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An anniversary to remember

Tuesday, September 4 at 2:16 PM

This letter has not been edited.

By David Schneider

As a native of New Orleans and a recent import to Colorado Springs, Aug. 29, 2005, is a day in my life I will never forget and a day that will forever affect my life and the life of thousands of others.

I was born and raised a short distance from the now famous Ninth Ward of New Orleans in a neighboring Parish, in a community called Arabi.

As a small child in September 1965 we suffered, what at the time, was a major natural disaster. Hurricane Betsy came ashore and quickly over came the nonexistent protection system and flooded my childhood home with about five feet of water. My father took us out of the sub-division by boat and then went back to rescue others.

That was the first and last time this should have happened, but as we have all learned, almost 40 years later, it happened again but on a much grander and deadlier scale. We will forever dissect the cause, who was at fault, could it have been prevent, why we live where we do, etc. But, even though those discussions need to be held it is more important to focus on what has and has not happened in the two years since Katrina and how a once great city has fallen so far, so quickly and what must be done to resurrect it, if it is at all possible.

My family and I did not leave New Orleans out of fear or suffering, we left because of an opportunity that does not exist in New Orleans at this time. We worked hard to repair our home, we borrowed money, used inadequate insurance proceeds and used up most of my savings to put our life back together. (I think it is important to note, that Flood Insurance that can be purchased and backed by the Government, which I had does not sell a policy with a greater value than $250,000 and generally can only purchase up to the value of the home. So it is not that we were underinsured on purpose, we were underinsured because my home value was greater than the coverage available.)

We stayed and rebuilt our life, everyday since the levees failed.

Thanksgiving 2005 we ate a Red Cross turkey dinner in my yard while I gutted my home. Christmas 2005, we were one of only two families on my block that had returned, living and eating on lawn chairs in the kitchen and sleeping in the two rooms upstairs; thank God it was a mild winter. But we survived, school opened shortly after the New Year, I was employed and so was my wife. Things were beginning to look up, I had great hope the city would learn from its past mistakes and become something it had not been for a long, long time, economically vibrant and safe.

After two years the city has neither. Murders are out of control, business continue to leave the city or state. The mayor has turned out to be a very poor leader (putting it nicely), although he argues differently, he is a leader to a few, but not the many. It appears he is surrounded by yes men and women. Many of the corrupt political appointees are still in power, some are even elected under a cloud of suspicion. And so the cycle that was started decades ago continues and an opportunity of a lifetime is being squandered by corruption and ineffective leaders that have no vision of the future or what it could be.

We natives are then looked at as inept, stupid, lazy, etc., and for the most part that is untrue. Thousands of people are working hard to put their lives back together, without the help of the city, state or federal governments.

I know what it means to miss New Orleans, but not the one that exist today. I asked my family to leave for a better environment in which to live and raise my son and daughter. One day I would like to return and help lead a resurgence of this once great city, enter politics and make a difference, help educate the young and develop businesses and give the people hope. But that dream will have to wait until the nightmare of Katrina subsides.

David Schneider was born and raised in New Orleans and recently moved to Colorado from the University District of New Orleans. He is a resident of Colorado Springs.

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