AP Piece about Lakeview recovery (1 Viewer)

[gaminerie]

i agree with the philosophy of imploring the city to just get out of the way if people are doing fine rebuilding on their own.

But i am thoroughly disgusted with the national media's obsession with pitting parts of New Orleans against each other. Y'all have your Peabody awards, so you can just try and report accurately, or move along.

New Orleans Neighborhood Rescues Itself

NEW ORLEANS - Paul Pablovich was the very picture of a good neighbor as he shoveled debris off the curb and mowed other people's lawns in Lakeview, a middle-class section of town that was swamped with 15 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina and is now a patchwork of gutted and newly built homes.

But he wasn't doing it entirely out of the goodness of his heart. He was protecting his investment. (emphasis mine)

Pablovich, an entrepreneur who lived in a different part of New Orleans before Katrina, bought a bungalow on the street from an elderly resident after the storm, renovated it and plans to live there with his fiancee. He purchased a second abandoned house for $107,000, fixed it up and hopes to resell it for $214,000. He would like to "flip" several other properties on the block, too.

The way he sees it, capitalism is the road to recovery for Lakeview.

What?

These were the same words used by a reporter i worked with when, shortly after the storm, he had heard i was going to Louisiana just as soon as i could get there.

After i had explained that most of my family, and friends, and my house were down there, he said "Oh so you're not going out of the goodness of your heart." i wanted to hang up my line, walk over to his office, and kick him in the knee.

i resent this "If you are not as poor as a churchmouse, then you must be on the make" attitude i've seen in so many post-storm media stories. i would wager most stories with this completely wrongheaded angle are written by out-of-towners.

 

[superchuck500]

They do present it is if they are mutually exclusive. Typical media- everything is either black or white, when reality is usually somewhere in between.

 

[gaminerie]

The stories are written as if there is no better place for real estate speculation than New Orleans. There are actually not many surer places for outrageous insurance premiums and unpredictable tax assessments, from a property owner's standpoint.

This one doesn't mention what "different part of New Orleans" Pablovich lived in. i guess that detail, while easy to disclose, wouldn't benefit the angle of the story.

like the city is nothing but sharks, instead of people who are struggling just to get an insurance policy.

And like people who have credit, and savings, and the stomach to invest, aren't putting in sweat equity too. No, people who choose to do what we beg them to do, which is invest in New Orleans, are vilified as some kind of carpetbaggers.

i just want to know, really HONESTLY. WHAT are all these mysterious resources which are available to "middle-class" Lakeview (which is later implied to be somewhat more affluent, if it's not blatantly stated) that are NOT available to the East?

Gentilly is also rebuilding itself, as is the Upper Ninth (my old neighborhood which NOBODY hears of except regarding the Musicians' Village - which is still something).

 

[jimwnola]

You would think they might have to first admit there were white middle class victims of Katrina in New Orleans, before skipping ahead to stories on how only they are recovering.

 

[inetnawlins]

You would think they might have to first admit there were white middle class victims of Katrina in New Orleans, before skipping ahead to stories on how only they are recovering.

You hit the nail on the head.

P.S. I'm a Lakeview resident, at least I will be once I finish rebuilding my house.

 

[SaintsFan11]

I didn't read your post before I read the article, thinking it was going to be a positive piece on how a New Orleans neighborhood was successfully rebuilding.

Wow. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Apparently nothing is positive coming out of New Orleans, except the aforementioned Musician's Village. The horrible middle-class white homeowners in Lakeview should be ashamed of themselves for organizing their neighborhood and working to rebuild their lives. Don't they know that there are middle-class black homeowners who aren't? That a predominantly white area of a majority black city would lift itself up by its own bootstraps is apalling.

/sarcasm off

I'm beginning to understand how Americans who have no idea about New Orleans have "Katrina fatigue". Everything about written about New Orleans is somehow about racism. It's funny really, and possibly ironic, considering that while racism exists in New Orleans, the people there seem to coexist in a state of racial integration that most communities would implode under.

 

[inetnawlins]

Recently, the local tv news did a story on a woman in Lakeview with a car still stuck halfway in her pool. The piece showed overgrown lawns and nasty houses. I'm in Lakeview daily. This exists in very small pockets but most lawns are mowed and most homes are under reconstruction or new homes being built where another was torn down.

None of these images make it on to the local news even.

The TP did a story on a PARADE OF HOMES in Lakeview. Many of these homes are upscale and very nice. Yet the photo that ran was taken from a vacant lot halfway down the street from a new home, purposely positioned to show the weeds in focus and a blurry image of the new home and great looking yard in the background. Tell me that writer or photographer doesn't have an agenda.

I've long since come to grips with the fact that many don't want Lakeview to come back. We don't care any more. Maybe one day, we'll secede from New Orleans and take our tax revenue with us and then they can be happy because the city will have become more palatable to certain people and in line with Nagin's chocolate city image.

It isn't right, but you can't let it get to you either.

We are coming back and our neighborhood is coming back strong whether idiots in the media or certain people that don't like whites in New Orleans like it or not.

The irony is that people of various races were my neighbors before the storm and many of those neighbors are coming back. And I'm glad to see them.


Here's another example of the take on Lakeview we get from the TP:

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/topnews/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_topnews/archives/2007_03.html#244107