They know what it means to miss New Orleans
On July 26, about 50 people lined up to testify before a United Nations advisory committee in the cafeteria of McDonogh 42, a New Orleans elementary school. Though there had been only a small notice in the New Orleans Times-Picayune calling for public input, about 300 Hurricane Katrina survivors turned up to tell the UN-HABITAT advisors about the difficulties they still face returning to their ancestral homes even four years after the disaster.
According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC), about a quarter of the city’s pre-Katrina population–more than 175,000 people–has not returned.
The many obstacles to resettlement have routed the poor and middle class from the city’s land, while more than 65,000 residences in Orleans Parish remain uninhabited, according to the GNOCDC. Blighted properties and those with unpaid taxes are now being taken over by the city, creating a no-win situation for the government and the average neighborhood citizen. Like Harlem before gentrification, the downtown communities with abandoned properties and empty lots will soon be ripe for developers–if they take an interest. Without a buyer, the properties may lie fallow for years.</em>