| Earlier today, I put up a post about the clashes between the New Orleans Police Department and protesters of the planned demolition of public housing in New Orleans by the federal Housing and Development agency. While that story is sexy, and sells newspapers, it is NOT the important story out of New Orleans today.
The real story is about the City Council's vote to allow HUD to demolish the biggest public housing developments in New Orleans and replace them with "mixed-use" developments, which will almost certainly have a lower number of poor families living in them.
This is a continuation of the destruction caused by the Federal Flood. (For those wondering what the Federal Flood is ... it is the breaching of the levees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina spared New Orleans a direct hit, hitting land some 50 miles to the east. But the levees of New Orleans, despite federal guarantees that they would withstand a Cat 3 hurricane, toppled over.)
Today, in New Orleans, the City Council -
Arnie Fielkow
Stacy Head
Cynthia Willard-Lewis
Shelly Midura
Cynthia Hedge-Morrell
Jacquelyn Brechtel-Clarkson
James Carter
voted unanimously to allow HUD to demolish the so-called Big 4 public housing developments in New Orleans - B.W. Cooper, St. Bernard, Lafitte and C.J. Peete.
I understand the need to rebuild. But the way the City Council wants to go about it ... should leave all of us wary. They want to destroy the current projects, and replace them with developments by private contractors. That's fine ... if all the residents who were in the Big 4 on August 28, 2005 are given the opportunity to return. I say opportunity because I believe some have moved on, and rebuilt their lives outside New Orleans. And it would not surprise me if some of them decided to stay where they are now. But I'm betting most will want to return home ...
According to the liveblog over at Times-Pic
activist Don Everard, pleaded with the Council to remember the fate of the St. Thomas development in the Lower Garden District. St. Thomas was originally built for 1500 families, and was demolished in 2001 to make way for River Garden, which currently has a mere 296 apartments as of January 2007, of which 122 are occupied by public housing families. Everard believes that what happened to St. Thomas is about to happen again - times four.
This is real scary part. The mixed-use developments will have housing for lower numbers of poor families. The St. Thomas development had 1500 public housing families living in them. The River Garden project, which was built on the ashes of the St. Thomas development, only has 122 public housing families living in them, a mere fraction of the St. Thomas numbers.
Further, Mary Joseph, the Louisiana Director of the Children's Defense Fund, believes the city still lacks a true housing plan to bring back the families who want to return to their roots.
"It's about everybody having a place to stay," says Joseph, who lost her shoe during the fracas that led to several protesters being forcibly removed from the council chambers earlier. "What we had in here this morning is inability of us to listen to all of the information. I'm not here to fight. Shame on us, that it's playing out across America today that we can't get in a room and talk about something in a civil way. Our folks are trapped in Houston...Right to return truly ain't funded."
There is no doubt in my mind that all New Orleanians should be given the opportunity to return. The City Council and Mayor Nagin have finessed this issue over the last two and a half years by stressing the importance of allowing all families to return to New Orleans. But votes like the one today will make that promise harder to keep. |
