Profile in Brief-- Steve Lockhart Disaster relief

By Taryn Hartman Legal News Long before he was chief magistrate of 36th District Court, Steve Lockhart describes himself as a former "hard science guy" during his days at Cass Tech. It was a philosophy class at Wayne State University, where he attended on a full scholarship, that changed his mind. He made that his major and took law classes as what he calls a "pilot project" and found he enjoyed "looking for answers to the questions that don't have answers." Couple that with a longtime interest in public service, and you've got a career. "I was a '60s child,'" Lockhart says. "Law was a way to make societal change. We had stars in our eyes that we could make things better." And sure, coming of age during the Vietnam years influenced Lockhart's early career--working on domestic violence issues right out of Michigan Law School, stints in the juvenile defender's office, legal aid in Port Huron and the United Community Housing Coalition in Detroit--but his second transformation has come just within the last few years. "The two major things that shaped my life were the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina," Lockhart says, and recently traveled back to the Gulf Coast for his fourth trip to the region. When the Category 5 storm hit in late August 2005, "I just had this overwhelming desire to get down there and assist," Lockhart says. He arrived with the American Red Cross 10 days after the storm on the first flight to get into the newly re-opened New Orleans airport, although he never made it into the city proper. Instead, Lockhart and his wife, a nurse, were stationed in Baton Rouge and ended up working as supply couriers, driving some 300-350 miles every day, ferrying supplies to different shelters around the region. "You had to learn to deal in a complete situation of anarchy," Lockhart remembers, describing the absence of electricity, "rooftops on the ground like Frisbees," and a National Guard that was "everywhere." "It was incredible. And it just stank," as waterlogged homes rotted in the 90-degree heat, he says. Lockhart returned for a few days in January 2006 with a friend who was working as security for insurance adjusters working on claims. The following May, some of his family went with a work crew from Grosse Pointe United Methodist Church to gut houses in the city's 9th Ward. The church has sent a crew every May since the storm. In May 2007, Lockhart returned with the work crew to finish the home of a woman who had been living with six people in a FEMA trailer on her lawn for 16 months. "It was one of the most satisfying projects I've ever worked on," he says of the knowledge that people would finally be able to move back into their house soon after the work crew left. Last May, the crew worked on the home of a 75-year-old man who Lockhart says would sit on an overturned five-gallon bucket and share stories with crew members while they worked. "It's just such a pleasure working for people who were wiped out," Lockhart says. "Everybody we worked for were these solid, upright folks who just got hit." The elderly man, for example, had been abandoned by a swindling contractor. "One thing I learned when I was down there is 90 percent of people in Louisiana have never left Louisiana," Lockhart explains of the culture that usually stays in the same place for generations. Although the rebuilding progress Lockhart's seen in the years since his initial relief trip has been encouraging, he's quick to point out that it's been frustratingly slow and largely done by the private sector. "I still think we've had a fail of government," he says. "Katrina affected me like nothing else has as far as leaving our fellow citizens to die." Lockhart speaks of New Orleans as a "jewel" and "treasure" in terms of its food, culture and other characteristics that help make up the region's personality. "I've traveled a lot, and I really think it's the most foreign city in the United States in the most fantastic way," he says. "It's so unique." Published: Tue, May 18, 2010

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