New Orleans East is sinking. It has been sinking for years, into the ocean and away from New Orleans. But despite these challenges and recent tragedies, the spirit of New Orleans East remains strong.
New Orleans East isn’t the first place visitors go when visiting our city. Its rich and complicated history doesn’t include the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, the Saints’ games, or other hot tourist destinations. But, New Orleans East truly represents the diversity of the city. Myriads of races, religions, economic classes, nationalities, and more are exemplified within New Orleans East. On the short drive from Lake Carmel to Little Woods, you’ll go from beautiful brick homes to graffiti-covered construction sites, retracing the steps of jazz legends like Louis Armstrong. On Saturdays, you can go to Village de l’Est and see the Vietnamese Farmers’ Market that has emerged as a sign of the progress generations of Vietnamese immigrants have made in New Orleans East. And by land mass alone, New Orleans East represents 40% of our city.
Hurricane Katrina, arguably a traumatic event for the whole nation, hurt New Orleans East the most.
In August 2020, members of the coalition New Orleans East Matters gathered on the faded green grass where the beloved Lake Forest Plaza used to be. Lake Forest Plaza wasn’t just any mall. It used to be the economic heart of the community, accounting for 25% of sales taxes in the Orleans Parish. Citizens and community organizers gathered to protest the lack of development in their city since Hurricane Katrina. In an interview with local news station 4WWL, community memberEric Jones said, "For 15 years, we've seen the same sore spots: Vacant, dilapidated homes… We know the East was a vibrant place before Katrina, and for 15 years, we have sat through this. We've tried to be patient, we're no longer going to be patient. Redevelop, rebuild, recreate and re-tool.”
So many iconic sites were lost to Katrina. The Fort Pike Historic Site, the Jazzland Theme Park, We Never Close Po-Boys restaurant, and so many other local businesses.
As businesses left New Orleans East, families did too. People returned to see ghosts replace their jobs, their homes, their former lives. While the population has slowly been rebuilding, much of New Orleans East is still ravaged by poverty, growing crime, and the lingering tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.
The ones most hurt by Katrina in New Orleans East are the Black middle-class. According to FiveThirtyEight, after Hurricane Katrina, over 75,000 Black residents left New Orleans and never came back. Hurricane Katrina not only disproportionately hurt New Orleans East, one of the most diverse parts of the city, but Black people in New Orleans East. According to Talk Poverty, Black homeowners in New Orleans were over three times as likely to have their house flooded as white homeowners.
Still, hope exists throughout New Orleans East. In Village de l’Est, the famous Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery sits, one of the few local businesses in New Orleans East that survived Hurricane Katrina, the pandemic, and Hurricane Ida (and its where many in our community traveled to get their infamous King Cake). The city is investing $10 million in a school to train the youth of New Orleans East in STEM. Community organizers host events such as Black Wallstreet’s Black Wealth Weekend to uplift the marginalized communities of our city. city. And most recently, the City announced new development in the Six Flags theme park.
From segregation to natural disasters to the pandemic, New Orleans East has come back time and time again, but not without help. Lovers of the city continue to embrace unity and fight for their home. Hope lies in the people of New Orleans East. Because hope lies in all of us. Together, we can transform our community. We always have, and we always will.
Tune in next time as we look at one of New Orleans’ East most recent challenges – Hurricane Ida.
This blogpost is part of a series leading up to the 2022 Love Your City Awards. Every ticket sold for this edition will support a green infrastructure project in New Orleans East. To learn more about this project and purchase tickets please visit www.loveyourcityawards.com.