My memories of New Orleans go back a long way to my childhood.
Coincidentally, the civil rights movement and the segregation of neighborhoods in New Orleans occurred almost simultaneously. Prior to the civil rights era, the New Orleans I remember was the most thoroughly integrated city I have ever experienced in that areas of white and black residents co-existed peacefully in close proximity to one another almost like blocks on a checkerboard.
With more prosperous times in the 1950s and 1960s, came "urban renewal" in formerly blighted neighborhoods. I remember seeing stable neighborhoods with their "stoop culture" [neighbors sitting on their porch or front steps visiting with each other]. Children could play safely on the banquette or in their yards because there were always neighbors about. All of this changed, with the advent of air conditioning, to empty street scenes devoid of people.
Urban renewal caused property values to soar. Many folks chose to benefit from the sale of greatly appreciated property. Others, renters, were displaced when speculators bought up property, renovated it and the former renters could not afford the increased rents. There were also generational changes. Many of the homes that were "doubles" [owner occupied on one side with renters on the other side] were sold by heirs when their parents [the owners] died. These were renovated and the rents often quadrupled.
I remember many times hearing [or reading in the newspaper] the comment of angry, displaced people that: "Urban renewal means Negro removal". And, it did. Societal, cultural, and economic changes, all cyclical things, contributed to New Orleans becoming more segregated in its housing than it had ever been before.
As the "stoop culture" disappeared, people stayed inside and watched television in their air conditioned houses that occupied empty street scenes. Crime rates soared. It was a cycle ... the fewer folks there were "taking the air", visiting with their neighbors, the emptier the streets became ... crime increased ... and people became afraid to be out.
"Gentrification" of various architecturally interesting neighborhoods was a mixed blessing. Not only did property values increase too much for a lot of folks [white and black] to remain in the neighborhoods but, also, the diverse mix of residents that always made New Orleans such an interesting city began to change to a bunch of Yuppies [mostly white, some black] in one part of the city and less prosperous blacks somewhere else.
New Orleans was still changing in the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina. Fashionable, trendy Magazine Street, now a Street of Dreams and fancy shoppes and charming boutiques ... was not quite so charming 25 years ago. I remember all too well when the stock boy at the friendly neighborhood A&P, in about the 3300 block of Magazine Street, had his throat cut from ear to ear; and, another time, when patrons were hiding behind the potato chip rack during a shoot out at the same store. Cityscapes change with the times. Some changes are good and others are not.
My understanding is that it was not until after Hurricane Betsy [mid-1960s] that the Lower 9th Ward became a predominantly black neighborhood. As late as the early 1980s, however, I knew an artist, who was white, with a Masters Degree in Art from Newcomb College, who still lived in her family's home in the Lower 9th Ward.
In my early childhood, the Lower 9th Ward was still a blue collar, white neighborhood. Those folks recognized the value of educating their children ... who then moved to the suburbs.
Many blacks in the Lower 9th Ward, prior to Hurricane Katrina, recognized the value of education, as well, and their children have also moved on to better things. Economic class has never been a static thing in this country. It is in a constant state of flux ... with some moving up and some moving down ... and, then, sometimes up again ... constantly changing.
Just as I have outlined above the many cyclical changes that have occurred in the housing market in New Orleans over my lifetime, Hurricane Katrina will someday be viewed as a cyclical change, as well ... albeit it a precipitous one.
Hurricane Katrina has been a life altering event for New Orleans and for the people who lived there. All the planning in the world will not alter the fact that serendipity will be the ultimate force that will re-shape the city. Despite our best efforts to study and manipulate the desires and behaviour of human beings, these things remain mutable and unpredictable. Some will see opportunity beckoning them to rebuild New Orleans ... while others will see only destruction and despair and will rebuild their lives elsewhere.
Only time will tell what New Orleans will become ... and whether it will be an amalgam of races living happily together ... or will be a chocolate city ... or whatever.
I do not believe that New Orleans will ever be the same. Perhaps it should not be. Over the past quarter of a century New Orleans lost a quarter of its population because those bright and talented people had found life in New Orleans untenable.
Just as we cannot, and should not, go back to horse and buggy days, or Jim Crow days, or colonial times ... New Orleans cannot go back to the way it was. That is over. That is past. Whether for the good or bad, our entire nation, including New Orleans, is experiencing a changing demographic.
I do believe that humankind is basically good and that, given an opportunity to develop itself, without too much manipulation and social engineering, the new New Orleans that will emerge from the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina has a bright future ahead of it. We can all pray that this is so.
I too believe that New Orleans will never return. By 2010...you will see a much smaller town. The Burbon street crowd will still continue to drive in and have a great weekend...with tourist dollars flowing in. But after that...other than port activity....this town will never be the same.
Baton Rouge will become the powerhouse of the state. Houston and Shreveport will increase in size because of the folks who never returned. I see all of this as positive. And it drives home the point that the feds really shouldn't throw $100 billion at this town in hopes of rebuilding it.
A very thoughtful post, thank you! It is true that there is never just one element in the question of who lives in what neighborhood. You rightfully pointed out the negative influence of such innovations as air conditioning on the interactions of neighbors, leading to increased crime and alienation. This has been true everywhere. Other factors happened at the same time: The Pill and the smashing of sexual taboos, the rise of pornography, permissiveness and divorce; the ACLU's bogus reading of the First Amendment to trump every other considerations; the completion of the superhighway system -- all these things came on board in the wake of the Civil Rights legislation, deeply changing family life and community stability.
When people don't interact and thus no longer know whom they can trust, I guess they reach for the superficial markers -- race, education, money -- to sort themselves out. Hence technology solidified the barriers between poor neighborhoods and rich yuppie neighborhoods, seemingly in response to greater freedom and equality!
I remember all too well when the stock boy at the friendly neighborhood A&P, in about the 3300 block of Magazine Street,
My father grew up on Annunication and attended Blessed Sacrament and Xaiver Prep. I grew-up downtown (7th and 9th wards) and I remember that area as having pockets of bad areas mixed in with areas with very expensive homes.
In my early childhood, the Lower 9th Ward was still a blue collar, white neighborhood. Those folks recognized the value of educating their children ... who then moved to the suburbs.
Incredible!. I grew-up in the 7th ward on Frenchmen Street (a few blocks from Galvez st.) and attended Corpus Christi and would therefore catch the bus with kids from the lower 9th ward. I never saw any white kids.
Prior to the civil rights era, the New Orleans I remember was the most thoroughly integrated city I have ever experienced in that areas of white and black residents co-existed peacefully in close proximity to one another almost like blocks on a checkerboard.
With more prosperous times in the 1950s and 1960s, came "urban renewal" in formerly blighted neighborhoods.
With integration, the best of the black families left for California and the suburbs which primarily meant New Orleans east.
I do not believe that New Orleans will ever be the same. Perhaps it should not be. Over the past quarter of a century New Orleans lost a quarter of its population because those bright and talented people had found life in New Orleans untenable.
I'll call this the "billion dollar statement" that America and the world should understand. You hit the nail on the head! Jackpot! etc.!