AD-2009: Signs of Katrina on Tulane
I walked a few blocks up Tulane Avenue from the Medical District to the Orleans Parish Criminal Courthouse in Mid-City. Signs of Katrina were too evident to miss: water lines on several houses, abandoned homes, some of them gradually falling apart, windows and doors on many still boarded with plywood.
On some side streets in the same district. The first house probably burned after a new coat of paint barely attempted to cover the water line.
A house put on high support but looking rather dead. Only the birds made window carvings their nest and sing a song about a city gone underwater.
Even one house in my neighbourhood still retains the sign from inspection. This is probably left for history, or simply because owners don’t have money on paint.
And it all began in the Central Business District, where even a big shopping centre remains closed. The escalators stopped, the elevators’ doors are gone or broken, all merchandise removed, and garbage visible here and there. I came for a sale in Macy’s and to browse through Gap’s collection but was shocked to see it like that – closed and empty, after so many years, in the very centre, in a shopping mall, with stinking steps to the entrance.
Charity Hospital still stands abandoned, with metal fences around, removed signs. Windows were repaired, but some have cross paint on them. The government couldn’t decide on the fate of the 1938 building. But I hope it stands against all odds.
This city continues to be the one with sharp contrasts between richness and poverty, between restored and shabby, between reconstructed and abandoned. But it is a living city nonetheless.
All pictures are expandable (click on them).
