forte, but even I recognize this as a potential train wreck. The American Association of Suicidology is hosting their conference in two weeks in New Orleans! I am all for supporting New Orleans, and we have written a great deal about how disgraceful the recovery effort, but this is one conference they might have passed on. The Conference is focused on 40 years of preventing suicide--"moving forward with education and training". That is all well and good, but New Orleans? Didn't they think that pundits might get word of this and poke fun at the city. If we keep giving pundits more opportunities to poke fun at a City doesn't that make it more likely that the City will try the hemlock? Suicide professionals from around the country coming to the City most in need of someone to talk the City down from the ledge? Some will say that it is fitting that a community that was just designated as the most dangerous in the Country needs more than any other some help from suicide prevention professionals. Was Mayor Ray Nagin feeling low and this was a way to disguise his seeking counseling by inviting hundreds of suicide counselors to his city? No matter how you look at it hosting a conference for suicide prevention professionals in the devastated city of New Orleans is ripe for humor.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.