"Jungleland" or LEED Platinum Land? (via Storify)

"Jungleland" or LEED Platinum Land? The Lower 9th Ward Struggles Toward a Sustainable Future

The recent NY Times Magazine cover story, "Jungleland", explored how New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward continues its slow, often painful recovery nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina - with abandoned lots, blighted housing and stray pets reclaiming some of the most hard-hit areas.

Storified by Green ArchiTEXT · Sun, Apr 08 2012 15:24:44

The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ...Mar 21, 2012 ... Jungleland. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ' Urban Growth'. Andrew Moore/European Pre...

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Lower 9th Ward has evolved unique ecology, New York Times reportsBy The Times-Picayune The cover story in the New York Times magazine this week is about the Lower 9th Ward and the oddball ecology it has...

This story, and its focus on the continued takeover by nature of block after empty block where 1,500 people died, the homes, churches and businesses long bulldozed away, and where many evacuees still live in Houston, Birmingham, Atlanta or other parts of the city, struck a chord throughout the U.S. and beyond...

RT @jcheiffetz: In case you missed it, Nathaniel Rich's stunning NYTM piece on New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, "Jungleland" http://nyti.ms/GOPfY4 #longreadsAmy Thompson

Weird piece about Lower Ninth, with a Hitchcockian finish (birds, birds, birds). Aliens who land on Planet New Orleans either a) see things with new eyes that the locals have left in the nostalgia bins or at the corner bar or buried under something somewhere, b) become New Orleanians as soon as the soil covers their shoes, or c) remain completely clueless (although, to be fair, I remain completely clueless about this city even after ??? years here-except to know that time is irrelevant here, of course). I have no idea where this article falls.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/the-lower-ninth-ward-new-orleans.html?scp=1&sq=jungleland%20lower%20ninth&st=cseDean Thomas Ellis

And a number of measured responses - and plenty of outrage in print, on line and on the airwaves - about the way the Lower 9 is still depicted so long after this disaster...

Jungleland or Grassroots Recovery? The Lower Ninth Ward as a ...Mar 28, 2012 ... Tom Wooten is the author of We Shall Not Be Moved: Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina, forthcoming this summer fro...

Sustain the NineNathaniel Rich described weeds, bushes and trees growing at former homesites in the Lower 9th Ward. Fair enough in the NY Times in his ...

April 2012 - Sustain the Nine3 days ago ... WBOK's Crosstown Conversations: On "Jungleland" & the Real Story of the Lower 9th Ward. Crosstown Conv...

What Cities Looking to Shrink Can Learn From New OrleansThat singular place is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, skeptics assumed the worst. Officially, the city did...

Jungleland - NYTimes.com1 day ago ... For those who say that the Lower Ninth Ward shouldn't have been ... on page MM 10 of the Sunday Magazine with the head...

jungleland | Tumblr“Jungleland: The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ' Urban Growth'”, the cover story of the New York Times ma...

For Encouragement and Pondering"Jungleland: The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning 'Urban Growth'." In New York Times Magazine. 1 lik...

Rich's detailed piece on the Lower 9's current state describes a state of wildness mixed with illegal dumping throughout these historic neighborhoods still trying to return. Yet he misses (on purpose?) an array of encouraging developments over the last 6+ years that would astound most visitors. Brad Pitt's amazing Make It Right project continues to expand - now totalling 76 green, affordable, LEED Platinum homes - only blocks from "Jungleland".

Aerial America - Rebuilding New Orleanssmithsonianchannel

A LEED Platinum/LIving Building high school has been proposed on the [bulldozed] site of the old Alfred Lawless High School property...also in "Jungleland". And the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) has erected an incredible platform into Bayou Bienvenue - a cypress tupelo wetlands now undergoing a restoration that will take decades and provide a natural hurricane barrier for residents in the future.

The Cypress Graveyard - Restoring the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland TriangleUWNOLA

Bayou Bienvenue, NOLAdelrandall

"Apartment Complex"Lower9CSED

Back towards the Mississippi River, to the south, community gardens, community centers and returning churches are spreading throughout the rest of the Lower 9th Ward. Global Green's Holy Cross Project - the first Brad Pitt effort in the Lower 9 - represents five more LEED Platinum, affordable houses...ready for occupancy, next to a new Global Green designed and built community center.

Help Holy Cross: Holy Cross Project: A Look InsideMay 17, 2008 ... The Front Room ALL PHOTOS: Ariane Wiltse Global Green's Holy Cross Project unveiled on Thursday features sustainab...

#NewOrleans friends: Our Holy Cross Project is part of the Louisiana Solar Energy Society #Solar Tour http://bit.ly/GSfu2nGlobal Green USA

Thanks to ongoing efforts by CSED, GreenLight New Orleans, the Alliance for Affordable Energy and the all-volunteer group Historic Green, the Lower 9's Holy Cross Neighborhood boasts the largest concentration of some of the most energy-efficient historic properties in the nation. Still a work in progress, via radiant barriers, weatherization measures, even a few rooftop solar panels, yet the groundwork is being laid.

Historic GreenHistoric Green assists and leads in the transformation and restoration of under-resourced communities through education and service and w...

"Jungleland"? Sure, there's much work to be done. But this is also "LEED Platinum Land", with the highest concentration of LEED Platinum homes in the U.S., in North America, even the world.

This is also a community that's teaching the rest of us how to change, to embrace our past, and to live courageously in a more sustainable world - block by block, resident by resident...even with a the overgrown lots, snakes, tires and stray pets thrown in.