“Back yo ass up man. How you tryna tell me we weren’t ten yards from the touchdown line?” This was the first sign of success that I found as I went out to observe young people in the Milneburg neighborhood. Milneburg is in the northern section of New Orleans, near Lake Pontchartrain, and it is bounded by Leon C. Simon Boulevard, Elysian Fields Avenue, Filmore Avenue, and Peoples Avenue. I had been riding my bike leisurely throughout the interior of the neighborhood, but it was not until I came to the intersection of Filmore and Music Street that I found anyone. The people playing football were a group of energetic teenagers on a field behind the old Milne Boys Home. The Milne Boys Home is a deserted, forlorn, yet impressive structure which once housed ‘delinquent’ boys and offered social service programs and athletics (Saulny)[1]. The building was damaged by flooding during Hurricane Katrina and has not been reopened yet. At one time, the giant expanse of open space surrounding Milne and the playground across the street might have been teeming with jubilant, playing children. Today, however, the sounds of the eight kids playing football and the quick succession of ‘wops’ from the bounce music in a passerby’s car were all that kept the field and playground from being engulfed in a sad silence.
