Mollie Day
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUPROWELL: Can you recall your first impressions of New Orleans—that is, of the city when you returned after Hurricane Katrina?
DAY: We didn't return to the city until two months later. Three, maybe. With the state of emergency in place and all the chaos, we decided not to come back initially. We went to Colorado and didn't come back for three months.
ROWELL: Since you have returned, what has life here been for you and your family? You are a young couple with a young child.
DAY: The atmosphere is tenuous and tense, but the traditional celebration of life, the undercurrent, is flowing despite enormous hurdles. We are here because we love New Orleans more than any other place. Since the storm, I don't feel this is necessarily a lasting love affair. I am not depressed like a lot of people are. I am very busy. I am always reading the newspaper and trying sort through the infinite number of "planning" sites, I am talking to anyone who has an understanding of what is happening here. I also have a two year old to distract me. The rebuilding process is very big and very vague. The planning process is not yet settled, that's part of it, but there's a lot of discomfort and dispute over what is happening.
For a long time, we had our hopes set on the Road Home program, which was to allocate millions of dollars to help folks rebuild their homes and quiet much of the local angst. There are thousands and thousands of homes that are uninhabitable and some families have had to move back into the "home" as is—without proper mold treatment, without gas, without walls or furniture. Some people cannot go home at all, their houses are too far gone. Some are here without their families, sleeping on auntie's couch. The Road Home program has turned out to be a joke. For this and other reasons much of the housing from the lake to the lower nine and beyond is sitting empty. It's eerie. There are miles of no-mans land out there; lot's of space for foul play. But, we still have second-lines, never mind the outrageous increase in parading fees. Many good people have come home.
The real hardship is when it appears or when it is a fact that the federal government is working against the state government, and the state government is not working at all [End Page 1436] with the city leaders and everyone seems to be working mostly for immediate cash. This is heartbreaking. It's enraging [laughs]. So, we're always looking for ways to get involved and figure out what's going on.
ROWELL: You have mentioned problems with all levels of government—city, state, and federal governments. If you had the opportunity to address a group of US citizens and they wanted you to talk with them about the future of New Orleans, what would you tell them?
DAY: You know, I think I would invite various speakers. I would invite Oliver Houck, who works with the Tulane Environment Law Clinic and wrote "Can We Save New Orleans." You should read it, he covers everything you need to know about the lay of the land and water down here. I want him give the talk on the geographical layout, which is getting horrifically worse by the second.
In terms of the social and cultural history of New Orleans, the politicing, it goes up and down. We've had plagues here, we've had civil war here, we've had civil rights struggles here, we have had huge flooding before, we've had hurricanes before . . . So, who's to say this is as bad as it's ever been, it's ever going to get, or can it recover?
Here's the very disturbing fact and the reason I would like Oliver Houck to speak to the country and yet I...
