New Orleans getting younger and smarter

A challenging teaching environment
Adding to the challenges of teaching without basic provisions, Robertson was assigned to teach  a “full-inclusion” class of 20 students. In her case, that meant one of her students had cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair, two were autistic and one was blind. And she had no special education assistants.

“Sprinkled into that, were just normal kindergarten boys, testing their boundaries and getting into trouble, ” she says.

For many new teachers, it was too much to handle. Several of Robertson’s colleagues left before the school year ended. But those who stayed adjusted their expectations, then readjusted them again, and again.

“That realization that things aren't always so rose-colored is really disheartening. … But in the end, it hasn't changed the way I do my job. So now it's just part of my motivation to do something about it.”

Through DonorsChoose.org, Robertson was able to raise money to buy supplies for a listening center in her classroom, and is now eagerly preparing for her new students.

“I'm really invested in the school now," she says. "I feel like I'm part of a team now, and you don't want to let anyone on the team down.”

A professional cachet
For some, the city post-Katrina offers a professional cache they can’t get anywhere else.  Seth Rodewald Bates, a 26-year-old landscape architect, says his colleagues in other cities express envy when they hear about the work that’s being done. “People in Boston and New York, they feel like maybe they ought to be moving down here, too.”

Video   Big Easy 'a blank slate' Seth Rodewald Bates, a recent transplant to New Orleans from Baton Rouge, talks about the appeal of moving to the city in the midst of its recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Nightly News

Similarly, 25-year-old musician Varun Kataria came not just for the chance to contribute something to the city, but to be able to work with one of his longtime idols, Irvin Mayfield, a leading figure on the New Orleans jazz scene. “This is just such an adventurous place — it’s almost like a study-abroad experience, something that wouldn’t be possible anywhere else on the planet.”

Even those more typical of New Orleans “brain drain” prior to Katrina — kids who went to school at LSU or Tulane and left soon after — are finding reasons to return.

Rien Fertel, who grew up in nearby Lafayette, transferred to Tulane as a sophomore to be closer to his extended family. After graduating, he bought a small store that he managed near the Convention Center downtown and moved in upstairs. He knew it wasn’t something he’d want do forever, and when the storm hit, he took it as his cue to leave — a decision he still struggles with three years later.

“There was a lot of guilt,” he says. “My girlfriend says it was the right things to do. But I don’t know — it’s not like I could have saved my property. But just to see it for myself, live, not on TV, because maybe it wasn't as bad.”

Driven out, but bound to return
It was worse, as it turned out. Fertel’s property was destroyed and his car was stolen. Vandals had left behind nothing of his business except a mess for him to clean up. “I remember telling my parents at the time, ‘I hope my car gets some family far away from this horrible place. But now, months later, I miss that car.’”

Struggling to reconcile his sense of solidarity with the city while trying to accept his own losses, Fertel spent the next two years devouring books about New Orleans and the South. When Tulane offered him a fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in Southern history, he jumped at the opportunity. “It was a good fit,” he says. “I had needed and wanted to come back to New Orleans.”

But in a city that offers few guarantees, even recently committed residents are reluctant to make predictions about how long they’re likely to stay.

“I often wonder about this tidal wave of outside talent that's come down,” Fogarty says. “Not just foot soldiers, but all this outside expertise — the superintendent, the recovery director — for whom five years is a long time. Because this thing is going to be way longer than five years. What happens when outside influx starts to wane? What's going to happen 15 years from now?”

He can only hope that his experience will be shared by many other newcomers. “Hopefully, enough people will have fallen in love and stayed,” he says. “People who aren't so much outsiders anymore.”

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