Exciting news coverage in Lower 9th ward = increased awareness and renewed interest!!

There are many opportunities to keep New Orleans alive in your heart at Christmas time. Make it Right has just unveiled Project Pink. Covered by the Today Show (see video) this morning, Project Pink is an installation in the Lower 9th created to bring attention to Make it Right and the adopt a house fund raiser. Headed by Bran Pitt (star power never hurts), you can adopt a whole house for $150,000 or just a gallon of paint or a compact flourescent light bulb. Donations in any denomination are also accepted.

Project Pink consists of little pink monopoly type houses created to represent the future 150 homes. There will be viewing platforms for pedestrians while the project continues.

Be sure to check out the really neat web site!


Christmas Giving - New Orleans link for many of the active organizations in Lower 9th that could really use donations and hope you will support them at this time.


In case you missed it before here is the Wetlands video embedded into this blog

Last Day-Musicians Village and FEMA Trailors and more FEMA Trailors

Musicians Village -upper 9th ward.

Today is my last day here. Its been a good but difficult trip. I feel so lucky I have a nice home to return to. Brandon has been a wonderful guide and I have seen so many things that I would not have if not for her. I thank her for all her time, insight and information. Her old truck barely crossed the bridges over the Mississippi but we made it to all our destinations.

We made a trip over to Musicians Village today in the upper 9th.

The Musicians' Village, conceived by Harry Connick and Winton Marsalis, will consist of 70 single-family, Habitat for Humanity-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians and other qualifying families. On January 9, 2006 NOAHH acquired eight acres of land in the Upper 9th Ward where the core area of the Musicians' Village will be located.

In addition to the homes in this tract, plans call for building at least 150 other homes in the surrounding Upper 9th Ward neighborhood. Construction began in March 2006 and the first ten homeowners moved into their new homes in August 2006. As of this date there have been 36 new Habitat homes constructed in the area. As you probably know, Habitat for Humanity helps families break out of the cycle of low-quality properties with high rent payments and into the world of reasonable payments toward home ownership.

Along the Gulf Coast, Habitat is currently undergoing construction on more than 57 homes per month in a region where Habitat affiliates had built 57 per year. Additionally, Habitat’s three goals for the effort are being met. The goals, set immediately after the hurricanes struck, included helping Habitat affiliates restore service in affected areas, partnering with other organizations to address the complex housing need and building simple, decent homes in partnership with low-income, hurricane-affected families.


More Habitat for Humanity homes in upper 9th

This is a fantastic organization from what I have seen here and if you want to be involved or donate this looks like a really great group. They are still looking for volunteers and you can work just one day if that is all you the time you have.










FEMA trailors

FEMA trailors are everywhere. Its hard to imagine whole families living in these tiny tin boxes. Those who were lucky enough to have a yard to place the trailor in seem to be a bit better off than those who live in the FEMA trailor parks. Row after row of trailers on asphalt. About 3,000 people live in more than 20 large communities of trailers.



FEMA trailers behind fence.



video

Well, that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who has been reading along. I hope the writing wasn't too awful! Volunteer, donate, march, tell people, do whatever you can and hopefully someone's life will be better.

Love, Suzanne

no blog today

boys in the neighborhood



Mer-boy and spartina



We used to play here.

Sorry today was a bit of a bust as I had to help Brandon take care of some parking tickets in Algeirs. It involved finding the old court house in a sort of out of the way area (court had to be moved after the hurricane). We took a car ferry back over the Mississippi which was a lot eaiser and faster.

The tickets were a bit expensive and could have probably been contested and dismissed. At the time she received them she was given confusing and conflicting information and it was too late at this point to contest. Like everything here it is not easy to get the correct information.

Worked on some photos earlier today

Wetland Restoration-Foundation of Everything

Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle-a completely destroyed wetland.



Lock on the Industrial Canal



Industrial Canal-Lower 9th side.



The Levee at Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle.

So much of what needs to happen here depends on healthy wetlands. Without that foundation none of it will work in the long term. All politics aside, this is probably the most important problem to fix.



Spartina awaiting wetland planting
in the nursery at Common Ground.

Today I visited The Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle. This is located on the line between Orleans and St. Bernard parish -north of L9. This was a thriving Cypress forest less than 20 years ago.

See video

The situation is this. in the late 60’s a canal called The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal (also known as MRGO, MR-GO or “Mr. Go”) was built for a shorter shipping route into New Orleans rather than take the Mississippi River which twists and turns. The problem is that the Gulf flows into it and brings salt water into inland fresh water. The wetlands make the transition between salt and non salt water. Inland plants don’t tolerate salt. Cypress trees are salt tolerant but not enough to withstand the salt that is coming in now. The lower 9th was once a cypress swamp.

Long-time Lower Nine residents remember a time before the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet flooded the bayou with saltwater and killed the native cypress trees and swamp just north of the Lower Nine. They remember when there was more dry land than wet.

There was a lot of fishing and social activity on the bayou. When the steel levee went up around the bayou after Hurricane Betsy it separated the bayou from the community.

Work done by Hassam Mahriqui in a computer simulation at Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center of MR-GO during Katrina found that it had raised the storm surge. Three months before Katrina, Mashriqui, a storm surge expert, called MR-GO a “critical and fundamental flaw” in the Corps’ hurricane defenses, a “Trojan Horse” that could amplify storm surges 20 to 40 percent. Following the storm, an engineering investigation and computer modelling showed that the outlet intensified the initial surge by 20 percent, raised the height of the wall of water about three feet, and increased the velocity of the surge from 3 feet per second (0.9 m/s) to 8 feet per second (2.4 m/s) in the funnel. Mashriqui believes this contributed to the scouring that undermined the levees and flood walls along the outlet and Industrial Canal. “Without MRGO, the flooding would have been much less,” he said. “The levees might have overtopped, but they wouldn’t have been washed away.”

St. Bernard Parish insists that only total closure can restore the wetlands destroyed by the MRGO. The plan proposed by the State of Louisiana also calls for the complete closure of the MRGO.





Barges in the Industrial Canal



Alligator in some really dirty garbage filled water in
some sort of catchment system from the Industrial Canal.

MISCELLANEOUS NEW ORLEANS SCENES



New modular shotgun for sale in L9





There is so so so much of this...and worse



Something was on fire here. It is not unusual to see a lot of burnt out buildings.



Here is a shot of the memorial built on the meridian of Claiborne which is the main road through the Lower 9th. It was built hastily before a Bush visit. Who would ever go here? Its really awful and it is the only place the city mows in L9-everything else is mowed by volunteers or residents.



yep

See ya tomorrow...S

Glass Half Full

The city of New Orleans sits to the right in this picture.
The view all around is of water.

The reason I have named this post Glass Half Full is because someone said that to me today. A white man in the French quarter tourist info booth. He told me that was how most New Orleans people viewed the situation. I don’t know if that is really true or not--it might just be a bit of positive spin for the tourists.

New Orleans is surrounded by water.
That is a fact.

Mayor Nagan has come out saying he supports self-determination in what will happen in the various neighborhoods.




Grass plugs planted by volunteers to try to save the wetlands

The preservation of New Orleans Depends on Healthy Wetlands

We visited Bayou Sauvage-possibly the largest national wildlife refuge within a city, located in the east of New Orleans. The Hydrology (movement of water due to seasonal changes) is artificially managed because the levees have interrupted the natural hydrology. Gates to control the water levels mimic the seasonal changes.



Brandon explains some wetland facts



Dry cracked mud and garbage =unhealthy wetland.

We stopped at the point where a barge broke through and destroyed the wetland. Volunteers have replaced a lot of the grasses called Spatina Acturnal flora. You can see there is still a need for more.



HUGE oil refinery (one of many) that sits just outside New Orleans.

New Orleans refines and ships through its port a lot of the country’s oil. This process has had a detrimental effect on the wetlands.

Thats it for tonight.

Best, suzanne

St Bernard Housing Project and Community Garden

Massive St. Bernard housing project, Lower 9th

Day two in New Orleans was gorgeous, in the lower 80’s, with brilliant sun. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out on me so sadly I don’t have as many pictures from the day’s travels as I would have liked.

The community housing project at St. Bernard in the Lower 9th looks like nowhere anyone would want to live. A waste land. Big old buildings resemble a prison more than a place to raise children. But for many people this was home.

The buildings sustained minimal damage from the hurricane and the residents have been trying to get the city to reopen the project. In 2006 after their request to reopen the project went unheeded, the residents constructed what was known as Survivors Village, a tent city on the meridian of the highway. There they lived. Rallies were held to try to get the project reopened. Over the past year Survivors Village has disbanded and some of its inhabitants can be found wherever the homeless try to survive and get by without being bothered by the police.

The St Bernard housing project sits abandoned.

The size is overwhelming. Building after building. There are over 1,000 units here. The whole thing is enclosed in a barb wire toped fencing. Brandon and I spent a bit of time wondering why the gates were open. Perhaps the lock had been cut? There were no trespassing and restricted access signs all over. The area was quiet, no one was around. It was an erie place.

The huge brick buildings sit empty, some with windows open, curtains blowing in the breeze. Anything made of metal is rusted out and ancient looking.

COMMUNITY GARDEN
Next we were off to the more peaceful Meg Perry Community Garden, (managed by Parkway partners). Also know as Sun Done Garden, the soil is in excellent shape with no contaminates possibly because the garden has always been organic since it was started in the 70's. The garden is rumored to have been started by the Black Panthers in order to provide a food source for the lower 9. The space contains a greenhouse, several large vegetable plots, and water catchment. There are grapefruit trees, okra, and eggplant to name a few of the very healthy plants thriving there. While we were there Brandon harvested basil from a plant the size of a small tree. Everything grows big here.

One interesting plant that was thriving in a small basin of water was a Water Hyacinth. Brandon told me the plant is very invasive, choking waterways and bayous. The interesting thing about the Water Hyacinth is that it is very fiberous and would make an excellent alternative to corn in the production of ethanol.

Many of the houses around the garden seem to have been repaired and in comparison to other areas the progress is apparent, but there are still an awful lot of FEMA trailers here.

I will try to post todays work tonight--last night there was no internet connection, hence this post was delayed.

till then...Suzanne

New Orleans ~ its a complicated place

Today, my first in New Orleans, was a very busy and intense day. I came away from the day with a lot of confusion. This is an incredibly complicated situation down here that didn't start with the hurricane--the hurricane added another layer.

Many here, volunteers and residents, feel the city used the hurricane to evict an undesirable population.




what's been left behind remind me of grave sites




stairs and paths that lead nowhere anymore.



Common Ground Relief in L9



Zeraph (aka Brandon) my escort and wetlands
project coordinator at Common Ground.

On visiting the Lower Ninth Ward one can only stare and wonder what is going on here. Vast flat fields resembling long neglected graveyards, driveways that go nowhere and slabs of cement with steps for no one. There is a strange beauty. The large trees that have survived dominate the landscape.

A wildwest quality vibrates in the energy there. One can feel a tension and law-less-ness and an anything could happen feeling. This has attracted scores of mostly young people to volunteer in the lower 9th for what appears to be a loosely organized agency called Common Ground Relief. I got to hang with a couple of the volunteers today while working on a water collection system. Of the group I met, all have been on and off, long term, volunteers and were not into living any kind of mainstream lifestyle.

The Common Ground area in the Lower 9th is comprised of about 7 or so buildings that are leased by the agency and house the volunteers, as well as a dining area, a donated clothing area, a small tree farm and plant nursery. There are numerous projects going on at any given time.

One of the wierd-er things is seeing the tour buses go through the area. Some stop, people get off and briefly look around while others just roll slowly through.




Volunteers at Common Ground getting
ready to assemble a rainwater collection system







Three completely destroyed houses that are inexplicably
left standing while perfectly good homes have been demolished.

Its hard to describe all the destruction here. In the Holy Cross neighborhood which is also a part of the lower 9th, there are more houses still left standing whereas on the other side of the lower 9th there are very very few.

Holy cross is also the site of the Global Green Housing development. We stopped by and had a visit with one of the workers who was a friend of Brandon's. I was under the impression that this was a great project but now I am not so certain. He pointed out that while it sounded good, the up keep on the house was so beyond what anyone from that area would be able to keep afford. He also pointed out this is a million dollar home going up in the most dangerous area of any place in the US. It started to seem like less of a good idea to me. I will try to follow-up on this latter.



Finishing construction on the Global Green House
in the Holy Cross neighborhood .

WETLANDS PRESENTATION



School children listen to a wetlands presentation

Today we also visited the John Dibert school in mid-city. Brandon assisted while Colleen made a presentation to groups of 2nd, 3rd and 4 th graders on what a wetlands is and the importance of the wetlands. The kids LOVED IT! It was so fun and I loved it too! The kids were really funny. Its so important that the wetlands are preserved.



Thats all for now folks.

I will try to have some stuff posted here tomorrow from paintings sites.

Best always, Suzanne