Did you know......

Immediately after Katrina, most of the people I came in contact with were horrified by what had happened to (and in) New Orleans. Even if they weren't fans of New Orleans, they were struck by the problems the storm's aftermath made apparent to the world and were eager to discuss ways to help rebuild a better, stronger city.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long until some people began hesitantly asking why a city like New Orleans should be rebuilt. And....often when that question was asked, another person would say something like -- oh, i'm so glad you asked that so i didn't have to. And then another person or two would murmur in agreement.

In the early days, those people would usually shut-up if you asked them to at least wait to ask that question until the dead had been found and mourned. As time's passed, however, I think the attitude behind the question is in danger of growing. Why should we rebuild New Orleans?

I wonder if those people have any idea that:

"Home ownership

Black people are less likely than the general population to own their own homes, but home ownership in the Lower Ninth Ward was more prevalent than in either New Orleans as a whole or among Blacks generally. If the government refuses to help the uninsured residents of the Lower Ninth Ward rebuild, it will have destroyed what was actually a shining example of Bush's often touted "ownership society."

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"Birthplace & Place of residence five years ago

The United States is generally a mobile society; people move quite frequently. Louisiana, New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward are exceptions to that rule. Despite all the social ills in Louisiana and New Orleans, residents had deep roots and were invested in their communities."

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"Education

Residents of New Orleans and of Louisiana are more likely to lack a high school education than residents of the United States as a whole. But New Orleans residents are more likely to have a college education than residents of either the state of Louisiana or the entire country.

However, New Orleans did not invest in all its communities equally. Forty percent of the adult residents of the Lower Ninth Ward lack a high school diploma or GED."

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" Residents say the idea that tearing down standing homes (in the Lower Ninth Ward) is necessary is a ruse. City officials and their allies in the development community, assert neighborhood leaders, have been eying the Lower Ninth Ward for upscale redevelopment for years.

Mistrust Amid The Mud
A tour of the ward provides ample evidence for why developers might be interested. The national press, you recall, described the Lower Ninth Ward as ramshackle and poor. But that’s not the full story.

Before the two hurricanes, the Lower Ninth was — and still is — a mix of finely-carpentered shotgun cottages and bungalows, with brick homes and an occasional larger Victorian fitted along a fine grain of interlocking streets. The comfortable neighborly community provided the pedestrian-friendly connections that minimize the need for car ownership. Mass transit was within walking distance.

Home ownership is close to 60 per cent. Homes, handed down through the generations, are often mortgage-free. Many residents bought or built an additional dwelling for their mom, aunt, dad, or son. They invested in their homes and the neighborhood the same way wealthier people invested in the stock market. Many families own more than one property. Scores of damaged homes are not only clearly repairable but had recently been fixed up or were in the process.

Fats Domino Lives Here Still
No, this is not the “poverty-stricken” Lower Ninth Ward depicted by public officials and TV commentators. Modest income yes. Minimum wage jobs yes. But countless chefs from the French Quarter live here, along with restaurant and hotel workers who make the tourist industry function. Harrah’s casino employees live here and so do civil servants who work in City Hall and are among the professionals who make up this working class neighborhood. Dockworkers and other people who earn their keep at the New Orleans port live here too.

Most notably, the Lower Ninth is the area where known and unknown musicians learned their art from birth. Fats Domino, who’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, came from here and still lives in a modest yellow-and-black house, with his ex-wife living in a house he bought for her next door. This is the kind of place people choose to live out their life, even when they can afford to move."

Click Here for Entire Article

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So, it's not for the thugs and drug-dealers the press is so eager to showcase that New Orleans should be rebuilt. It should be rebuilt for the hard-working New Orleanians for whom it's home -- even if they are now living in (....pick a state, almost any state).