Análisis de la demanda de piña deshidratada

Steve and Sarah moved to Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish because of Steve’s job. After the storm,

Steve’s employer had him re-assigned temporarily to Baton Rouge, drawing them toward the western side

of the metro area so they could both be near now-scattered family on the South Shore and still keep

Steve’s job. Sarah had a job in Harahan on the South Shore, west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish.

Their family had migrated mostly to Harahan and neighboring Kenner on the South Shore. They needed

their salaries, but they also wanted to be near family. To be near family, they could have relocated to the

South Shore. Steve’s commute would have been just a little longer, but there was another reason for

moving north of Lake Pontchartrain. After seeing the high-water mark on the Chalmette Wal-Mart on TV,

Steve and Sarah knew that their home was under water. They never wanted that to happen again, and it

pushed them north to Hammond. It was the pace, not “busy” like Baton Rouge, but more like St. Bernard,

and some nearby friends who had pushed them to select Hammond after considering briefly a move to a

nearby community that did not have friends nearby. Sarah, once eager to move to the other community

closer to Baton Rouge, found Hammond advantageous for reasons other than the acceptable commute. It

provided her peace of mind and reminded her of Arabi.

It would be far away from floods. And then some friends of mine we went to visit in Hammond and when we drove around I really liked Hammond. It’s small. It’s a small little community. It wasn’t that far from Kenner, where we could meet up with family.

In my survey, I asked respondents about both their employment and the shifts in their employers’

location. Changing employment was common both among returners and relocaters. As shown in Figure

8.6, just 31.3 percent of all survey respondents maintained the same employment after Hurricane Katrina,

and more than twice as many of the respondents who relocated (28.9 percent) than those who returned

(12.9 percent) who worked prior to the storm no longer work. Some, such as Maria, who moved with her

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Picayune and Jennifer’s father in Covington have been unable to find work after Katrina and thus, their

move to the North Shore is a move to cheaper or rental housing based on necessity due to unemployment.

Figure 8.6 Survey Responses about Post-Katrina Employment

With businesses and residences both impacted heavily on the South Shore, even maintaining

employment could mean a different commute as employers also opted to relocate. Such was the case for

Steve who went from driving in to New Orleans to driving to Baton Rouge (and eventually Hammond

after a transfer). Even when a job maintained its location, the relocation of residents could create a

commute that was too cumbersome. Jennifer, who moved to Madisonville with her husband and two sons,

returned to her job in Harahan on the South Shore after a short stay in Houston. Soon after, the cross-lake

commute motivated a change in her job. She went to work for her sister in their newly opened insurance

office in Mandeville, which replaced the offices that they lost in Slidell and Chalmette.

I continued to work in Harahan, but the commute was getting to me with the kids. I had to get home to get them. My employer was good to me. They worked with me, and they were able to let me off at 2 to go get them. But the commute was getting to me, so after we bought our house, I quit.

Situations such as this may explain why a much larger (74.9 percent) of relocating respondents to the

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returning respondents (55.6 percent), as shown in Figure 8.7. In Steve’s situation, his employer moved his

position, and in Jennifer’s the long commute motivated her to change her employer.

Figure 8.7 Survey Responses about Locations of Post-Katrina Employment

Employees changed locations and commutes and made decisions based on where their jobs were

located. Conversely, some businesses followed their owners to the North Shore. This phenomenon has

been observed in the development of ethnic enclaves and social communities (Castells 2002; Levine

1979). These businesses and services, especially in the case of tight-knit St. Bernardians, can be more

than places of business. They can be gathering places, where members of social networks interact. They

can provide familiar territory for relocated St. Bernardians, and also serve as markers of the incoming

group’s arrival to the destination community (Castells 2002; Levine 1979; Sibalis 2004). Studies that

have investigated this phenomenon have often used more contrasting examples, such as Korean-language

groceries, and gay bars. However, territory can be marked more subtly from social groups. Businesses

have even been demonstrated to follow immigrant groups as they move from inner-cities to suburban

areas (Logan et al. 2002).

Smaller businesses that are locally owned or managed were often as impacted by the catastrophe as

local residences. Relocating proprietors like Brian, whose family owned three restaurants in St. Bernard

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where he re-opened one of his restaurants. I have identified at least 35 St. Bernard Parish businesses that

relocated to the North Shore via information from local residents and telephone listings for both 2005 and

2011, as shown in Figure 8.8. Many of these businesses had functions in addition to making money.

Brian’s restaurant both in Chalmette and Covington serves up more than food; it continues to serve as a

valuable social hangout for St. Bernardians on the North Shore. Brian had moved, but it was not just his

change in zip code that motivated business location. He knew he needed a change of venue to maintain

his bottom line. He’d spent the early months after Katrina feeding refinery workers in Meraux, and he did

not find the pace of recovery reassuring.

From a business perspective there was no coming back. My customer base was gone. Emotionally, I wanted to go back, but it wasn’t the best decision for my business. The demographics had changed, and we had people here (on the North Shore). There was good demographics for our business here, and a good customer base. … There was a large percentage of Chalmette people already here when we opened. What we were seeing is that our Chalmette friends -- friends, customers, regulars – would be coming in and bringing eight new people that we’d never seen before. My clients brought in new customers because they’d see that we were here, and they’d suggest to their new friends that it was a good place to go. Every day we’d see someone we knew, but they’d be with new people, so the business really grew from there.

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Figure 8.8 Map of St. Bernard Parish Businesses

that Relocated to St. Tammany Parish

Kristin in Madisonville is one such return patron who crossed the lake and still has lunch at Brian’s

restaurant whenever she can. Back in Chalmette, she was familiar with Brian, and with his civic

interaction in the Parish. His diner provided honor roll students in St. Bernard with discounts. Kristin and

her family always used their children’s discounts for family dinners after parades. Brian and his brother

also owned a diner and a coffee shop in St. Bernard. Both are gone, and so id Kristin’s family tradition.

Kristin not only dines at Brian’s restaurant in Covington, “every opportunity I have to go.” Kristin is

preparing should Brian expand his endeavors on the North Shore like he had in St. Bernard. Having

evacuated with her key ring reward card for his family’s coffee shop still on her keys, she’s keeping it

there just in case Brian re-opens on the North Shore. She shows it to him and asks him to re-open every

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Perhaps the most legendary culinary landmark in St. Bernard Parish is a restaurant on St. Bernard

Highway named Rocky and Carlo’s. Back quickly after the storm serving its signature baked macaroni

and cheese, “Wop” Salad and Italian favorites, North Shore residents would not find Rocky and Carlo’s,

but they would find the restaurant of an actual cousin, complete with a familiar menu of favorites. Deacon

Peter, who lives in Tangipahoa Parish still finds businesses holding St. Bernardians together. It is not the

common menu, but the common faces and friendly atmosphere that today, and in the past, makes St.

Bernard restaurants social institutions.

Rocky and Carlo’s while the food is good, what makes it important is the people who go there. It’s not the food. Here in Covington, they have a restaurant called [Nunzio’s], and [Nunzio’s] is family to Rocky and Carlo’s and so they have the same menu. You know when I go in there -- sometimes I go in there with some of the local nuns once or twice a year -- and we never have to pay because everyone knows us. And I go there once or twice a year. I don’t know them. They know us from, well, everybody knows everybody.