Brad Pitt's Kingdom of Pink

This REALLY has nothing to do with Habitat but it's an interesting project nonetheless. It helps raise money to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward, uses environmentally responsible construction methods and materials and attempts to call attention to the plight of the Lower Ninth. No one who watched Babel will be surprised to see Brad trying to integrate things that are completely unrelated. While all of the things he's trying to do are pretty sensible, it's hard not to get a little confused trying to figure out what this Christo-esque art project next to the Mississippi River has to do with putting the Lower Ninth back together.

What is clear is that the Lower Ninth got screwed several times over. These were homes that had been in families for multiple generations. The neighborhood was home to a vibrant and stable community of color that had deep roots in the city. The Mardi Gras indians were all from the Lower Ninth. As one New Orleans shopkeeper explained to me, New Orleans is a true melting pot because it's a smaller city. While New York is a city of enclaves, New Orleans is a city where the races come together more often. She went on to explain how most of them lived paycheck to paycheck and the flood hit just before payday and most of them didn't even have enough to catch a bus out of town.

Another Ninth Ward resident was almost in tears telling me how much the old neighborhood meant to him and how after failing to protect it from the river the government was trying to pretend it never existed by turning it into green space. For the Lower Ninth, the hits just keep on coming.

So in that context, trying to bring attention to the neighborhood and stepping in before the government or the developers do is more cagy than it looks at first glance. Granted, solar power and green construction materials are irrelevant to people who have lost their home and their sense of place but overall the project is worth a look.