Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina
Walter Isaacson (the author of the Steve Jobs biography) wrote in the foreword that this book is "Every bit as gripping and important as tales from the storm itself."
Well, it is not all that "gripping"so I wonder if Mr. Isaacson actually read it.
Wooten tells of the aftermath of Katrina in five New Orleans' neighborhoods and how the people who lived in them took charge in determining their futures. These neighborhoods were Village de l'Est, Hollygrove, Lakeview, Broadmoor and The Lower Ninth Ward.
I did have trouble keeping all the characters in their proper places, but this book tells of the many outstanding men and women who worked continuously for months and even years to rebuild their own neighborhoods. They often had to fight for the "right of self-determination" as various agencies and political entities worked to put different plans in place.
These folks helped their neighbors, organized endlessly and formulated plans specific to their unique needs.
One of them, Pam Dashiell, said, "I believe that the people of Lower Nine, and the people of Lakeview, and the people of every other neighborhood need to be absolutely involved and made aware of what's going on in this process....It seems that some of the commissioners are the folks who were running things before--and who perhaps didn't run them as well as they could have."
I would have told the story of one neighborhood at a time. There was too much going back and forth and places, names and the progress made in different venues got confusing. But, perhaps, reading it sporadically for several weeks as I did accounted for some of that. And, I wish the author had included photographs and better and more detailed maps.
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