“Unique” is a word that is best used to describe New Orleans. The mix iof cultures, the musical and artistic history, and it’s location created a city and a people that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Hurricane Katrina exposed the segregation based on race and income that exists within the city. The day the levees broke, the Census Bureau released a report on the nation’s poverty. Not only did African-Americans make up 84% of the population below the poverty level in New Orleans, but the pockets of the population living in poverty were incredibly concentrated. The mood in New Orleans is palpable. The continuation of the extreme poverty and the pace of the recovery effort has moved the city from seeming “punch drunk” a year after Katrina, to the rage that can be felt bubbling just below the surface. That rage saw four people killed during the 2008 Mardi Gras celebration.
