New Project, New Orleans

I've settled in now at my new home here in NOLA, and finally had a good chance to have my thoughts and my internet capability come together.  We've been in town for about a week now, and I've been getting my impressions of the city down.  

First of all, this place is like none I've been to before.  My previous impressions from the Jazz fest were nothing compared to the town I've seen this week.  New Orleans is a very vibrant city trapped in an old, decrepit city's body.  The people are obviously very resilient but up until very recent were trapped in tradition.  An easily understandable thing, as many things in this town are old and proud of it. 

The city strikes me as being put together incredibly spontaneously, having been built what seems to be completely around the somewhat unpredictable Mississippi river.  None of the roads are in a North-South grid, but follow the crescent arch of the river.  This has made it interesting to get around for the first week, but our team has been getting used to it.  

The city also seems to be on a constant push-pull with nature.  In order to avoid being overwhelmed with water, though built below sea level, the city relies on pumps to constantly keep it from being flooded by the Mississippi.  The breakdown of these pumps during Katrina was the main cause of the levee breakage, though the water came in from Lake Ponchatrain and not the river. I know this is true in the case of NYC as well (if the pumps stop, the subways will flood), but NYC has always seemed stolid and unbreakable in the face of nature.  Maybe New Orleans' image just has a more realistic worldview in the grand scheme of things-- a very fragile but stubborn one.

 Beyond Man vs. Nature on a Weather Channel level, the city seems to have its individual battles too.  The live oaks that line the roads dig down and bow up every available stretch of sidewalk, making running an interesting task in the mornings.  The subtropical climate puts rust on the cast iron fences that line the houses in my neighborhood.  It makes ferns grow right off the brick buildings.  It gives a perfect environment for the cockroach friends that scurry down the sidewalk with me at night and come out to say hello from under the kitchen oven as I play cards.  The place just has an air of rotting fruit: joyful in it's gift of life, but slave to it's inevitable decay and rebirth.  It's no wonder that it's known as a hedonistic city.  You're constantly reminded of the impermanence of things and that you had better get living-- quick.  It is the birthplace of jazz and last holdout of legalized prostitution in the 20th century (that is, until Nevada brought it back).  This is just the impression that I've gotten thus far.

The stubbornness and being held back in tradition seems to be fading, as our project has been on the frontline of change.  My new project is working with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a non-profit that is environmental and socially conscious.  It works on three parts: as a home-owner legal advocate with the local energy company, keeping the utilities companies from being abusive to the little guy.  It works to spread education about energy conservation, both for bill-cutting and for curbing demand in the face of global environmental concerns.  It does this through its 'Build-Smart' center, an exhibit that shows low-energy alternatives to household tasks (lighting, water-heating, toilets, AC).  Recently (after Katrina) it has branched out as a service organization, providing homeowners free installation -- they just have to pay for the materials-- of energy-saving weatherization and installation of radiant barrier.  In other words, they go through people's houses and plug all the holes that might be around, and they install a sheet of reflective material (like the thing you put in your car windshield on a hot day) in the attics of homeowners.  This makes the cooling (and heating, though not as popular at this time of year) systems run more efficiently and use less energy.  

That is the condensed version of what we do, though it is much more complicated what my teammates and I are actually doing.  A few of us are working in youth development with a Green Corps team of local youth who work on the installations and weatherizations.  Much of their time has been spent this week helping them with resumes and writing and less so on the actual 'Greening' of houses.  Other people are helping with office management, or getting our 'for profit' branch off the ground.  Personally, I've been working on the curriculum for another youth development project starting next week.  This group is 15-17 (instead of the 18-24 of Green Corps) and will be doing service projects and learning about environmental and energy issues for five weeks.  The program's got a long way to go in a short time, so wish me luck.

Other than that, nothing much more to share.  Got a few resumes in for the AmeriCorps programs I'm interested in in Oregon and am keeping my eyes open for more back-up plans.  I've been reading a lot more, as our housing has no furniture and no TV.  Read a great book called 'Reclaiming Youth At Risk: Our Hope for the Future.'  If you're at all interested in youth development (something I am very new to, if you remember my consternation working at the elementary school) this one is very enlightening and easy to read.  I'm open to any suggestions for new reading, if anyone would like to trade advice. Poetry, novels, sci-fi, essays, short stories, it's all open for business (except maybe fantasy).