The New New Orleans

Greetings my fellow Observers,

It's been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina demolished the city of New Orleans and its coast line. President Obama and President Bush went to the city this week to proclaim that although New Orleans wasn't all of the way back, it was coming back with a vengeance.

Their comments were mostly correct. In the areas of the city where white people live and tourist travel, New Orleans is looking better than ever. The streets are paved, the buildings are new and the town is bustling with activity as if Katrina never struck.

But, all one has to do is travel to the part of the city called "Treme" and "The 9th Ward" where all of the African Americans once lived, you will still be able to see the degradation and destruction that was left by the most devastating hurricane to hit Louisiana in history.

The homes, which are barely still standing are in need of demolishing and it is almost impossible to determine where the streets end and the lawns begin. The area's landscape resembles the Louisiana swamp for which it is so famous.

Like most major metropolitan and popular urban areas New Orleans is becoming gentrified. In other words, the white people are moving in and in the case of New Orleans, the Black people are not being allowed to move back.  

It all is part of a conspiracy to create an upscale and livable playground for the wealthy with a little room for those who will service them. Here's how it worked.

Once Katrina devastated the city and the rebuilding process began, the Federal Government made money available to the residents of New Orleans to rebuild their homes. The financial part of this conspiracy was that the government loan would be based on the value of one's home right before Katrina struck.

Of course, this payout didn't provide the African Americans who lived in Treme and the 9th Ward enough money to rebuild their homes at today's cost of construction, so they cannot return. Legal organizations sued the federal government for $ billions of dollars while claiming that due to the inequities in housing, the homes in these areas would naturally be valued less than the homes in the white and more affluent neighborhoods and therefore another formula should be used to fund the rebuilding process.

The federal government settled, but instead of paying $ billions, they paid $ 62 million dollars and at present nothing is happening in the 9th Ward or Treme with the exception that one young man and his wife have pieced together an old vacant building and made it the only grocery store in walking distance. Previously, the residents of the Treme and the 9th Ward had to ride three buses to get to the nearest store which was a Wal-Mart that was located all of the way across town. 

Who knows if the 9th Ward and Treme will ever return to prominence and the African Americans who have returned to New Orleans are still showing resilience in their ability to move forward with their lives. Mad Man recently heard a woman state "screw resilience because it has become a mantra for Black people who have grown complacent with living in a constant state of upheaval".

Let's hope that this "Black Lives Matter" movement gains more traction because at present, it doesn't mean squat. Black people march, white politicians talk about immigration, the media loves to report it, and Black leaders just nod their heads and do nothing. This is a vicious cycle of hopelessness with no end in sight and white people's commentary hasn't changed in regards to black people................ "We gave you your freedom, what else do you want?"

Mad Man