A drive through eastern New Orleans can be thoroughly depressing. Abandoned businesses with shattered signs and homes with punched-out windows line silent streets.
It can be difficult for outsiders to get their bearings in this part of the city because there has been no concerted effort to replace many of the street signs that Hurricane Katrina ripped away.
All that changes, though, in the neighborhood surrounding Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church. Cars line the streets, homes are occupied, and 3,000 people show up for Mass on Sundays.
"I would say that we’re about 65 percent returned," said the Rev. Vien The Nguyen, the church’s pastor and the de facto leader of the city’s heavily Catholic Vietnamese community.
"We do have a plan," he said. "Our plan is to return, reclaim, rebuild."
And, like people in other recovering neighborhoods, the residents of the area known as Village de l’Est aren’t waiting for any government group to produce a plan of action.
"We are libertarians in a sense," Nguyen, 42, said. "Our request for the government is to get out of the way. If you offer us help, we appreciate that, but don’t impede us."
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