Wrapping up my time in New Orleans reporting on the annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Coincidentally enough, there's also a cadre of Portlanders here this week (among them, Portland mayor Tom Potter) doing a fact-finding brotherhood-type trip with Mercy Corps to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
S. Renee Mitchell of The Oregonian is here with them, and her blog about the trip has been interesting, particularly this bit:
Also Monday, members of the "second line" donated $10 packages of four-pack, energy-efficient light bulbs to New Orleans residents who quietly collected the gifts.
Tuesday, they will spend hours scrapping the paint off the outside of houses, clearing out debris or mentoring small business owners.
Wednesday and Thursday, members of the "second line" return home and hopefully will spread the message: New Orleans needs us. Still.
"Oregon loves New Orleans," says Portland Mayor Tom Potter, who came on the trip with his wife. "We want to be part of your city and we want you to feel there are people around this country who care about you."
The housecleaning and messages of support are much appreciated. I don't know about the "$10 packages of four-pack, energy-efficient light bulbs"...there's something so New Age-missionary about handing out green-approved light bulbs to people who barely have outlets in which to screw them. I just hope that the Portlanders actually listen to the folks of the L9 and help get them what they need...rather than what Portland thinks the Ninth Ward needs.
I hope this trip is just a beginning, not an end.
And I'm really curious as to what Portlanders will think of Mitchell's blogcolumn on Ashlei Williams, a young Katrina survivor who is now living in North Portland:
Once Ashlei Williams got to Portland, she received support from Catholic Charities and the Urban League of Portland. But she says she got no help from FEMA. She ended up locating in the New Columbia Villa, a mixed-income development in North Portland. But she says some of her neighbors are making her feel like an outcast.
"I don't really go anywhere," she says. "Everywhere someone from Mississippi or Louisiana goes, you have people saying, 'Go back home.' They make you feel so unwelcome. I say I can't wait to go back home where people will accept me."
I know what she's talking about. Portland certainly prides itself on its friendliness, a quality I haven't necessarily noticed. Samaritanism, certainly. Volunteerism, yeah. Politeness, sure. Friendliness? No.
Will Portland see Ashlei Williams as an anomaly, or as an ingrate or a malcontent?
Or will it be a "black thing"?
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