Brad Pitt, William McDonough, and the Lower 9th Ward

Two years ago Hurricane Katrina woke people up to the vulnerabilities caused by the disparities of race and class in the United States as well as the vulnerabilities caused by government incompetence at many levels. In many parts of New Orleans, people are still living in a desperate situation. Although there are signs of revival, a crisis of drowning and displacement in September 2005, has evolved into a crisis of homelessness, unemployment, violent crime, and un-recovered insurance claims. It is a city in need of deep investment in infrastructure and community resources. It was frustrating to hear from people when I was there how millions of dollars of aid was in limbo because the city hadn’t made a decision on what to do about the Lower 9th Ward, the area of the city hit hardest by the hurricane and flooding. There were rumors about building a golf course or upscale condo complexes or a giant casino.I haven’t been able to find what the latest plans for the 9th Ward are, but came upon an interesting article about a project Brad Pitt and others are doing called Make It Right. The project is intended to spur rebuilding of homes in the Lower 9th Ward through investment in 150 green homes. Although the green building project with green design guru William McDonough got me fired up when I read about it this morning, I was a little surprised to see how the designs looked compared to the shotgun homes I saw during my visit:

Even still, I’m excited to see a forward-thinking initiative like this making progress and hope it continues.

About Josh

Josh Lynch works to bring people together for clean energy and green jobs. As Co-Founder of Energy Action Coalition, he was instrumental in building a diverse youth-led alliance that has become a force in U.S. politics. Serving as Campaign Manager for Green For All in 2008, he coordinated Green Jobs Now, the first national day of action for green collar jobs. In 2009 he led the Green Recovery For All Initiative, empowering low-income people and people of color to leverage stimulus dollars for green collar jobs and training. Josh graduated from the College of Wooster with a major in Philosophy. He now lives and works in Boston.

2 Responses to “Brad Pitt, William McDonough, and the Lower 9th Ward”

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1 Graham May 23rd, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Any time people take a real initative for the greater good it needs to be applauded there is too much emphasis in our media of hyping the negative and not enough on hyping the solutions. Keep up the good work.
2 JacobPM Jan 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am

My girlfriend visited and saw the flattened areas first hand. We’ve been behind the Pitt’s push to jump start the building again.

These people need properly built homes with working design to the best standards possible to keep this from happening again.