CURRENT ACTIVITIES - STATE OF THE CITY

Current Activities - walkin-to-new-orleans.org

• The parking lot at Laid Back Tours now has seven FEMA trailers providing temporary housing for some of our neighbors.
• The Laid Back Tours post-Katrina help center is still open. We have a computer, fax, copier and phone free for people to use. We have also been helping students after school with papers and projects.
• We have been attending neighborhood, district and city-wide planning meetings for the last six months.
• We have been working with other grassroots organizations to protect tenents from unwarranted evictions and to prevent rent gouging and profiteering.

NEW ORLEANS AFTER KATRINA - STATE OF THE CITY (& Veda/Musa) - 1/26/2007

We're doing very well under the circumstances. We are still living in our bike shop, but it’s actually very comfortable here. We have a full kitchen set up with stove, refrigerator, sink, etc.

Unfortunately, most of our neighbors are still stuck in very small FEMA trailers. The U.S. Government has abandoned New Orleans. They paid for storm cleanup and FEMA trailers but for very little else. The small amount of money to help home owners rebuild their homes is still caught up in bureaucratic red tape. The French Quarter is fine, along with sections of uptown New Orleans. Much of the rest of the city is still devastated 17 months after hurricane Katrina and the resulting U.S. Army Corp of Engineers levee failures.

Bush has broken his promise to rebuild New Orleans and has instead poured billions of dollars into Iraq in order to gain access to their oil. Hundreds of thousands in Iraq are dying while hundreds of thousands in New Orleans are suffering.

Half of the New Orleans population is still living outside of the city, most want desperately to come home. We still can’t open the business (we haven’t really decided if we ever will) because we still have 7 families living in the 7 FEMA trailers on our parking lot. We had hoped that by the end of 2006, there would be enough housing for people to move out of the trailers, but the only rentals available are double and triple the pre-Katrina price. We can’t put these families out because some would end up being homeless. In fact homelessness has dramatically increased in the city already.

Musa has been attending neighborhood and district planning meetings for nearly six months and we have both gone to city-wide meetings and "Community Congresses", all to create a "Unified New Orleans Plan". Unfortunately it has been very discouraging because it seems that the planners and others running the process only want the illusion of a democratic process, not the real thing. As a result, issues like affordable housing for people who want to return (but can’t because of high rents) are not being properly addressed. This despite the fact that there was a strong consensus among neighborhood, district and city-wide Congress participants that this should be a top priority.

I know it sounds crazy, but even with all of the bad things happening we and most other New Orleanians would rather live in New Orleans, despite her devastated state, than anywhere else in the U.S. We still have the greatest music, a culture that people care about and are fighting to preserve, a laissez-faire attitude that feels refreshing as opposed to a ‘hurry and stress out’ mode of being we find in other places in the U.S., and a great sense of freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. Despite government abandonment, the spirit of the people is alive and well. Neighbors are helping neighbors, people from around the country are coming to New Orleans to help citizens rebuild, and our music and culture are still thriving.

As for us personally, we are still going out to hear live music two or more times a week. The music scene is very hot. Most of the music clubs are open and most musicians (with a few notable exceptions) are back in the city. If you come to New Orleans now, we’re sure you would still have a great time, especially if you like music. Bicycling is still good here as well, though many streets in the outlying neighborhoods are still not repaired. Also, rides can be very somber, as miles and miles of some neighborhoods are still empty and eerily quiet.

To sum up life presently in our great but devastated city: There seems to be lots of humanity present, intense care and concern for a city being slowly rebuilt by those who love her. We have problems and we have scary governmental figures to work around, but the spirit lives on, the energy is exceptional, and we are slowly recreating a vibrant city out of chaos.

Love,
Musa & Veda

New Orleans Quotes:

Lafcadio Hearn, New Orleanian and author, writing to a friend in Cincinnati in 1877:

"Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become only a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes, than to own the whole state of Ohio."

Charles Dudley Warner, from "Sui Generis"

"I liked it all from the first: I lingered long in that morning walk, liking it more and more, in spite of its shabbiness, but utterly unable to say then or ever since wherein its charm lies. I suppose we are all wrongly made up and have a fallen nature; else why is it that while the most thrifty and neat and orderly city wins only our approval - and perhaps gratifies us intellectually - such a thriftless, battered and starved and lazy old place as New Orleans takes our hearts?"

Eudora Welty:

"New Orleans is the place where firm ground ceases and the unsound footing begins...A certain kind of person likes such a place. A certain kind of person wants to go there and never leave."

Washington Post - Dec. 27, 2006
Hope For New Orleans
By William H. Chafe

NEW ORLEANS AFTER KATRINA - STATE OF THE CITY (& Veda/Musa) - 5/8/2006

The city of New Orleans is still broken, but the spirit of her people is alive and well. Major problems still abound. The biggest problem is an acute housing shortage. Affordable housing is practically non-existent. It seems that city, state or federal governments are doing little or nothing to deal with this problem. Other problems include (but are not limited to): inconsistent trash collection (our mid-city neighborhood often goes two weeks without trash pickup); mail delivery is still spotty with maybe twice a week deliveries (starting this week, we will be able to receive magazines and newsletters which were suspended); telephone service in most of the city will not be available until late Summer 2006; we doubt if the levees or pumping stations will be ready by hurricane season. But if you think about it, the levees and pumping stations really weren't ready in past years (and we knew it). That's why New Orleanians live each day with such gusto (we know it could be our last).

Despite all of these problems, the people who have found a way to get back to (or nearby) the city are generally in good spirits. We had a great French Quarter Festival (mid-April) and have just finished a wonderful Jazz Fest (two 3-day weekends - late April/early May). Each local restaurant or music club that re-opens is greatly celebrated by all. We know, however, that people have been changed by the hurricane and the levee breaks. We and others seem to cry at the drop of a hat.

Personally Veda and I are doing pretty darn good given the circumstances. We are working hard on our apartment (in back of the shop) and on the Laid Back Tours shop, but we are also playing hard, going to live music sets two or more times a week, finally getting to ride our bikes a couple of times a week, and having a great times connecting with people: neighbors, musicians, people coming into the city to volunteer, and even the occasional tourist.

The Laid Back Tours parking lot is being used for trailers so that seven of our neighbors (including two New Orleans musicians) have a temporary place to live. When repairs are complete, our shop will also be used as an information/help center for returning evacuees. The shop and our apartment in the back of the shop are taking longer than we hoped to re-build because we didn't have insurance and must do most of the work ourselves (we did have great help from some of our past customers). We are nearly finished the apartment so we should be able to move out of the FEMA trailer soon. The biggest problem right now with our apartment and the Laid Back Tours shop, is that the air conditioner (which was flooded) is not working. Some of the parts that need to be replaced are not in stock locally.

All in all, however, we are doing better than you might think. We love New Orleans because of the live music, the culture, the food, the spirit and resilience of the people and the sense of freedom that we don't find in most other American cities. Despite all of the bad things (politicians, price gougers, etc.) this is a great city. The people, not the federal, state or local governments, are bringing it back to life and we are proud to be a part of this effort.

Love,
Musa & Veda

NEW ORLEANS AFTER KATRINA - STATE OF THE CITY - 10/25/2005

Veda and I are busy cleaning out our house/shop and tearing out sheetrock and insulation. It has been more than two weeks, but we are almost finished. The remainder of our time has been spent going to city and state meetings as well as networking with grassroots people and organizations all in an attempt to make sure that New Orleans is re-built in a fair and equitable manner.

Our politicians along with some of our powerful New Orleans business executives seem to be intent on a plan that would change the character and uniqueness of our city. In many, many ways they are making it difficult or impossible for our less well off citizens to return to the city. At this point there is no housing available for evacuees. The few apartments that are for rent have doubled or tripled in price. The public schools may not open until the fall of 2006. FEMA has given trash removal and other contracts to multi-national corporations like KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, and they are not hiring local workers or sub-contracting with local businesses. Many local businesses can't open for lack of workers. The workers can't come back because they have no place to live. We estimate that about 20,000 residents are living in the city and about 30,000 more have found living quarters close enough to commute into the city daily (we are one of the latter). The rest of the 430,000 or so New Orleanians are still scattered around the country, isolated from the goings on in the city.

Driving around the city, we see more devastation than you could possibly imagine. You would not believe what has happened to New Orleans, even if we sent you pictures. You have to walk around and drive around to appreciate the magnitude of the destruction. The mayor and politicians are focusing on the French Quarter, CBD, and a small section of Uptown. Unfortunately, however, the rest of the city is in very bad shape. Two months after Katrina, the flood water is gone, but the infrastructure of most of the city is still in shambles. No electricity, no gas, no drinking water, no sewerage, no phone service, etc. Though much of the major flood related trash has been picked up, all neighborhoods outside of the French Quarter and CBD are full of papers, cans, bottles and other small trash.

Because the federal government is legally responsible for flood protection, they are technically responsible for financing the re-building. Unfortunately, it looks like the President and Congress are reneging on their responsibility and promise to help re-build New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We are working with other groups on a plan to bring thousands of volunteers from around the country to help clean up New Orleans. With national news coverage, this would again focus attention on the plight of New Orleans and pressure the federal government to fulfill their obligations.