Rebuilding New Orleans benefiting few Ten years after Katrina, residents still see racial politics in city’s image

President Obama will visit New Orleans Thursday to mark the city’s progress on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but most black residents say the government-funded recovery still hasn’t reached them.

On his visit, the president intends “to celebrate the remarkable revival of an American city,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. In a speech, Mr. Obama also will touch on the need to combat climate change to lessen the severity of such storms.

“This is, once again, a thriving, exciting place to live and do business,” Mr. Earnest said. “In the mind of the president, this is an indication of what communities can do when they band together. And they had the strong support of the federal government as the people of New Orleansand the people of Louisiana, and either party, would readily tell you.”

But a majority of blacks in New Orleans, 59 percent, said in a poll released this week that the city has “mostly not recovered.” Despite the federal government having spent more than $100 billion on rebuilding the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast since 2005, most black residents in New Orleans “feel life in the city has gone downhill since then,” said the survey by Louisiana State University.

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