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"They see in Hispanic media the opportunity to promote their business," she said. Murphy runs the newspaper out of a convenience store called La Prieta. Spanish and English services at Iglesia Cristiana Pentecostal, a congregation down the street that opened after the storm, draw about 200 people. Windsor Semexant Jr. came here from Orlando, Fla., after the storm in search of drywall work and stayed to be the church's pastor. Men like Semexant helped Gerald Cannon, a Loyola University art professor, rebuild his home in the Venetian Isles community after it was wrecked by an 18-foot wall of water. Cannon said migrant workers did more to renew his neighborhood than did any government official. "We learned that institutions are absolutely helpless, from the federal government on down," he said. "They didn't do anything but mark up my home, make a big stink about things and create an inordinate number of problems." Murphy said the new arrivals, including a second wave of workers seeking oil spill cleanup jobs, have left an indelible mark on the area. "This is the new New Orleans life," she said. ___ Most days, Danielle Posey wants to be anywhere but B.W. Cooper. The public housing complex in New Orleans reopened in 2006, but part of it has been razed. Posey, a tenant before and after the storm, wishes they would finish the job. "They need to tear down these buildings," said Posey, who yearns to move herself and her four kids to the suburbs. "I was better off before the storm than now," the 31-year-old says.
The fate of public housing has been the subject of heated debate since Katrina. Many who lived there considered them a stain on the city long before the storm. Yet in December 2007, New Orleans police officers clashed outside City Hall with a group of demonstrators protesting demolition plans for some of the complexes. Like Posey, Jacqueline Green had to be rescued by boat from B.W. Cooper after the storm flooded 80 percent of New Orleans. Four months ago, the 67-year-old moved back into the complex from a nursing home. Plagued by medical problems, she has trouble caring for herself and relies on neighbors to bring her food because she can't stand up long enough to cook. "This place here, it can take your pride," she said. "It's a roof over your head, keeping you from sleeping on the street, under a bridge." Even Posey doesn't regret moving back to the city. "This is home," she said. "Might not be much of a home, but it's our home." ___ Basil Kennedy calls it the "Katrina Krud," those sudden crying jags, fits of anger or mental blocks that take hold without warning. Kennedy said he recently caught himself looking in a closet for a tool he knew had been washed away by the storm. Kennedy and his wife, Weezie, have every reason to be happy now. Last October, they finished rebuilding their waterfront home in Bay St. Louis, Miss. "Our life is about as back to normal as it could possibly be," he said. "There are a lot of other people who are a long ways from back to normal." Weezie Kennedy is all smiles as she gives a tour of her new house, but her voice cracks and she sobs when she recalls meeting a group of college students who gave up their spring breaks to help Bay St. Louis residents rebuild. When the Kennedys poured the foundation for their new home, several of those students scrawled their names in the concrete foundation. "That's the most wonderful thing about the storm, all of the people that came down to help us," Kennedy said, wiping away tears. "You just couldn't believe the generosity." The couple flirted with the idea of moving to North Carolina or Oxford, in north Mississippi, but never seriously considered leaving. "Bay St. Louis is our home. It's God's country," Weezie Kennedy said. "We're back. We're here. We're not going anywhere."
[Associated
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