Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a drowned city

Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City

Volumn , Issue , 2007, Pages

  Sothern, Billy ^a  

^a Reprieve ^*  (United States)

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EID: 70349201749     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (158)

1. Susan Saulny, "A Legacy of the Storm: Depression and Suicide," New York Times, June 21, 2006; Matthew Penix, "Post-Katrina Depression Triples Suicide Rate in New Orleans," New Orleans CityBusiness, July 3, 2006.
2. National Public Radio, All Things Considered, "Bush Tours New Orleans Damage," September 12, 2005.
3. Staff Reports, "Hurricane Katrina-the Aftermath. Weblog for Day 5," Times-Picayune, August 31, 2005.
4. Robert D. McFadden and Ralph Blumenthal, "Bush Sees Long Recovery for New Orleans; 30,000 Troops in Largest U.S. Relief Effort," New York Times, September 1, 2005.
5. Staff Reports, "Hurricane Katrina-the Aftermath. Weblog for Day 5."
6. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1994) labels the correction as antiquated: "Any handbook that tells you that 'nauseous' cannot mean 'nauseated' is out of touch with the contemporary language. In current usage it seldom means anything else."
7. National Public Radio, All Things Considered, "Mourning for a Flooded Crescent City," August 31, 2005.
8. According to the 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 25.8 percent of the city's population lives below the poverty line. See http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/22071.html. This is more than twice the national average, but is close to the percentages in other American cities such as Miami (28.5), Los Angeles (22.1), Atlanta (24.4), and New York City (21.2). Notwithstanding the fact that poverty seems to be entrenched in cities across America, the census makes clear that these problems remain greatest in the South, which suffers disproportionately from poverty when compared to the rest of the nation. See Bureau of the Census, Statistical Brief, "Poverty Areas," 1995. Posted online at www.census.gov/apsd/www/statbrief/sb95_13.pdf.
9. Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States (New York: Vintage, 1994), p. 3.
10. For the history of the development and decline of the St. Thomas Housing Project, see Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, "St. Thomas Neighborhood Development Snapshot," posted at www.gnocdc.org/orleans/2/59/snapshot.html.
11. A chilling account of the intersection of crime and poverty in the St. Thomas Project was offered in Rick Bragg's article, "Children Strike Fear into Grown-Up Hearts," New York Times, December 2, 1994.
12. Greg Thomas, "Neighborhoods Rejoice; Lower Garden District, Irish Channel Renovators Thrilled about Plans for New St. Thomas," Times-Picayune, October 26, 1996.
13. See, e.g., Michelle Krupa, "Smack's Back; As Heroin Makes a Comeback, a Different, Easier-to-Use Form of the Drug and a Younger Breed of User May Be Fueling Violent Crime in the Area: Violent Crimes on N.O. Streets Driven by Heroin," Times-Picayune, July 11, 2002.
14. Stewart Yerton, "$6.15-Raising Minimum Wage: Yes or No," Times-Picayune, January 6, 2002.
15. Stephanie Grace, "Election Set on Raising Wages in N.O.; Judicial Order Prompts Action," Times-Picayune, September 21, 2001.
16. Stewart Yerton, "N.O. Voters Approve Minimum Wage Increase," Times-Picayune, February 3, 2002.
17. New Orleans had approximately 225,000 workers, according to the 2000 census.
18. Susan Finch, "Minimum Wage Increase in N.O. Upheld; Opponents to Appeal to La. Supreme Court," Times-Picayune, March 26, 2002.
19. New Orleans Campaign for a Living Wage v. City of New Orleans, 02-0991 (La. 09/04/02); 825 So. 2d 1098.
20. In addition to Sun Tzu: The Art of War for Managers; 50 Strategic Rules and Sun Tzu for Success: How to Use the Art of War to Master Challenges and Accomplish the Important Goals in Your Life, the modern businessman can also arm himself for battle with the successful Art of War Plus ... series, including volumes on The Art of Management, The Art of Marketing, and The Art of Career Building. For a Western perspective, the war of business can be learned from Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago, The Mafia Manager: A Guide to the Corporate Machiavelli, or, more humorously, What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness.
21. The Oprah Winfrey Show, September 6, 2006.
22. Gwen Filosa, "At Least 10,000 Find Refuge at the Superdome," Times-Picayune, August 29, 2005; Staff Reports, "National Guard Pours into New Orleans, Mississippi," USA Today, August 31, 2005; Mary Foster, "Superdome Evacuations Enter Second Day," Associated Press, September 1, 2005.
23. See, e.g., National Public Radio, Weekend All Things Considered, "Humanity Prevails in New Orleans," September 3, 2005; CNN, "Sniper Fire Halts Hospital Evacuation," September 1, 2005.
24. See, e.g., Jeff Jacoby, "The Looting Instinct," Boston Globe, September 4, 2005; Emily Smith, "USA 2005 ... and Rats Are Eating Corpses in the Street," The Sun (London), September 3, 2005.
25. "Breaking News from the Times-Picayune and NOLA.com; Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath; Weblog for Day 4," Times-Picayune (Web edition), August 30, 2005.
26. Howard Witt, "New Orleans Ravaged," Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2005; "Looting," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), August 31, 2005.
27. Chris Graythen/Agence France-Presse, posted on Yahoo! News on August 30, 2005. See also James T. Campbell, " 'Looting' vs. 'Surviving,' Media Missed the Nuance," Houston Chronicle, September 18, 2005.
28. Dave Martin/Associated Press, posted on Yahoo! News on August 29, 2005.
29. Dave Martin/Associated Press, posted on Yahoo! News on August 30, 2005.
30. Aaron Kinney suggested in "Looting or Finding," Salon, September 1, 2005, that the differences among the captions of the wire service photographs were the result of specific determinations made by the individual reporters based on what they had observed. This overlooks, however, the broader contours of the media's role in stirring up racial-ized-and false-depictions of crime and violence in the poor, mostly black city of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina or the fact that there were other sad linguistic correlations following the storm, such as use of the term groups for groups of whites and gangs for groups of blacks. See Rod Watson, "Race Relations Sublime and Ridiculous," Buffalo News, January 5, 2006. Furthermore, the use of the terms loot and looter was both unfair and misleading, given that the vast majority of people who were taking food were not using force and were acting out of necessity. The potency of these terms was all too evident after Katrina when "looters will be shot" remained painted throughout Uptown New Orleans. Yahoo! News, which originally posted the photographs, at least took the matter sufficiently seriously to apologize to its readers: "Yahoo! News regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part" (September 1, 2005, http://news .yahoo.com/page/photostatement).
31. Davidduke.com, "Heineken, the Beer of Choice for New Orleans Looters," September 20, 2005, www.davidduke.com/Pp=410 (last checked October 10, 2006).
32. This song was written by Chuck Redden, the owner of two Monroe, Louisiana, radio stations and was first heard on the Walton and Johnson syndicated morning radio show. A slightly toned-down version of the song was released by Ray Stevens, a country music comedian. More recently, Redden put out "Chocolateville," another, equally offensive song that parodies blacks in New Orleans.
33. Certainly, many in Louisiana agree with Duke. He won the majority of the "white vote" in Louisiana when he ran for governor in 1991. See, e.g., Jonathan Tilove, "Democrats Pursue South's White Men," Times-Picayune, August 28, 1996.
34. See, generally, Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell, "Rape. Murder. Gunfights. For Three Anguished Days the World's Headlines Blared That the Superdome and Convention Center Had Descended into Anarchy. But the Truth Is That While Conditions Were Squalid for the Thousands Stuck There, Much of the Violence NEVER HAPPENED," Times-Picayune, September 26, 2005; Staff Reports, "Children's Hospital in New Orleans Reopens," New Orleans CityBusiness, October 7, 2005; John Laplante, "Storm Also Drowned Information," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), March 26, 2006; Miriam Hill and Nicholas Spangler, "Shots at Helicopters Shrouded in a 'Fog': Reports of Gunshots Aimed at Rescue Helicopters in New Orleans on Sept. 1 Now Appear to Have Been Little More Than Rumors," Miami Herald, October 3, 2005.
35. CBS, 60 Minutes, "The Bridge to Gretna," December 18, 2005.
36. Gardiner Harris, "Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees," New York Times, September 10, 2005.
37. Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, "Hurricane Katrina: Our Experiences," EMS Network News, September 6, 2005.
38. CBS, 60 Minutes, "The Bridge to Gretna," December 18, 2005.
39. CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, "Brown Resigns," September 12, 2005.
40. National Public Radio, Morning Edition, "Evacuees Were Turned Away at Gretna," September 20, 2005.
41. Katy Reckdahl, "Ties That Bind," New Orleans Gambit, January 14, 2003.
42. Joel Divine, Richard Bourke, and Joseph Hingston, "Black Strikes," September 2003. Available at www.blackstrikes.com.
43. Rob Nelson, "Group: Jeff Juries Formed Unfairly; It Says Too Many Black People Omitted," Times-Picayune, September 24, 2003.
44. State v. Harris, 01-0408 (La. 06/21/02); 820 So. 2d 471.
45. Miller-Elv. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322 (2003); Miller-Elv. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231 (2005).
46. Katy Reckdahl, "Target Practice," New Orleans Gambit, April 12, 2005.
47. Natalie Pompilio, "There's Something about Harry," Times-Picayune, April 2, 2000.
48. ABC, World News Tonight, November 18, 1991.
49. The returns recorded by the Louisiana Secretary of State make clear that Duke won a majority in Jefferson Parish. See www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcmpct&rqsdta=11169110012 919.
50. Mike Williams, "Duke's Angry Message Packs Power in Economic Hard Times," Atlanta Journal Constitution, October 19, 1991.
51. "Leaders Call Truce in Barricade Battle," United Press International, February 24, 1987.
52. Douglas Martin, "Fence Is Not Neighborly in a Suburb of Cleveland," New York Times, June 27, 1987.
53. See, e.g., "White New Orleans Suburb Backpedals on Barriers," Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1987.
54. National Public Radio, Morning Edition, "Evacuees Were Turned Away at Gretna," September 20, 2005.
55. Matthew Brown, "Bridge Exposes Racial Divide; Gretna Police Stand by Decision to Block Evacuees," Times-Picayune, September 22, 2005.
56. Alfred Blumstein and Allen J. Beck, "Population Growth in U.S. Prisons, 1980-1996," Crime and Justice: A Review of Research 26 (1999): 17-61; Fox Butterfield, "Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction," New York Times, August 10, 2000.
57. Human Rights Watch, New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Flood-waters, September 22, 2005.
58. According to the Death Penalty Information Center's "List of Those Exonerated from Death Row," Dan Bright was the 118 th person exonerated since 1973.
59. State v. Bright, 98-0398 (La. 04/11/00); 776 So. 2d 1134.
60. Bright v. Ashcroft, 259 F. Supp. 2d 502 (E.D. La. 2003).
61. See, e.g., Fox Butterfield, "Hard Time: Profits at a Juvenile Prison Come with a Chilling Cost," New York Times, July 15, 1998; Katy Reck-dahl, "Can This Prison Regain Its Stripes? Tallulah Timeline," New Orleans Gambit, November 6, 2001; Human Rights Watch, Children in Confinement in Louisiana, October 1995.
62. Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, "Treated Like Trash: Juvenile Detention in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina," May 2006.
63. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005," May 2006.
64. Sentencing Project, "State Rates of Incarceration by Race," 2004. Posted online at www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/racialdisparity.pdf.
65. Roy Walmsley, "World Prison Population List (Sixth Edition)," King's College London, International Center for Prison Studies, February 2005.
66. Editorial, "Creating the Next Crime Wave," New York Times, March 13, 2004.
67. See, e.g., Alan Zarembo, "Katrina's Aftermath; New Orleans Gets a Makeshift Jail; Suspects Are Being Put in Holding Cells Set Up in the Bus Station. Their Cases Will Be Processed through a Court System That Is Far from Normal," Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2005; Alex Berenson, "With Jails Flooded, Bus Station Fills the Void," New York Times, September 7, 2005.
68. CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, "Hurricane Katrina: Mission Critical," September 6, 2005.
69. Human Rights Watch, "Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States," June 1998. Posted online at www.hrw.org/reports98/police.
70. Paul Keegan, "The Thinnest Blue Line," New York Times Magazine, March 31, 1996.
71. Staff Reports, "N.O. Police Are Taped Beating Man, 64; AP Producer Also Punched on Film," Times-Picayune, October 10, 2005.
72. Frank Donze, "NOFD Hires, Police Up for Raises; Fire Union, EMS Chief Question Nagin Plan," Times-Picayune, July 26, 2006. Though I agree with little that is written by the folks at National Review, I think that Jack Dunphy, "Rebuilding a Police Department: A Few Suggestions for New Orleans," National Review Online, October 11, 2005, provides interesting insights into what is necessary to rebuild the police department from a law enforcement perspective.
73. See, e.g., Deroy Murdock, "State of Damage," National Review, September 22, 2005.
74. See, e.g., Fox News Network, The O'Reilly Factor, October 14, 2005; Fox News Network, The O'Reilly Factor, August 29, 2006; Fox News Network, Fox Hannity & Colmes, September 19, 2005; MSNBC, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, September 15, 2005.
75. Federal News Service Transcript, "Hearing of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina," December 6, 2005.
76. MSNBC, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, December 7, 2005.
77. The history of the 1927 levee breach recounted here relies mostly on John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998).
78. James Gill, "The Truth Is Grim Enough," Times-Picayune, September 28, 2005.
79. Sara Vilkomerson, "Spike's Pique," New York Observer, March 20, 2006 (quoting from Bill Maher's HBO show).
80. See, e.g., Christopher Cooper, "In Katrina's Wake-Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Floods and Plot the Future," Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2005.
81. Adolph Reed Jr., "The Battle of Liberty Monument," The Progressive, June 1993; James Gill, "Goose-Stepping Home," Times-Picayune, May 9, 2004.
82. Katy Reckdahl, "Why? NOPD's Shooting Death of a Young Trombone Player Leaves Onlookers and Bandmates Shocked and in Search of Answers," New Orleans Gambit, August 17, 2004.
83. Southern Center for Human Rights, "A Report on Pre- and Post-Katrina Indigent Defense in New Orleans" (March 2006), provides an excellent overview and description of the shortcomings of New Orleans indigent defense system before and after Hurricane Katrina. Posted at www.schr.org/indigentdefense/press%20releases/press_new_%orleans_ prepost_katrina.html.
84. Barry Gerharz and Seung Hong, "Down by Law: Orleans Parish Prison before and after Hurricane Katrina," Dollars and Sense, March/April 2006; Laura Maggi, "Judge Takes Public Defense to Task; Six Lawyers Quit, Causing Case Delays," Times-Picayune, September 18, 2006.
85. Christopher Drew, "Courts' Slow Recovery Begins at Train Station," New York Times, October 14, 2005.
86. "Justice System Struggles in New Orleans: Exposed by Katrina, Long-Neglected System Needs Expensive Overhaul," Associated Press, June 24, 2006.
87. Sharon Cohen, "Troubled New Orleans Criminal Justice System Struggles to Rebound and Improve after Katrina," Associated Press, June 24, 2006; Laura Parker, "People Arrested before Katrina Still Await Trial; Legal System in Tangles, and Many Remain in Jail," USA Today, February 27, 2006.
88. Mary Foster, "Business Owners Say Starting Over Will Be Difficult, Maybe Impossible," Associated Press, September 17, 2005; Stephen White, "Never the Twain; Entire Store Emptied by Looters ... Apart from Shania CD's," Daily Record, September 19, 2005.
89. According to the Census Bureau, the population of New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century was 287,104. Campbell Gibson, "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places: 1790 to 1900," Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, June 1993. Posted at www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html.
90. Gordon Russell, "An 1878 Map Reveals That Maybe Our Ancestors Were Right to Build on Higher Ground. Almost Every Place That Was Uninhabited in 1878 Flooded in 2005 after Katrina," Times-Picayune, November 3, 2005.
91. Leonard Huber, Lakeview Lore (published "to commemorate the opening of the Harrison Avenue Office of the First National Bank of Commerce," 1971, according to the New Orleans Public Library), Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library.
92. Villavaso and Associates, LLC, "New Orleans East Renaissance Plan," June 2004, for the New Orleans East Economic Development Foundation, Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library; Gibson, "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places," 1900 and 1960. According to the Census Bureau, the land areas of San Francisco and Boston are 47 and 48 square miles, respectively, or 30,080 acres and 30,720 acres.
93. See, e.g., "Eastern New Orleans: I-10 Opens Up New Land," Times-Picayune, January 12, 1975; Cornelia Carrier, "Drained Wetlands: How Infirm a Foundation," Times-Picayune, April 17, 1975.
94. Villavaso and Associates, LLC, "New Orleans East Renaissance Plan," p. 11.
95. See, e.g., Frank Donze and Gordon Russell, "4 Months to Decide; Nagin Panel Says Hardest Hit Areas Must Prove Viability; City's Footprint May Shrink; Full Buyouts Proposed for Those Forced to Move; New Housing to Be Developed in Vast Swaths of New Orleans' Higher Ground," Times-Picayune, January 11, 2006.
96. See, e.g., Martha Carr and Jeffrey Meitrodt, "What Will New Orleans Look Like Five Years from Now? Experts Have a Lot of Big Ideas, but Their Grand Plans Can't Happen Unless a Fractured City Rises to the Challenge," Times-Picayune, December 25, 2005; Gary Rivlin, "Wealthy Blacks Oppose Plans for Their Property," New York Times, December 10, 2005.
97. See, e.g., NBC, Nightly News, March 21, 2006; Sam Quinones, "New Orleans Rebuilding Plan Stirs Anger; Speakers Have Just Three Minutes during the Public-Comment Session, but It Doesn't Take Long to Say Not Enough Is Being Done," Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2006.
98. New Orleans East, Inc., "A Profile of New Orleans East for Gulf South Research Institute" [1965], Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library.
99. The history of this tract is detailed with great precision in Ray Samuel, " ' ... to a point called Chef Menteur ... ': The Story of the Property Known Today as New Orleans East, Inc.," New Orleans East, Inc., September 1959, and is discussed in the many volumes of New Orleans East, Inc.'s corporate planning documents held at the Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library. The Johnson family's connection to New Orleans East, Inc., is mentioned in Oliver Houck, "Can We Save New Orleans?" Tulane Environmental Law Journal 19 (Spring 2006): 1-68; and Todd Shallats, "In the Wake of Hurricane Betsy," in Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs, ed. Craig Colton (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), pp. 121-140.
100. City of New Orleans Office of Policy Planning, "Neighborhood Profiles Project, Edgelake/Little Woods," ed. Darlene Walk et al., December 1980, Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library.
101. James Mahoney, "Radical, Reformist and Aborted Liberalism: Origins of National Regimes in Central America," Journal of Latin American Studies 33, no. 2 (May 1, 2001): 221-256.
102. City of New Orleans Office of Policy Planning, "Neighborhood Profiles Project, Edgelake/Little Woods."
103. Peirce Lewis, New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape, 2nd edition (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003), p. 80; Carrier, "Drained Wetlands."
104. City of New Orleans Office of Policy Planning, "Neighborhood Profiles Project, Read Boulevard West," ed. Darlene Walk et al., December 1980, Louisiana Room of the New Orleans Public Library, p. 3.09.
105. Lewis, New Orleans, p. 81.
106. Adam Nossiter, "Untouchable in Election: New Orleans's Central Issue," New York Times, April 18, 2006.
107. Carrier, "Drained Wetlands."
108. Save Our Wetlands, "History of the Eden Isles, Oak Harbor & North Shore Estate subdivisions in Slidell, Louisiana," posted at www.saveourwetlands.org/edenislehistory.html.
109. Save Our Wetlands, "Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Barrier Project," posted at www.saveourwetlands.org/edenislehistory.html; Foy v. Lemieux, no. 76-3998 (E.D. La. 1976).
110. Todd Shallats, "Holding Louisiana," Technology and Culture: The International Quarterly of the Society for the History of Technology 46 (January 2006): 102-117; and Shallats, "In the Wake of Hurricane Betsy."
111. Save Our Wetlands v. Rush, Civil Actions nos. 75-3710 and 77-976 (E.D. La. 1977).
112. Mark Schleifstein, "Refuge Plan Offered to Public," Times-Picayune, August 4, 1993.
113. Fox News Network, Hannity and Colmes, "Are Environmentalists to Blame for New Orleans Flood?" September 13, 2005; David Schoenbrod, "The Lawsuit That Sank New Orleans," Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2005; John Berlau, "Dam Environmentalists: Why There's No Hope for the Obvious Solution to New Orleans Flooding," Weekly Standard, January 16, 2006; Government Accountability Office, Army Corps of Engineers, "Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project," September 28, 2005.
114. A "contour map of land elevations" in New Orleans East by the Office of Policy Planning in Neighborhood Profiles Project, Edge-lake/Little Woods, corresponds directly with maps of the extent of flooding in New Orleans East. See, e.g., graphic, "How Much Water Did You Get?" Times-Picayune, September 22, 2005.
115. See graphic, "Days under Water," Times-Picayune, September 19, 2005.
116. See graphic, "Victims of Katrina: Where They Were Found," Times-Picayune, December 20, 2005.
117. Martha Carr, "Rebuilding Should Begin on High Ground, Group Says," Times-Picayune, November 19, 2005.
118. See, e.g., Mike Davis, "Who Is Killing New Orleans?" The Nation, April 10, 2006; Adolph Reed and Stephen Steinberg, "Liberal Bad Faith in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina," Black Commentator, May 4, 2006.
119. Craig E. Colton, Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), p. 161.
120. Miriam Hill, Kim Hone-McMahan, and Dwight Ott, "Residents of Ninth Ward Insist Neighborhood Be Rebuilt," Knight Ridder, October 9, 2005.
121. Ceci Connolly, "9th Ward: History, Yes, but a Future? Race and Class Frame Debate on Rebuilding New Orleans District," Washington Post, October 3, 2005.
122. Carr and Meitrodt, "What Will New Orleans Look Like Five Years from Now?"
123. Houck, "Can We Save New Orleans?" p. 21.
124. Nossiter, "Untouchable in Election."
125. Coleman Warner, "Candidates Playing It Safe on Land Use: Nagin and Landrieu Are Equally Vague," Times-Picayune, May 13, 2006.
126. Billy Grady, "Couple Ties Can to Art World's Tail; Alliance Thrives on Weirdness," Times-Picayune, February 4, 1996.
127. Adam Nossiter, "Amid Revelry, Evidence of City's Cruel Transformation," New York Times, February 25, 2006.
128. James Gill, Lords of Misrule: Mardi Gras and the Politics of Race in New Orleans (Oxford: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), pp. 7, 50.
129. According to the Census Bureau, New Orleans was the ninth largest city in America in 1870. Campbell Gibson, "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places: 1790 to 1900," Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, June 1993. Posted at www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html.
130. Gill, Lords of Misrule, p. 7.
131. National Public Radio, Day to Day, February 27, 2006.
132. Gill, Lords of Misrule, p. 223.
133. Wade McIntyre, "Megan Bell Going to Court over Oak Place Mobile Home Park," Gonzales Weekly, February 10, 2006.
134. David Mitchell, "Trailer Park Opponents Boo Officials, Advocates Point to Evacuees' Need, Appeal to Charity," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 2, 2006.
135. David Mitchell, "Hughes Opposes FEMA Trailers, Ascension Welcome Withdrawn," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 11, 2006.
136. David Mitchell, "November Trial Date Scheduled in Suit over FEMA Trailer Park," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 23, 2006.
137. See James Varney, "Trailer Cash; If FEMA Could Distribute the Fortune Spent on Trailers Directly to Those in Need of Housing, the Recipients Might Find a Much Nicer Place to Live, and Even Have Money Left Over for Home Repairs. But There's a Catch: That's Illegal," Times-Picayune, January 21, 2006.
138. Douglas Mitchell, "Resident Says Trailer Park Fears Unrealized," The Advocate (Baton Rouge), April 11, 2006
139. Ana Ester Gershanik, "Mexico May Re-establish N.O. Consulate," Times-Picayune, August 13, 2006.
140. Samantha Euraque, "Honduran Memories: Identity, Race, Place and Memory in New Orleans, Louisiana" (M.A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 2004).
141. Advancement Project, "And Injustice for All: Worker's Lives in the Reconstruction of New Orleans," July 2006. Posted at www.advancementproject.org/reports/workersreport.pdf.
142. James Varney, "Nuevo Orleans? An Influx of Hispanic Workers in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina Has Some Officials Wondering Why Locals Aren't on the Front Lines of Recovery," Times-Picayune, October 18, 2005.
143. See H.R. 4437, The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, passed December 16, 2005; John Pomfret, "Cardinal Puts Church in Fight for Immigration Rights," Washington Post, April 2, 2006.
144. Tyler Cowen, "An Economist Visits New Orleans: Bienvenido, Nuevo Orleans," Salon, April 19, 2006.
145. Common Ground Collective, Solidarity, Not Charity. Video posted at www.commongroundrelief.org/node/70.
146. Ms. griffin spells her name with a lowercase "g" as a commentary on her surname, which she refers to as a "slave name."
147. I was unable to find the names of these individuals among the official dead, a list that many say is incomplete, failing to include those who died after evacuating or from causes not immediately related to the rising water.
148. See, e.g., Karen Turni Bazile, "Iraq Prepared Him for St. Bernard; Parish Hires Expert in Rebuilding Cities," Times-Picayune, October 15, 2005.
149. Liva Baker, The Second Battle of New Orleans: The Hundred Year Struggle to Integrate the Schools (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), p. 379.
150. See St. Bernard Parish.net, "An Online Guide for Living in or Visiting St. Bernard Parish," posted at www.stbernardparish.net/history.html (last checked February 12, 2007).
151. Glen Jeansonne, Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977), pp. xv, 170-171.
152. Baker, The Second Battle of New Orleans, pp. 78-82.
153. U.S. Census Bureau, "St. Bernard Parish Quickfacts," posted online at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/22087.html (last checked February 13, 2007).
154. Paul Rioux, "St. Bernard Sued over Rent Limit; Group Says New Law Upholds Segregation," Times-Picayune, October 4, 2006.
155. Karen Turni Bazile, "Bias Lawsuit Puts Council on Defensive; Lawyer Hired to Fight Allegation of Discrimination in St. Bernard," Times-Picayune, November 8, 2006.
156. National Public Radio, Morning Edition, May 25, 2001.
157. A shocking sequence of photos by Allen Fredrickson, a photographer with Reuters/Corbis, shows a dog eating the leg of a corpse near the Lake Pontchartrain levee breach on September 6, 2005. One photo was posted on the National Geographic Web site and the Daily Kos blog; the sequence, including a later photo in which the corpse's leg appears to be missing, appears on Robert Lindsay's blog at robertlindsay.blogspot.com/2006/0i/worst-katrina-photo-sequence-of-all.h tml.
158. Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (New York: Penguin, 1997).