The last two days have been spent researching inclusionary zoning ordinances.  What are inclusionary ordinances and why would we need to research them, you might ask?  Well…

First, a little background.  Hurricane Katrina destroyed a lot, including affordable housing in New Orleans.  A few days ago, the New Orleans city council proposed a moratorium on affordable housing being built in specific neighborhoods (mainly New Orleans East, I believe), saying such housing would segregate the city.  While the argument makes sense (lower income families need affordable housing and in NOLA, sadly, that usually means Black families), Tracie Washington here at the NAACP pointed out that the moratorium is actually a moratorium on public housing in general (because where else are you going to build affordable housing?) and the city council can’t stop all affordable housing from being built.  According to her, (and I’m paraphrasing for dramatic affect) the city council then asked her to give them a decent alternative and she blurted out “inclusionary zoning!”  To which the council replied “okay, get us a proposed ordinance in 2 weeks.”  Which then led to Tracie saying to us “I don’t know what inclusionary housing is all about so if you could figure that out and get me some sample forms, that’d be great.  And we jumped at the task.

So, we found that inclusionary zoning (IZ) is basically a way to get developers to include affordable housing units in their real estate developments.  Generally, an ordinance might state that, to be approved, a rental housing project must dedicate 10-20% of its units to affordable housing.  In defining “affordable” the ordinances state that the yearly rent can’t exceed 30% of a lower income person’s yearly salary, while defining that as 65-80% of the median income.  Make sense?  Yeah, it took me a while too…

Anywho, we found many ordinances, learned what can make the ordinances unconstitutional and found drafting guidelines.  Tracie was in court all day so we actually don’t yet know if our work helped, but we hope it did.

Also today, we’ve been organizing an impromptu job search/resume help session for tomorrow.  In response to an NAACP survey that revealed a number of people we still unemployed, we found about 100 open job opportunities that we complied into an excel chart, created some information regarding finding jobs while on disability and we’re putting it all together, along with resume templates, and driving down to Baker, LA to help people find a job, help them with their resumes and just see what we can do.  The nice thing is Tracie and Cynthia both gave us stacks of business cards so if people have additional questions or legal issues, they can give them a call.  Also, we have information about the transportation that is supposed to run from Baker to New Orleans and have given information as to who to call if it doesn’t run as it’s supposed to.  It was really great because we made phone calls to about 45 residents to let them know we were coming and the ones I spoke to were very excited.  One even said “That’s exactly what we need.” I am very excited that even if one person gets an opportunity from this, I will be happy.  Actually, I will be happy regardless. 

Aside – As I’m writing this blog, there’s a man I don’t know talking to two of my peeps.  I kinda walked into it.  I’m a little confused about what’s going on.  But it sounds… interesting. 

End Aside.

We just heard back from Tracie about the inclusionary zoning information we found.  She said we did great work and we could come to the city council meeting tomorrow morning where they will be discussing this issue.  But we can’t go because we’re driving to Baker.  I’m a little disappointed, but to be honest, I’d rather head to Baker.  I want to see for myself how things are.  That sounds odd.  It makes me sound like I’m sightseeing or something.  But that’s not what I mean.  I want to see it because there are so many people back home who don’t seem to believe how things still are 18 months later.  And I guess I hope that if I can come back and say “No, really, it’s is that bad.  Don’t stop caring and lets write our senators and congress people and have them do something!” people will.  But, perhaps that’s my naïveté coming out.  

I didn’t post all the pictures I have from yesterday and people seem to like pictures, so I’ll post a couple below. 

Elizabeth

This is part of the levee behind the 9th Ward.  Notice the absolute nothingness to the right.  There used to be houses there.

You can’t really tell from this tiny pic, but there is an insane amount of damage to this strip mall, as there was along the entire street.

the red sign used to say “no bulldozing” now it says “no bull”.  The spray painted X and text is the shorthand used by the search and rescue teams.  The top quadrant is the date, to the left is who searched it (i.e. TX meant Texas National Guard), the right is any pets found and the bottom is whether a body or body parts were found and an “NE” means No Entry (probably because too much damage or some other hazard).

Damage and a trailer set up next to the house (which is what many people are doing).  Aside to this, I read today that Jefferson Parish is making those living in trailers give up their trailers and either live in their house or leave in an attempt to “encourage” people to change their situation.  Because, you know, clearly these folks living 4 to a 275 square foot trailer are so happy about it that they just don’t want to move into their homes.  That’s gotta be it.  And, surely, the eviction will only lead to more folks living in their homes.  Right.  (that was sarcasm, by the way)

Despite waking up at 4:45 in the morning, today was a pretty amazing day.  We began the morning with a tour of, as our tour guide put it, destruction, destruction and more destruction.  I don’t think I can put into words how I felt seeing the destruction first hand, but I am posting some pictures below.  They are mainly from the 9^th Ward and St. Bernard Parish and the roads we took to get there.  You’ll see a couple of seemingly random photos of a river, but those are my attempts to get pictures of the levees where they were breached. 

What I mainly felt was anger and hopelessness.  I could not believe, despite hearing this many times before arriving, that it has been over 18 months since the storms.  Again, as our tour guide (a member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, by the way) said over and over (and with increasing bitterness), “Nothing has been done.”  It is unbelievable.  And wrong, just wrong. 

It’s been over 18 months – I don’t understand how things can look like they do.  I don’t understand why people don’t have their money, their homes, or their lives back.  When I was watching the footage after the storms on CNN and MSNBC, I, like so many others, cried.  I just could not believe I lived in and was a citizen of a country that could leave so many thousands of people behind.  I could not believe that my country had not been able to/been willing to foresee the destruction that occurred in a city below city level at the mercy of a category 3 or 4 or 5 hurricane. 

I felt those feelings again today.  The only difference was that it all seemed even more inexcusable.  I found myself thinking, “Okay, I guess I sort of understand how difficult it would have been to foresee the damage, even though the Times Picayune had predicted the scenario a year before, but okay.  But now?  18 months later?  To still not be organized enough to do something – anything to make things better?” 

And I felt hopeless because, even though I’m here, working, the work that needs to be done is so huge.  It makes me feel quite small.  And I wonder if the people at FEMA or those in Congress feel the same as I do.  Small in the face of the tragedy.  Hopeless.  And at the same time, I say “No.  You can’t feel that way.  You are not allowed.  It is your job to do something.  Do it.  There is no excuse not to.”

And yet things are what they are.  And that sucks.  And if I could use profanity on this blog, my entry would better convey my anger and frustration at this Administration and the sheer idiocy of those responsible for righting the countless mistakes made since August 28, 2005.

The moon before we left this morning:

Fats Domino’s House:

a levee near Jackson Barracks:

the infamous FEMA trailers

These steps led to a house at one point

the interior of an historic (yet still damaged) antebellum house in Jackson Barracks

sadness:

damage:

there used to be a hospital here:

more damage:

an amazing public art installation in the middle of the median - the sign says “we’re coming home”  i was unable to get the headstone that I am assuming represents those whose lives were lost.

Elizabeth