{"id":150,"date":"2007-02-14T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-14T18:37:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-09-16T15:40:52","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T21:40:52","slug":"124","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/124","title":{"rendered":"The Avenue."},"content":{"rendered":"

I stumbled across a site today that is the home of a photographer who captures the historic architecture of St. Louis.\u00a0 He made a pass through New Orleans late in 2006 and did a pictorial architecture tour called On The Road In New Orleans<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

These photographs simultaneously made me more homesick than I have been in a year, and broke my heart.\u00a0 As I sat there scrolling through the images, I could tell you almost precisely where every one was taken, from which corner and what you would see if you turned your head left or right.\u00a0 I saw landmarks that I took for granted for over thirty years of my life.\u00a0 I saw pictures of a city that made my heart skip a beat for the longing to return and put down stakes again.<\/p>\n

Within most of these pictures, I saw destruction and decay.\u00a0 I saw a city that had been abandoned by all but the hearts of those who have no other choice than to stay and pick up what pieces they can \u2014 a city that care forgot.\u00a0 There were images to remind me why I choose not to go back, a city ravaged by crime, corruption and filth \u2014 plagues that existed before I was born but have been magnified and brought into sharp relief by a catastrophe.\u00a0 I fear every day for the health and safety of the family and friends who remain there.\u00a0 I wait for that call, the one to tell me someone I know has been robbed and killed, or hit by a stray bullet.\u00a0 I read the local news every day and wonder why they haven’t burned most of the city down and bulldozed the ashes flat to make way for a brighter future.<\/p>\n

New Orleans is where I was born and raised \u2014 it’s in my blood, heart and soul.\u00a0 I don’t know that I will ever return, though… certainly not for a very long while.\u00a0 But no matter where I live, no matter where I plant a flag and claim as my own, I’ll always be from<\/em> New Orleans.\u00a0 Like Fred LeBlanc says \u201cIt’s so hard to take this hurt and hide it on a shelf, it’s just cause I never want to be from somewhere else<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stumbled across a site today that is the home of a photographer who captures the historic architecture of St. Louis.\u00a0 He made a pass through New Orleans late in 2006 and did a pictorial architecture tour called On The Road In New Orleans. These photographs simultaneously made me more homesick than I have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","category-reflection"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmentd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}