On Wednesday I rode my bike the length of Desire Street stopping to take pictures along the way. Club Desire, at the corner of Law Street, is in a state of ruin, just as I found it in November 2006.
There are new signs of life across the street from the club; a crew of volunteers is rebuilding a row of homes. Also new, is a housing development at the end of Desire St, a fenced in community of new homes with fresh perfect lawns, lacking any of New Orleans’ authentic style. The generic bland homes making up the complex could be found in any suburban community elsewhere in America; a bittersweet sign of progress in the Post Katrina rebuilding process.
I got off my bike and chatted with a resident who is happy with the housing development.
I got off my bike and chatted with a resident who is happy with the housing development.
Desire Street tells the story of a city on the mend. However, block-by-block one could come up with different interpretations of the same story.
No faded Mardi Gras beads decorating the new housing complex yet, but in a few years I suspect one will find them there as well.
The first picture I shot that day, where Desire Street begins, is of a swan sculpture with a cracked neck adorned with faded Mardi Gras beads.
Next a graveyard, where when I accompanied the National Guard on their patrols witnessed many drug dealer being picked up.
Posted here is an image of one of the many ruined houses still standing and a couple of the destroyed markets with hand-painted sings.
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