Author: Pearce

NOLA 9-12SEP17 RECONNAISSANCE (currently being updated from past blog site and restoring images and links)

This was a second trip to New Orleans for an affordable housing conference that my wife attended. My goal was to witness the recovering housing, culture and architecture since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. I took these photographs while venturing from the French Quarter on a rental bike through the neighborhoods of Marigny, Bywater, Holy Cross and the Ninth Ward, and to through the areas of the Industrial Canal. 

Coming from under the bride from Holy Cross to the Lower Ninth Ward.

Of all the neighborhoods I traveled through, The Ninth Ward stood out with an empty vibe of dissonance, like that of a graveyard. It seemed like there was an underlying code in this place, and I was clearly an outsider as a white guy on a 3-speed rental bike.

As I continued the journey through the Ninth Ward, I began to get a sense of freedom from the outside world, meaning that if you were a local resident or someone who belonged here, this was a place where standard governing authorities lost their jurisdiction. It was radical and inspiring at the same time. Locals were working on cars and drinking beers, casually coming and going about their daily routines. A car flew past me at +/-50 mph., and another vehicle was quietly rolling into a ditch as the driver darted into a nearby house, not realizing that he must have left it out of gear and failed to put on the emergency brake. I was farther away when I witnessed an illegal dumping on Reynes Street. The two men did this in an extreme rush and sped off, dragging the trailer tailgate behind them. The awkward and loud chain of events created quite a scene, and yet it drew no attention at all. I could still hear them as they rounded a corner down the wrong way of a one-way street, with sparks flying behind them. Coincidentally, I later saw the same truck/trailer in the French Quarter loading furniture trash from a renovation project that was in progress.

I stopped by the Make it Right Foundations Park Installation [29.969987, -90.021902] and I was intrigued by one of the exhibits. This was once an alive and dense neighborhood. The red houses were destroyed by the hurricane, and the black houses are all that are surviving or have been replaced to this day. 

Brad Pitt, a renowned actor in the United States, is praised as being a catalyst for recovery efforts and a main funding agent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He is the founder of the Make it Right Foundation, a non-profit organization that was established in 2007 to aid in the environmentally friendly rebuilding of New Orleans. My opinion is, however, that they were unsuccessful in fostering new growth in the community partially due to the functional premise and visual aesthetic of the new housing. The colorful, contemporary architecture was a blatant contrast to the existing neighborhood that once thrived in the Ninth Ward. The original neighborhood was born out of a piecemeal growth, an organic supply and demand at that time. It was affordable to the poor, and it had its own culture spawned from it, a black southern culture thick with spirit so I learned.

Thom Mayne, originator of the architecture firm, Morphosis, designed one of the most successful homes in the flood zone, called The Float House. I thought this house had the function and spirit of what a new 9th Ward house could be. Check it out: https://www.morphosis.com/architecture/126/

Frank Gehry’s house on the contrary was an oddity in form and function and it was confusing seeing it in this context. It felt like it turned its back on the original culture that once was and became a selfish icon that did not function nor fit in to the context [past/present].

A few locals expressed to me that they thought the houses missed the mark. After seeing them first-hand, I think it was not as right as it could have been–but it was a solid attempt to re-build.

Leona Tate is the curator of a small museum and memorial, located within the Lower Ninth. We talked about how the neighborhood used to be. It was a poor black neighborhood that somehow managed to create its own unique and dynamic culture. It was a very spiritual and precious place for those who made their homes there. This is now gone to the powers that were and the powers that be to gentrify a place and negate the culture that once was.

While in the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum, I came across Jane Fulton Alt’s book, Look and Leave. I later purchased this. 

Crossing over the Industrial Canal.

When I was visiting I could see how the gentrification has consumed the Bywater and parts of Holy Cross Neighborhoods. Making these areas different. I do not think this is bad nor good, it just is — a new form of growth. 

Passing through Bywater and if you look closely you can see a faded red x code that was spray painted on the house.

A local architect told me that the pump stations are still not fully functional. If there was another levee failure or a hurricane event as powerful as Katrina, the results would be catastrophic once again. We spoke of the foundation systems and soils reports that were ignored by a corrupt bureaucratic system that approved construction in a floodplain where no homes should have even been allowed. An uninformed population lost everything when the neglected pump systems failed, and the bureaucrats and developers still made their money.

Check out Jimmy Stamp’s write up that I have shared in the, Re-building of New Orleans within a link towards to the bottom of this entry.

The Music Box village beyond.

Who Dat tag walking through Bywater on Chartes Street.

The Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Before Katrina,
the Lower Ninth Ward was a working-class and predominantly African-American neighborhood
just outside the city's historic center.

Here are some links that I found while doing additional research:

Katrina + 5: An X-Code Exhibition










Blackwater Operations during Katrina. 
Erik Prince petitioned to be there from my findings and made some profit. Not sure what the mission
statement was to the [boots on the ground = mercs] on the ground, but solid help would have been
amazing on the one ones stuck, instead of focusing on the looters. I was not there but my findings
are very mixed. Check out some of these videos that I came across:

Shadow Ops, an overview of what went down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM9p2UxelFQ

Jeremy Scahill's interview of being there and bringing specific insights into matters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lNsqv7DWFw

Blackwater Ops during Katrina from a one person perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuBKmPQlJ-M

Shenanigans from residents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-rAK0DxdY

From a news feed from RT, The Unheard Story of Hurricane Katrina: Blackwater, White Militias
& Community Empowerment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWmVHjw3HrU


 Rebuilding New Orleans. 
Some links that were motivating:
Jimmy Stamp's write up:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-debate-continues-over-how-to-rebuild-new-orleans-lower-ninth-ward-7942828/

Make It Right, a neighborhood born of Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 flood, published in 2015 brings a
positive spotlight on Pitt's MiRF: https://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2015/08/make_it_right_hurricane_katrin.html

Gentrification of NOLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euMx24xBX04