NEW ORLEANS -- Turn off Claiborne Avenue onto Gordon Street in the Lower 9th Ward, and you can immediately see a series of problems that are making residents feel like forgotten citizens.
"Abandoned, actually," Beatrix Boyd said. "I mean, we already been abandoned with being across the Industrial Canal. It is the city that care forgot, but the Lower 9 has really been forgotten."
Problems include a number of badly overgrown lots, and behind the overgrowth in one case is an abandoned, deteriorating house. There are deep potholes filled with water.
"My daughter just had to replace two tires," Boyd said. "I had to replace two tires the other week, and its horrible."
One house burned several weeks ago, but nothing has been done about broading it up, even though it is owned by the Housing Authority. There are even two broken drains.
"There's a catch basin that if its raining, if its dark, you don't know the lid is missing. They put a cone up," Boyd said.
Neighbor Wesley Hall is so grateful to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance volunteers, because their Project Homecoming is completing his home, ending years of post-Katrina misery.
"For a while that's all I had to do was cry," Hall said, "but God done uplifted me, and blessed me. I am very, very excited."
But with his home surrounded by overgrown properties, he is still a worried man.
"You hear noises you don't know what's going on behind you," Hall said.
"With us having that grass," Boyd added, "if there's a stranger or predator around, we can't even see them or identify them, because they can hide in the grass. Oh, wow, I've sent several e-mails, several."
Boyd started sending e-mail to city officials almost three weeks ago, so I was surprised when I finally got the chance to come out here to see just how little had been done. So I began sending my own e-mails to find out when they would take action.
Things began changing quickly. An environmental health inspector cited properties for high grass and debris, a Sewerage & Water Board spokesman said a problem will be fixed next week, Public Works promised to repair one broken drain and fix the other when funds are available, and a HANO spokesman said the burned house will be torn down.
"Well that's a blessing," a smiling Beatrix Boyd concluded. "That's a blessing actually, and I hope it's not just for show, but actually to get the issues resolved."
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