| It is likely to be the largest demolition of a community in | | | | of Historic Places covering half the city, has the highest |
| modern U.S. history -- destruction begun by hurricanes | | | | concentration of historic structures in the nation. That |
| Katrina and Rita and finished by heavy machinery. A | | | | includes the Lower Ninth's Holy Cross section, with its |
| neighborhood tucked into a deep depression between | | | | shotgun houses and gems such as the Jackson |
| two canals, railroad tracks and the Mississippi River, | | | | Barracks, the Doullut Steamboat Houses and St. |
| New Orleans's Lower Ninth has spent more of the | | | | Maurice Church.Although it is less than two miles |
| past five weeks underwater than dry. Entire houses | | | | northeast of the French Quarter, the Lower Ninth |
| knocked off foundations. Barbershops and corner | | | | Ward is far removed from the money and clout |
| groceries flattened. Cars tossed inside living rooms. | | | | pulsating through downtown. From the high ground |
| What remains is coated in muck -- a crusty layer of | | | | along the banks of the Mississippi River, the ward |
| canal water, sewage and dirt. Mold is rapidly devouring | | | | gradually slopes down. Closest to the river, the flood |
| interiors.The question now is whether the Lower Ninth | | | | was five or six or seven feet deep; farther down into |
| Ward, which was devastated 40 years ago by | | | | the neighborhood -- away from the river -- the water |
| Hurricane Betsy, should be resuscitated again. The | | | | lapped at rooftops.Originally a cypress swamp, the |
| debate, as fervent as any facing post-hurricane New | | | | community of 20,000 is overwhelmingly black; more |
| Orleans, will test this city's mettle and is sure to expose | | | | than one-third of residents live below the poverty line, |
| tensions over race, poverty and political power. The | | | | according to the 2000 census. The people of the |
| people willing to let the Lower Ninth fade away hew to | | | | Lower Ninth are the maids, bellhops and busboys who |
| a pragmatist's bottom line; the ones who want it to | | | | care for New Orleans tourists. They are also the |
| stay talk of culture and tradition.The flooded sections | | | | clerks and cops now helping to get the city back on its |
| "should not be put back in the real estate market," said | | | | feet. The ward is home to carpenters, sculptors, |
| Craig E. Colten, a geography professor at Louisiana | | | | musicians and retirees. Fats Domino still has a house in |
| State University. "I realize it will be an insult [to former | | | | the Lower Ninth. Kermit Ruffins -- a quintessential New |
| residents], but it would be a far bigger insult to put them | | | | Orleanian trumpeter whose band likes to grill up some |
| back in harm's way."The notion is not without | | | | barbecue between sets -- attended local schools. |
| precedent. In the 1800s, cities such as New York, | | | | About half the houses are rentals.Yet even some |
| Boston and Chicago rebuilt on filled-in marsh. More | | | | liberal activists, people who have worked to buoy the |
| recently, the federal government has paid to relocate | | | | fortunes of the Lower Ninth, are beginning to talk |
| homes destroyed by the Mississippi River floods of | | | | favorably about clearing it away -- if residents are well |
| 1993; the Northridge, Calif., earthquake; and the Love | | | | compensated and given suitable housing elsewhere.But |
| Canal environmental disaster in Upstate New York.Of | | | | scraping away the Lower Ninth would most certainly |
| the 160,000 buildings in Louisiana declared | | | | change the already delicate equations of racial and |
| "uninhabitable" after Katrina, a majority are in the New | | | | economic politics in one of America's poorest cities, a |
| Orleans neighborhoods that suffered extensive | | | | city that was 67 percent black but is likely to have a |
| flooding. Mayor C. Ray Nagin, an African American | | | | smaller black majority once it is resettled. LSU's Colten |
| who worked in the private sector before entering | | | | fears middle-class Gentilly and wealthy Lakeview -- |
| politics, has spelled out plans to reopen every section | | | | just as prone to severe flooding -- will nevertheless be |
| of the city -- except the Lower Ninth. Housing and | | | | rebuilt, while the Lower Ninth is abandoned.The |
| Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told | | | | temptation will be to "open up spaces where there has |
| the Houston Chronicle he has advised Nagin that "it | | | | been a lot of poverty," similar to the urban renewal |
| would be a mistake to rebuild the Ninth Ward."Historic | | | | projects of the 1960s, he said: "Those were seen as a |
| preservation advocates fear that the city will capitalize | | | | way of cleansing a problem. It didn't eliminate poverty; it |
| on a program run by the Federal Emergency | | | | just moved it."Written for |
| Management Agency that pays to tear down | | | | By James Christensen |
| damaged buildings but not to repair historic private | | | | Real Estate Expert and educator. Our training site |
| properties. | | | | offers a valuable service to individuals looking to get |
| New Orleans, with 20 districts on the National Register | | | | into the Real Estate industry. |