Credit: REUTERS/Marc Serota
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1 "It seems as if people appreciate our culture more now because we lost so much. My restaurant had been closed for two years. People are waiting in long lines for my fried oysters on pan bread now, the shrimp creole and gumbo. Our culture and our food are going to make us survive. That's basically what New Orleans is."
- Leah Chase, co-owner of Dooky Chase Restaurant
2 "We have already obligated more than $8 billion for debris removal and other projects across the Gulf Coast. For people living in travel trailers, our emphasis is to get as many as we can back into rental units as a permanent housing solution. The problem is that the stock of rental housing hasn't fully come back yet since the disaster. But for eligible people in rental units, we're paying rent until March 2009. We got off to a rocky start, but we've made a commitment to stay until the job is done."
- Gil Jamieson, FEMA associate deputy administrator, Gulf Coast Recovery
3 The city is in recovery in spite of the lack of resources and dollars from high levels of government. We've basically gotten the city to this point from various loans we've been taking out, and from citizens who have utilized their own resources-insurance proceeds, 401Ks, savings accounts and what have you. There is more hope in the city and people are starting to see, touch and feel the recovery. But it's frustrating because we could have moved a lot quicker had we had more resources from the state and federal governments. We continue to advocate, lobby and fight for our fair share."
- Ray Nagin, New Orleans mayor
4 "Of all of the campuses affected by Katrina, we were the most damaged. Before, we had a student population of more than 3,000. After Katrina we expected to only get about 1,000 students, but actually we got about 2,000 students back. For the second consecutive year we're operating in 45 modular trailer facilities given to us by FEMA. People here are survivors."
- Harold Clark, Jr., executive associate to the chancellor, Southern University at New Orleans
5 "We want to follow up with When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts because, even in four hours, it's still an unfinished story. It's been very interesting to look at some of these presidential debates, and the Gulf region never comes up. It's like it's not even an issue. So not only has a lot of American moved on, these people who are campaigning have move on also. That to me is what's distressing. Any time I can, I always try to say don't forget about the Americans who are down there still struggling because they've been abandoned. Again."
- Spike Lee, filmmaker
6 "This concept of NIMBYism-"Not in My Backyard"-has surfaced after the storm. Recently a lot of local governments in the different parishes surrounding the city have enacted ordinances to limit or prevent multifamily housing. This particularly affects low-income people, minorities and elders, because these groups are renters. The governments say they don't want to concentrate the poverty, which is code for 'We don't want minorities in our communities.' A lot of people want to come home, but there are so many problems with housing that they stay in Houston or Atlanta because they can find apartments for their families there."
- Thena Robinson, Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
7 "Because the population is down, per capita crime and murders have gone up. But the total crime numbers have not increased. People should be able to come down here and not be affected by it. But I constantly tell people to bring their common sense with them."
- Joe Narcisse, director of public information, New Orleans Police Department
8 "The state divided our school system and took what they considered to be our non-successful schools. That left us, the original school board, to oversee 17 schools. We're turning this disaster into an opportunity to rebuild an urban school system from the ground up. The students came back with a tremendously positive attitude. They show up every morning on time. We've had almost no discipline problems. Our attendance has increased to 98 percent, and our graduation rate this year was 95 percent. These students have been given the opportunity to attend quality schools and prove that all students can learn given the correct resources."
- Phyllis Landrieu, president, Orleans Parish School Board
9 "The tourist attractions are back in operation, and the French Quarter is cleaner than I've seen it in 25 years. The media keeps showing the residential areas of the city that are still recovering, so people are surprised to see the tourist areas doing so well. All my places are back and operating at full capacity, seven days a week. The business has been good."
- Earl Bernhardt, Bourbon Street nightclub owner
10 "The water brought in a lot of contaminants-overrun sewage systems, E. coli, pesticides, arsenic, some mercury, lead. The initial tests by EPA showed an enormous number of dangerous chemicals at levels that presented a grave risk to the population. But no one is dealing with environmental contamination. Some people don't like to talk about it for political reasons; they say they'll scare people away. But the business district downtown was completely washed down after the storm with hoses, getting rid of all the contaminants on the buildings. None of that has been done in the neighborhoods where we live. So you get an idea of what's important."
- Dr. Beverly Wright, director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University |
