Boston Globe

09/18/05

The affluent areas of this city are humming with activity as reconstruction efforts pick up tempo, but many of the black working-class and poor neighborhoods remain deluged in noxious flood water or coated in its putrid residue and populated mostly by dragonflies and National Guardsmen. Even as the nation unites to rebuild this stricken region, New Orleans's longstanding race and class divides appear to persist. The haves are beginning to pick up the pieces of their former lives, while many have-nots may be forced to simply pick up and leave. Recovery is well underway in the French Quarter and in the tony Garden District and Uptown, which largely were spared when the levees broke because they sit on But their lower-lying and often poorer counterparts may remain unsafe and may be uninhabitable for a year or longer, with entire neighborhoods slated for the wrecking ball, said state and federal officials. And with each passing week, former residents of these communities, evacuated around the country, are more likely to start life anew elsewhere, said federal officials and urban affairs specialists...

http://tinyurl.com/ahk43


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp