Poverty in the Deep South

21 February, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Our plan for today was a good one. Well, it was until we tried to find a parking spot in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras. We had been given some advice by the good folk at the Louisiana Travel Information Centre just over the border from Mississippi. All went well until we hit town. The streets were jammed. The carparks were full or outrageously priced and the traffic was near gridlock. We drove up and down Decatur Street for a good look about, but the horse and carriage rides and the cyclos became a bit too much for us and it was fairly clear from the numbers of people lining the street, that if we didn't move on we would soon be part of the parade!

Plan B. We had anticipated high prices and no vacancy signs in New Orleans, so we had pre-booked accommodation at Baton Rouge, an hour further west. So we figured on a nice quiet visit to the State Capitol and a stroll around town in downtown Baton Rouge. We had seen the thousands streaming towards New Orleans on the Interstate as we headed off. Were they in for a surprise! The city was already crammed to the gills and it was only early afternoon! Surely there couldn't be a soul left in Baton Rouge. When will we ever learn? There is a never-ending supply of people in the US! Baton Rouge was also having a Mardi Gras parade and it was packed. Well you can't win 'em all!

Over the past couple of days we have travelled in four states, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and now Louisiana. From the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana we crossed rapidly through Alabama and Mississippi. Both states have very short coast lines on the Gulf of Mexico. All four areas are fairly poor by US standards. Most of Florida is rather affluent, but the panhandle is much like Mississippi and Alabama. Mississippi is the poorest US state. The median household income is just below $38,000. In Alabama it is a little higher at $42,000. In comparison, Washington DC is $58,000 and New Jersey is $70,000. The US national median is $53,000. The Australian median income is $65,000. Given these figures, it is easy to see why many inner city areas in the Deep South are extremely run-down.

 While incomes in the South are low, it should be noted that costs of living are often low as well. Food and petrol are cheaper here than in the Northern and Western states. Housing is amazingly cheap, with average house prices in the $75,000 to $100,000 range. A second-hand, relatively new car is around $5000. Nevertheless, many families are obviously struggling.

We were shocked at the state of large areas of New Orleans. Nine years after Hurricane Katrina, whole neighbourhoods are still deserted. Houses are boarded-up. Rubbish blows through the streets and trees and vines are growing through and over houses. At every intersection in these poorer parts of New Orleans, beggars have staked out every corner. We did pass some new housing developments on the outskirts of the city, but for many of the city's residents, living condition are still extremely poor. It is a sobering contrast to the mammoth houses that line almost all of the Florida coast, just a couple of hundred kilometres to the east.

The enormous chasm that exists between the rich and the poor in America is simply a national shame.

 

 

23 February, Houston, Texas.

A glum, rainy day did nothing to enhance the miserable areas of Louisiana we drove through today. As much as we can, we drive local highways rather than the Interstates, to get a better feel for the country. Normally we stop at towns along the way and have a wander around the old downtown areas, or do a few laps of the back streets to look at local communities and neighbourhoods. Not today! Even on a good day, this area of central south Louisiana would have depressed us. A grinding poverty prevails throughout the area we crossed from Baton Rouge to the Texas border. Town after town revealed closed-up businesses and shuttered homes and trailers, covered in moss. We took very few photos, not because we felt threatened, but because we just felt we would be intruding and possibly embarrassing people. Again we kept asking ourselves, “How can this be, in the richest country on earth?”

We have travelled extensively in Asia and for a short while in South Africa and Morocco. Frankly, many of Asia’s poor live much more satisfying lives than the poor folk of the South. Their misery is closer to that of the ‘township’ dwellers of South Africa than many would imagine, possibly because, like the blacks of South Africa, the poor of America, black and white, live on the fringes of an affluent society, seeing all that others have, yet condemned to watch from the sidelines while more and more wealth is concentrated in the hands of the ‘Haves’.    

Our mood lightened somewhat as we crossed the Texas border. The sun came out and the vigour of the Lone Star State once again reminded us that America is many countries and we had just entered another of them.