Darryl Malek-Wiley was there. So was Pam Dashiell, "Mack" McClendon, the Rev. Willie Calhoun and other community leaders representing the Lower Ninth Ward. All in Washington, D.C. for this past week’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference – focused on solutions to environmental challenges to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.
The Times-Picayune ran a terrific piece in today’s paper on the Lower Ninth Ward contingent to this year’s event which also featured Lisa Jackson, the new USEPA Adminstrator (and a Lower 9 native):
"WASHINGTON – This time, residents of the Lower 9th Ward are worrying about being left high and dry.
An unprecedented torrent of federal spending will almost certainly be unleashed once the Obama administration economic stimulus package clears Congress in one form or another. But advocates for the Lower 9th Ward, which came to symbolize the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, are left to wonder how much will come its way.
'We keep hearing the rain is coming, the rain is coming; we just want to know where we put our cup to catch a few drops,' said Darryl Malek-Wiley of New Orleans, the Sierra Club's regional representative for environmental justice.
Malek-Wiley was part of a small delegation of advocates for the Lower 9th who came to Washington this week to participate in a national "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference. The contingent arrived with things they hope the stimulus package does not finance – like the Army Corps of Engineers' huge Industrial Canal lock project – and things they would like to see get a little money ¬– like the Global Green community development center along the Mississippi River in the Holy Cross neighborhood."
An unprecedented torrent of federal spending will almost certainly be unleashed once the Obama administration economic stimulus package clears Congress in one form or another. But advocates for the Lower 9th Ward, which came to symbolize the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, are left to wonder how much will come its way.
'We keep hearing the rain is coming, the rain is coming; we just want to know where we put our cup to catch a few drops,' said Darryl Malek-Wiley of New Orleans, the Sierra Club's regional representative for environmental justice.
Malek-Wiley was part of a small delegation of advocates for the Lower 9th who came to Washington this week to participate in a national "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference. The contingent arrived with things they hope the stimulus package does not finance – like the Army Corps of Engineers' huge Industrial Canal lock project – and things they would like to see get a little money ¬– like the Global Green community development center along the Mississippi River in the Holy Cross neighborhood."
Read all of “Lower 9th Ward advocates want share of stimulus”.
