1115.org

Five damn days, five long days
And at the end of the fifth you walkin in like, “Hey!”
Chillin on his vacation sittin patiently
Them black folks gotta hope, gotta wait and see
If FEMA really comes through in an emergency
But nobody seems to have a sense of urgency

K-Otix – “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”

Last year, as the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approached, I began noticing that national media accounts of conditions in New Orleans were emphasizing progress, and that made me curious. We had spent a lot of time here collecting reports that told a different story, and it became clear that if I wanted to know what was really going on, I’d have to check it out myself. I arrived in New Orleans and was instantly horrified by what I saw. Trips to the 9th Ward and Lakeview left me with photos and mental images that will be with me for the rest of my life. If you think I’m exaggerating, click the links.

I’m no stranger to decay and urban blight. I grew up in a dying steel town, and have been documenting the rust and rubble of Pittsburgh for years. But nothing I’d experienced before could even compare to seeing houses that had been swept off their foundations resting in the middle of streets. Or cars flipped over, stacked on top of each other, or crushed by runaway buildings. It only got worse as I stuck my head through doors and windows and saw peoples’ belongings, everyday items like sofas, televisions, and family photos in piles, covered by dried mud, mold, and insects.

As if I needed context, this photo provided just that:

The Katrina recovery debate has taken some bizarre, and frankly insane, paths, but for me, it all comes back to what it means to have a home, and be home. While some like to play “blame the victim,” and others take extreme rhetorical measures to justify the slow pace of aid or posit that said aid is both generous and undeserved – sometimes simultaneously – the fact remains that the areas affected by Katrina were places people called home. Gentilly was home. Lakeview was home. And yes, the 9th Ward was home. So it has always been a bit disorienting to watch those who were so outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo decision on eminent domain turn out to be the same people who want to ban rebuilding in the flooded neighborhoods. I don’t imagine the lunatics who issued death threats on the Justices and politicians are also fighting for the return of the Lower 9th.

Taking their cues from then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, many on the right called for abandoning and “bulldozing” the entire city due to the fact that it is under sea level. Forget that New Orleans has always been below sea level. Forget that Italy, Holland, England, Japan and more have lowlands that to one degree or another are protected. Advocates of turning New Orleans into the world’s largest ghost town either don’t think that the United States, supposed greatest country ever, is capable of protecting one if its most unique cities, or don’t think it’s worth it. Rah! Rah! Go Team! Go!

So as I made my way back to New Orleans for the second anniversary of Katrina, I was sad to see which arguments were winning. My post last year, A Victory Lap for Broken Promises detailed all the ways in which the recovery had not lived up to the rhetoric from the President’s address from Jackson Square where he promised:

And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.

In many respects, the second year post Katrina gave lie to this pledge even more than the first. While the administration is quick to brag about all the money they have set aside for rebuilding, people can’t live in set asides. The Road Home program designed to help uninsured homeowners has been rife with delays, no wonder since it was outsourced to a for-profit company. People still live in toxic FEMA trailers in gravel parking lots and driveways of their decimated homes. This isn’t an accident and it isn’t incompetence. No one need look any further than who President Bush originally chose to oversee the recovery/rebuilding: Karl Rove. And just like he did in the weeks after 9/11, Rove steered policy according to politics. Where patriotism was used to marginalize opponents and energize allies in 2001, veiled racism took over in 2005. The racist base of the Republican party is delighted by the condition of New Orleans, and if you don’t believe me, check out C-SPAN any time the topic is Katrina. And with upcoming Gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections, the payoff will come at the ballot box: the poorest and blackest New Orleanians are still in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and elsewhere. Heckuva job, Rovie!

While it’s fitting to blame Rove, at the end of every day, George W. Bush is still the President. He is responsible for setting priorities and moving the executive branch to action. The man who has ceded himself unlimited extra-Constitutional powers hasn’t done this. He constantly forces Louisiana officials to beg for the resources they need while granting every wish made by the Republican Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour who in turn funnels the money to his lobbying clients and business partners. For a fraction of what we’ve spent to lose wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, New Orleans could be fully rebuilt complete with fail safe levees. Yet as war spending accelerates, money for the New Orleans hits one choke point after another. What remains in many areas is exactly what I saw one year ago, the only change further decay and taller weeds.

I understand that it’s hard to maintain a state of outrage for two whole years, but these pictures tell the story of an American city two years after a tragedy, not Bosnia in the middle of a civil war. If we lived in the great country the flag-wavers say we do, this wouldn’t be allowed to stand. Then again we wouldn’t have elected a barely-functioning retard to lead – or mislead – us.

What truly is American is the resolve that New Orleanians have, and that seems to have grown since last year. There is some progress, even a few new houses sitting beside the wreckage of what was lost in the flood. Population has gone from less than 50% of pre-Katrina levels to something like 60% now. But without federal leadership and money, this progress will either stall out, or result in a permanently different socioeconomic makeup than before. New Orleans’ diversity and its cultural mashup is what made it a great city. Not only do its citizens deserve their city back, we all do. Unfortunately that looks like a long shot at this point. Heckuva job.

*More of my Katrina second anniversary photos are on Flickr.