Day 34, Way 34Today is Palm Sunday, which is the beginning of Holy Week for Catholics (and Episcopalians, and no doubt many other Protestant denominations). Holy Week usually overlaps with or happens near Passover because the trouble all started, according to the story, when Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate passover with his disciples. Palm Sunday celebrates the entry into Jerusalem, and for that reason there's a special mass where they hand out palm fronds to everyone. Palm Sunday is a happy day--Holy Week gets a tad darker as you get toward Friday--and I remember the palms. I'm not going to church today, because, well, it's a long damn story, so instead I have picked out a plant-themed item:
The New Orleans Botanical GardensThe gardens are part of
City Park New Orleans--their mailing address is 1 Palm Drive, how perfect is that?--which was just wasted by Hurricane Katrina. Here's their description of what happened to the park, posted
in February 2006:* 90 percent of the park was under anywhere from one to eight feet of water. All water has subsequently receded.
* The saltwater that entered the park killed or damaged most all the grass including that on three golf courses and most of the tender vegetation (The Botanical Garden) with which it came in contact.
* The Park’s Administration Building was under four feet of water: archives lost, computers ruined and records soaked.
* Over 1,000 trees were toppled or extensively damaged.
* Sections of the Maintenance Building collapsed and virtually every vehicle and piece of equipment the Park owned were destroyed. That includes tractors, bucket trucks, end-loaders, bush hogs, golf carts, everything.
* Before the hurricane, City Park had 240 employees – a combination of full-time, part-time and seasonal. Given our inability to meet payroll, all but 23 employees have been laid off. Many employees who no longer have a job also lost their houses and all their belongings.
* Our initial estimate is that it will cost a minimum of $43 million to rebuild the park.The park has reopened and so have the gardens, but it's going to be a long time before either recovers. The
before and after pictures of the botanical garden are very sad. The damage was so extensive that they had to completely rebuild their website--they have saved what they used to have up as the "Pre-Katrina" website, and no doubt the remaining staff members visit it late at night and weep over the glory that once was--and they need help. They are eligible for help from FEMA, but here's their explanation of what FEMA is and isn't doing for them, with my editorial comments:
To date, FEMA has removed the vast majority of downed trees and limbs.(Yay, Michael Brown hired at least one person who knows how to use a chainsaw!--ed.)
FEMA’s mandate is to repair damaged facilities to their pre-Katrina status and they will pay 90 percent of those eligible costs. The park will be responsible for the remaining 10 percent.(Hey, 90%, that's a pretty good deal! Maybe FEMA doesn't suck as much as I thought!--ed.)
The word eligible in the first sentence is very important. The park and FEMA are not always in accord on what is “eligible.”(Uh oh. Is this going to turn into one of those "breached" vs. "topped" debates?--ed.)
FEMA has identified over 100 worksheets that will need to be developed for the park (e.g., the administration building, the catering complex, the Amusement Park, the golf clubhouse…) Each worksheet determines the amount of funds the park will receive for that particular building or area. Six months after the storm, FEMA had processed six worksheets and the park had received a wopping $6,500.(Your anger is beautiful, anonymous website creator! Don't ever change--except I would maybe put an "h" in "whopping."--ed.)
Although we desperately need FEMA’s help, we also can’t wait and do nothing while suffering through what is a painfully slow response. No shit. The estimated cost to repair the damage to the park as a whole is
$42 million; repairing the Botanical Gardens alone will run them $1 million. I figure FEMA's $6500 has already been spent.
So, if you would like to help rebuild New Orleans's major public green space while FEMA takes another 94 months to process the remaining 94 worksheets, there are many ways to do it. The main thing the Botanical Gardens is worried about is the almost total loss of their plant specimens. They have a
plant wishlist up on their site, and if you are a gardener and you know what the hell any of those Latin names mean, you might want to see if you've got anything you can send them. If you don't know a hibiscus acetosella from a eupatorium purpureum, but you like pretty flowers, you can still send them
money. There are also plenty of
volunteer opportunities for people who want to spend some time outdoors or who like propagating and planting eupatorium purpureums and whatnot.
The Botanical Garden, like so many of the parks and public spaces that we still enjoy, was a Works Progress Administration project started during the Great Depression. So it is a concrete example of the ways in which the Bush administration's malign neglect is destroying the America that was reborn with the New Deal. Given the opportunity, the Bush administration's plan for redeveloping that land would probably involve Halliburton. Protecting green space, and public space, is one way of keeping cities livable for people who can't buy their own backyards. And, as we have seen, FEMA's not riding in to the rescue any time soon.
C ya,
The Plaid Adder
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