Saints of New Orleans
By nolatiger
@nolatiger (3)
United States
January 29, 2007 12:31am CST
I am currently a long term hurricane recovery volunteer for a national non profit in New Orleans. It seems to me that America has forgotten the city that care forgot, and am infuriated with people I run into outside of Louisiana that think that the Gulf Coast is fixed. I hope to add my experience to the MyLot conscious and hopefully inspire people to become Saints of New Orleans.
1 response
@TereFaerie (386)
• United States
1 Feb 07
Thank you for your heartfelt post. Living in NOLA and working for a museum, I am all too aware that I would be out of a job if the city metaphorically sinks away. Or literally, take your pick.;)
I have family in Mississippi, and I am constantly in awe of how well this state (though it has a much smaller pop., and a larger sense of community) has done in it's own reconstruction. I thought that the Saints making it to the playoffs would give us some added recognition, but that seems to have faded as quickly as the cheers of "We be black, we be gold, we be goin' to da Super Bowl" around town.
The citizens of New Orleans have worked together to accomplish plenty, but, you know y'all, there is a lot more that needs to be done. With the rising violence in the city and the obvious corruption, the citizens of our city have been fighting for change and hopefully soon we'll get it. I think you've seen the last of the laissez-faire attitude that earned the city its now obsolete nickname.
It shore ain't Easy anymore.
@nolatiger (3)
• United States
2 Feb 07
Unfortunately city hall and the tourist industry have made statements that to the general public sound like New Orleans has come back. In reality it hasn't. The city wants people to come back, so it is making things sound rosier than it really is in hopes that people will come back to rebuild. Tourists are only interested in visiting disaster zones if they can come back to thier comfy beds. So the tourist industry is promoting like it is ten years from now and the city has repaired most things. We need tourists, but we need them to see more than the French Quarter, the Garden District, and the Ninth Ward,(which the tours have convinced the city to not knock down houses that should be because the tourists want to see the devestation.) We need them to see Mid City which is ten blocks north on Canal from the French Quarter, which is almost a ghost town, with the morjority of houses having had over five feet of water. We need them to see City Park which was totaly flooded, but is comming back. We need them to go to Gentilly, where on the 3600 block of Fairmont one woman, Ms. Curtis is bringing the block back by reaching out to numerous non profits and conecting them with her neighbors, (even those in Texas,) to have them rebuild her block as a symbol of hope to her neighborhood. We need them to volunteer and donate their skills, time and money. We need them to go back to their homes and tell their churches, and communities what really is happening here. We need not the 5000 volunteers a day we have working for the various non profits here, but 20,000. Katrina awakened us, but once it became old news, we went back to sleep. Which is what we will stay until the next disaster.
