Overview

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is one of the darkest chapters is American history. A toxic combination of government neglect and socioeconomic inequality turned a crisis into a tragedy. The storm completely transformed one of the most beloved cities in America, leaving nearly 80 percent of New Orleans flooded and damaging 134,000 housing units, causing unprecedented destruction. The response to Katrina is a topic of unending debate and anger. But out of the rubble, there is hope. Watching coverage of the hurricane on television in 2005, noted urbanist and veteran journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz knew that the best chance for the city's recovery came from the people who would return to New Orleans. She also knew that she wanted to see for herself how the city would respond. Two years later, after having made several trips to the area and written several articles, Gratz bought a house in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans and immersed herself in the life of the city. We're Still Here Ya Bastards presents an unprecedented panoramic look at New Orleans' recovery in the years following the hurricane. From the Lower Ninth Ward to the storied French Quarter, Gratz shares the stories of people who returned to their homes and have taken the rebuilding of their city into their own hands. An internationally renowned urban critic, Gratz shows how the city is recovering despite erroneous governmental policies that serve private interests rather than the public good. By telling stories that are often ignored by the mainstream media, We're Still Here Ya Bastards shows the strength and resilience of a community that continues to work to rebuild New Orleans.

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9781568585000

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Reviews

Gratz provides a moving chronicle of the efforts of real people to rebuild their battered city in the face of bad engineering, cynical politicians, incompetent bureaucrats and greedy developers. It frames the challenges urban revitalization, inequality and gentrification in a smart and nuanced way. This book is an absolute must read for anyone who cares about the future of our communities and nation. --Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and professor at NYU Roberta Gratz knows as much about the way cities work as anyone alive. In We're Still Here Ya Bastards she turns her sharp, experienced eye on New Orleans, post-Katrina, and delivers a lucid assessment of the city's stunning progress as well as its chronic, sometimes toxic, problems. Drawing on a broad variety of voices, this is a valuable addition to the growing body of literature about this most complex and beautiful city. --Tom Piazza, author of Why New Orleans Matters and City of Refuge No major American event of this century has generated so much myth as the 2005 flooding of New Orleans. Roberta Gratz tackles these assumed truths with two essential tools: the tenacity of an old-style journalist and the devotion of a Jane Jacobs-style urbanist. She chronicles the city's improbable and unpredicted recovery, without the dubious help of big plans, a recovery that, like her reporting, was and is literally ground-up. Most important to me, she writes not only with understanding, but with deep affection for this incomparable city. --Harry Shearer Do we need another Katrina book? No. Not just any book. We need this one. Whether the subject is education, healthcare, urban development or environmental preservation, Roberta Gratz has masterfully assembled a chorus of New Orleans voices to tell the story of their city. This book is a clarion call to the nation and the world. --Lolis Eric Elie, story editor, HBO's Treme After the Katrina and BP oil-spill disasters, officials in New Orleans only made matters worse through incompetence and self-dealing. It took the unelected citizenry to rise up and put things right. It's a hell of a story, painstakingly reported and recounted here in stirring detail. --John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil What happens when one of the United States's urban treasures is damaged, seemingly beyond repair? How does the nation respond--and what does the response tell us of the state of the union? We're Still Here Ya Bastards brings to life the immediacy of the struggles to rebuild New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If you have wondered what has happened in the decade since television cameras recorded the drowning of a great American city--from the Ninth Ward to Lakeview, from the French Quarter and Treme through Uptown and Mid-City--Roberta Gratz's page-turning account is for you. As a native New Orleanian, I am grateful to her for uncovering these critical histories. --Leslie Harris, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, Emory University A great American story: how people who love New Orleans keep saving it, and big money and bad government keep screwing it over. --Roy Blount Jr., author of Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans New Orleanians don't often light out for the territories. So there was no question of their returning from mandatory exile to this semi-ruined city and rebuilding from the ground up. As Roberta Gratz shows in this brilliant book, it was their grassroots activism, reinforced by cadres of voluntourists who came for a week then decided to stay put, that has been bringing this storied town back from disaster. --Lawrence N. Powell, author of The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans Roberta Gratz is America's most innovative urban chronicler of our time. If you really want to know the true story of New Orleans after Katrina, you must read her thorough account of one of America's devastating natural disasters. --Laurie Beckelman, cultural consultant and former Chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Disaster, even terrible disaster, can also be an opportunity. A decade after Hurricane Katrina, Roberta Gratz offers a sharp take on what a recovering New Orleans got right -- and wrong. Her assessment is sure to provoke debate. But no one who cares about 'The City that Care Forgot' can ignore this detailed and deeply humane report. --Jed Horne, author of Desire Street and Breach of Faith Roberta Gratz' collage of post-Katrina New Orleans sparkles with stunning and sometimes controversial insights. Written with grace and deep feeling, she takes Jane Jacobs' heritage into new territory and confirms the author's status as our leading urbanist. --S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University We're Still Here Ya Bastards is a colorful, authoritative account of how the unsung people of New Orleans -- instead of inept Federal agencies, crooked local 'leaders' and soulless developers -- refused to let a great American city die. --Curtis Carter Wilkie, co-author of City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina In this powerful book, Roberta Brandes Gratz turns her deep understanding of the work of Jane Jacobs into an astonishing account of how imaginative community activists like Jacobs emerge and grow in the wake of a disaster like Katrina. In virtually every domain of urban life--in housing, health care, education, economic development, and environmental protection--she discovers New Orleanians whose diagnosis of the problems and alternatives to the solutions are vastly more creative and effective than all the politicians, bureaucrats, and professionals who have dominated our television screens. That we have heard little or nothing about these people says much about our distrust of democracy. A masterpiece of reportage and analysis! --Richard Rabinowitz, Phd, President, American History Workshop Ten years after the flooding of New Orleans, the city is still recovering. A street-level portrait of the people who came back to rebuild their homes, We're Still Here Ya Bastards illustrates how the tight-knit communities of the Crescent City are reclaiming their city -- in spite of the so-called experts, predatory free-marketeers, and government bureaucrats. --Josh Neufeld, author of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

Author Information

Roberta Brandes is an acclaimed urbanist who has published three previous books on the subject, including most recently The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. Her writing has also appeared in the Nation, New York Times Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. She previously served on the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission and currently sits on the Sustainability Advisory Board for NYC. She splits her time between New York City and New Orleans.

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