Around New Orleans

I spent some time cycling around New Orleans this weekend. Little has changed in the 10 weeks or so since Mardi Gras.

On Monday, I cycled up St Charles and out along the levee to the Huey Long Bridge. From there I cut across to the lake and along the lake. Coming down off the 17th Street Canal Bridge into Lakeview was surreal. I have been to some quiet places in my time... remote corners of the Serengeti, The Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Canyonlands. The great wild places while quiet exude some kind of life. Lakeview was different. It was dead. The emptiness was palpable. There were no cars, no people, not even a bird call. This most affluent area of New Orleans is not coming back.

Actually, while I was taking a picture of an overgrown basketball court I met one of the very few residents of Lakeview walking his dog. He told me that there was one guy living up the block and another across the way. Some people are coming in on weekends to gut their homes. No one is rebuilding. He had been turned down for a small business loan because one side of his structure was rented (not sure if he owned that or someone else) and is hoping to be able to apply for grant money to rebuild his home. Otherwise he can't afford it.

Right now he's living in a FEMA trailer. But he's getting sick of the squalid conditions and is getting ready to rent an apartment somewhere else in town. Once he leaves, one less person will be living in Lakeview.

Another day, I cycled through the Lower 9th Ward. I saw no evidence that much demolition (or any other progress had been made). The only thing I could see was that some of the houses that had floated into the street had been removed. More ominously, I spotted some areas of standing water with herons, egrets and terns standing near the waters edge. It made you wonder if this once vibrant neighbourhood was already reverting to the swamp that so many people had suggested it should.