New Orleans Treme Tour 11.5.26

Erin, our guide, took us on a tour of the Treme District. Treme was home to those of Afro/American descent. Initially as slaves, the people would gather in the park to meet and converse in their native tongue(s) depending on which area of Africa they had been taken from. There they could catch up on news, sing and dance, worship, and exchange or sell excess food they had grown. Eventually a community established itself there, with orderly blocks and blocks of homes, (as per photo shared by Erin). These were later razed under the inaccurate presumption that the state would get funding to enact proposed "improvements" to the area to turn it into a collective of arts related buildings. (Like arts related buildings are high on Maslows hierarchy of needs). Instead families by the hundreds lost their homes, the community based employment opportunities dried up and people suffered. Many moved North to escape th effects of institutionalised racism/social engineering.
Erin also explained that as the Treme area was not too badly affected by Hurricane Katrina, many houses have been bought up by out of towners and are often let as holiday homes, thus cutting down on residential rentals (already in short supply cos of houses written off) and inflating house prices. A bit of a sobering tour 😞Read more