Where happened and is happening to the black folks of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina?
We see some statistics from http://demomemo.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-orleans-before-and-after.html
Blacks as a share of the metropolitan area before Katrina: 37 percent
Blacks as a share of the metropolitan area after Katrina: 22 percent
The white share of the population grew from 59 to 73 percent.
The population of NO dropped radically after katrina…it has not come back to even close to pre-katrina levels…Of course it had a disproportionate effect on black people since the areas hit hardest were largely black populated.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:15 am
The population of NO dropped radically after katrina…it has not come back to even close to pre-katrina levels…Of course it had a disproportionate effect on black people since the areas hit hardest were largely black populated.
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June 7th, 2010 at 2:47 am
The City of New Orleans is back to about 75% of the pre-Katrina population and the metro area is back to 90%+.
Realize the metro area’s entire population was evacuated. Even people who lived in areas that didn’t flood were forced to leave. The metro area (at first) and later just the City were surrounded by a ring of military checkpoints and people were > not allowed < to even visit their homes for 10 days to several months - depending on where they lived.
Once people were > allowed < to return there were three factors that determined if someone would actually return permanently:
The factors were:
1. Home ownership
2. Strong family ties
3. A job
It wasn’t essential to have all three, but people who did not have at least two factors generally did not return. This was NOT dependent on skin color.
For decades before Katrina New Orleans was used to warehouse poor people in public housing/section 8 apartments scattered across the City in particular and the metro area in general. The people in question were overwhelmingly African-American. The pre-Katrina political establishment in the City of New Orleans actively encouraged poor African-Americans to move to New Orleans because they could be counted on to > vote as told <. The same political establishment destroyed the public school system and drove out every business & job they could so the poor would also be uneducated and have no hope of bettering themselves. It worked, and the pre-Katrina political establishment could sway every local election to keep themselves in power.
A side effect was to guarantee the huge public housing/section 8 population did not own homes or have jobs. Their family ties were also often questionable as intact, healthy families were/are not exactly the norm in public housing/section 8 areas anywhere.
The result was about 75% of the HUGE public housing/section 8 population simply never came back. They got public housing or section 8 apartments wherever they went for the evacuation, signed up for the rainbow of benefits one can get if on public assistance, and stayed put. There also was no program to pay to move back to New Orleans even if they wanted to do so. The people in question were almost 100% African-American and that’s why the demographics changed so radically.
The public housing/section 8 residents who did return were often the ones making a living through criminal activity. They may have tried to operate wherever they went for the evacuation, but the political establishments in those places rarely viewed criminals as an essential part of their political support. They risked jail unless they moved back to New Orleans - where politicians like then-D.A. Eddie Jordan would ensure they wouldn’t stay in jail long, no matter how often the police arrested them. It’s also why the murder rate went back up - they are killing each other due to drug-trafficking competition or as a result of drug-related disputes.
Note that New Orleans has been cleaning itself up both physically and politically by voting out the crooks, crazies, and incompetents who have infested City Hall for three decades. That includes our former mayor C.R(azy) Nagin, who left office in May (finally!).
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