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May 2, 2008
Something I needed this month
The weekend after Ashley died, one of my oldest friends Dr. Sarah came in town for a visit, and I took her down to see the Lower Ninth Ward since she hadn't been here since the storm. We drove past a few houses I'd gutted before, and saw the usual lack of progress. We drove by Robert Green's trailer on Tennessee Street and I told her the story of how he lost a young granddaughter off his roof during the flood and found his dead mother months after the storm.
And then we drove by the house on Gordon Street.
I blogged about gutting this house with the Mardi Gras Service Corps back in November '06. It was a lonely block. One house had some renovations going on that seemed to be going slowly, and a few houses were gutted and the lawns were being kept up, but the block didn't seem to have a lot of hope, and the house itself was a mess. Lots of termite damage, some tree damage to the roof joists and the back frame of the house. A sign on the front said "For Sale By Owner: Mr. Henry" with a phone number.
There was also a light switch in the back bedroom that had a Disney character floating under some balloons which got me all choked up when I ripped the moldy sheetrock down around it.
But down the street was an uninhabitable Baptist church with a FEMA trailer outside it, and that Sunday while we were gutting, three carloads of older black folks in their Sunday best, the women all wearing their crowns, all showed up, went into the trailer, worshipped, then came out and hugged each other and shook hands and drove off. So I always had kind of a fondness for this block. It seemed hopeless on the face of it, but maybe not so hopeless if you squinted just right and held your head at the right angle while you looked at it.
In November of '07 I blogged about my tour of despair, of all the houses I had gutted which hadn't been touched since I left them, and I took pictures of this house on Gordon Street, the last one in that post, and wondered if there wasn't some sign of progress.
The windows were still broken, the house was still gutted and open, but the For Sale sign was gone, there was a storage unit out front, and there was new debris which maybe was construction debris, not demo refuse.
Well, I drove by it four weeks ago with Sarah, and check this shit out:
New doors, new windows, new plumbing (see the vents in the roof?). New sidewalks, and landscaping, and brand new trees!
It's not occupied yet, I don't think, but clearly somebody has plans for this house. And three other houses on the block are occupied now too, whereas back in '06 we felt like we were in the middle of Siberia until those church folks showed up.
Progress. Little bits of progress bring me such huge bunches of joy sometimes. Sometimes at the times that I most need them.
Posted by ray at May 2, 2008 9:23 PM | Permalink
Categories: [katrina | new orleans ]
Comments
Viva New Orleans!
Posted by: Marco at May 3, 2008 7:27 AM
That is stunningly wonderful. Absolutely.
Posted by: liprap at May 3, 2008 11:58 AM
Wow! That makes me feel really good, Ray. Little victories add up.
Posted by: darkneuro at May 3, 2008 9:27 PM
I can feel your pain regarding voluntarily gutting houses that haven't been touched. That would make me crazy... I would be obsessively driving by hoping beyond hope that a family or young couple was making a home. The homes I helped gut belonged to people I know... and they are back and thriving with the people I love in them. New Orleans is coming back. It's not bleak.
Posted by: Riva at May 4, 2008 1:09 AM
Incremental progress beats the hell out of no progress. Glad to see a house you put so much sweat into is on the mend.
Btw, did you ever get your shoes dirty on Saturday?
Posted by: Adrastos at May 4, 2008 9:58 PM
Yeah, shirt and shoes and mud. Was an icky day, but fun.
Posted by: Ray at May 5, 2008 8:42 AM
Good. You were suspiciously clean when I saw you...
Posted by: Adrastos at May 5, 2008 9:00 AM
Reminds me of how, when I lived in the Northeast, the last couple of months of winter were almost unbearable. But once buds appeared on the trees that funk just started to lift. Seeing those houses makes me think of spring, but in slow motion.
Posted by: Gregg P. at May 6, 2008 1:53 PM
I missed your Tour of Despair post, but I can relate.
I gutted about a dozen for CG in July '06 and expectantly toured each one on subsequent visits to town--especially the first one at Reynes and Villere. The first one is hard, after which you have to reach a level of emotional detachment. In the first one I hauled out the kid's room, his music, found his horn, still in its case. I made a little shrine on the stoop for it, and for the other intimate family items I found. Six months later, it was untouched. And nine months later. And a year later. Nothing. The story was the same at all the others. So I stopped the tours...
At the time, I think I knew the math was not good for these houses, but without being sure, I had to have hope.
In retrospect, the problem was inherent in Common Ground's policy of gutting for owners too old or poor to do it themselves, with little regard for the condition of the house (it was hard to say 'no', I'm sure). Sounds good, but this kind of owner is also the LEAST able to rebuild.
But your Gordon Street (I think your original blog link is off, BTW) finding has given me new hope. I'll have to take the tour again next time, since I just left today. If I can find just ONE of them rebuilt, it will be enough.
Posted by: Peris at May 6, 2008 11:46 PM
thanks for that tour, old friend. i was awed.
Posted by: sarah at May 10, 2008 4:49 PM
I will try to keep this short. I am a Dallas, Tx native and had never been to N.O. Several years ago by chance my sister came by some flight passes and she took my twin and I to New Orleans. Our first day there our Dad got really sick and we only spent one day/evening in N.O. before we had to take an emergency flight home. But we knew we definitely wanted to come back to this wonderful city. Then Katrina hit. It was devastating and I recall I could not get it off my mind and heart. A nauseating feeling. A heart ache. It eased the pain to be able to help in a small way in food, clothing and money donations but I knew it could never be enough for those affected by Katrina not only in N.O but other cities too. This past weekend we went back to N.O. and were so excited. Part of our stay we drove through the lower 9th ward and while glad to see the few houses rebuilt, very sad to see a neighborhood gone. It brought back all the same emotions. I can't get N.O. off my mind. I have gotten no work done since flying back to Dallas Monday morning which is how I found your blog. I have pulled up so many websites. I want to remember those lives lost as well as read of some of the "happy endings" for families. Thanks for being a sounding board and sharing your story with the rest of the world. I hope our stay helped contribute in some small way to rebuilting one of America's greatest cities.
Posted by: Dana at June 4, 2008 10:45 AM
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