The difference is that Katrina was a natural disaster. Buffalo's decline is a man made disaster. Men are absentee landlords who just don't care what their properties look like as long as the rent is paid. Men who run for public offices making empty promises and never follow through with any of them.
Katrina was a force of nature - a simple flexing of nature's power to show how weak our grasp is on life and the lives of a city. Buffalo - is a true disaster because it could have been prevented. As the waters ran faster and higher in the 9th ward of New Orleans people still tried to save what was theirs. In Buffalo we were told to stay home drink beer and eventually everything will be ok. Unfortunately many did just that. And the landlords kept cashing their checks and the city died slowly. What took place during one storm of 24 hours took Buffalo years of neglect to achieve.
Art Feature |
A Tales of Two Citiesby Geoff Kelly, photos by Clark Dever |
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A photo exhibit at Grant Street Gallery compares Buffalo's devestated blocks to post-Katrina New Orleans
In March 2006, Clark Dever, a Buffalo-based photojournalist and activist, recruited 65 of his fellow UB undergraduates to travel to New Orleans during their spring break to take part in the ongoing relief effort. He brought his camera and recorded the devastation he encountered there, nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina.
Earlier this year, Dever and two friends were training for the Buffalo Marathon, and their runs took them through some of the most decrepit, poverty-stricken neighborhoods on the city’s East and West Sides. Dever was struck by the similarities to what he had seen and photographed in New Orleans—from the vacant lots strewn with debris to the spray paint used to mark houses for demolition.
So he returned with his camera, and the result is an exhibit titled When the Financial Levies Broke. The show opens next Friday, July 10, at the Grant Street Gallery (216 Grant Street, just south of Lafayette). Representatives from PUSH Buffalo, Buffalo ReUse, and Buffalo First will be in attendance to answer questions about their organizations’ efforts to address the city’s poverty and housing issues.
—geoff kelly
New Orleans
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Buffalo
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Reader Comments
msobkowiak 03 Jul 2009, 08:04
lunanola
05 Jul 2009, 19:59
With all due respect, Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster for locations such as Waveland, MS and Bay St. Louis, MS. For New Orleans, LA, however, the damage caused by the hurricane itself (primarily wind damage in areas where flooding did not occur) was secondary to the devastation that was caused by the failure of the Federal levee system. For New Orleans, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was also a MAN-MADE disaster. The horrific damage caused by the flooding resulting from the failed levee system was the result of failures on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/01cnd-corps.html?_r=1 (See also http://levees.org/ for additional educational resources re: the man-made disaster that affected New Orleans, LA.) Leave a Comment:
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