Having only spent a limited time working in the city, it is astounding to me how much the city rallies around the Saints. The organization gives so much to the greater Gulf Coast, whether its extensive community outreach or a great Sunday of football. I believe this Superbowl championship will have a profound affect on the area; the heart of the city really is in the Super-Dome.

I have not really followed football very much since I was a kid (when the Colts were in Baltimore!!!) but I watched this game. It WAS a fast game, and the Saints had a great second half…I wanted them to win (at first, it didn’t seem like it was going to happen, as the Colts’ defense just didn’t seem like they were going to let it happen). The onside kick was brilliant! And the second half was the Saints to have…New Orleans needed that psychological boost.

As a volunteer from Buffalo, who has helped in rebuilding efforts the Saints win was a joyous celebration of the strength and tenacity of the people of New Orleans. But I also realize the tremendous recovery efforts that are ongoing. This summer I worked in the Lower 9th with All Souls Episcopal Church hanging drywall. The building a former Walgreens was a base for the Episcopal Church where relief supplies were handed out for years following Katrina. The corners of St. Claude Ave and Flood St. became hallowed ground and a natural place to build a church and community center. In a sense All Souls has tried to fill in the gaps left by the empty store fronts, helping to work on homes,supplying necessities, and opportunities young people wouldn’t otherwise have had. All souls has a deep understanding of what is needed to keep kids off the street as well as how to help them grow as faithful people.

I wish I was with ya’ll to celebrate!

Tom,

Hard to get through on phone, especially at work. But I really wanted to comment. Grew up outside of Boston, moved here out of college in early 80′s. All my family lives in Boston, I visit at least twice a year, keep up with what’s going on there. That’s just background, here’s what I want to say:

1. Saints will do for N.O. what Sox ’04 World Series victory did for Boston, i.e., change the self-perception from losers, whether hard-luck or lovable, to one of confidence.

2. Saints more important to N.O. than Sox to Boston in this way: Boston has many more unifying institutions that everyone feels part of. N.O. does not have so many, although it does have its music and culinary traditions that are somewhat shared. But N.O. needs more than Saints to unify around.

3. Damage to city is still very extensive and evident. I live in Gentilly, just about halfway between rive and lake pontchartrain. 24 houses on my block, 20 completely repaired and inhabited. But within half a mile north, east, and west of my street are many blocks with more than 50% or even 70% vacant houses or empty lots due to Katrina. These were solid middle class neighborhoods before Katrina. Whenever I have a chance to show out-of-towners these areas.

One caution: PR message that N.O. is viable and investment-worthy is valid and important, but by no means is the recovery process over.

I’m now in Boston (post-Katrina), but as a lifetime resident of New Orleans I don’t know if the significance of this game can be fully appreciated by the rest of the world. It’s indescribable. I don’t follow much football, but this is about so much more than the game.

The election of Mitch Landrieu as Mayor, to replace the ineffective Ray Nagin, is almost as big an event in my book. If good things happen in 3′s (as is often said of bad things), I can’t wait to see what the next good thing will be.

HOW can we get a DEDICATED ORGANIZATION for the man who called from Omaha and for other Katrina/New Orleanians who are in Nebraska.

There are SO many people in this diaspora, but could we start with this gentleman & the people he knows of in Omaha. HOW can we get them funding of all types that would: 1) take an inventory of the skills & abilities of this group; 2) take an inventory of what skills the individuals in this group need to learn to plan, design, and build neighborhoods in New Orleans (that, if not in the exact same, potentially dangerous land area of the city, could, nevertheless, be a geographic area with similar proximity to the city, and which would be FIRST for the very people who were neighbors in the past); 3) take an inventory within the host city of Omaha & the host state of Nebraska to see who could be employed to teach these skills; get federal money to allow the Katrina/New Orleanians in Nebraska to get temporary housing IN NEW ORLEANS while they begin the work of re-building their old neighborhood (if it is possible) or of building the neighborhood they planned & designed.

Not only would the New Orleanians have new skills, but their former skills would be taken into account and used purposefully within the plan for & building of their new home neighborhood. In other words, if someone were a fabulous, artistic plasterer (I got that idea from a TV show about a real man), the homes would HAVE gorgeous plaster designs (they would NOT be considered too expensive). If someone was a fantastic musician (and you know there will be many!), they would be employed to play live music while people worked (maybe not during noisy carpentry, but definitely during dreary-dull painting jobs!). Everyone who knew HOW to do something would also have apprentices AND also teach more broadly to little kids & adults so that everyone would see how things were done, possibly giving them insights into how their own lives & work might develop over time. By the way, the people from Nebraska who knew how…& then taught their skill, would possibly be learning…how to teach! Those individuals in the diaspora would have a guiding light within themselves & within their experiences that would have a designated weight within this whole thing. We would want to offer help, not to hijack people who had already been displaced.

IF we could do this for just this ONE group of people, just because this gentleman called into the show, other sponsor groups could do something similar for others in the diaspora. Perhaps IF there is already a comprehensive list of those in the diaspora (names, current places, do they want to return, do they want to return to their same neighborhood), then this could be done with more organization & less chance of missing out on people. If there is no list, perhaps a group could do that work (that would probably be best headed up by someone from N.O.). So, yes, there might be an arbitrary quality to the fact that we started with this group of people, but if we started, it could build, and other groups would follow.

I have never been an organizer type of person; I’m better at brain storming. But, I wonder, by my putting this idea OUT THERE, can anyone else contribute so that we actually get people back to New Orleans, back to their network of family & friends & neighbors, back with their skills & contributions recognized as an integral part of their city, but loaded with new skills, new & safer dwellings, community places, etc., etc.

I would much prefer that we spent our money on projects like this to develop our economies than to go on with Capitalism the way it has been going. At its most benevolent, investment is supposed to help people start projects. At its most evil, it is money betting on money going up or going down. Just lower on the evil-scale than that is money making money off of excessively high interest that is owed, rather than on the purchase price (especially when the banks themselves can borrow at record LOW interest rates from the Fed!). Can we take America back in this way? We WOULD need government help at some points, but a lot of this inkling of an idea I’ve put out is about people with skills having jobs paid for by fund-raised money AND federal money to help others learn those skills; the people learning would be paid in the same way. Meanwhile, the people without those skills might know about something else entirely and/or be able to see about the skill set that the person with the skills has been unable to see because the skill was too easy for them, and thus, they were blind to some of the alternative methods and/or uses for the skill. THIS would be true investment: reciprocity, sharing, giving and thanking. And, at the same time that I would hope that the Investment Class would be more benevolent in their thinking, I would hope that the unions would not say that some part of this project belongs to their domain alone. People in New Orleans & in its diaspora, and America’s poor NEED our help, and that means they need MORE than just an occasional check from us. I believe that Habitat for Humanity and other groups, some spearheaded by individuals, ARE doing some wonderful work in New Orleans, but there needs to be even more work done, and, as this man has said, he feels the people in the diaspora have been forgotten.

I have metastatic cancer, so I don’t know how much help I can be, but I would like to send this idea out there.

I have lived in New Orleans/Metairie 2 different times over the last 25 years. As luck or fate would have it we left NOLA in July 2005. I dearly love the town but lets be clear, it was a third-world city pre-diluvian; education less than second class, high crime rate, lack of infrastructure, rampant bigotry and racism, accepted corruption at all levels of government and no leaders willing to address any of the real issues.

The mighty Mississippi River doesn’t even want to be there. It has unnaturally been diverted from the Atchafalaya Basin thanks to the Corp of Engineers. I would have to say it is not a place to re-build a great city.

With all due respect, is the lower 9th ward really an area that should be built back up. It is below, or close to sea level and I am sure at risk of another hurricane. Maybe the area should be made a wetland and allowed to be reclaimed by nature. When you live under the volcano, you are going to get lava in your back yard. I know these displaced people need somewhere to go, but is the lower 9th ward the best place.

GRAND JURY INVESTIGATION OF NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPTARTMENT IS LAUNCHED: Law enforcement officials from Gretna prevented the evacuees, most of them black, from crossing a Mississippi River bridge into the predominantly white suburb. [Los Angeles Times, 8/4/06]

I have the deepest sympathy for the people of New Orleans and I hope that this win gives them hope and inspiration to keep rebuilding their city. Listening to the segment, I have heard so many needs that still need to be addressed 5 years after Katrina (schools, hospitals, roads, sewage systems), but what of the fact that another hurricane could be down the road? What if anything is being done to better prepare this region for future storms?

I would like to know if On Point is actually broadcast on WWNO in New Orleans. Do they get your show? How would I find that out? I have many friends and relatives down there who would love to listen to it on their radios.

As a NOLA native I enjoyed today’s show. Thank you!