Inside the Bowl

Our life has entered a new stage and free time has become scarce. I’m finding it harder to put aside a block of time to work on the blog. We are no longer in recovery mode or rebuilding mode; as we have moved on to regular life mode and our concerns have taken on a different hue. We are now more interested in how we are going to find the time to get to the bank before it closes or how long is the line at the Post Office. These are the same concerns that we had before the storm. In a strange way it’s sort of comforting.

Elizabeth is working very long hours at one of the three schools opened by the Orleans Parish school district. The district is trying to pack a full year of school into seven months which is making for an extended school day. I have gotten a post-Katrina job in an attempt to establish a more secure financial situation. Unfortunately, it keeps me working away from the house all day. Our lives have changed, but we consider ourselves among the lucky ones. We have a house, and we are making money. In the “new” New Orleans, that’s as good as it gets.

Posted by Steve Seebol & Elizabeth Kahn at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New Orleans has been changed forever. This is a fact. Most of the city has been destroyed and rebuilding it to the exact way it was pre-Katrina looks to be impossible. Many of its residents are scattered across the country longing to return to the life that they once had. But that life is over, and it doesn’t seem as if it will ever come back.

This city was unique. It was an amalgam created by time, economics, heat, neglect and the cultural past of its residents. A single individual did not create it; no one had this as a dream. There was no master plan. It created itself. That is why putting it back together will be very difficult.

There are many strategies in the works for the new New Orleans. Experts from around the world have come up with models for the way the city should be recreated. These experts are city planners and land use specialists, and they have no idea how to make a city like New Orleans live again. These planners can create green space and low density housing all connected by a new light rail system. Two Florida cities, Celebration and Seaside, are the kinds of towns that these experts have built. The schools might work better and the trash will be picked up but the soul of the city will be gone. The New Orleans of the future might even be a better place to live. There might be less crime and more opportunity for all of it’s residents. But Katrina ripped the heart out of the city. At least for now its lifeblood is gone.

Posted by Steve Seebol & Elizabeth Kahn at 1:04 PM | Permalink