During our last class we got a sneak peak of the upcoming video documentary on the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. I thought that the parts of the video that were shown were very interesting. I wish we had more time to watch the video in its entirety.
One part that i found disturbing was the amount of tour buses that passed through the areas that were hardest hit where individuals were attempting to rebuild. First of all, if you are going to tour this area i don't understand how people can sit on a bus and just watch as these people stare back with almost nothing (no home, no possessions) and then go home to the safety of their hotel and sleep. What kind of moral responsibility do these tourists have. I personally have not done anything to help with the rebuilding efforts so perhaps I'm in no position to speak but i just think its wrong that this is allowed to go on. The second question I had is who is profiting from this. Do these tour companies make a significant amount of money, and does a portion of that get recycled in to the rebuilding efforts? Something tells me it doesn't.
Another interesting part was during a town council meeting. It seemed like certain prominent members were trying to feed the local residents a pile of crap. Hopefully they have a better place to turn for advice of how to rebuild and establish a thriving community. During another section we saw how a women was interesting in building a (i believe some sort of coffee pub/restaurant?) and wanted to have all the produce grown locally, turning a significant portion of land into a farming area. I wasn't sure what her motivations were but clearly they were not in harmony with the local residents. During another seen one person was asked what this part of the city needed to complete the rebuilding stage and to develop. The answer was to build a quilty school. I think that local governments need to be involved with this process to ensure that these schools are built
Finally i found it interesting that after hurricane Besty the city prepared the levies to withstand significant amounts of strom surge and damage. Now after hurricane Katrina these same efforts are being taken and engineers are claiming that these levies will survive future storms when completed in the future. I think these claims are misleading, something that brought over confidence to citizens during Katrina.
Over all i thought the video offered a good look into the post Katrina years and way of life in New Orleans.
This is the last post for this blog. It's been a great seminar: Thanks to Prof Svenson for all of his contributions and efforts that went into building the course and thanks to everyone for a great class.
Unforced Variations: June 2026
5 days ago
I agree that it is highly problematic for people to tour through some of the hardest hit areas of New Orleans. I asked many similar questions as to whether the tourists leave with a different view point and have been educated about the inequalities in the area. Or is it just an experience that is lived in the moment and forgotten when they get back to the hotel. Also I think tourism is a large part of New Orleans history, but by creating a serene garden, landscape and cafe many of the original residents of the ninth ward will be marginalized from the new built environment. I think it is important that local input is used in the decision making process to decide what will be done in the area. This way marginalization will be limited and inclusion will be sustained.
ReplyDeleteHaving experienced the lower 9th ward first hand, I can agree with all of this. In networking for this documentry, it became evident that although I may too be considered a tourist, it was amazing to see the amount of tour busses actually passing through the area while staying at Common Ground. There had to have been bus after bus travel through this area. Feeling like a tourist myself, I did get the sense that New Orleans is a tourist town, especially at the forefront of Mardi Gras celebrations. This probably didn't help matters at all for the lower 9th. At the same time, it can be questioned: Are these people ignorant for wanting to learn and see what happened to the lower 9th? It's hard to deciper whether or not the extent to which tourism is growing in this area can be a good or bad thing. For locals, being bombarded with strangers it's obviously bad, but I would also like to know if the revenue is being put back into such a deserving community.
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