A visit to Our School at Blair Grocery, which hopes to empower the youth of New Orleans through food and sustainability In the syrupy charm of New Orleans’s Garden District or the debauchery of the French Quarter, you might think the city has recovered from the trauma of Katrina, Streetcars are running, music is playing, and tourists have stumbled back with beads on. But in the poorest part of the city, which also happens to be the lowest part, it’s a different story. Nearly six years on, only 20 percent of pre-hurricane residents have returned to the Lower Ninth Ward. Citywide, the same percentage of residents had returned only four months after the storm. Christian Adams, 18, told me he has no idea what happened to most of his friends and former neighbors.