New Orleanians: Obama’s visit too zippy
Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:55 AM
By Charles Hadlock, NBC News Producer
NEW ORLEANS – President Barack Obama will be in New Orleans for less than 3 hours and 45 minutes. In this town known for its spicy gourmet food, some dinners last longer than that.
Many New Orleans residents – still weary from the effects of Katrina four years on – are grateful that the presidential spotlight will shine in the city, however briefly.
During his short time here, Obama will visit the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School. It’s the only school to reopen in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, an area inundated with water and black mud when the Industrial Canal failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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| Judi Bottoni / AP |
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Two neighboring homes in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward are shown in a photo taken on Wednesday, a day before Obama's visit. |
The school is a gleaming example of some of the recovery under way, but if the president were to walk a few blocks from the school, he might meet Antonio Green, who was one of the first residents to rebuild in the Ninth Ward.
Green would tell the president that not much has changed on his street since he took office.
"They’re not helping people around here. As you can see, the neighborhood is still bad," Green said, pointing to an empty, rotting house across the street.
He said his neighborhood is devoid of everyday life. "We just have abandoned houses and vacant lots. It’s like we’re stuck at the bottom with no help."
And if the president was there just a little longer, he might pass some time sitting on the front porch of Yvonne Johnson’s home, just down the street from the MLK school. "The Lower Ninth Ward seems to be like another country," said Johnson, a 73-year-old retiree. "[Obama] would have to stay here a month or so to really see enough. He can’t possibly stay down here long enough to see everything that we would want him to see."
After a short town-hall style meeting with a pre-selected audience at the University of New Orleans, the president will step aboard Air Force One to head out to San Francisco for a fundraising trip. He won’t even have time to stop for a relaxing meal in New Orleans.
