Anyone from New Orleans should be familiar with a particular part of the city which rests comfortably in between Downtown/Mid-city and the East, this part is known as Gentilly. Gentilly is largely comprised of quiet neighborhoods filled with middle to upper middle class African-American inhabitants. This is the part of the city that contains most of New Orleans’ Creole population. It’s that part of the city that if you didn’t live in, your grandparents did. A stroll underneath the trees on Elysian Fields Avenue pre-Katrina would garner you a quiet walk where everyone who sat on their porch waved to say hello and asked about your family.

The houses were neatly kept no matter how big or small and it almost seemed to be a requirement that all the residents have a garden near their front door. Post-Katrina Gentilly is far different. Vacant houses in various stages of repair or disrepair dominate the neighborhoods. Every so often there is a sprinkling of a few lucky residents who were able to return and have the unofficial   New Orleans lawn furniture (also known as a FEMA trailer) blocking street motorists’ views of the front doors.

The lack of FEMA trailers is not the most surprising aspect of the area, the most eyebrow raising detail about these neighborhoods are the multitude of  “For Sale” signs on front lawns. Why is this class of our city being shut-out?

Perhaps these former N.O.L.A. residents have found their cities of evacuation to be more inviting and more fitting to the lifestyle they have chosen. Perhaps these previous Gentillians are afraid to move back to the city due to fears of a repeat of Aug. 29, 2005. Even though this area was mostly comprised of home-owners before the storm, perhaps the reason behind their absenteeism is they were the group most hurt by insurance agencies and therefore cannot afford to return.

A common sentiment among many current and former New Orleanians is that insurance companies have chosen to not compensate them properly or at all in some cases which has caused a large group of middle class residents to be shut out of the rebuilding process. It is unimaginable to pay on a homeowners insurance policy and a flood insurance policy for ten, or twenty, or fifty years and never once turn in your payment late. Then when you suffer from the most devastating natural disaster in recorded American history, these companies tell you they won’t pay you because the damage done to your property was a result of the levee breakage and not the hurricane or that you will only be receiving 10% of your policy’s worth due to the fact that only 10% of the damage was actually done by the storm. So these inhabitants are left with few options, most of them have chosen to sell the properties that they previously owned which may have been in their families for generations.

A great percentage of them were out of work for a long time after the storm and due to uncertainty about their living situation, they have not been able to find work. Some of them have opted to move to less expensive parts of the city and many of them have chosen not to return at all.  The other disheartening part of this whole equation is that the rich white neighborhoods of New Orleans have returned with no problem along with the poorest black neighborhoods. The Garden District as well as the Iberville Housing Projects are both beaming with life or so it seems like to me.

Why is our middle class being cut out?  It is my wish that the governing bodies of the city do realize what the loss of this class of people will do to the economy and culture of New Orleans as a whole. This group could be dubbed as the “heart of Black New Orleans”. I think we all know what happens to a body when the heart is removed.  

Bri would like to hear what you think is the reason why this group of N.O. residents is being given the axe, and our upper and lower classes are able to return with little to no obstacles?

Contact Bri at  BAllen-Trufant@b-now.com