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TechnoratiNew Orleans: Vanishing City
Post-Katrina Redevelopment Excludes “poor and working-class black New Orleanians from returning homeâ€Â
It took Kawana Jasper over a year, and all the stubborn will she could muster, to get back to New Orleans. Broke and exhausted, she arrived in the city last spring from Houston, only to find that the last leg of her journey-back to her apartment at the St. Bernard housing project-would be the toughest yet.Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city's plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of "redevelopment."
To the 33 year-old single mother of three, the officials pushing to raze St. Bernard are carrying out disaster by design. "How could they just get away with it?" she asks.
The pending demolition of the St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte projects has confirmed the fears of the city's poorest, blackest, and hardest hit communities: that New Orleans' "recovery" in the wake of the storm is built on the city's old demons of racial and class strife.
Residents have responded to the demolition plans with street demonstrations and heated outcry at public meetings. But the government has continued to steadily advance its redevelopment scheme. Late last year, a district court thwarted a legal challenge to the demolitions in a class-action civil-rights lawsuit. In December, the newly elected, majority-white City Council voted to approve the redevelopment proposal, while outside, police clashed violently with throngs of protesters locked out of the meeting.
Audrey Stewart, an advocate for displaced residents with the Loyola University Law Clinic, says the destruction of public housing reflects a wholesale abandonment of the city's most vulnerable. "We just see it as a pattern of excluding poor and working-class Black New Orleanians from returning home - from participating in the process of rebuilding their neighborhoods."
Crippled Homes
Katrina's fury swept Gloria Williams further from home than she'd ever been. But after a few weeks stranded in rural California, the 61 year-old grandmother boarded a bus back to Louisiana, determined to return to her cozy apartment at C.J. Peete, her home of over twenty years.
But the Housing Authority of New Orleans has barred Williams and other residents from moving back. Their outrage boiled over last year, when she and some neighbors temporarily reoccupied the worn but sturdy units, unauthorized, to show they were still habitable. Now, the redevelopment plans threaten to settle that dispute by tearing the whole project down.
Williams today clings to a modest house on the West Bank, scraping by on disability income and a rental voucher provided by the government. On a typical afternoon, she stays in bed, battling emphysema and heart trouble, wondering what she'll do when the last few eggs in her refrigerator are gone.
"Our people are slowly dying," she says, noting that many people from her community are already living on the streets. "They don't want the black people back in New Orleans," she says, "That's why, that's the problem."
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which took control of the New Orleans housing authority in 2002 due to management failures, estimates that around 5,100 families lived in public housing prior to Katrina. Many of these solid structures emerged from the hurricane relatively unscathed.
But local and federal housing authorities say the old projects were cesspools of crime and poverty, which both tenants and the city would be better off without. Officials want to demolish about 4,500 units and replace them with "mixed income" developments, which supposedly promote economic integration.
When redevelopment is finished in 2010, HUD projects, New Orleans will have roughly 3,300 low-income public housing units-a reduction of a few thousand -plus around 1800 voucher-subsidized apartments and a comparable number of HUD-developed "market rate" units.
But under the mixed-income rubric, politics and profit motives may ultimately determine the distribution of higher- and lower-income homes. Activists say the concept often masks segregation as progress, as development interests gentrify neighborhoods and price poor families out.
So far, according to a funding analysis by the housing think-tank Policylink, the redevelopment projects now underway would abandon more than 60 percent of HUD's pre-Katrina affordable housing stock-homes within reach of families earning under $15,900 per year. Meanwhile, since the hurricane, average market-rate rents have jumped by nearly 50 percent.
ACORN, an advocacy group that is helping rebuild storm-battered working-class communities, questions the human costs of reconfiguring neighborhoods to achieve a certain income "mix."
"You have people who lived in these neighborhoods for generations," says ACORN organizer Tanya Harris, who herself is from the Lower Ninth Ward, a tight-knit and historically rooted black enclave. "The strength of my community came from the fact that we had a history and a bond, that we knew each other, and that we were linked together through our experiences. That was a beautiful thing."
Julie Andrews, a resident of the Abundance Square housing complex, temporarily settled with her family in remote Alabama after the storm, but couldn't bring herself to stay. In New Orleans, she knew she'd have little to start over with-but something called her back.
"Maybe it wasn't perfect before, but at least you knew your neighbor," she says.
That sense of community is missing from the prevailing view of "development," she says: "'Bricks and mortar' does not bring a better quality of life to people, when their economic status and their moral status has not been increased."
Redevelopment or Exclusion?
HUD claims it is working diligently to provide housing for displaced residents who want to return. The agency has moved some families into vacant public housing units and issued several thousand vouchers to help people rent apartments at the current inflated rates.
Aside from former HUD-housing residents, the agency subsidizes rent for thousands of other families through the Disaster Housing Assistance Program. The government will be decreasing these payments, however, to push households toward "independence"-basically, forcing people to pay $50 more each month until their subsidy disappears.
In the long term, critics argue, vouchers and subsidies will barely dent the overwhelming need for affordable housing. They point out that landlords are under no obligation, and often refuse, to rent to low-income voucher holders, and that thousands of families were on the waiting list for voucher-assisted housing before the storm.
Katrina pummeled nearly 51,700 rentals in the area. More than 29,000 affordable-rent units vanished. The social-service coalition UNITY estimated last year that homelessness had roughly doubled to about 12,000 people across New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish.
Yet HUD has opposed a recent proposal in Congress to mandate that all demolished units are comparably replaced in the redevelopment process. Meanwhile, using HUD's data, advocates estimate that restoring the projects would cost less than demolition and redevelopment.
The underlying assault on the city's poor, critics say, is the free-market philosophy that drives the politics of rebuilding and aims to dismantle public resources.
The Brookings Institute, a centrist think tank, reports that over two years since Katrina made landfall, the area still counts among the casualties about two fifths of its public schools and two fifths of its hospitals. Of over $2 billion in federal funds allocated for infrastructure restoration in Orleans Parish, only about 30 percent has actually been distributed to projects.
"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy on the government's part," says Anita Sinha, an attorney with the Advancement Project, one of the groups litigating the class-action suit. "They're making it such that people can't come home."
From the Ground Up
While officials move forward with demolition, community groups are launching alternative rebuilding efforts: small initiatives that articulate a grassroots counterpoint to the material focus of conventional development schemes.
Tanya Harris, who is working on restoring her neighbors' homes as well as her own, says that although the government offers funds for reconstruction, returnees need more global supports, to ensure that once they come home, they have the means to stay.
"It's very difficult, I think, for a lot of people who are putting out the funds for rebuilding, and who also are staring down the barrel of: 'Will my utilities be out of control? Will my insurance be out of control? I can put this house back together, but can I afford to live in it?'"
ACORN has created a redevelopment plan focused on preserving communities like the Lower Ninth Ward, through measures like a job-training project, expanded resources for local public schools, and a rent-stabilization program.
The volunteer-led Common Ground Collective has mobilized New Orleanians through both political organizing and a grassroots social-service infrastructure. Since 2005, the organization has seeded free clinics and legal aid, environmental-restoration programs, and an alternative energy project. To foster economic self-sufficiency and youth development, the group also trains local young people in housing-restoration work.
"There is so much to be done," says Common Ground volunteer Sakura Kone. "There's no will on the part of the power structure. It's only grassroots like ourselves that are making a difference in their lives."
Local residents, too, see the housing struggle as a test of self-will.
Knowing that she didn't fight her way back to New Orleans just to founder at her own doorstep, Kawana Jasper doesn't plan on going anywhere.
"Sometimes I feel like, 'What I came back for?' Because they don't want us here," she says. "But I'm not going to give them what they want."
Michelle Chen works and plays in New York City. Formerly on staff at the independent, now-defunct, news publication, The NewStandard, her other recent occupations include living in Shanghai as a Fulbright research fellow, freelance writing and dish-washing. Her work has also appeared in Extra!, Legal Affairs, City Limits and Alternet, along with her self-published zine, cain.
* * *
Video on the St. Bernard takeoverThe Battle Over New Orleans Public Housing: documentary on homelessness and housing crisis
Advancement Project's documentary series on public housing
When the Saints Go Marching In documentary on public housing the recovery effort
Copyright © 2008 The Women's International Perspective
34 Comments so far
Show AllSeattle Washington was built on a flood plain too. They developed some pretty interesting plumbing to deal with it. With hindsight, their self imposed plight is pretty hilarious but I'm sure it was horrendous living through it. They finally resolved it by building on top of their former city, and moving further up the hill. What is the obsession with living in water's way? When New Orleans was built, I'm sure it wasn't obvious at the time. But now? Why is it being rebuilt in water's way. By nature's law, water has the right of way, or else it gets it's own back, and get's even! This is the 21st century!! Where are our smarts?!
Another emerging apartheid... I'm not surprised is happening in the US though.
Nice comment, shakker. I like to point out the Dutch, who have built marvelous things to protect people from the sea. And shee-oot, they harnessed capitalism to do it! Harnessed, bridled, tamed, don't let yer capitalism run amuk! Like knives and lasers, yet another tool that shouldn't be in the hands of sociopaths with no accountability.
Must be lots of sinners where them tornadoes touched down...maybe they should not rebuild there either.
Stop whining! Republicans like Ronald Reagan and all the minions up to and including McCain have said that government is the problem not the solution. They got in office and have proved it to the best of their ability. They also said trickle down economics would work and sure enough, I feel like they are pissing on me.
Capitalism is not to blame here. Every economic system ever devised has serious flaws. Government is supposed to tame the system so that it works for the common good. Corruption and incompetence tolerated for personal or political gain has brought down other civilizations before and it is taking down this one now.
Have a nice day!
WEll well, Minnesota has brutal winters huh ??? no shit sherlock, but in Minnesota we also have some hot humid summers too like 100+ with 95% humidity. We have some flood areas that poor folks lived in for many years, some still do. We have areas where the iron in the water turns you hair red when you wash at home even with good filters. We have one area where a swamp gas has come through the water pipes and you have a flame from the cold water tap. But worst of are there are the two problems that need to be addressed 1. republican gov who just might get a job if McCain is prez leaving us with even worst Lt gov 2. Ever hear of mosquitoes ? Some summer evenings they turn a sky black as they fly over, we have tons of jokes about them. But they are a factor to think about if one should even try to live here. Winter many stay indoors 20 below zero is not fun, summer time stay indoors heat and bugs all makes the cost of living much higher. So where is the perfect place ?
I'd recommend "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee. The first section is about the engineering efforts on the lower Mississippi over the years. It was written twenty years or so before Katrina:
http://www.johnmcphee.com/controlofnature.htm
"This discussion was not what I expected on Common Dreams. Real people's lives have been destroyed. Their homes razed. Disappeared. "
It should be obvious that there is a place for our compassion for the people adversely effected, but we should be able to separate that from the basic geological realities.
Wow. This discussion was not what I expected on Common Dreams. Real people's lives have been destroyed. Their homes razed. Disappeared. The federal, state and local governments have decided that certain people, because of income level, class, race, are disposable. That has to change. That's the real issue here. That's the kind of change I've been hoping for.
That's the issue that John Edwards sought to highlight, when he began and ended his campaign in this ravaged city. It's the issue that needs to break through, somehow.
"The capitalist beast does not consider something like race. I think this is purely a class issue," one reader asserts. "Capitalism has always been ready to use racism in furtherance of its designs," counters another. Yes, there's more to this than race; & racism has further the aims of capitalism. However, both statements miss the point that the Triagular Trade (based on the explicit racialization of labor) was not only the basis for the production of agricultural commodities like cotton & tobacco, but was integral to the evolution of the textile,shipping, banking, & insurance industries as well. Capital accumulation here, & in Europe (esp. Spain, England & the Netherlands) was founded on the kidnap, transportion, and unpaid labor of Africans. And, though "involuntary servitude" was prohibited by the 13 Amdt, convicted felons were exempted from this protection -- which gave the Peculiar Institution a new claim to the uncompensated labor of black men. But beyond creation of a multi-tiered job market that still relies on the maintenance of racial hierachies, contemporary patterns of racial disparity are abundantly evident in most areas of consumption, including housing, health care, and education, to name but a few. The fact is, racism has defined this nation's earliest relations of property -- and continues to do so; moreover, the dynamic is so deeply-rooted in history & culture it require no conscious action or intent to set it into motion -- it does, however, require socially-conscious action to stop it.
The people of New Orleans are not only threatened by "rapacious capital," but by our own failure to fully grasp what's really happening to them & why.
The levees, in fact, were NOT topped, so that is not exactly what happened. The levees were supposed to have been built to certain specifications. When they were dissected, it was discovered that, in fact, they were not built up to the specifications that the Corps claimed. The levees were breached, not topped, and would probably NOT have been topped. But a foot or two topping the levee would not have led to the damage inflicted by the breaches.
The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was built against the advice of anyone and everyone who understood the importance of wetlands in protecting this area. It is a huge channel through the wetlands that supposedly would allow easier access to the port. This channel is seldom used, is a financial debacle, and an environmental disaster. This is what allowed the storm surge into the lake, forced the lake into canals that were protected by substandard levees, and caused the breaks.
Most people around the country are not aware that the gardeners who cut the grass on the levee were the "first line of defense" if there was a problem. Certainly no one in this city knew that. The fact that leaks were reported along the 17th Street Canal over a year before the breach, but were ignored, is reason for the people responsible to take responsibility for the rebuilding of this area in the safe, green, environmentally sound, and visionary way. In fact, the Corps has not even paid the dozen or so people whose homes they confiscated.
I, for one, would appreciate it if the good ol' US of A would simply cut us loose, instead of impeding the rebuilding. Then we wouldn't be a burden on the taxpayers, but we also wouldn't be paying taxes, either. We could support ourselves on the revenue that from the oil that the nation uses and the port that the nation also uses.
Someone said that Washington D.C. is below water level. Things must've changed mightily since I was last there. I was born and raised in D.C., and the earth there was as dry as it's been in every other place that I've visited. In D.C. dry resting places can still be found for corpses in the ground. Not so in New Orleans, because of the constantly high water table.
New Orleans is my ancestral home, though I've never been there. My parents left as soon as they were old enough, and they never went back, and that has always seemed to be with very good reason. For all the commercial advantages, it never struck me as being a smart place to build up a big city -- below the river water level at the mercy of weather and unreliable levees and pumps, the last stage before the mighty Mississippi finishes carrying the drainage of much of the nation's midsection before dumping it into the Gulf of Mexico.
I remember seeing, just a year or two before Katrina, a science report, perhaps on a Discovery channel, making a strong case of the extreme danger that New Orleans was in, partly because of its location in a sort of broad pit inside the levees. The contention was that, should a levee be topped, which was only a matter of time, most of the water would be trapped inside the city by the same supposedly protective levees. And so it happened, and can be counted on to keep on happening.
Letting the weeds and trees come back wherever they can is exactly what the English and I believe the Dutch are trying as methods of flood control, in addition to massive projects like the Thames Barrier, which already is having to be used much more than originally envisioned.
If you cannot help the people of New Orleans then who can you help? They are the poorest of the poor. Why are folks arguing like the people down there have choices as where to go and where to live?
You're absolutely right, jakenewton: I should have made that point more strongly.
I highly encourage anyone who's interested in New Orleans, Katrina and the history of man's messing with the Mississippi River to read either "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America" by John M. Barry or "The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina--the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist" by Ivor van Heerden (of the LSU Hurricane Center). Both provide a wealth of insights into why things in New Orleans are the mess they are today.
"This flood happened ONLY BECAUSE OF THE INEPTITUDE OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS!!!! "
Actually, if it weren't for the decades long work of the Corps, the Mississippi likely would have changed course decades ago, and thus New Orleans would have no reason to exist. The Atchafalaya River will eventually rob the current flow and become the new river course. The Corps has postponed that inevitability.
Thank you correctivelens. Let's be civil, RMouse.
Yes, we can't predict where a tornado will hit, or when an earthquake will hit, but devastation is devastation, whether it comes once in a century to a single town in Kansas or once every 25 years to a community on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Certainly, New Orleans is built on low-lying land prone to flooding. However, devastating flooding the likes of which we saw with Katrina has not been common: even with past hurricane strikes, the city withstood such flooding, in part thanks to the buffer of now-dying natural wetlands along the Gulf (in fact, you might not realize it, but the highest part of the city -- the French Quarter -- remained dry even during the Katrina flooding). The disaster of Katrina in New Orleans was as much -- if not more -- man-made as natural.
Second, let's consider why cities were built where they were in the first place: because they provide access to natural resources (Great Lakes, for example) or access to transportation, natural or otherwise (Chicago for trains, New Orleans and a host of other port cities for shipping traffic). It might seem "wise" in some respect to cluster all our settlements far from any natural hazards, but that would also put most people far from access to the natural resources or transportation routes that benefit us all.
As a New Orleanian, we have, or should I say, had, few choices from the beginning. As an activist and environmentalist, I know that the building patterns of this area have been flawed for the past hundred years. That is a given. But follow the money. Developers could make money by filling in the flood lands, and so they did, and so they continue to do. Is it right or moral? NO, most emphatically.
With vision in leadership, this area could have come back as a benchmark for the world to follow. We could have rebuilt denser and higher, with progressive, energy efficient construction. But that would have involved a strong commitment on the part of the government and the people of this area. As soon as the waters subsided, it was clear that it would not be done right. Once Nagin the Nemesis began telling people to get in and start rebuilding, and the land be damned, I knew the choices were between bad and worse. And as the support systems faltered, the situation worsened.
People who left haven't had such an easy time getting employment in other parts of the country, so while it is easy to say "Move", it is also impractical. Many people who are here are here because of their jobs, and are in the process of looking to relocate. Some wish to remain, either because they don't realize the danger, or because they are in denial about it. However, since relocating would financially ruin most people, what choice do we really have?
Money spent in Iraq could have been used to buy out the low areas, and rebuild in the higher areas. Instead, people who are raising their houses above so that they won't flood are penalized by the Road Home program which only allows you to raise to the fema guidelines, and they say that houses should be raised about 2 or 3 feet, even if they had 10 feet of water. Since there were no buyouts, most people had no choice but to return to the flood plains and rebuild. Is this a good idea? Most definitely not. But it is the only choice most people have.
And never forget that we are below sea level, but so is Washington DC, and many other highly developed areas in this nation. This flood happened ONLY BECAUSE OF THE INEPTITUDE OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS!!!! We flooded because they, the Corps along with the oil companies, destroyed the wetlands with the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, and because they lied about the construction of the levees in the city. Also, the water that came in because of the Gulf outlet is what caused the breaks in the levees throughout the city. And that oil that has cost us so much is the same oil that the rest of the country depends upon.
What a colossal mess!
Now now, no need for name calling. RMouse is right that flooding is different than tornadoes, snow storms, et. al. We can't predict exactly where a tornado will hit, we can only narrow it down to thousands of square miles and call it "tornado alley." Flooding, however, goes right where it is expected, and regularly so. It's by far the most predictable of the disasters that ebishirl mentioned. And, New Orleans is different because again, we need not remove homes that are there, but instead choose not to rebuild.
ebishirl, you are as dumb as dirt. How many towns get repeatedly hit by tornados?? Very very few, if even any. Places in california get hit ALL the time by wild fires, mudslides, etc.
Use your brain.
Welcome to modern day USA: all about money, and NOTHING about democracy. The USA is hyper-obsessed with money and profit. Nothing else matters, and that's why these poor folk in New Orleans are getting the boot. Here's a great quote from jazz great Nina Simone (who left the USA to live in France long, long ago) about why she left America to live in Europe:
Interviewer: Maybe if you lived in America instead of the south of France, you'd have more knowledge of your current popular resurgence here.
Nina: I don't like America, I never did, and I don't want to go back unless I have to.
Interviewer: I thought you were going to tour this coming year. Anyway, what do you have against America?
Nina: I think they'll sell themselves, their souls, and their brothers, sisters, and mothers for money. And prejudice there is so insidious and subtle--I've never seen anything like it! It's gotten crazy with so many skinheads, everybody gone mad, bang-bang shot dead--I don't know what's happened to the world.
Interviewer: Is that why, after all your high-profile civil-rights work in the '60s,you left the U.S. pretty much permanently in the early '70s?
Nina: I left because I didn't feel that black people were going to get their due, and I still don't.
Interviewer: In the late '60s, your song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" was declared by the Congress of Racial Equality to be the black national anthem.
Nina: Yes, and then black America promptly refused it.
God Bless Nina for telling it like it is!
Frankly, I'm terrified of tornadoes...
MannieDavis, hope my comment wasn't taken as Blacks don't turn out for Mardi Gras. Really didn't see any on the clip, but what I'm trying to express is that I think it's horrible that rather than returning people to livable homes as soon as possible, New Orleans City Council is prolonging displacement by experimenting in 'terra-forming' neighborhoods based on an income bracket mix. You won't see a rebuilding effort from the recent California wildfires delayed while the City Councils plan on how to mix in different income brackets into the well off neighborhoods of Lake Tahoe or So. Cal.
Well, let's see, RMouse: if the people of New Orleans shouldn't rebuild because it's flood-prone (thanks in part to government negligence that contributed to the destruction of natural wetlands that protected the city), I guess these regions are out of luck too:
Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas: Devastating tornadoes;
Buffalo, Minnesota, North Dakota: Brutal snowstorms;
New York, New Jersey, Charleston, Savannah, St. Petersburg, Miami, Tampa, Pensacola, Mobile, Biloxi, Gulfport, New Orleans, Houston, Galveston: Hurricanes;
Chicago and New York: Deadly summer heat waves;
San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland: Earthquakes;
Portland, Seattle: Volcanoes (remember Mount St. Helens?);
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho: Supervolcanoes (they've erupted in the past in the Yellowstone region).
You get the idea. Where does it end?
MISANTHROPE - succinct and correct.
Nawlenz will never come back. The Katrina disaster created a perfect opportunity to raze the place and make it a Las Vegas kind of "family" tourist attraction.
Nawlenzland. Imitation everything.
It was obvious from the very first day on, when Nagins was cozying up to the swarms of Bush delegates during their feeding frenzy.
Kathy Heckman: "Saw tv coverage of Mardi Gras 'revelers', not one black face."
Can't speak to the ethnic makeup of what you saw on TV, but I can assure you that down here blacks turn out for the parades same as whites. Didn't do a percentage count; definitely more than one, tho.
forextrader
Yes, as greenerthanthou said, it does apply to those Californians as well (and others). Too many Californians, for example, build in the dry mountains, often hovering on the edge of eroding clifts waiting for a mudslide, earthquake or brush fire to light them up. Public money shouldn't subsidize them when those things happen. But, we can hardly bulldoze their houses to stop that from happening. In New Orleans, we have a rare chance - a chance not to make the same mistake.
Yes the same goes for California. People should rebuild in areas like that without OTHERS assuming their risk.
RMouse: "I agree with correctivelens….New Orleans for the most part should not be rebuilt. Give it back to nature. Only an idiot would rebuild in a flood plain. Or someone protected with government money."
Would that also go for the people in California who build where there are earthquakes and brushfires? Does that also go for the folks that got ravaged by the recent tornadoes? Gee maybe they should live in Tornado alley. Do you people even think before you type such comments?
Definitely it should apply to people in California who build in the dry mountains and drive 100 miles to work each day. And people in the Midwest should have storm cellars.
They could rebuild in New Orleans on high ground if they chose denser housing. I saw an analysis that said that if New Orleans built as densely as Paris, the entire population could return and live there. So it's not either or.
This is such a wrenching and difficult issue, but like Stilba hinted, it's difficult to divorce discrimination against black people with economic discrimination against the poor, b/c the two are often one.
Still, one of the lessons of Katrina - which I never hear - should be "don't build in flood plains!" I'm frustrated that the lowest lying areas of New Orleans are being built back up. I know, I know, shame on me for saying such a thing, but it was clearly a mistake to build there in the first place, and this is a chance (albeit a tragic one) not to make the same mistake again. The whole place is a flood plain, and without regular river floods (which are currently held back with levees), all the topsoil drains into the city's pumps and is sent out to sea, leaving the city sinking rapidly. That's how it ended up below sea level. To rebuild is to ensure another disaster in the future. Let's give that land back to nature and build in more hospitable areas.
I agree with correctivelens....New Orleans for the most part should not be rebuilt. Give it back to nature. Only an idiot would rebuild in a flood plain. Or someone protected with government money.
Saw tv coverage of Mardi Gras 'revelers', not one black face.
Capitalism has always been ready to use racism in furtherance of its designs. If it can mask its acts by confusing and dividing us, so much the better for attaining its ends. Failing to see how both race and class are at play here, ultimately does not help in the fight against rapacious capital.
The capitalist beast does not consider something like race. I think this is purely a class issue. The fact that most of the poor folks in that area happen to be black ...this fact doesn't mean a thing to the investors gobbling up cheap land. Were the people white, I think we'd see the same thing happen (maybe not a few decades ago, but in Bush's America, yes), but there'd be no talk of race. Charging this as a racial issue takes away from the true evil: an upper class with more than it can ever need is crushing a lower class for a little more.
"Disaster Capitalism" in action.