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April 11, 2006

New Orleans, Louisianna

We've spent the past few days in New Orleans, mostly eating and looking at houses. This is, of course, a unique time to be in New Orleans, with vast stretches of the city still destroyed, powerless, and uninhabited.

Most of my experience while living in New Orleans had been in the Lower Garden District, Faubourg Marigny, and the French Quarter. It was great to see that most of these areas were either largely untouched by Katrina or have seen substantial repairs.

I used to ride my bike from Marigny to the University of New Orleans up Elysian Fields. We drove this and saw areas that were still very messed up. Many houses along the length of this route are boarded up or obviously empty, and the water line is visible 5 to 8 feet off of the ground. It is dramatic. Driving through other areas of the city towards the lake and then Bywater and other areas in the 9th Ward, it becomes apparent how hammered New Orleans is. Miles of houses sit empty. Signs warn you to not drink the tapwater. There are no stoplights, just 4-way stops. Some areas have no foot traffic and and it is quiet. Driving around Uptown, it almost seems like nothing happened; driving here it is like nothing is left.

An article about the upcoming mayorial election says that "before the storm, the city had 480K residents. Today it has just 180K." The decreased population isn't spread evenly over the city. Instead, it is as if the edges of the city to the east and north had just been rolled back.

Revisiting New Orleans with a new appreciation for older houses and an awareness of the ways that are often mutilated, it was great to see very little ghetto brick or vinyl siding. With a great majority of the houses having been maintained, there is very little jarring in-fill housing either.

Posted by john m at April 11, 2006 2:50 PM

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