What happens in this area will make New Orleans prosperous and strong financially or else it will cause the city to strangulate itself,” he wrote. “Undeveloped it is a chain around the city’s neck…. This area to the east is not a mirage. It will not go away if you ignore it. It will stay and haunt you if you do not start thinking of it as a part of the city.
-- Anonymous Letter Writer (Movement I: VII)

Importance: This quote is taken from a letter that was written by an anonymous resident of New Orleans East after Hurricane Betsy in 1965. This quote highlights the fact that New Orleans East is a neglected part of the city. Furthermore, it prophesizes the danger of that the neglect and underscores the ways in which the various parts of New Orleans are all interconnected and interdependent. This quote from 1965 also foreshadows the further degradation of New Orleans East that...