Returning to Live in New Orleans - Page 2

--I honestly don't know. For one thing I look around and see all the destruction and I ask myself, "Do I want go through this again? Am I physically and emotional capable of doing this again?" It's not a matter of will it happen again but WHEN will it happen again. I have stayed in 3 states since fleeing the storm and with what I have seen on the television (the raping, killing and looting)I have been ashamed to call New Orleans my home. I just want to scream out, "Not all New Orleanians are this way."

--It is my home. I don't want to go anywhere else. But I have to make a living and have health insurance. I know I need to be patient, but I am muddled.

--We've found better schools and higher paying jobs and the majority of our friends are not returning.

--It's our responsibility as New Orleanians to rebuild the city. If we leave it up to others it will be just a hollow and soulless version of what it was.

--It's home, and where we belong. Our family is from Lakeview and love St Dominic and our parish.

--Of course I would return. And I encourage everyone to do the same. It is our home. It has given you Gumbo, Jazzfest, Mardi Gras, Second Lines, The French Quarters, Red Beans and Rice, The Essence Fest, Canal St., St. Charles Ave., Streetcars and countless attractions and good times. I know there were some low points in the city's past, but, we should work as a city to fix those issues. We now have a chance to start on a clean slate. We can have a bigger and better New Orleans. However, it won't be a reality if the people who make it what it is don't return.

--Yep! Already back on the WestBank!

--If the criminals, drug addicts, and underclass come back, then I'll stay away.
I'm in DC right now. Yeah, it has it's rough parts, but there's enough land to keep the good people separated from the bad ones.

--The people who say it's crazy to move back to a place below sea level, a place where there is the threat of catastrophe, don't you realize what a home means? When your entire family has lived somewhere for generations? People face the same risk of catastrophe, if not more, by living up and down the West Coast, in earthquake territory, yet we have no problem rebuilding again and again over the same faults. San Francisco and Los Angeles have both had their share of enormous destruction (San Francisco being wiped out in 1906) yet the city was rebuilt. Much of Hawaii is active volcano. New Orleans would've been safe, just like other cities around the world that are below sea level (Amsterdam, for example), if we had recieved the necessary funding to upkeep the levee system. President Bush cut flood funding in 2003. New Orleans is a poor city, it couldn't afford these repairs on its own. But the people of New Orleans love their city. It is unlike any in the United States. It has a history
unlike any other. It is the birthplace of jazz. It is the most European in all of America. I certainly understand why many of you don't want to come back, and I believe that's valid, out of fear, concern for one's safety; but it's an individual choice. New Orleans, however, must continue.

Article Author: Frank Waldron

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