Many years ago, to earn money while in college, I took a part time job selling Cutco knives. I learned two valuable lessons from that job: focus on the customer's needs and stay upbeat. Along those lines, I'd like to share some bright spots in the New Orleans recovery after Katrina.

Although some people far from New Orleans think otherwise, the floodwaters caused by the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina were pumped out over a year ago. Since the storm, President Bush and a long line of other leaders and dignataries from around the world have toured the devastation and promised help. Billions have been allocated for the reconstruction and many individuals from across the nation have come to New Orleans on their own nickel to volunteer. Additionally, fine people throughout the nation have helped Katrina evacuees find housing, clothing, home furnishings, food and more in their own communities. Indeed, with hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians displaced to this day, those volunteer efforts continue nationwide.

The five story high debris piles that stood in places like the wide, grassy West End median are gone. More stop lights are working, the streetcars are back on a segment of their historic route and the electrical outages are less frequent. Many tourists are coming to town soon for New Years, the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras. A movie studio (LIFT) is being built just outside the French Quarter, private investors are proposing new housing developments all over the city and a handful of the 90,000 homeowners that applied for money from the $7.5 billion Road Home program have received checks.

Without a doubt, all this is great news; however, the road to New Orleans' recovery will take years if not a decade. Whole neighborhoods are ghost towns of empty, gutted structures. Major storm related issues such as a much greater cost of living, scaled back city services, continued utility outages, etc. are tying the hands of regular folks that just want to return home.

With so many emergencies to manage, the City of New Orleans has little time to spend on quality of life issues like parks; yet, with few places for kids to burn off energy and so many residents suffering from depression and anxiety, the need for green space is high. There is a group working to create a linear park through several of the most flooded neighborhoods. The group is called FOLC, the Friends of the Lafitte Corridor.

FOLC is a grass roots, 501 (c)3 non-profit organization cobbled together by regular folks to breathe life back into historic New Orleans neighborhoods like Treme and Mid City via the creation of a linear park through the Lafitte Corridor. Stretching from the French Quarter to Bayou St. John, the Lafitte Corridor was first known as the Carondolet Canal, a ditch dug by the Spanish in the 1600's to enable commercial goods to get to New Orleans without need for sailing 50+ miles up the Mississippi River. Eventually, the canal was covered and a railway was built along the corridor. Decades ago, the railroad stopped using much of the corridor and the tracks were ripped up last year.

The city's master transportation plan calls for the corridor to become a bike trail and over $400,000 is available now for the project. Unfortunately, city officials are busy concentrating on more pressing, major emergencies. City Hall has also been pressured by private investment groups to sell portions of the land. If this occurs, the land will be broken up forever.

Last week, I was elected to serve on FOLC's board of directors (a volunteer/no pay position). I have vowed to do all in my power to see the project to completion. We'll soon be adding a PayPal donation button to the FOLC website and are planning a fundraiser too. If you can donate money or time to this project, great. If not, please tell others that New Orleans is rebuilding and let them know about what "FOLC's" in the Big Easy are doing. We may be known as the City that Care Forgot but New Orleans IS a cultural treasure worth saving for generations to come.

Labels: Katrina, New Orleans, recovery