The title of this post is the title of an article in The Nation written by the urban theorist and sociologist Mike Davis, and in it, the radical writer of Planet of Slums exposes the current reality of a "rebuilding" New Orleans. In it, he writes, "In greater New Orleans about 125,000 homes remain damaged and unoccupied, a vast ghost city that rots in darkness while les bon temps return to a guilty strip of unflooded and mostly affluent neighborhoods near the river. Such a large portion of the black population is gone that some radio stations are now switching their formats from funk and rap to soft rock."
What has happened? It seems that, as usual, a predominantly black city has been left to rot by a Republican administration, and subcontractors and investors have swooped into salvage and exploit the disaster. Davis' expose is a tough pill to swallow. Take a few minutes to read about what is happening in a national treasure.
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