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April 21, 2008 Standing on old concrete foundations buried in overgrowth, it was hard to believe the expanses of green dotted with unused houses used to be a thriving community. But that was before Hurricane Katrina hit in the summer of 2005. Reconstruction in the Lower Ninth Ward has been slow to non-existent. We were in New Orleans' worst hit neighbourhood with about 20 other members of civil society groups in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Our tour guides, locals Allison Reinhardt and Quivanda Spencer from The Roots of Music, offered some disturbing statistics: - The Lower Ninth Ward is a majority African American community where 36 per cent live under the poverty line;
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has put up 94,000 trailers in Mississippi. And while 69,000 more have been requested for New Orleans, only 31,000 have been put up with another 25,000 sitting in a storage site visible from the highway, said Quivanda. These cost $3,200 per month in government funds to keep up. Security for Bush, charity for New Orleans With the magnitude of this problem, it is hard to figure out how Bush could possibly have thought highlighting the reconstruction efforts was a good reason to hold the SPP conference in New Orleans. In fact, New Orleans represents much of what is wrong with the SPP's exclusive definitions of "security" and "prosperity" -- exclusively for a few. The city's downtown core temporarily shut down for 15 minutes at around 5 p.m. yesterday so Bush's motorcade could speed its circular route to the all-important photo-op by the official summit meeting point. The security was, as usual, over the top. Meanwhile, in the Lower Ninth, a volunteer group called Common Ground Relief seemed to be the only ones securing the return of those people who don't fit into the SPP's vision of prosperity. As the police cars dispersed, ready to accompany diplomats and politicians back to their hotels, across the city the People's Summit was wrapping up at the Craig Community Centre. About 50 people, almost a third of them from Mexico and a dozen from Canada, continued to build a new definition of security and of prosperity that is inclusive, protects the earth and respects and reinforces communities. The summit continues tomorrow, more on on that soon.
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Tour of New Orleans shows widespread government neglect
Yet reconstruction is not happening for the frustrating reason that many of the residents did not have deeds to the land, even though their homes had been in the family for generations. The bureaucracy of sorting out ownership, topped with the federal government's "disappointing" support (to use Allison's word), has meant that many, perhaps thousands of people have either not been able to return to the city or are being housed temporarily in trailers.
