I have lots of stuff to post about my trip to New Orleans to attend the Prudential Sales Convention. Over the next few days, I will post about some of the content of the convention. For now, I wanted to quickly blog about my cab ride through the 9th Ward.
As much as I tried to resist being the stupid tourist, I couldn't help but to go see the 9th ward. After 2 1/2 years you would think more would be accomplished. After the Sunday afternoon exhibitor welcome event, I hopped a cab coming out of the conference center.
My original intention was to go back to the apt, shower and get ready for the night's activities. As the cab got closer to the French Corner, I began to really take a liking to the cab driver and his New Orleans, Creole accent. He spoke passionately about the area and how much he loved it here. The conversation drifted naturally into his disappointment with the government in regards to the rebuilding effort in the 9th ward. With that said, I asked him to take me out there, so we went.
We drove through the 9th ward and to my surprise, there was very little in the way of progress. A few homes here and there were being rebuilt but the majority of them were still boarded up. I couldn't help but to wonder where these people were. The cab driver told me that there are still a good number of people living in the trailers after 2/12 years. That totally blew me away. Now, it is not like I am just learning this for the first time but this time, standing in the middle of the area that was flooded, I felt like I really understood. I took a bunch of pictures and a little bit of video.
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