After Hurricane Katrina, a lot of money went to rebuilding efforts in New Orleans, but the paths weren’t always easy to travel. New Orleans has always been a city built upon strong neighborhoods, each one distinct in important ways from all the others. This helps to make a vibrant city, to be sure, but it also makes large-scale redevelopment more complicated

The decisions that led to the closing of Charity Hospital, and the construction of a huge new medical complex in the Mid-City neighborhood was hugely unpopular with the residents, most of whom had been displaced by the storm and would be once again displaced by the construction project. You can read more about it here, but the short version is the phrase “closed-door decision to bulldoze a 25 block residential and business neighborhood” for the new facilities. Construction was delayed while that was worked out, mostly (from what I saw) in favor of the new hospitals.

There are a few of the old places still standing, including this one. I guess when you’re about the last one left, you may as well paint a sign on your roof, right?

New Orleans, Louisiana
photographed 1.8.2016