CUNA block captains and volunteers participated in a neighborhood cleanup on Sat. August 5 to beautify our area and the results were fantastic! Leaves and trash were removed from the storm drains, litter was picked up, and unkempt, abandoned lawns were mowed. The reward for our efforts? A shrimp boil and the camaraderie of our neighbors.

As stated in the Sunday, July 30 edition of the New York Times:

There may be no clearer indication that the people of this city have taken the recovery into their own hands than the homemade street signs in the Claiborne-University area. Along Nashville Avenue, the signs, made mostly from scraps of wood and debris, announce Rocheblave, Tonti, Galvez and Miro Streets with the decorative flair of flowers and stars. Such homemade signs can be found all around the city.

Residents said they were tired of waiting for the city to reinstall the signs, and tired of feeling that their addresses did not matter. Contractors were getting lost. Deliveries were not being made.

“No one pursued City Hall after a certain amount of time, so we decided to be creative,” said Nicole Dufour, a member of the Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association. “We don’t know when we’ll have real signs, so people are banding together and taking things into their own hands.”

They are also planting trees in public spaces and cleaning their neighbors’ yards.

“If you want people to populate the city and help make a new New Orleans, you’ve got to help yourself,” said Kenyatta Hills, who recently returned from Atlanta. “If the place looks like Katrina just hit it, who’s going to want to come back home?”