Vietnam to Louisiana

Click here to see suggested turn-by-turn directions and stop info for this 29 mile route.

Turn by turn directions can be found here: https://goo.gl/maps/n3VvQqTViYn6eLs87

Stop 1: 2 Oaks Apartments

200,000 Vietnamese refugees fled their homeland after the Fall of Saigon and the end of Vietnamese war in 1975. 200 families arrived in New Orleans later that summer. Half of them moved to this building, called the Versailles Arms Apartments, starting the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East. The other half moved into the Kingstown Apartments in Marrero.

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Stop 2: Mary Queen of Vietnam Church

Built in 1983 in what is now known as Village de l’Est, Mary Queen of Vietnam established the first Vietnamese parish in the country.

This is the home of Tet – Feast of the First Morning of the First Day – the Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival in February.

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Stop 3: Veggi Farmers Cooperative

VEGGI was established following the BP oil spill in 2010. When many community members lost their jobs as a result of the spill, VEGGI was developed to provide sustainable economic opportunities in urban agriculture.

In late 2011, they trained 12 community members to utilize aquaponics and greenhouse technology and provided microgrants so they could build systems to grow fresh, quality produce.
www.veggifarmcoop.com

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Stop 4: MQVN Community Development Corporation

Katrina decimated not just houses, cars, businesses and infrastructure in the east. This included closing two hospitals and the lack of basic retail services that once thrived. Due to the extent of the damage in the region and the relatively low population in the east, this area didn’t receive resources as quickly as other parts of the city.

Mary Queen Viet Nam Community Development Corporation (MQVN CDC) helped Vietnamese-Americans in New Orleans East rebuild.. MQVN CDC initially provided emergency relief to 3000 Vietnamese-New Orleanians. They developed a trailer site encompassing 199 homes. They organized residents rebuilding the New Orleans East.

More recently, MQVN established a community plan based on what community members wanted in the redeveloping community. Today they work on issues including health care, environment and agriculture, education, housing, social services, economic development, and culture and the arts.
www.mqvncdc.org

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Stop 5: Dong Phuong Bakery

Cause you’re gonna get hungry.
In 1982, De Tran and Huong Tran opened Dong Phuong, one of the area’s first Vietnamese bakeries. Dong Phuong means “East” and exemplifies how the Vietnamese community has become a vital part of the local culinary landscape. The bakery supplies dozens of cafes and shops with thin, crackling-crust bread with a pillowy interior, not the most traditional french bread, but ideal for building the city’s iconic po-boy sandwiches.

Note: Dong Phuong is open for pick-up orders! Order ahead: https://dpbakeshop.com/ Their website is gorgeous and fun.

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Stop 6: VAYLA

“VAYLA emerged to combat systemic and environmental racism in New Orleans East during the post-Katrina reconstruction period. Through the efforts of young Vietnamese leaders organizing to stop the toxic dumping of Hurricane Katrina construction debris. The landfill was located less than a mile away from the heart of Village de l’Est. Young leaders of this historically low socio-economic status Vietnamese refugee community worked with fellow community members to build a platform on which to voice concerns around the Chef Menteur C&D Disposal Site. This campaign demonstrated the power of cross cultural and inter-generational collaboration in creating a community voice to address the needs of local communities. It was this campaign that empowered us to tell our own stories, in our own words, in order to effect change in our own communities.”

www.vayla-no.org

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Stop 7: Entergy Michoud Plant

Entergy New Orleans was fined $5 million for paying actors to attend a New Orleans City Council meeting in October 2017 to demonstrate support for a planned natural gas-fueled power plant. Astroturfing, the term used for the faking of a grassroots movement, is sadly not uncommon in the energy industry. VAYLA played a large role in the community organization against the proposal, but in the end their executive director, Minh Nguyen, was quoted saying, “The decision was already made before Entergy already shut down the (previous) plant” that was decommissioned in 2016.

Construction on the Michoud Power Plant is currently underway.

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While you are riding, bring masks and hand sanitizer, respect physical distancing, and make sure that you have an emergency contact who knows where you are and can pick you up if needed. We also have some more in-depth tips for safe biking in the pandemic, check them out! Please be aware that NOLA to Angola cannot provide logistical or emergency support to individual riders this year. Take care, and safe riding!

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