I woke up early this morning; my bike rental was going to end at noon. My destination was the 9th ward. The 9th ward was the area most destroyed by Katrina. I wasn't too sure what I was going to find. You have to ride over a bridge to cross a canal that dumps into the Mississippi River. Once across the bridge, the 1st house I saw was pockmarked with gunshots. It was not going to be pretty, I thought.
It wasn't as bad as I imagined. There were definitely some pretty bad looking houses. I'll admit, this was an area that I had no interest in checking out the insides of these houses. I haven't gone into any abandoned houses in New Orleans. You still see alot of Katrina markings.
Houses would be checked and an X was spray painted on the front of the house. The north quadrant would have the date the house was checked, east would identify who was there, west would identify if there were animals, and south would identify entry or no entry (or some version of this). In some neighbouhoods, they just knocked on the door.
I rode around and I saw people mowing lawns, sitting on porches, walking around, ,fixing cars. I said hello to anyone I passed and kept on riding. I rode past a dead dog, which was pretty grim. I don't think it had been there long. When I noticed the car with the blacked out windows more than once, I figured my holiday in the 9th ward was over.
It's a poor neighborhood, but I saw a transit bus. No businesses seem to be open, but people were there and living and trying to rebuild. I hope New Orleans makes it.
It wasn't as bad as I imagined. There were definitely some pretty bad looking houses. I'll admit, this was an area that I had no interest in checking out the insides of these houses. I haven't gone into any abandoned houses in New Orleans. You still see alot of Katrina markings.
Houses would be checked and an X was spray painted on the front of the house. The north quadrant would have the date the house was checked, east would identify who was there, west would identify if there were animals, and south would identify entry or no entry (or some version of this). In some neighbouhoods, they just knocked on the door.
I rode around and I saw people mowing lawns, sitting on porches, walking around, ,fixing cars. I said hello to anyone I passed and kept on riding. I rode past a dead dog, which was pretty grim. I don't think it had been there long. When I noticed the car with the blacked out windows more than once, I figured my holiday in the 9th ward was over.
It's a poor neighborhood, but I saw a transit bus. No businesses seem to be open, but people were there and living and trying to rebuild. I hope New Orleans makes it.
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