A Little Progress

The picture above is Samuel J. Green Charter. In 2007, Magnolia Project Volunteers helped take down barbed wire, plant the schools new community garden and paint a mural. Last week, I visited Green again because our two Rethink interns were running a summer camp out of the school. In a city with plenty of stories about blight and demolition, it is nice to see some sustained progress (especially when it involves MP!).

http://greencharterschool.org/

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(2007)

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Photo Tour- July 9

The Following are photos were taken around the city by our service participants and myself, please take note of credits. All photos were taken during this year's Magnolia Project, as best as I can, I have attempted to provide proper context.

Photographer- Jana McClure

Photographer- Ravi Patel

If any one knows what this sign means, please let me know, it is all over NOLA

MP 3rd annual Community Dinner

Lower Ninth Ward Village

4th of July in NOLA

Why I'm Here

"Why are you here?" Last year I posed this question to my group several times without a complete answer. My group, or "Team Bonin" as we named ourselves, was not afraid of working in the summer heat, angry wasps and fire ants, or strange mold growths, but when I would pose this simple question every few evenings, they would squirm and avoid eye contact.

For me, there are two answers to this question. The first is a simple one, it is one that I give to family friends and curious relatives. People who I know well may have heard the story about how I first became involved in Magnolia Project. A dorm hall debate about Hurricane Katrina and a fortuitous chalking in a classroom the next day led me to a info session, and here I am. But there is also a longer answer. A couple info sessions might explain how I got here, but not exactly why.

The photo above is a small street island in Uptown, about .5 mile from Tulane. On the last work day of my first trip to New Orleans, we helped dig up the overgrowth that had accumulated since the storm. I was so exhausted by the end of the trip that this was probably the hardest labor I have ever done in New Orleans. During lunch I fell asleep on the sidewalk next to Papa Johns, and while working there were several times that I zoned out completely, staring at my feeble attempt to uproot a weed, until a fellow volunteer jolted me back to attention.

The island is close enough to our current residence that I walk by it several times a week. Every time I do, I think about that day and how much energy I put into this little plot of grass. It seems so inconsequential, just some neutral ground that the Tulane students who live in the area probably do not even think twice about. But to me it does have some meaning, and there are points all around this city that are just like this island. A vacant lot in the lower ninth, a house in the East, a school in Uptown, a family I met in Mid City. To anyone else, these are all just small pieces, but to me, they represent why I am still here.

The feelings that these places and people evoke in me give me a perspective on what this entire city means to someone who has been raised here. For just a moment, I can experience first hand why the residents of New Orleans want to come back so passionately. At the same time, the brevity of this emotion tells me that this city can never mean to me what it means to them. I have a few points of reference, they have a hospital where they were born, a neighborhood where they grew up, a school district where they were taught and a city that tossed them out and draws them back.

So I am here, still here, for the sake of what I have already seen and done. The places and people I have discussed above mean something to me and I want to be apart of supporting them. However, I can also see that New Orleans is not my home, no matter what, I will always be a little bit foreign here, and that is OK. I do not expect to co-opt a place just because I have spent some time there. New Orleans is important now because of the scale of what it has gone through and because years from now, children will learn about what happened here and I want them to have a positive example to carry on. But at the same time, eventually we all have to go back to the places we are from, where everything means something to us, and try to make a difference there. Until then, it is important for me to put myself in the shoes of others, to share what they feel, if only for a short time.

Voting Rights Act Sticks Around

This is not directly related to New Orleans but I thought it was worth noting.

This week, the Supreme Court narrowed, but kept alive one of the most effective top-down Civil Rights era protections ever created, pre-clearance. Pre-clearance was part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and mandated that States, counties and cities with histories of voter discrimination had to "pre-clear" any changes to voting laws with the Justice Department to ensure that they did not unfairly infringe on people's ability to vote. For example, although discrimination on the basis of race was illegal, many states and localities had changed voting locations or times to keep people of color disenfranchised. Three years ago, Congress extended the Act for 25 more years but pre-clearance was challenged in court as out-dated. To this day, states across the south (including Louisiana) and counties across the country (including Kings, Merced, Yuba and Monterey in California) are subject to pre-clearance.

By the recent Supreme Court ruling, jurisdictions with a clean record for 10 years can apply to be let out of the system. The merits of this provide for an important debate, but for now, I think it is important to remember a tactic for Justice that was proven to be effective.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-voting-rights23-2009jun23,0,2453659.story

Make it (the) Right (way)

When I first came to New Orleans in 2007, gutting homes 5 days a week, the Community Organizers we worked with emphasized the idea that America needed New Orleans. The implication was that there was a possibility that New Orleans could fall into oblivion if we did not continue to gut and rebuild homes. I think the tone is much different now. There are few people who would question that 10 years from now there will be a City of New Orleans. The question now is, how will New Orleans come back.

Pictured above is a Make it Right house. After Hurricane Katrina, the Make it Right Foundation, headed up by Brad Pitt, pledged to build 150 environmentally sustainable homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. A dozen top architects were commissioned to build the first set that are now finished near the west end of the Lower Ninth Ward, right next to the Industrial Canal.

The homes look impressive, if not simply for the fact that they stand almost alone in the decimated neighborhood and tower over the buildings that do still remain. Their colorful and vibrant exteriors as well as the sunshine cascading off of rooftop solar panels literally outshine anything else nearby.

Pitt has been praised in publications like the LA Times and Architectural Digest for his efforts. Certainly the image of homes going up in the 9th ward is inspiring, but not without questions.

A couple weeks ago, a group of us spoke to James Turner, a resident of the Lower 9th Ward, while on a levee tour. James was concerned that the people who moved into the homes, would not necessarily be able to keep them in good repair. Where in New Orleans, for example, does one go to fix a solar panel?

Personally, I do not see much aesthetic value in the homes, either. Granted, I am not from New Orleans and certainly do not have a detailed grasp on New Orleans architecture, but the Make it Right homes do not necessarily strike me as being in the spirt of 9th Ward construction.

Even if both of these issues were alleviated, they provide good examples of some things that must be considered in the rebuilding process. First, "green" is not the only marker of sustainability. Green living is only sustainable if the people who are living in the homes have the resources to keep up with their earth friendly technology. Second, the rebuilding of New Orleans should not turn into a laboratory for contemporary architects. It is easy to see the city as a blank slate, where anyone with an interesting idea can find an empty lot and a celebrity funder. Anything that happens in New Orleans, especially now during a time where its future is being shaped, has to be for New Orleans.

Again, I cannot say that the Make it Right foundation has fallen into these pit (honestly, no pun intended) falls and as I described above, the view of these homes coming over the Claiborne bridge is eye-catching (even if I personally believe a few of them are closer to eyesores). However, they do provide a good opportunity to reflect on how we rebuild New Orleans and not just that we do.

Thank You Volunteers!

Just a quick Thank You to the 40 amazing volunteers who spent the past 2 1/2 weeks here in New Orleans with the Magnolia Project.  You all did great work, it is people like you who make Magnolia Project what it is.  Get some rest now, because MP will need you again soon (like planning for commemoration over the summer).

Where Do We Go From Here?

New Orleans, in 2009, must begin to set a path that will define how it will exist. The city is no longer in the first throes of the Post-Katrina era and must now take stock of the situation it finds itself in. The city is at 75% of its pre-Katrina population level (although the actual return rate is well below 75% when we consider the numbers of new residents). This year, the question that often arises is, do we rebuild for the people who are here now, or do we still assume that others are going to come back. As far as City Hall (which will be my focus for this post) is concerned, the former is most important. Almost 4 years on, the City clearly believes that the residents we have now are what is most important and those who have not returned yet, likely never will. City Hall has laid out its own path to recovery. Two examples are below. I think each one demonstrates how the city has answered the question, "Where do we go from here", laying out its own path while at times alienating current and former citizens.

The City's general idea is that it is time for New Orleans to move forward, even if some pain in the short term must be endured and as long as the ends justify the means.

Charity Hospital

(picture courtesy Jana McClure, MP participant, 2009)

By now, many of you are probably familiar with the situation surrounding Charity Hospital (tallest building pictured above, from the 10 freeway). Founded in 1736, Charity Hospital was one of the oldest public hospitals in the nation in 2005. The current building was constructed in 1939 with 2,600 beds, at the time, the second biggest hospital in the country. Charity functioned as a major center for research, trained 75% of Louisiana's medical professionals, and was the main treatment center for New Orleans's poor and uninsured. For more information about Charity, see the resources below.

During Katrina, Charity took heavy damage, but thanks to the fact that it had been built to exceptional standards, (17 foot ceilings on the first 2 floors) the building did structurally survive. More significantly, the excruciatingly slow rescue response forced staff of Charity to go to extremes to serve patients. In Breach of Faith, Jed Horne describes how staircases were used as urinals and trash drops were used to collect feces while ill patients waited desperately to be rescued during the week after the levee breaks. Needless to say, the heroic efforts of hospital staff to keep patients alive also took a toll on the building.

In the wake of the storm, a plan was developed by the city, state and (at least in part) federal government, to leave Charity closed in favor building a new LSU/VA hospital in lower-Mid City. The project would require demolishing 27 blocks in Mid City, just outside downtown, which includes blighted and reconstructed homes and businesses.

The City claims that the new complex will be a World-Class bio-medical center that will help draw talent and economic vitality to New Orleans while also providing excellent care. Opponents argue that the plan unnecessarily delays the return of pre-Katrina health services by keeping Charity closed and wrongfully demolishes homes in Mid-City. An independent architectural report argues that Charity Hospital could be restored and made into a World-Class institution for 2/3rds the price of building a new facility. For more information see below.

Resources

http://www.nesri.org/Killing_Charity_Hospital.pdf

http://www.savecharityhospital.com/

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/plans_for_lsuva_hospital_compl.html

Code Enforcement

Anyone who has volunteered in New Orleans over the past year has probably spent some time cutting lawns in the Lower 9th Ward. Lawnmowers don't cut it with these lawns, though. Many of these yards are full of swap grass, up to 6 feet tall, that covers the lots where homes used stand. Homes whose owners haven't been back in a long time.

In 2008, the city of New Orleans passed Chapter 28 of the City Code which gave broad reaching powers to the Code Enforcement department. This includes new guidelines about housing standards and punishments for not meeting them. For example, having grass over 18 inches can draw a $500 per day fine. The same goes for damaged windows not being properly covered, infestations or significant amounts of trash. And this is why we cut lawns. Because the daily fines pile up until the City has enough debt against a property to seize it themselves.

The City's perspective on this is that there are so many blighted properties left over from the storm that the only way to clear them is for the city to seize them through daily fines and then sell them to neighbors or other parties who will restore them, or demolish them.

The city has 2 justifications (both of which I gleam from my time at City Hall). First, that most complaints and reports of Code Violations come from neighbors who have returned to and restored their own homes and are concerned about the risk the abandoned, blighted properties pose to themselves and their children. Second, that people have had nearly 4 years to return and fix their houses, so if they have not already, they likely never will.

It should be noted that many people have tried to fix their properties but have been halted by lack of resources or bad contractors. Even if a resident brings proof that a contractor stole their deposit and did not perform repairs that would have brought their property up to code, their homes can be condemned and repossessed by the City.

Where do we go from here?

This is where we are. It is hard to argue with the end goals of the projects listed above. The idea of a top-notch medical center, brining a hub of industry to New Orleans is an exciting prospect. Certainly every city in the country is struggling to find a cornerstone to back its economy and medicine is a thriving field that is difficult to outsource. And while much of the scorn of Code Enforcement's efforts have focused on the Lower 9th Ward, other neighborhoods are functioning completely differently.

For example, the house pictured above stands only a couple blocks away from where we stay in Uptown. Almost every other house in the neighborhood is repaired, repainted and reoccupied. Yet this house remains blighted. The red side next to the door indicates to the Fire Department that the house is under imminent danger of collapse. At any time there are also a dozen or more cats making a home inside. Imagine living near by. Even if you know the people who used to live here, if they were your family-friends for generations, would you want your children playing around this house? I think about some of the residents that I have met in my time here, and how much they have struggled to come back. I would not want them to have to put up with rat infestations and drug dens, just because their neighbor, for whatever reason, has not been able to come back and do what they have done.

And so I can see the merit, the overarching goals, of what the City government wants to do from this point. The question to ask now is, are they doing it right? Yes, the city needs a new hub of industry if it is to support a population of this size. Yes, blighted properties are a risk to community safety. But in remedying these problems, has City Hall alienated the people who are meant to be the eventual benefactors? This question is too big for this space and not what I intend to answer.

All I would like to get across here, is that these two examples show where City Hall sees us going from here, in 2009. The leadership envision a city that is grander than before, that not only recovers from Katrina, but uses the destruction as an opportunity to make things better than they otherwise would have been (another example could have been the demolition of public housing, but that is for another time). This is the thesis of the "Master Plan". If people disagree with it, we need to hear a equally encompassing set of directions that draws New Orleans forward while fulfilling the residents immediate and long term needs.

Further Reading

http://www.nolamasterplan.org/

http://neworleans.iprojweb.com/