Levees

This area is the river side of the levee.

I'm riding my bike over the bridge in the picture above and it's a long way down.































To the left is the river. To the right are the lots where houses used to be. The fact that the levees are not built any stronger than before Hurricane Katrina has to be a big psycological barrier to rebuilding also. A major strategy in the rebuilding of the city has been to focus on and subsidize business's first as a means to rebuild the economy. At the same time, the value of profit ahead of people means that there is an enormous land grab being attempted here.

In 1965, during Hurricane Betsy, these same levees were dynamited and many of the same neighborhoods destroyed in order to keep the richer and white areas - like the French Quarter from flooding. This is a familiar routine for poor and black people here.