Aug. 27--Erika McConduit-Diggs has studied Hurricane Katrina from two distinct vantage points.
The first was from Interstate Highway 10 a decade ago when she, her spouse, kindergartner and large extended family fled New Orleans in several cars packed with their dogs and three days' worth of clothes. She was nine months pregnant.
The second has been from her job now as the president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. On Wednesday, the organization released its "State of Black New Orleans: 10 Years Post-Katrina" report and I got a chance to speak with McConduit-Diggs about New Orleans' recovery over the last decade.
She said that while the city has much to be proud of, the crux of the report focuses on issues of equity that have created clear winners and losers.
"The report isn't intended to take away from the progress the city has made," said McConduit-Diggs, 38, an attorney. "We want our city to be back and great and better than before. It's a collective sense of accomplishment when you consider the things we've been able to do since Katrina."
But, she said, you have to go beyond what's touted -- beyond the new and improved roads and levees and remodeled airport; beyond the shiny new hospitals, libraries and schools; beyond the commercial development and new housing stock.
A native New Orleanian, McConduit-Diggs said the city has long struggled with racial discrimination and disparities. Katrina made them harder to ignore.
One of the most sobering stats is New Orleans' child poverty rate. In 2005, 44 percent of black children under age 18 were living in poverty. Today it's more than 50 percent.
"When you dig deeper and talk about who benefited most from the recovery, you have to address this as well as the economics," she said.
Today, the median household income for African-American families in the city is $25,102. It's $60,553 for white households. Between 2005 and 2013, the median household income for whites increased 23 percent, but only 7 percent for blacks.
Other well-being indicators such as the unemployment rate are equally troubling. Fifty-two percent of the city's black men of working age don't have jobs.
"We have to figure out how to not only create economic opportunities, but provide technical skills so these men aren't coming in at entry level positions," McConduit-Diggs said.
She said many of the jobs that experts predict will be in high demand, such as those in oil and gas, digital and medical industries, will require technical skills that can be attained from either college or certificate programs.
As of 2013, "in New Orleans, 60 percent of the professional positions are held by whites, compared to 27 percent by blacks," she said. "If you're not able to access training for the higher-wage positions, you're creating a working-poor class."
One area that's been consistently lauded as a post-Katrina success is education. And, it's worthy of praise if you consider that the high school on-time graduation rate before the hurricane was 54 percent. In 2014, it was 73 percent.
"That's a gain and we have more students enrolling in college," said McConduit-Diggs. "Our challenge is that we haven't seen much growth around college-degree attainment."
Another bellwether is criminal justice.
In 2005, the average daily prison population was about 6,000 inmates, compared to about 1,900 now, she said. Although African-Americans represent 59 percent of New Orleans' population, down from 67 percent before the hurricane, they still make up more than 90 percent of the prison population.
"We haven't figured out how to address that disparity," said McConduit-Diggs. "Three out of four juveniles who are eligible to be tried as adults are. While we've decreased the prison population, we haven't figured out how to not over-imprison blacks."
She said that the city has seen positive trends in police-community relations as a result of the creation of an independent board that monitors the police. Also, a pretrial services program makes recommendations to judges regarding whether someone who has been arrested should be detained.
"We've made a significant difference in working to improve community-police relations," McConduit-Diggs said. "We know it's a big challenge. We're trying to move away from using arrests as a go-to crime reduction strategy."
After Katrina, about 100,000 blacks and 11,000 whites never returned to New Orleans. Since 2000, the Hispanic population has increased by 2.2 percent. That has affected the landscape in many ways.
"For example, it impacted the city in terms of political shifts and who was able to be elected to office," said McConduit-Diggs.
But the population numbers are also a reflection of who was able to fix and hold on to their property.
"We're 10 years later and a person stopped me today and wanted to talk to me about a battle with his insurance company," she said.
McConduit-Diggs realizes that when you look at the city from a different viewpoint, one that offers a more high-definition picture, the result is a hard but necessary dose of reality.
"We have significant challenges, but if you look at what we've done so far, you know we are a city committed to being here and being better," she said.
dmturner@tribpub.net
