I have spent every day walking the blocks of Hollygrove, the neighborhood where we are living and working. The city of New Orleans has not conducted any census since Katrina, so TCC is surveying hundreds of blocks on its own, in an effort to create a database that will show how many houses are still standing, how many have been renovated, how many are gutted, blighted, etc. We set out with a clipboard, a map showing each city block and its street addresses, a questionnaire to be filled out about each property, and a digital camera.
When we get to a property we take four pictures and fill out the questionnaire that identifies the type and size of the h
ouse, its current condition, whether a resident is present, and any other salient information. We don’t knock on doors. But not a single block goes by without someone coming out to share a story. After a day or two I learned that one resident on a block can tell you about most of the houses on that block. So what I had originally recorded as just an empty, gutted property, I now know is a house whose owner died, and that the son of the owner lives out of state and hasn’t come home to claim his family’s house. When I visited another house, a woman came out, pulled a chair onto her porch, sat down, and said, “So, what’s going on?” ready to spend a moment or an afternoon.
I came here thinking that I would spend a day surveying and then most of the week building, which I find very satisfying. But I can’t stop surveying. Every morning I think about who’s out there with a story to share, ready to teach me something about this city and the power of the human spirit.
When we get to a property we take four pictures and fill out the questionnaire that identifies the type and size of the h
ouse, its current condition, whether a resident is present, and any other salient information. We don’t knock on doors. But not a single block goes by without someone coming out to share a story. After a day or two I learned that one resident on a block can tell you about most of the houses on that block. So what I had originally recorded as just an empty, gutted property, I now know is a house whose owner died, and that the son of the owner lives out of state and hasn’t come home to claim his family’s house. When I visited another house, a woman came out, pulled a chair onto her porch, sat down, and said, “So, what’s going on?” ready to spend a moment or an afternoon.I came here thinking that I would spend a day surveying and then most of the week building, which I find very satisfying. But I can’t stop surveying. Every morning I think about who’s out there with a story to share, ready to teach me something about this city and the power of the human spirit.
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