Friday, March 20, 2009

Google Earth Map


Mia Backon entry 6

Entry 6: What sort of urban form is this? Based on what you see, what characterizes social relationships here? What sorts of relationships are encouraged/discouraged by this urban landscape? What are major centers for community activity, if any?

When I met the two people (Wally and Kathy) at the bar we discussed a wide variety of information about Algiers. I asked them about the kind of people that lived in Algiers, and if there was a strong and/or visible ethnic mix. Both of them responded saying that in Algiers everyone is accepted, it does not matter who you are or where you came from it depends primarily on the personality that an individual has. Yet, I do not know if they were 100% convincing to me that there was no segregation between whites and blacks because they constantly kept referring to Opelousas street as the barrier between the good/safer part of Algiers (Algiers Point) and the more dangerous part of Algiers. When we briefly discussed the impact Katrina had on Algiers, Kathy interrupted saying “You wanna know where the guy lived who shot the girl down on Opelousas street… he lived right next door to me and you know what I did I stared him down!” When I met the first woman at the flee market (the woman who was running with her dog) and when I asked her the same question her response was slightly different. She said that it was a mix between blacks and white, there were a lot of musicians, artists and writers that also lived in Algiers.

When driving through Algiers we first stopped at local convenience store, this convenience store seemed like any other local convenience store, a place were everyone new each other that walked in (The people kept stressing that every one knows every one here). I did not get much of a feel for the environment or the kind of people that would usually go to this food/convenience store but the only two people (besides Emma and I) were black. The next location we stopped at was a flee-market however nothing was actually going on. The flee-market takes place on weekends and from the opinions of the people at the bar, they reacted to the flee-market as being “bogus” but to me it seemed very historical, rich with culture and a place that was worth returning to see. Then we stopped at the bar (refer to field notes) the dynamic was obvious, whites dominated the bar, they did not seem overly racists but I sensed that not many blacks walk into this bar on a day-to-day basis. The last place we went was Mardi Gras World. These huge warehouses sat along the end of Algiers parallel to the river. This very open and spacious area is where all the floats for Mardi Gras are built and stored. It area seemed uneventful probably because Mardi Gras ended recently.

Emma Lesser's field notes

When I first went to Algiers today I was unsure of what to look for and just pulled into the first non-residential building that I saw. It turned out to be a little super-market type place. The man behind the counter seemed annoyed with us as soon as we walked into his store making me feel hesitant to ask too many questions. When we asked him if there was anything specific he thought that we should be looking for he suggested we drive up the road more. Luckily we took his advice because just up the road we found a place called “The Village.” “The Village” was a little market-place set up along the river. There were plaques hung up explaining how it used to be the site of slave auctions but has since been converted into a flee-market. I plan to come back on a Saturday to see it in action. After leaving “The Village” we went to a bar where we were met with a very warm reception. Two people we met there, Kathy and Wally B., told us everything we needed to know about Algiers. They both expressed many times that they would never choose to live anywhere else ever. Both were proud of the fact that Algiers has the two top high schools in the area, St. Andrews and Alice Heart as well as the oldest fire station in New Orleans. They suggested that we go to Mardi Gras world to look at the warehouses where the floats are built and stored for Mardi Gras parades. All in all Algiers seemed like a close-knit community rich with history.

Entry 1: Algiers History

Algiers was founded in 1719 making it the second oldest settlement in New Orleans. It was originally granted as part of the “Kings Plantation.” For the next 150 years the area was used to imprison Africans being sold into slavery. In 1769 when the Spanish took control of Louisiana they sold Algiers to individual people who set-up a few large farms and plantations there.
Around 1819, shipbuilders set up stations along the riverfront and by the mid-nineteenth century most Algiers residents made their livings off of the shipbuilding and ship repairing industry that had flourished there. When railroads were established in the 1850s, Algiers really started to prosper and as many as 4,000 Algiers men were employed by the railroad companies.
During the Civil War Algiers became a place for Union troops to set up camp and many warehouses in the area were burned down. Freed slaves set up homes in Algiers but in 1895 “The Great Fire of Algiers” destroyed approximately 200 of these homes (among others).
Around the turn of the 20th century business and art centers began to thrive again and Algiers became a jazz hub. It was the home to many musicians and is today the home of jazz artist Wolly B. Algiers continued to thrive until the 1970s when the Algiers railroad shut down. Since then Algiers has continued to remain an average American town with slight ups and downs including a slight increase in crime rate since Katrina, and the excitement of the movie “Ray” being filmed here.

Mia Backon entry 2

ALGIERS, NEW ORLEANS, LA http://maps.google.com/

Mia Backon- Field Notes (entry 4)

Mia Backon Field Notes
We pulled up to a local convenience store. The sign in front read “River Fine Foods Store- Po-Boy Sandwiches.” As I got out of the car a black man was walking into the store. We exchanged hellos and then I asked him if he lived around here, hoping to get some perspective of this large neighborhood. He responded by saying “no, I’m from the other side.” I clearly did not continue to ask him any questions; he seemed a bit irritated that I even bothered him so I walked up to the counter and asked the man working if he could help us. He gave us a map and helped explain some points that we would potentially find interesting. We thanked him and left. Getting back in our car we followed the street parallel to the river. We came across a gated area that looked historical and significant so we pulled over. We walked towards this structure and bumped into a woman who was breaking from a jog with her dog. We asked her what this was and she responded by telling us that it was a flee-market and on weekends people come to sell their items. I was amazed, as I walked around I quickly realized that this place represented more than just a flee-market but it was a place where slaves were brought and sold. After taking a lot of pictures we got back in the car and drove down the road a little (with help and directions from the woman we bumped into earlier). We pulled up to a bar/restaurant. We walked in and asked the bartender if she could help us (the same approach we had with both men at the convenience store) she too gave us a map with minimal explanation. As we were about to leave the restaurant a man and a woman (both white, the bar was predominately all white) were quiet interested of our reasons for being here and they began to ask us some questions. Instantly I took this to my advantage and pulled up a bar stool and started talking to this man named Wally B (he was reluctant to give out his last name). Emma Lesser began talking to this woman Kathy B (she too did not want her last name given out). Wally and I discussed why I was here, I told him about this class project and I started to ask questions. Wally had an agenda. He wanted to tell all about Algiers then he would stop himself. I told him that I wanted to know the dirt and he accepted and continued to talk. The first thing he made a point to tell me was the difference between Algiers and Algiers Point. Algiers Point is approximately a 10-block radius, a predominately white area, which is extremely close nit, which sits at the point of Algiers (right on the river). Some homes were beautiful, some looked very old but all together Algiers Point looked and acted “white”. “If you drive about 10 minutes, you’re gonna run into some rednecks,” Wally told me, he said that they are not afraid to say “nigger” out there, “you can speak your mind.” “We accept good people, it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, Vietnamese, we judge people by their personality” (I am not exactly sure how much that speaks the truth, but I nodded and agreed with the statement). They talked about Katrina and how Algiers did not have flooding but wind damage, they said there was some shootings and looting did take place. They kept repeating how they would not tell us the “stories,” they were skeptical to tell us “little girls” about what really happened during Katrina. We ended the 45-minute conversation telling them that they were definitely coming back. And we thanked them multiple times and expressed our appreciation and left.

Entry 5 - Economic Activity (Natalia)

A pretty big business in Algiers is Mardi Gras World. It's right by the river, and many tourists take the free ferry ride from New Orleans to Algiers to take a tour of Mardi Gras World. All the floats that people ride during Mardi Gras are kept there during the year. It's $15 per person to take the tour. I haven't been on the tour in years, but from what I remember, tourists get to dress up and see floats being made and painted.

One of Algiers' well-known restaurants is called Lan's Palace. They have awesome Chinese food that's pretty inexpensive. There's also an Algiers flea market on Saturdays. Our group saw several local businesses like bookstores, wine cellars, and antique shops. However, a lot of businesses in Algiers are chains--like Bennigan's, Piccadilly, etc.

It seems like most residents do not work in Algiers--they work in New Orleans, which explains the ridiculous traffic every weekday. The people we met in Algiers (who were not working at the time) all worked in New Orleans.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Natalia's Field Notes

After class, Darci, Irma, Nish, and I went to Algiers. From I-10 we saw where the projects used to be, and apparently they were redone recently. The houses look really nice now, in good condition and well-kept. We kept driving to go to Mardi Gras World, a big tourist attraction where the Mardi Gras floats are kept throughout the year. We saw a few local convenience stores, a Christian bookstore, and some antique shops as we were driving. The convenience stores were pretty run-down, and the antique shops (which were closer to Algiers Point) looked really nice. Most of the people I saw outside were African American. Once we got to Algiers Point, though, the majority of the people I saw were white.

We stopped at the Dry Dock (a cafe and bar), and I noticed that pretty much everyone at the restaurant was white. Three middle-aged white men (Ed, Bruce, and Jim) invited us to sit down with them. They were all eager to tell us about their Hurricane Katrina stories, which is odd because Algiers wasn't damaged nearly as badly as a lot of other neighborhoods. The area had some wind damage, but Bruce, Ed, and Jim were not really affected by the hurricane. Bruce told us that his neighborhood used to be all white people, but after Katrina, more black people moved in; as a result, white people moved out (which is a lot like what Working Class Heroes' Kefalas discussed as White Flight). Bruce said that he loved his neighborhood, though, and that he got along really well with his neighbors despite any racial differences. Ed kept telling me that there was nothing to do in Algiers and that he often went into New Orleans when he had plans with friends.

After that, we went to O. Perry Walker (a high school, grades 8-12) to see how public schools are in Algiers. We got there right after school got out, and everyone (the principal and most school officials) was leaving to go to O. Perry Walker's basketball game. The security guard told us that the school is really into sports. While we were there, we saw two pregnant students, and every student we saw was African American. I went on the website later on to find out that the school is 97% African American, 2% Hispanic, and 1% Asian. Only 67% of students graduate, while Louisiana's state average of students who graduate is 80%. I was talking to my mom, a counselor at UNO who goes to different high schools to encourage students to go to college, about O. Perry Walker, and she was telling me about one of her co-workers that goes to O. Perry Walker to talk to kids a lot. Apparently, last month, a 19-year-old that dropped out of O. Perry Walker was arrested for murdering two people in the Fischer Housing Projects in Algiers. One of the victims was another O. Perry Walker student. When murders like these happen in the projects, I think it makes people wary of the neighborhood--it might make people think that it's "a bad area." Like the realty situation we talked about in class, often realtors tell white buyers not to live in "a bad area," while they won't say that to a black buyer. It's kind of ridiculous how that is so easy to believe when looking at the residential segregation in Algiers.

Anyway, we drove to the police station afterward, which was really odd. All of a sudden, there were horses and chickens--Algiers became so rural. Once we found the police station, we tried to talk to three different officers about crime in the area. None of them were very helpful, and a female officer was really rude. One of the officers told us to look at NOPD's website and search Algiers' crime statistics. According to the website, the most common crime this year in Algiers is theft.

history video

YouTube: Video about Algiers' History

Photos from 3/6










Algiers and Hurricane Katrina (Darci)

YouTube Algiers Damage Video




Algiers was not as severely damaged by the storm as the East Bank part of the city was.  The men at the DryDock cafe kept telling us that although Algiers did not flood, there was plenty of wind damage.  One of the men lost the roof to his house.  The above YouTube link shows a slide show with examples of this wind damage.

Algiers has experienced more of the storm's social aftereffects than physical effects.  As expressed by the men at the bar, more people have been moving to the West Bank.  The men believed that neighborhood demographics are shifting to be more African American and that the white population of moving away.  Algiers population is believed to have increased 15% after the storm, shifting from 59000 to 68000 residents.  According to the BNET linked article, other changes have ensured as well.  These include increased crime and decreased attention to quality of life projects.

The second  linked article is a blog summary of a longer publication, which I am yet to read, about racial conflict in Algiers immediately after the storm.  Apparently there is a bit of spatial segregation between historic (and white) Algiers Point and the surrounding residential areas.  Right after the storm during the chaos and anarchy, the wealthy white residents are said to have been "hunting humans" with shotguns to stop black looters from entering the wealthier homes.  The last link is a video report on these racial vigilante shootings.  Please take the take to watch it, its very informative and includes interviews with black victims, white shooters, and mixed race neighborhood witnesses.  This video holds a few disturbing quotes by two of the white shooters:  "You had to do what you had to do--If you had to shoot somebody, you had to shoot somebody" and "It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota! If it moved we shot it!"  A third consists of a man boasting that he is "not longer a Yankee" and his female friend adding "No, he understands the N-word now."  An estimated 11 black men were shot and to this day no one has been prosecuted.

Darci's Feild Notes

Irma, Nish, Natalia, and I went to Algiers right after class.  We got off of the highway immediately after crossing the Crescent City Connection bridge.  As soon as we were on surface streets Nish pointed out newly built housing projects that had replaced older ones.  Honestly, this project seemed really nice.
We stopped a block or two later to ask a cop on the side of the road how to get to the police station.  He was friendly but guarded.  Trying to find the station, we drove through some working-middle class neighborhoods.  Some houses seemed a little decrepit while others were in better condition.  There were a lot of mom-and-pop type convenience shops as well.  At the end of the residential area but before the levee we saw Mardi Gras World.  MG World was a bunch of warehouse buildings, a little bit of an eyesore, but probably a pretty big tourist attraction.
We took another detour and drove through Algiers Point.  This definitely seemed like a wealthier part of town.  The ferry port was also in Algiers Point.  Across the street from the terminal was the DryDock bar (I think that's what it was called).  We sat with some really funny guys outside there.  I don't know if they were drunk or just really funny guys.  Either way, these guys were very talkative.  When we asked what they thought the local demographics were like, one of them responded that his neighborhood was almost all black and he "love it!"  In further explanation, he seemed to be describing recent white-flight since the storm.  Another one of the guys kept telling me about the maintenance guy, Kevin, at Temple Sinai uptown right here by school.  Upon waking up to flood water after the storm, Kevin walked over the bridge and all the way into Algiers as many others did before the bridge was closed off.
After stopping at the bar we made a stop at a local public high school school.  Most of the kids we saw were black but school was out so we don't know how fair of an assumption that is.  We were informed that the school's basketball team had made to the playoffs and everyone was driving to the game two hours away in Alexandria.  We sat in a room and waited for someone from the main office to come down and talk to us.  By the time someone came, he was in a huge rush and had confused us for other people so it was pretty uneventful.
Our last stop was finally to the police station.  Everywhere else we'd driven through seemed pretty typical New Orleans looking, urban-residential, until we got the street the station was on.  Suddenly it got very country.  There were houses with more land and horses in the yards.  I also saw a chicken walking across the street.  When we got the the police station there were some nice officers in the lot who told us where to park to go into the office.  In contrast, the lady officer inside was extremely rude and didn't even speak to us.  She just kept answering phones until we left.

Irma Williams / Field Notes

Irma Williams/Field Notes:



On Friday March 6th Nish, Natalie, Emma and I drove to Algiers LA. I took the General Degaulle exit south and thought that we'd take a picture of the community that was replaced by the Fisher Housing Project. There were condo's and townhouses in various colors replaced by 3 and 4 story crowded red brick buildings, housing 8 to 10 families per unit. We preceded to Mardi Gras Lane and took a picture of this alligator no doubt crafted by Blaine Kern's crew. We also took a picture of Mardi World where many of the Mardi Gras floats are housed. We then drove down Opelousas street entering into Algiers Point. Opelousas Street seem to be the dividing street; I guess you can say what might be the upper echelon and just the plain middle class. I noticed that certain areas in the Point (Algiers) the homes were larger, nicely painted, beautiful manicured lawns, no one hanging out but just beautiful well kept properties. So I new it was the white section of Algiers Point. The other side of Opelousas the homes were not as large not nicely painted, although there were some very decent looking neighborhoods but nothing like the previous. I had the pleasure of being invited to a Christmas party by one of the doctors that live in Algiers Point. I would suppose the home that she lives in is about $400,000.00 or more. I saw no black families as I was driving in Dr.'s Sue neighborhood. One of the nurses (Desiree) who also lives in Algiers Point I spoke with said the the homes are probably passed from generation to generation I guess sort of like the homes on St. Charles Avenue. We then drove to the Algiers Ferry, took a picture of the Ferry and proceeded to this bar called The Dry Dock located about a half block from the ferry. There were 3 men (white) sitting on the outside of the bar. We got out of the car introduced ourselves and told them we were Tulane students and we are doing a project on Algiers. These men were very friendly, they asked us to sit down and they introduced themselves to us. ( Bruce, Ed, and Jim) I asked them did they live in a mixed neighborhood. Jim immediately said that Bruce does. Bruce said that pre Katrina his street was all white. Post Katrina blacks started moving in and most of the whites moved out he stayed and he said that he was glad that he did...he said he loves his neighbors, they were the nicest people. He lives on Beck and Walnut Street in Algiers. So we talked about Katrina and I guess spent about 20 minutes with them. From there we went to O'Perry Walker High School to see if we could get some statistics. We spoke to Brandon Ormont briefly. He could not meet with us at the time, he was meeting with some more Tulane students and he thought we were them. We then preceeded to the 4th District police station which is right off of Gen Meyer Street. We kind of had a hard time finding it. We introduced ourselves to this woman who was behind the desk but she seemed to be snobbish and did not want to be bothered. The phone ranged and while she was talking I just wave and said we'll come back some other time. As we were going to our car there we two policemen leaving in their car but we were able to stop them. We asked them who could we speak with to get some stats on the department and the area in which they patrol. They replied that we would need to talk to the quality of life sergeant Richard Sisnack who at the time was not in. It was about 4:20 p. m. , Emma and Natalia needed to be back on campus by 5. We wrapped things up for that day. On Tuesday March 17th, after class Nish and I took another ride over to Algiers, we tried to find Newton and Bouny street, but those streets do not intersect. So we decided to go back to the 4th district police station, this time a very handsome man was sitting behind the desk. We indentified our selves, he seemed to be more cooperative and basically told us the same thing the two plicemen told us before when we went. But, he did take our phone numbers and said he would tell Sgt Sisnack to call us back. We went to Delgado's library and looked up the web site on the 4th district, it showed the crime stats but nothing on the ratio of blacks to whites crime and arrests. We then drove to Edna Karr High School on Huntlee Street, which used to be about 75% white it is now 85% black. It is a charter school. We spoke to the principle Ms. Charles . She gave us the stats ...Blacks 840, Asians 49, Hispanics 15, Whites 23 and American Indian 1. I know that blacks and whites ride the ferry. They go to the court house. The Holy Name of Mary Church middle school a small percentage of blacks attend there.



Nish Shepheard's Field Notes


My group and I went out to Algiers, LA on March the 6th. The first place we hit after getting off the bridge was the Fisher Housing Development on Whitney. The old, brown, graffiti covered buildings have been torn down and the colorful new buildings were built right across the street from where the old buildings once stood.

We worked our way toward Algiers Point. On our way there we found Mardi Gras World and took a couple of pictures of the big crocodile. We finally got to Algiers Point, where I found out was a predominately white area; clean streets, beautiful homes. We arrived at the ferry, where, despite the surrounding neighborhood, crime takes place. We stopped at the Dry Dock Cafe, where we chatted with three white men. One of them explained that the neighborhood he
lived in was predominatly white until Katrina had hit. Blacks moved in, and all the neighbors packed up and left;he stayed. He had no reason to leave because he loved his black neighbors. The men provided comic relief for our trip and made us feel very welcome.

We continued toward Newton. As we drove, we noticed trash strewn around, graffiti, abandoned buildings,etc. We drover further south and passed up the neighborhood where I grew up. The businesses that my family frequented as since closed down, and they have yet to be replaced with a new business or torn down. It was an eyesore. We finished up with O. Perry Walker and called it a day.


The next visit, we drove down Newton/General Meyer. We drove down south toward Kabel Drive and I noticed the neighborhoods in that area were nicer and better kept than the neighborhood in the opposite direction. I came to the conclusion of spatial segregation: south of Algiers, mosltly white, North, mostly black. The second school we visited, Edna Karr, was a magnet school that accepted certain students before Katrina. when I was living in Algiers, it was, I believe, 85- 90% white and the rest a small percentage of minorities. I was shocked to find out that after the storm, the school population did a complete flip! It is due to Karr becoming a public school after the storm, meaning anybody can attend.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Demographics

Demographics for Algiers, LA





Algiers' total population pre-Katrina, according to the census, was 28,385.

45.9 of that was male;

54.1 was female.


The average age is 29.6.

The population for children under 5 was 2,515.

18 and over was 19,204.

65 and over was 2,839.

Race wise, whites make up 21.8 of the population, while African-Americans make up 73.6.

Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are 0.3 of the population. Hawaiians barely registered, and Latino/as make up 4.3 percent.

The average household size is 2.68; the average family size is 3.41.

The total housing units in Algiers was 12,351. 83.9 of that is occupied, and 16.1 is vacant.

40.6 of those units are owned by home owners, while 59.4 are rented.

Socially speaking, 72.3% are high school graduates, and 14.3% hold at least a Bachelor's degree.

The married population is 41.2 percent male, and 33.2 are female.

Economically, 56.5% are in the labor force.

Families that are below the poverty level are at 30.3%; individuals below the poverty level are 35.3%.


The population of Algiers may have increase tremendously since Hurricane Katrina. What I found interesting was how the African-American population, the female population and the 18 and over population was high. I was also shocked at the married male population. Could a chunk of the population consist of young African American single mothers below the poverty line? That's my guess.