Forget the fairy tale for now. by Cart Weiland

There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright
-- Teddy Roosevelt

A week ago, I would have told you that New Orleans is rapidly approaching a complete and total recovery from the Katrina disaster that devastated the city almost two years ago. Well, forget the fairy tale, folks. A week ago, I would have been dead wrong.

I suppose that I was somewhat naïve before I arrived. I, like most of America, had followed the headlines in the weeks immediately following the catastrophe, hardly believing the extent of the destruction I witnessed in images on the television screen. My response to Katrina two years ago was utterly generic. I felt terrible for the residents of New Orleans, conversed tritely with others about the disaster, gave a little money to charity, and then soon went about my business. I did not have any personal connection with the place—no family or close friends that were hit—and so other things quickly occupied my time. Subconsciously, I just assumed that progress in New Orleans was being made. I assumed people had moved back, rebuilt, and returned to life as normal.

My assumptions belie the actual situation I have witnessed firsthand in my first few days in the Big Easy, and I am already profoundly struck by immensity of the challenges that lie ahead for the people here. New Orleans, quite literally, is in ruins. Once a city of almost 600,000 people, recent estimates now hover around 200,000. While there are certainly parts of the city that have recovered physically and economically, there are still other, larger areas where rebuilding has yet to begin. Block upon block of blighted houses and boarded-up windows lie untouched in neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward and Lakeview, and even in downtown’s central business district, some restaurants and stores have yet to reopen.

The magic wand that I thought had already been waved over New Orleans simply does not exist. Rebuilding, I have learned this first week, is a long, complicated process that requires the participation and hard work of thousands of people. There are countless non-profit organizations, federal, state, and local government officials, contractors, planners, and architects involved in the process, all of them with different opinions and agendas that must be considered. For me, an inexperienced 21 year old used to the easy, humdrum lifestyle of my college town, this giant rebuilding bureaucracy is confusing and unsettling. At times, coordinating all these individuals seems like a virtually impossible task, but then I pause to remember what exactly is at stake: the preservation of an entire American city.

To throw in the towel and forget about New Orleans would amount to a societal cowardice. We would be turning our back on centuries of history, saying “Sorry, New Orleans, your rich traditions have no cultural value and are not worth saving.” We’d be telling the people here that we are too busy, too tired, or too scared to continue with the monumental rebuilding.

I guess what I’m ultimately saying is this: Perhaps the nebulous web of actors engaged in the Katrina recovery should inspire rather than intimidate. The fact that so many people are involved in the rebuilding efforts speaks to how deeply citizens here care for their city, how willing and able they are to participate in its recovery, and how much they believe in their own future.


-- Cart Weiland