Lower Ninth Ward

Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. As the name implies, it is part of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industrial Canal; however, the City Planning Commission divides this area into the Lower Ninth Ward (2) and Holy Cross (3) neighborhoods.

The term "Lower" refers to its location farther towards the mouth of the Mississippi River, "down" or "below" the rest of the city in local geographic terminology. But the 9th Ward, like all Wards in New Orleans, is a voting district. The 9th Ward was added as a voting district in 1852. The "lower" 9th Ward is composed of Ward 9 Districts 1, 2, 4, and 7 which make up the Holy Cross Area and Ward 9 Districts 3, 5, 6, and 8. Higher voting district numbers in the 9th Ward (8-27) are on the upriver side of the Industrial Canal. The area came to national attention for its devastation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Geography

Excluding the industrial and swamp areas north of the Florida Canal, the neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward is about 1.25 mi (2.01 km) from east to west and 2 mi (3.2 km) from north to south. Three major avenues cross the developed portion of the neighborhood, each with bridges over the Industrial Canal. Closest to the River is St. Claude Avenue; about midway through the neighborhood is Claiborne Avenue; Florida Avenue crosses at the northern edge of the historically populated portion of the Lower 9th. Most major businesses serving the neighborhood are located on St. Claude or Claiborne, although a smattering of additional neighborhood business is located throughout the area. While the first two of these three avenues continue into St. Bernard Parish; a continuation of Florida Avenue through and beyond the parish line has been repeatedly proposed but at present does not exist.

Adjacent Neighborhoods

• Viavant/Venetian Isles (north)
• St. Bernard Parish (east)
• Holy Cross (south)
• Bywater (west)

Boundaries

The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of Lower Ninth Ward as these streets: Florida Avenue, St. Bernard Parish, St. Claude Avenue and the Industrial Canal.

The Lower Ninth Ward is also commonly used to describe a slightly larger area. This area borders the Mississippi River to the South and St. Bernard Parish to the east. To the west is the Industrial Canal, across which is the Bywater section of New Orleans. The northern or inland boundary is often given as the Florida Canal with Florida Avenue, a levee, and railroad tracks running beside it. Alternatively, the industrial area north of Florida Avenue is sometimes included as being part of the Lower 9th Ward, extending the boundary to the southern edge of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

History

In Louisiana's colonial era this was plantation land. The portion closer to the river was developed for residential use at the start of the 19th century at the same time as the Bywater area. In 1834 the United States Army established the Jackson Barracks here. As late as the 1870s the area behind St. Claude was still mostly small farms with scattered residences, and the area on the "woods" (away from the river) side of Claiborne mostly undeveloped cypress swamp.

What became the Lower 9th Ward did not become distinct from the parts of the 9th Ward just upriver until the Industrial Canal was dredged at the start of the 1920s, bisecting the 9th Ward. At this time, people started referring to the area "above" (up river) from the Canal as the "Upper" 9th Ward, and this area as the "Lower".

The Industrial Canal prompted development of the land farther back along the Canal, and provided steady work for labor in the area. As shipping became containerized in the later 20th century, demand for labor declined with negative economic consequences on the neighborhood.

Betsy

In 1965, Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans. A levee on the Industrial Canal collapsed, flooding much of the Lower 9th Ward.

President Lyndon B. Johnson visited the devastated flooded area shortly after the storm, and ordered aid for the storm victims.

Katrina

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Multiple breaches in the levees of at least four canals resulted in catastrophic flooding of the majority of the city; see Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.

Ruins of residential area in the Lower 9th Ward, with ING 4727 barge in the background

Persistent rumors allege that the levee was deliberately dynamited.

Nowhere in the city was the devastation greater than in the Lower 9th Ward, especially the portion from Claiborne Avenue back. Storm surge flood waters appear to have poured into the neighborhood from at least three sources. To the east, water flowed in from Saint Bernard Parish, while to the west the Industrial Canal suffered two distinct major breaches: one a block in from Florida Avenue, the second back from Claiborne Avenue. The force of the water did not merely flood homes, but smashed or knocked many off their foundations. A large barge, the ING 4727 (owned by the Ingram Barge Company) came into the neighborhood through the breach near Claiborne Avenue, leveling homes beneath it as it floated in the flood waters. Storm surge was so great that even the highest portions of the Lower 9th were flooded; Holy Cross School, which had served as a dry refuge after Hurricane Betsy, was inundated, and even the foot of the Mississippi River levee, the area's highest point, took on some 2 to 3 feet (0.91 m) of water.

In December 2005 Common Ground Collective volunteers gutted the first house in the area. From there volunteers and residents began gutting other houses in the community. Soon after Common Ground Collective opened the first distribution center in the area to provide returning residents with water, food and other necessities while there were no stores open in the area.

In January 2006, the great devastation and difficulties in restoring basic utilities and city services made the Lower 9th Ward the last portion of the city of New Orleans not officially reopened to residents who wished to return to live. It was the last area of the city still under a curfew half a year after the disaster. Officially residents were allowed in during daylight hours to look, salvage possessions, and leave, although some few had already done extensive work gutting and repairing their damaged homes in preparation to move back.

The most severely damaged section of the Ward is the lower elevation section, north of Claiborne Avenue. A Bring Back New Orleans Commission preliminary report suggested making this area in whole or part into park space. The suggestion is vehemently objected to by most Lower 9th Ward residents.

In March 2006 a group of residents and Common Ground Collective volunteers broke into Martin Luther King Elementary School to begin cleanup efforts. Not long after, the state school officials agreed to repair the school. The school has subsequently become a Recovery School District charter school and is running at full capacity. It is a rarity in that it has no management company. The school is operated by the faculty and administration. When asked about it Dr. Hicks, the school's long-time principal said "We didn't have a management company before and we don't need one now."

As of late 2006, a small number of local businesses in the area reopened and residents returned (many living in FEMA trailers). However, much of the area is still little-populated and in ruined condition. Work crews continue to remove debris and demolish unrepairable houses daily, but hundreds if not thousands are vacant and gutted. Many more buildings are still little touched since the waters were drained, with ruined possessions still inside severely damaged buildings.

File:Lower9thWardGraduate.jpg

Damaged photo in flood silt. Remains of ruined possessions were common on the streets of the Lower 9th Ward for months after the floodwaters had been drained.

In 2006, Mayor Ray Nagin threatened to use his powers of eminent domain to seize vacant severely damaged property in all of New Orleans that had not been gutted or scheduled to be gutted before early 2007. Such blighted property has been creating serious problems for returned New Orleanians, including infestations of rats and other vermin. Similar movements to seize abandoned blighted property are in effect in other parishes as well as Mississippi counties affected by the storm. However, as hundreds of thousands of locals are still waiting for promised insurance or Road Home money, many of the poor lack resources. The neighborhood has few stores and only a handful of schools reopened.

On December 3, 2007, The Make It Right project initiated a campaign, along with actor Brad Pitt, to rebuild 150 houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. The houses will be sustainable, earth-friendly, and on stilts to prevent later flood damage. Contrary to an oft-repeated yet incorrect notion, the homes being built by the Make It Right Foundation are not free. The homes are financed through a series of available resources: insurance and Road Home proceeds and SBA funding as well as low- to no-interest loans.

In the spring of 2008, Build Now, a local, non-profit homebuilder, began playing an active part in bringing New Orleans families back home. Build Now is a licensed and insured residential contractor that constructs site-built, stilt houses on hurricane-damaged lots. The homes reflect the style and quality of traditional New Orleans architecture. Build Now is in the process of bringing more than a dozen New Orleans families back home; 9 houses are currently under construction in the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward areas, Lakeview and Gentilly. The organization has moved 3 New Orleans families back home.

As of March 2009, hundreds of houses have been rebuilt and dozens of new homes have been constructed. While there is a long way to go residents are returning home. Volunteers continue to come to the area en masse working for dozens of organizations including Common Ground Relief, formerly Common Ground Collective, and lowernine.org, a grassroots organization that coordinates volunteers' and residents' efforts in rebuilding homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. As of February 2010, lowernine.org enabled 29 families to move back home to the Lower Ninth Ward.

Today residents and volunteers are striving to make the Lower Ninth Ward a sustainable community. They are working to restore the local wetlands. It is widely believed that were it not for extensive canal dredging for the purposes of commercial ventures, and the subsequent wetlands subsidence that the Lower Ninth Ward would not have suffered extensive flooding during Katrina.

Notable Residents and Buildings

The Doullut "steamboat houses" from the start of the 20th century are picturesque landmarks of the Holy Cross section of the Lower 9th Ward

The Lower Ninth Ward is also home to the Jackson Barracks. The barracks now serve as headquarters for the Louisiana National Guard, and had an extensive military museum in the old powder magazine and in a new annex, with a large collection of military items from every American war. The 2000 NRA Shooting Sports Camp and Coaches School was held at Jackson Barracks from June 28 – July 2, 2000.

The Doullut steamboat houses sit on either side of Egania Street in the Lower Ninth Ward at numbers 400 and 503. The first house, closer to the river, was built in 1905 by Captain Milton P. Doullut as his home. The second was built in 1913 for his son Paul. In 1977 both houses were designated historic landmarks. The houses have two notable design influences, the first being the steamboats of the period, the second being the Japanese exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition). Notably, Milton P. Doullut's wife was also a captain and is believed to be the first woman to have held a Mississippi riverboat pilot's license.

Major sections of the Mississippi River embankment along the Lower Ninth Ward and inside the Jackson Barracks were used for filming the 1994 film adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

Notable Lower 9th Ward residents include musician singer songwriter Fats Domino, NFL star Marshall Faulk, poet and author Kalamu ya Salaam, and rapper Magic.

The section on the River side of Saint Claude Avenue which developed as an urban area first is sometimes called the "Holy Cross Neighborhood" for Holy Cross High School, the large Catholic school there, which long drew students not only from the Lower 9th but from throughout the city.

See also

• New Orleans neighborhoods

External links

• Lower 9th Ward neighborhood snapshot dealing with the area in back of St. Claude Avenue
• Holy Cross neighborhood snapshot dealing with the area from St. Claude to the River
• Photographs of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath in the Lower Ninth Ward
• Holy Cross School closes
• Rebuilding the 9th Ward A Slideshow of photographic portraits and interview recordings of residents of the 9th Ward, focusing on the post-Katrina rebuilding process
• A People's Plan for Overcoming the Hurricane Katrina Blues Neighborhood recovery plan for the 9th Ward produced by the ACORN/University Partnership