New Orleans has been busy reinventing itself as a post-Katrina tourist Mecca. But scarce attention has been paid to an invisible wall cutting across the city. Way beyond the renewed glitz of the French Quarter and downtown casinos the true post-Katrina story is actually told by homeless people living in a tent city under a flyover, or by struggling families trying to rebuild their homes and their lives in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Transcript

PEPE ESCOBAR, ANALYST, THE REAL NEWS NETWORK: Iraq? Somalia? Afghanistan? No, this is the United States of America, ground zero, desolation row, lower ninth ward, New Orleans. Much has been said, talked about, and spun about Katrina. We're going to find the real story told by real people, Katrina survivors who are trying to get their life back on track.

~~~

MAN 1: [inaudible] and that we have to live like this because they don't care about us. And to tell you the truth, it's disgusting. Everything in this neighborhood is a low-income area. They've turned these houses from $350 a month to $1,100 and $1,200 a month. The economy here is two decades behind the times, but they anticipate on you paying $1,200 a month making $6.75 an hour. How are you going to do that? You can't. And the more the federal government think about it, they don't care nothing about it [inaudible] and they're going to turn this city into a big tourist attraction. You know. And they fail to realize or they neglect to care about it's the poor people that keeps them rich, because if the poor people spend their money, they spend it with them. Tourists only come at certain times of year. Tourism's big. But after that, what you going to do then? So if you don't think about the people that's in your city that pay taxes, that patronize, that live every day [inaudible]

ESCOBAR: What would you need personally to get your life back on track?

MAN 1: A job.

ESCOBAR: Why you cannot find a job?

MAN 1: Because here in the city, most of the jobs are being taken by the Mexicans that are here, because they can pay cheap labor, and they can stay in the houses when they work on them. So a lot of builders people, that's the best thing that could ever happen to them, but to us it's the worst thing. But I don't fault the Mexicans, because they're good people; but what I do fault is the people that hire them.

~~~

ESCOBAR: Unlike many of your neighbors around here, you have decided to stay in the ward and rebuild your own house. Why?

MAN 2: Well, basically it's because we have generations, and all we ever known to call home was this place. You see what I'm saying? We had a lot of private enterprise with interest in the area for casinos and river resorts, you know, and some home owners sold out, and some didn't. You know. And so a lot of the money's really from some of the homeowners that decided to come back. It was the insurance money, the money [inaudible] gave. Well, the basic's supposed to be $150,000 if you have insurance. $150,000 to rebuild, you know, four generations of your life was just—I mean, it's just—you couldn't imagine. That's not enough money. You know. But the government did like this: "Take it or leave it." President Bush's mama got on the TV and said, "Well, $150,000 per unit? That's fine. They was poor people anyway." I mean, God damn, man. We pay taxes, we're citizens, and we're human beings. And I lost plenty of friends. The guy around the corner, his daughter drowned. Just a whole bunch of people. You know. And for them to treat us like that, it really put us in a third-world status. You know. But it's their world, man. You know? A lot of the renters, the people that was renters here, moved to other states, and they found out that they had better school systems for their children, better hospital situations for the children. But elderly had better. You see? And it just seemed like the further down south you get, the worse it get. A lot of people chose not to come back, because where they were was probably the best place they ever been. I am concerned. You know, I really wish that they would get this war [inaudible] over with. You know what I'm saying? I don't understand. You know, diesel is $4.19 a gallon. Gas is $4 a gallon. That's because our president is a gasman, the vice president is a gas—they own oil companies, gas companies. You see what I'm saying? And then they go over there and create a problem with Saddam Hussein, saying that he had mass weapons. They didn't find no weapons. They killed his whole family and took his gas. You see what I'm saying? Oh, come on, man. You don't think we have enough of this? Now, this is what I want to know. One of my sons right over here did two terms in Iraq. When on the second term he got into an accident, they blew him up. He just had superficial wounds. Okay? Now, if you've got a problem with somebody, get off your lazy ass—you go fight him. Them people didn't do us nothing. We don't know nothing about them. You know what I'm saying? You get all pissed off behind the seat, but then you take and send my sons and my daughters out there to get killed. We don't want that, man.

~~~

WOMAN: You know, this is where we grown from. You know. And we deserve everything about it. You know. So we don't want to give it away. You know. Why? If we stood here all these years and made this foundation for ourselves, why should we let it be taken? You know, you got to take a stand, but, I mean, we need us some help and assistance with that. I mean, you can't do it alone. It's been over—what?—two and a half, three years, and we still haven't came about, you know, we haven't accomplished anything. You know, they're telling us, giving us an option to come back to rebuild, but there's still no assistance with it. You know, you really have to start by yourself. I mean, I've been down here working, you know, myself, trying to get things together, but it's definitely hard, you know. And me having kids, and not just one kid, you know, so I have a lot of mouths to actually feed, still clothe, and make a living. It's hard. And it took me maybe, like, six months to find employment. So just to be here with no income, that was so rough, 'cause, I mean, assistance from anyone is not being given. I mean, Catholic charities, they try, but it's so many people they're trying to accommodate, and it's hard.

~~~

MAN 2: Well, remember they was talking about they were shooting at the helicopters?

ESCOBAR: Yes.

MAN 2: This is why. You're on your rooftop with your family, and every helicopter and boat is passing this Ninth Ward, shooting down to St. Bernard Parish, getting those people. Three days. Three days.

WOMAN: People [inaudible] in water on top of the roof—

MAN 2: On top of their roofs.

WOMAN: —with their families

MAN 2: It's sad. Three days. One buddy of mine, he was on the rooftop with his mother—she's got Alzheimer's—and his two grandbabies. The house split. One baby fall, and his mama fall. You heard me? You know how long it took them people to get his mom out of the house? Over eight months. When they went to the house and got his mama, they found her behind something, just a skeleton in her clothes. Eight months. I understand, you know, everybody's life is important, but don't treat us like shit. And we started seeing helicopters flying down there, boats flying down there, getting them people, when you can start right here, you've got some people. Their lives wasn't worth no more than our lives. You see, a lot of things they do, when they do it to the poor people, they can hide it because they have power to hide it. But this they couldn't hide.

WOMAN: It's too big, big of a deal.

MAN 2: They couldn't hide. They couldn't hide.

DISCLAIMER:

Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.