Fortified by a delicious lunch of red beans and rice, I took the bus down to the Lower Ninth Ward, to see for myself the devastation. Some progress has been made, most notably the homes constructed through the efforts of Brad Pitt and his buddies, but scars run deep here, and as the bus driver noted, the next storm will top the same levees. There are so many abandoned homes and weed covered vacant lots, the poverty so evident, that I don't see how it can ever recover. It would be one thing if it were just the Ninth Ward that was so impacted, but from the bus on the way back downtown I saw neighborhood after neighborhood of abandoned and distressed properties. A very sad afternoon in contrast to the incessant gaiety of the French Quarter.
