Upper Ninth Ward residents gather to share concerns about crime and blight

1st August 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Pierce W. Huff
Contributing Writer

They walk through their neighborhoods during the day leery of contact with strangers or vehicles with dark-tinted windows. They live next to vacant houses that are still dormant from Hurricane Katrina, but a home to questionable activity. And they go to sleep at night unfazed by the occasional pops of gunfire in their streets.

Some citizens in the Upper Ninth Ward have had enough, and they are ready to reclaim their streets and neighborhoods.

St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Orleans Parish leaders and the Micah Project hosted a community action meeting on Wed­nesday, and the result was something that residents haven’t had in a long time — hope.

The meeting, which was attended by representatives from seven different churches, gave the residents a chance to air their grievances with police and government officials, get updates on crime and blight in their neighborhoods and assurances that they will not be forgotten.

Jeff Hebert, the director of the City of New Orleans Blight and Community Revitalization, gave an update on 12 blighted properties that were of high concern to the group. He also updated the group on the progress of the city’s hiring of 26 new administrative officers.

The group also got updates on the policing of their neighborhoods, which is a major concern. There were 112 murders in New Orleans as of Wednesday.

NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas and Fifth District Com­mander Christopher Goodly told residents about new efforts to assign police in neighborhoods. They also told residents about the department’s plans to listen more to citizen’s concerns, to continue walking the beats in their neighborhoods and implement more overtime to officers when needed.

In turn, the city officials got a chance to hear just how bad things really are in the neighborhoods.

Vera Landry, a member of St. Mary of the Angels, talked about how she worries about robberies and gunshots at night.

Peggy Lee Williams told about how she experienced the wrong people shot in the neighborhood over the last nine years on Mother’s Day. The first was when her son was shot and killed nine years ago. The second came when she witnessed a man shot and paralyzed last year.

There were countless other citizens at the meeting who expressed concerns that they have become leery of traveling in their neighborhood after dark.
But Williams and her neighbors will not give up.

“No flood is going to wash away our love of this great city of New Orleans,” Williams told the group.

The Micah Project, which is a non-profit, faith-based community-organizing project, consists of member congregations in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

The Micah Project will have another meeting with officials in October.

“What we hope to achieve is to educate the people in our church parish and community on how we can better access the progress on blighted housing and making our community safer,” said Paula Arceneaux, the chairperson of the meeting and a vice chair for the Micah Project. “Crime has increased a whole lot (since Katrina), especially for people trying to rebuild their homes.”

Melvin Robinson, who lives in Gentilly but grew up in the Ninth Ward and attends St. Mary of the Angels, told The Louisiana Weekly that the meeting was well-re­ceived. “I think this served its purpose,” Robinson said. “It will help out a lot.”

Robinson said he doesn’t think the meeting sent a message to the criminal element in the Ninth Ward, because “they are set in their ways.”

Still, every little bit helps, because some people are scared and concerned.

“If we can clean up the blighted properties and some other things, then maybe people might want to come back and rebuild,” Robin­son said.

This article was originally published in the August 1, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper