Quote:
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Because New Orleans was one of the nation's poorest cities, where more than one in four residents lives below the poverty level, many of the victims were still found in neighborhoods that were impoverished by national standards. But by the standards of New Orleans, those neighborhoods were economically stable, and deaths citywide were distributed with only a slight bias for economic status.
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For me, that paragraph says a lot more than it's saying. I'm a little shocked that this is a side-note.
The middle-class in New Orleans would have been lower-middle or downright poor in most other cities. Ever go to to pre-Katrina NOLA? The poverty there was incredible, like nothing I've ever seen anywhere else. The worst neighborhood in any city I've ever lived in is like a happy, clean suburb compared to the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans. It was absolutely shocking. The average NOLA family's neighborhood would be comperable to my home town's worst neighborhoods.
So, no I'm not particularly surprised that the death cut across social strata (though the article says that over half were in the poorest neighborhoods). It's just that those strata started a lot lower than most everywhere else.
I really hope that Katrina's legacy is a wake-up call about poverty in this country. It's a way bigger problem than we've known.