Oral history interview with Ira Padnos and Shmuela Padnos, May 30, 2006 interview U-0249, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Summary: Anesthesiologist and professor Ira Padnos discusses his perspective on New Orleans and his work with the Mystic Knights of Mau Mau, a secret society dedicated to bringing attention to roots music. He came to New Orleans for the climate and culture and describes how his neighborhood has evolved. After Hurricane Katrina, few of the hospitals and clinics reopened, and those that provided care to the poor were still closed at the time of the interview. He believes that the poor's access to health care is improving but that it is happening too slowly. Ira describes some of the other ways his own personal work routine has changed as a result of the storm. He also discusses his cultural concerns, specifically his involvement in the Mystic Knights and the Ponderosa Stomp, a music festival celebrating the artists the Mystic Knights find. He believes that music holds the power for revolution. Ira describes the first time he saw the damage done to the city, and Shmuela describes how slowly the city is recovering. The levees, for instance, still are not strong enough. The Padnoses are also concerned about the direction reconstruction will take. The problems with the levee system have been developing for years, and Shmuela does not believe that anything substantial will be done to correct the city's problems with crime, education, health care, poverty and employment. She discusses the problems with finding loans for rebuilding and says that race is still a problem. Ira does not believe the city will ever return to what it was, but he does hope that the people will return so that the depth of the culture will return because the city, he notes, is more than Mardi Gras. For that to happen, he says, issues such as affordable housing must be addressed. He believes that some of the problems have gone unnoticed because the media has politicized the news, and politics also determined how the federal government responded after the storm.

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