New Orleans, Louisiana is an especially unique city, maybe one of its kind in the United States. Take for example, the fact that soil from 31 states flow from the Mississippi River and empties onto New Orleans. What other state can boast this fact? The area is a river delta and is the prime reason for its establishment. This port city was once essential to the shipping industry, but has fallen short in recent years (though still is a major contributor to NO’s economic base – aprox. 13 billion annually)(Brinkley, 31). The city has also become a site for oil extraction as well as commercial and game fishing. NO was unique from the beginning. Sieur de Bienville searched for years for a site for a great port and settled on the land where NO now resides. He chose the site because “he calculated that it was about ten feet above sea level; it was probably not quite that high, but the site was distinctly above the surrounding waters in those early days”(6). Since the beginning, this land has been in danger of flooding and damage from storms.
New Orleans is also very culturally and historically distinct. The city has a great mix of European, African, Caribbean, American, and Southern roots. This is reflected in NO’s language, zoning, architecture, hierarchy, surnames, food, and music. In Brinkley’s words, the city’s architecture became a “favorite location for Hollywood movies.” “Filmmakers could find practically any sort of backdrop in [NO], from Spanish colonial mansions and Creole cottages to American Greek revival, art deco European, and postmodern ranches” (30). As for music, Jazz was cultivated and born in the NO neighborhood of Storyville (30). The city is also widely known for its Cajun and Creole food and some still speak the languages. Its Mardi Gras season and parades are also world renowned.
During the times of slavery, NO also set itself apart as their slaves, as opposed to the British, were given the chance to work and make money to buy their freedom. NO was also the first city in the south to integrate schools as well as being home to the first black newspaper, The Tribune. Its’ citizens were holding train car “sittings” before Rosa Park became famous. The city also led politically as it was one of the first to have a legislation of which more than half of its legislators were comprised of Blacks.
While the “city was unique in many ways, it was not immune to the various ills that America’s urban flesh is heir to.” As A. J. Liebling once remarked: “I realized that New Orleans might be exotic in some respects but that in others it was exactly like everyplace else.” A city which once experienced a more kindly type of segregation (if you could call it that), suddenly saw itself as a spitting image of others, if not worse. The “alienation of black and white populations, and the decay of inner-city neighborhoods and public services” wrecked the city socially, economically, and physically (Lewis, 71). Its education system was in shambles and with the integration of schools, able whites fled the city into the nearby suburbs where there children would be protected. Crime and murder rates rose along with drug and gun violence. The tourism industry was limited to more well off white areas rather than the slums where tourists were in danger. The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson turned segregation into legalized discrimination. Urban planning also cut parishes in half, Treme for example, with the I-10 highway in the 1960’s.
As much as the city of New Orleans became a paradigmatic urban area, it was still at greater risk than others. As mentioned above, the city itself was settled on land that was barely above sea level, and this was in the early 1700’s. NO was prone to flooding/storms and have experienced a few major deadly ones within its history (1893, 1909, 1927). As the many years passed, “subsidence” described as the “sinking effect that had taken hold of coastal Louisiana through a number of contributing factors both natural (invasive flora eating insect species, shifting subsurface faults), and man-made (dredging, canal digging, polluting) (Brinkley, 12). As a result, NO has “sunk to an average of 6ft below the waterline” (13). Man-made factors especially contributed to the disastrous results of storms such as Hurrican Katrina. These factors had reduced the city’s wetlands at an alarming rate of one tennis court every thirteen seconds in 2005 (9). The city without its natural marshes/wetlands would see an increase of one foot of storm surge for every 2.7 miles of disappearing land (13). Not only were these facts ignored by the government in favor of oil/shipping, seafood, tourism, education, crime, and other economic and social issues, but they were a clear indicator of what would be expected (not if but) when faced with a category 5 hurricane. Another indicator is the fact that the the Red Cross “refused to operate a facility in [NO] because none of the commonly used emergency sites was much above sea level (17). They also didn't have a Hurricane Command Center or a network of communications established in advance.
In addition, the Mayor at the time, Nagin, can also be blamed for the aftermath of Katrina. Rather than issuing a mandatory evacuation order, he was busy shooting his first film debut and meeting with lawyers regarding legal action from hotels and the tourism industry if he were to order an evacuation. He was too concerned with economic issues and tourism and overlooked the thousands of disabled, elderly, or individuals without vehicles to evacuate. The city itself also did not posses a realistic hurricane plan though it did have a evacuation plan. Though there were clear cut guidelines in the NO Emergency Management Plan booklet and federal guidelines, they were ignored by Mayor Nagin.
Though New Orleans was once a striking and unique city, it fell under the weight of societal norms, pressuring it into the same situations faced by other cities. With the city’s special location, it was bound to one day suffer the disastrous affects of a storm like Katrina. Though indicators in its history had forewarned of such an event, they were ignored time and time again. As a result, it will take years before NO will become the splendor it once was.
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