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Hurricane Katrina has dealt a blow deep in the heart of our city, deeper than any today can remember. Even as residents have evacuated to nearby cities and states, setting up in hotels or finding families and friends who have opened their homes, the devastating impacts to our city have continued to escalate. It was a difficult decision to remain in New Orleans during the hurricane and the chaos that ensued in the aftermath, but I felt it important to be here, to continue working in the community, listening to peoples immediate and long-term concerns.

This is the first update to the Urban Conservancy group since the hurricane, and as the program coordinator, I want you to know that we are as committed as ever to the communities, cultural assets, and urban landscapes of our cherished city.

As each of us confront the challenges of dislocation, it may bring some comfort to remember why New Orleans is so special to us. We have delicious cooking, all kinds of music that grooves, soothes, jumps, and jams, the clubs, the cafes, the nightlife, legendary personalities, second lines, carnival, all of it make up New Orleans. We have the streetcar, the French Quarter, Claiborne Avenue, Magazine Street, Uptown, Mid-city, Lakeview, Central City, the Garden District, the Marigny, Bywater, 9th Ward, New Orleans East, distinctive neighborhoods, historic houses, friends and neighbors. The stories you hear talking to people in the street, blowout parties and celebrations for no reason at all, in New Orleans, we know how to have a good time! There are beautiful live oak trees, the Mississipi river, Audubon and City Park have flowers all year. People from all over the world come to see our city but none can love it like those of us living in New Orleans. That’s because over all, it is the people who make New Orleans.

Now it is time to rebuild. In the coming months there is a critical role for the people and organizations who love New Orleans to actively participate in rebuilding our city. Under normal circumstances, even a fraction of the changes that will occur during reconstruction would generate massive citizen involvement. Now that residents are so widely dispersed, organizing this involvement poses unique obstacles. The Urban Conservancy is dedicated to overcoming these obstacles to give the citizens of New Orleans controlling power to guide the rebuilding of our city.

Following are a few observations from the time since hurricane Katrina struck, as I have seen them here on the ground in New Orleans.

The violence of Hurricane Katrina’s raging winds shook the house, rattled windows, and blasted shingles, siding and whole roofs off of buildings and into the streets. Trees and telephone poles were knocked down and huge branches choked the city streets. Still, the storm passed by mid-Monday morning. We stepped outside in the relative calm that followed to survey the devastation. Those of us who had remained in the city were still unaware of the full magnitude, as yet unrealized, as the disaster continued to grow with violence, looting, flooding, fires and an evacuation that has displaced hundreds of thousands of residents from our city.

For those watching the news from outside, it may have been difficult to understand that many people who remained in the city were trying to pull together to help one another. On Oak St., where I took refuge during the storm, merchants and residents were checking up on each other, trying to protect the businesses and homes of their neighbors from criminal looting and generally pulling together as a community. Many were meeting their neighbors for the first time. Certainly the chaos of the moment brought out the best in some and the worst in others.

In the following days, I met people from whom the storm had taken everything. Having lost their home, possessions, and pets, they were severed from the community networks that ordinarily help people through such trying times. Shortage of food and water contributed to the growing fear, hopelessness, and despair while a lack of attention to human needs in the early response effort left thousands in the dark, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. In these circumstances, the future was even more remote. Whether crowded at the Convention Center and the Superdome or isolated behind boarded up windows in their houses on inundated streets, the disaster also took its toll on our social fabric, seeding distrust and anger that will take years to heal.

Now very few residents remain in New Orleans. The devastation of the hurricane has transformed our city, but as we have already seen, the changes caused by the hurricane are only the beginning. What will happen now that the city is being rebuilt? Today New Orleans has the appearance of a war zone, complete with devastated buildings, abandoned streets, helicopters and military patrols. The response to this disaster is like none other in U.S. history. This is not your typical hurricane aftermath. How will we rebuild under such conditions? How will the people of New Orleans recover this city and restart their lives once again.

We must not sit back, waiting for others to solve our problems. There is a critical need for the people of New Orleans to guide the rebuilding process. If we do not, we will be dismayed at what we find when we return. The work ahead of us is daunting but if fail to act, we have so much more to lose. Despite the magnitude of the situation, I am optimistic that we will meet the challenge. It is up to us to protect New Orleans’ urban and community assets while seeking ways to improve the sustainability of our city. I am confident that our efforts will have impact serving a critical need for community control of development in our city.

People are New Orleans’ greatest asset. In the coming weeks, look for regular updates from the Urban Conservancy as well as opportunities to become involved.

Kindest regards to all,
Forest

Forest Bradley-Wright
Program Coordinator
The Urban Conservancy

Filed under: Rebuilding New Orleans