Katrina Update #46

October 22; 2:15 PM

(Click the banner to send Jarret a birthday greeting!)

Jarrett celebrates two decades on the planet today (at least we think he's been here most of that time), and either than him having to work, we hope to make it a special one. He stepped up like a champ when he, Janis, Andrea, and Andres evacuated New Orleans and kept us laughing even when we found little to amuse us. Click the banner, send him a greeting. We will shower him with praise, and a few other things, tonight at Coop's Place.

Perhaps you have wondered what happens to the refrigerators once they are hauled away. Wonder no more. I pulled the following video from WWL-TV the other night:

(press the play button to view movie)

An interesting thing is happening in New Orleans right now. The area is more or less splitting into the "haves" and the "have nots." There are people (like us) who are living here and life is settling into somewhat of a normal routine. We become used to seeing piles of garbage and debris, and become pleasantly surprised when we drive by an area where it has been removed (which happens every day, btw). While we are anxious for the refuse to be removed, but have become desensitized to its presence. The "have nots" are those whose homes are not livable. These people can be split into their own groups, as follows:

Have Nots In Absentia: These are people who have not returned, but are planning to at some point. Most of these people either have kids in school, or have found temporary employment and cannot return yet. Some of these people may actually have homes with mild to moderate damage. They "have not" simply because they aren't here. Others, of course, may not have anything to come home to. Steve Edwards and his family are examples of someone who has something to come home to, but has kids in school, so he can't.
Displaced Have Nots: These are people who have returned, but cannot live in their old homes. They have found a temporary solution, and may be looking for a more semi-permanent solution while they either have their homes repaired or rebuilt, or look for a new place. Coop and Julie Austin are examples of Displaced Have Nots.
Commuting Have Nots are people who have established temporary living quarters outside, but still near, New Orleans and commute to the city every day to either their jobs, or to work on salvaging what they can from their homes or rebuilding.
Relocated Have Nots are those who decided not to return to New Orleans. In most cases, these are people who either had little to lose (and therefore little to come back too), or those whose loss was so devastating that they could not bear returning. (There are also some "haves" who have relocated simply because they don't want to risk losing everything, as well.) Brian Davenport, Jason Palmer, Amber Dodge, and Matt Gone are all examples of those who have relocated.

But I digress. What is happening is that the "haves" are moving forward, putting their lives back together, and establishing daily routines in their lives and in general trying to build, as a community, a stable foundation from which the rest of the city can grow back. The Displaced Have Nots are contributing to this process as well, of course, although ultimately they will also contribute to the shifting demographics of the city as some rebuild and some move elsewhere in the city.

This is creating a social and political divide in the city. Those who can lead "normal" lives, are not blind to the plight of others, but understand that they can't drop everything to devote every waking hour to helping them. The Have Nots who want to stay in New Orleans, however, are starting to resent the degree to which folk Uptown and in the French Quarter are returning to normal, and accusing them of being oblivious to their situation. What will be interesting is to see how much of a foothold the Haves gain in terms of influence. This is going to contrast a great deal from what is happening in the surrounding parishes. For the most part, they are back up and running, and more than a little over-crowded. But their demographic make-up hasn't changed substantially from what it was pre-Katrina. If anything, people will vote their displeasure over the actions of their local officials, but that's about it.

Orleans Parish, however, has been reduced to its mid-1800's population. The demographics are much closer to those as well. Before Katrina New Orleans had a mostly black government and school board, which is understandable since 67% of its population was black. To understand what might happen, you need to know a little history:

In 1840 New Orleans was the fourth largest city in the United States, with a population of about 100,000, 60% white and 40% black. The white population trailed off a bit after the Civil War, but then both whites and blacks came to New Orleans and caused the population to grow faster than it would have naturally. Between 1870 and 1950 more whites came to the city than blacks, and by 1950 it was a city of almost 400,000 people where whites outnumbered blacks 2:1. In the last half of the 50's, however, what is referred to as "white flight" began as many middle-class white people left for surrounding parishes, including those on the Northshore. (This corresponds roughly with the construction and opening of the Causeway bridge across Lake Pontchartrain.) Meanwhile, the city experienced an increase in black population, as more people migrated from the rural areas of southern Mississippi.

By 1960, New Orleans' population peaked at about 625,000. Over 400,000 of that population was white. At this point, as you can imagine, New Orleans politics were controlled largely by well-connected, upper class white folk that lived Uptown. "White flight" continued for the next couple of decades. In 1974 the population of blacks in New Orleans outnumbered the whites for the first time in its history. Although blacks outnumbered whites, 58% registered voters in Orleans Parish were still largely white. Nonetheless, in 1978 New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. As in any political administration (or corporate infrastructure, for that matter), people surround themselves with those they trust. It should not be surprising, therefore, that a large part of New Orleans' city government made the shift from white employees to black employees, during Dutch Morial's two terms.

Even as New Orleans' black population was increasing, New Orleans' overall population was declining. By 2000, New Orleans had around 480,000 people, fewer than 140,000 of which was white. To look at this in perspective, New Orleans' white population was already at pre-civil war levels. So that's a quick history of how New Orleans got to where it did, at least from a political and demographic perspective. By 2000, although the city was 67% black, and our elected officials represented that majority, over 50% of the black population was considered poor. The white folk that remained, as a group, still controlled the majority of the wealth.

So here is why the political landscape of New Orleans may be changing. The areas that survived are mostly populated by white people. So not only is the population of New Orleans currently at mid-1800's levels, but so is the distribution of white vs. black. So come the next elections, there may be quite a change in the poltical landscape. While I am convinced that New Orleans will be a better place in the future, I am worried that the politics involved may complicate things. It will certainly be interesting to watch.

PEOPLE

- Janis comes home today. She has been in New Hampshire working for MacSpeech for the past 10 days. Since August 28th she has been home a total of 3 days, so I know she is looking forward to being — and staying — home. Things have changed a little. The city is cleaner - although, by no means clean. There are fewer refrigerators lining the streets, although there are still quite a few.

- Matt Gone called me yesterday. He has decided not to come back, preferring instead the life of a human oddity and beach bum in Florida. He does plan on visiting New Orleans once and a while.

- I got an email from Sean Green yesterday. He is driving down now, and Juli will take the plane down as scheduled on the 28th. He has been in contact with his employer, Irene's Cusine, and they are desparate for help. So he is coming back earlier than anticipated.

NEWS

- Mayor Nagin testified in front of the congressional sub-committee that the New Orleans area deaths were almost completely evenly split between blacks and whites, refuting anyone's assertion that there was some kind of race issue involved in the flooding or rescue efforts. So Katrina was indiscriminate in both its destruction and its killing. Most of the victims were poor, however, and I feel compelled to remind people that the poor do not have the resources at their disposal to evacuate, thus making them the government's responsibility. One of the larger lessons learned from Katrina is that should New Orleans repopulate with a significant amount of people who lack the resources to evacuate themselves, the city, state, and federal governments need to own up to the responsibility of getting them out of harm's way on a timely basis.

- Tropical Depression 25 has formed in the Carribean. Due partially to Wilma, this storm is not expected to reach hurricane strength, although it will become a Tropical Storm, and thus the 22nd named storm of the season: Alpha. That will make this hurricane season the busiest ever, since records have been kept. While we don't need any more major storms, it would be kind of exciting to have the "Alpha" storm; you know, like the "Alpha" dog?

- Speaking of storms, here is a very short video showing the paths of the 2005 storms, up to Wilma:

(press the play button to view movie)

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