Ninth Ward - Part 1

On May 3 I went to see the Ninth Ward with my friends Bart and Barbara Nassberg. The Ninth Ward is an area that spans the Industrial Canal - the Upper Ninth Ward is to the west of the canal, and the Lower Ninth Ward is to the east. When Katrina hit, the east side of the Industrial Canal gave way, flooding the Lower Ninth Ward. There was also flooding in the Upper Ninth Ward, but not as bad.

This part of the city is poorer (and blacker) than the Lakeview area. However, it's not all dirt poor - I saw some very nice homes in the Ninth Ward. Some of it reminded me of west Oakland (near where I live) - a section of town with a lot of poverty, but also where many residents own their homes and take good care of them. Much of what I saw wasn't really slummy - just a blue-collar district.

A Musicians' Village is being built in the Upper Ninth Ward on the site of Kohn Junior High School - an area bounded by Roman, Johnson, Alvar and Mazant Streets. The Village was the idea of Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, who are working with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for musicians who lost theirs to Katrina. There will also be an Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. Normally, when Habitat for Humanity builds a home they require the recipient to put in a large number of hours of labor on the house, but in this case they are allowing musicians to spend the same time providing music lessons instead.

The project is already pretty far along. The land has been cleared and many foundations have been laid. Some of the houses have already been framed. It shouldn't be long before people start to move into these places. After seeing the devasation at Lakeview, it was good to see something positive being done.

Here is the Village site. The debris in the foreground is from a house that was being gutted by volunteers.



Many organizations, including a lot of school groups, have helped with this project. Some students spent their spring breaks working here and left signs and banners to let people know they had been there.







This house is pretty far along.





This is down the street from the Village site. Some people are living in trailers next to their houses while they repair the flood damage. Notice the PVC pipe hookup from the trailer to the house's sewer line.



This is a neighborhood butcher shop. There was a bad smell in the area - I suspect the place didn't re-open after Katrina, and wasn't cleaned out. Fortunately, the smell was confined to the immediate vicinity.



This wheel is on a car that was damaged in the flood. Notice the colored oxides on the wheel cover.



My guess is that damage to the car on the right was caused by the flood throwing it around.