This story is one among 5 tales in The Lens’ Embracing Katrina Narratives undertaking.

Arthur Johnson, 71, grew up visiting his grandmother on Forstall Road within the Decrease 9. He moved to New Orleans full-time six years earlier than Hurricane Katrina hit town. He now leads the Decrease ninth Ward Middle for Sustainable Engagement and Growth (L9 CSED), which stands a couple of blocks from the Mississippi River, on Chartres Road, within the Holy Cross neighborhood.

CSED was fashioned in 2006 by some Decrease 9 residents he knew. At first, Johnson stepped in solely as a fundraiser, to assist CSED’s founders increase some cash. However the idea made a lot sense to him that he ended up changing into its govt director.

However now, he says, a brand new linear park alongside Florida Avenue has lower off entry to Bayou Bienvenue, hampering the middle’s flagship youth-research program, its education-by-kayak program and different key restoration work.

The group’s pivotal instructional program is an environmental analysis internship for college students aged 12-18. These younger interns work with scientists conducting analysis in Bayou Bienvenue, specializing in how people influence the wetland triangle.

In 2013, the nonprofit partnered with Colorado College to assemble a viewing platform on the bayou, to permit wetland entry to neighbors, fishermen and scientists alike. “The platform was created by the group and educators as a possibility for anybody to entry Bayou Bienvenue,” Johnson mentioned. For greater than a decade it has stood on the finish of Caffin Avenue, now Fat Domino Avenue. 

However not too long ago, entry to the platform has been lower off by the event of the Sankofa Wetland Park, which is being constructed by the Sankofa Group Growth Company and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. 

A part of the brand new park is a strolling path alongside Florida Avenue that renders the platform unreachable; it runs the size of the neighborhood from Jackson Barracks to the blue Florida Avenue bridge.

To Johnson, it feels just like the obstacle threatens one of many key post-Katrina beneficial properties made by environmentalists – the creation of a platform and a pathway, by way of a once-overgrown space, that lastly gave neighbors a technique to view the Bayou Wetland Triangle that had traditionally been tough to entry. “Bayou Bienvenue has all the time been there. However the accessibility hasn’t been there,” he mentioned.

Johnson, too, has a Katrina narrative. He was a New Orleans East resident earlier than the storm, however he and his household had evacuated on the final minute. They left on Sunday by automotive and at last ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. As they checked right into a resort, he noticed tv photos of flooding. “The place is that this?” he requested. “New Orleans,” he was advised. 

As he watched, his coronary heart sank. “I noticed acquainted avenue indicators, nearly underwater,” he mentioned. Throughout the subsequent few weeks, they had been in a position to look on-line to see the situation of his residence. A brick home, it was nonetheless standing. However he may see the water traces. It had taken in six toes of water. 

When he was in a position to make it to the Decrease 9, he discovered his grandmother’s home in wreck. Although a brand new house owner is now constructing a small home on the lot, for years, solely a slab of concrete topped with concrete steps stood on the household property.

Just a few months later, when the group was lastly allowed to return, he started envisioning a spot within the metropolis that might work to create a extra sustainable setting. And L9 CSED has executed that, working within the Decrease 9 and in different Gulf Coast communities, to assist residents put together for the results of local weather change on infrastructure. 

The nonprofit additionally works with Glass Half Full to recycle glass from the group and grind it again into sand at a ninth Ward facility. They usually work with the Brown Basis and Pontchartrain Conservancy to domesticate 1000’s of cypress and tupelo timber and different native crops, at a tree nursery in Bucktown. 

However Bayou Bienvenue is on the coronary heart of the group. As soon as a thriving cypress swamp, the ecosystem was devastated by the development of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) within the Fifties, which allowed salt water from the Gulf to poison the swamp forest. It’s by no means obtained state restoration funding, although the state Coastal Grasp Plan features a undertaking to revitalize it.

His younger scientists have labored to plant native crops in and close to the bayou. They usually have realized in regards to the setting of town from their research there, which for now, are curtailed.

An individual aware of the scenario mentioned that the overlook just isn’t Sankofa’s concern – it’s in disrepair and has no allow; the land and property possession must be formally resolved.

The Orleans Levee District, which manages the levee on city-owned property, has all the time been conscious that the overlook exists, mentioned Johnson, who added it’s robust to keep up the platform now with none entry. To point out how accepted the platform has been, Johnson famous that, a decade in the past, the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers took the platform all the way down to construct a metallic levee on the location. As soon as the levee was full, the Military Corps put the platform again up, he mentioned.

The platform modifications issues for the Decrease 9 group, Johnson mentioned. “We find out about our surroundings from the overlook. Throughout the triangle, because the bayou modified again from the salt water that had intruded from the Gulf to contemporary water, there are freshwater habitats – birds that fly, issues that swim and crawl – together with grasses and cypress timber. Children can come up on that platform and see and contact what they find out about of their science books.”

However greater than that, the overlook displays the Decrease 9 and its very identification, Johnson mentioned. “This can be a coastal space. It’s a part of who we’re as a group within the Decrease 9. The entire concept of the platform is a chance to see visually how one can save and defend your group.”

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