Serious Problems in NOLA
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Dec 04, 2007 3:10pm
From Advancement Project, watch the video: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
If you read The Shock Doctrine, this news comes as no surprise. HUD/HANO has been itching to destroy the public housing in New Orleans since Katrina hit. It looks like in mid-December 15th, they are slated for demolition:
On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units--an 82% reduction. HUD is in charge and a one person HUD employee makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago--all decisions are made in Washington DC. HUD plans to build an additional 1000 market rate and tax credit units--which will still result in a net loss of 2700 apartments to New Orleans--the remaining new apartments will cost an average cost of over $400,000 each!
Affordable housing is at a critical point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated 12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.
What a lovely Christmas gift to give those who can least afford it. And we'll still call ourselves the richest country in the world.
In conjunction with Human Rights Day on December 10th, a variety of concerned groups will come together to resist the demolition of public housing in New Orleans. They need your help.
Lots of information and resources available at Advancement Project.
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Shameful. Beyond shameful.
Are there no prisons..? Are there no workhouses..? Bah! HUD-bug!
~George W. Scrooge~
(:>
"What a lovely Christmas gift to give those who can least afford it."
As Bill would say-your attempt to tie the situation in NOLA to the spirit of the season is yet another..another I tell you...attack in the much vaunted War on Consumerism..er..Christmas by the super exotic far far extra far with falafel sauce...Leftist hordes.
FUCK bush and his entire insensitive administration.
money for war, but he wants to make Americans homeless.
you can't say bush/cheney are not racists.
Damn, I'm sitting here with tears all over the place from just reading that post and thinking about those people. This sounds like something that would happen in some third world country. How can they do this to these poor people. How can they just ignore them in the name of money? Where is the Christian community and why aren't they speaking out? Talk about a war on Christmas, seems it's being waged by our own government against our own people in NOLA.
Astounding. I wonder if The Dummy will do a fly-over in AF-1 to watch the dozing. If so, it would be a good time for 'god' to unleash hurricane Zelda, if he could confine it to just AF-1 and the bulldozers.
But we're rational, we know enough not to count on figments.
So, what are we going to do?
Yeah, and just to make sure that those poor folk have a Merry Christmas, FEMA is making them give up their trailers, too.
Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags Fucking Scumbags .......Sorry, Watson, the mind reels............
NOLA has been all but forgotten by the MSM as well as the scumbags in gov't.
Untold billion$ for Iraq, but no $ to help our own citizens. Oops, I forgot -- NOLA's a black city.
Good question, Preacher Boob. What can we do? Going there and standing in front of bulldozers can only last so long. Where is their mayor and what is he doing for his citizens? Isn't he supposed to be on the side of his own town?
dadams @ 4:
George of the Bungle must have watched History of the World by Mel Brooks and thought the "F--K the poor" comment was not satire but a great idea. And remember that Barbara "Mommy Dearest" Bush thought that living in the Astrodome was a major improvement for those displaced by Katrina.
pissed off patricia @ 5:
i completely agree with you, but bushco and the repugs have been set on destroying any and all
government programs that assist American citizens, the real people. but they do believe in passing all the hard earned and paid taxes of the citizens to their friends(coporations). bushco and the repugs only want a small government imprint to the citizens. corporate welfair runs rampant in this administration.
Holmes @ 8:
please, you take the words out of my mouth.
Barbara Bush thinks she and her family live on a different level of humanity than the rest of the human race. She feels a certain entitlement. She seemed to see the people in the dome as some lesser creatures than herself. One has to wonder what she would do if Mother Nature caused her the heartbreak that it caused those people.
The Bush Administration loves seeing dead and displaced Americans, especially the brown ones.
Liberal AND Proud @ 15:
Brown people of ALL nationalities!
These housing projects have been vacant since Katrina (and were a disaster even before that). So nobody is being evicted and displaced as a result of this decision. It may be a bad decision to reduce the level of potentially available housing but its' inaccuracte to say that people are being displace now as a result of the decision to demolish
Much of this could have prevented via a piece of legislation enacted this summer, called the New Orleans Recovery Act, a major goal of which was to bring back those displaced NOLA residents who wanted to return. And it established OVERSIGHT over how housing funds were to be sent. It passed the House veto-proof and was to be fast-tracked through the Senate by Sen. Dodd when one Senator put a "hold" on it....and refuses to take it off. What Senator? David Vitter.
There is no doubt whatseover that the Republican plan is to downsize potential Democratic voters in NOLA, and that means, of course, going after the poor. And it's succeeding. For the first time in over 70 years the New Orleans City Council is majority white.
pissed off patricia @ 14:
This of course presupposes that Babs has a heart...Nes pa ?!?
It's more like Bill's WAR on MadeinChinaChristmas
Liberal AND Proud @ 15:
Its the Culture of Life...
[Deleted. Quit posting in ALLCAPS]
Republican social engineering of the most base, vile sort. But what else is new???
pissed off patricia @ 14:
Yes indeed. Except that I would say it in less reserved terms--- that Barbara thinks they are part of an inherently superior and self centered class (aka monarchy) that can arrogantly look down on others that are less fortunate with disdain and disgust. Of course, that's the definition of sociopath---no empathy or ability to genuinely relate to others suffering or plight. They are self centered takers, not other centered givers.
However, Dr. King said it well--- "What self centered people have torn down---other centered people can rebuild."
pissed off patricia @ 14:
In the real world the people in the dome would out survive Barbara and all of her spawn in any situation that involves brains and/or physical prowess.
Harry Shearer could quit The Simpsons in protest over the right wing power grab in his city. No more [sob] Mr. Burns. Hey Harry do you own the voice? Could be a fun time on Le Show and doing voice overs for the Dems. Of course the real fun is that those same plots will be under water AGAIN if the effort to hold back the river/ocean/reality is not better than the Army Corps has made so far.
Now if the city goes WHITE and the corps suddenly has a plan......well......there you go.
I spoke to someone in Mary Landreiu office and he said they haven't given up yet. But,
That the prostitute lover Senator Vitter is blocking a compassionate plan to require affordable housing .
Please blow up his line at the capital and tell him to stop helping Bush to push low income people out of NOLA.
1-800-614-2803 toll free
Tell everyone you know to call and call and call some more.
pissed off patricia @ 10:
C. Ray does not have a lot of fans in NOLA these days, so I'm not going to jump in here and defend him. But what, exactly, is your point?
Did you not read the article? HUD took over from HANO (Housing Authority of New Orleans) in 2003, in what amounted to a very quiet coup. That's the federal government, buddy. The same federal government that's been running roughshod all over the will of the American people since the 06 elections. The same guys thumbing their nose at oversight, due process, and the Constitution. You think one loudmouthed, bald-headed black guy is going to slow them down? I don't think so!
Nothing pisses us off more down here than hearing people talk about the 'failings' of 'our' mayor, or 'our' governor. This is not a 'bipartisan' fuck up. Those were FEDERAL levees that failed, and HUD is a federal agency. The Bush Whitehouse OWNS Katrina and every single sadass fuckup that goes with it. If you can't see that you need glasses.
john doheny @ 28:
Exactly. The ACOE admitted their guilt in building levees that did not work. Go to: http://www.levees.org/ to read about the attempted cover up.
Instead of throwing the votes out, we are just going to eliminate the voters. What a humane, Christian idea? What has happened to America since Bush started office? W
Vitter is not only an adulterer, he is an evil doer.
john doheny @ 28:
By asking about the mayor, I was simply asking where he was in this fight. I didn't say anyone had failed, I was just asking. Sadly we don't hear a lot about the conditions in NO from the media these days, so the only way I can get answers is to ask questions.
I am sincerely sorry if I upset you. From the bottom of my heart, that was not my intention.
heckofajob brownie...
as always there will be finger pointing and certainly "somewhere" in the picture is a democrat --- the question is where the brunt of what happened should be placed...
THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT FEMA FAILED... pure federal... and in those days completely REPUBLICAN
there will be dems that should be dropped (jefferson and his icebox full of cash) BUT when the gov't from the courts to the pres to the congress and YES, to the media is $GOP$ minded, then let's be fair about who done it...
Check out this video if you can stomach it:
http://humidhaney.typepad.com/the_humid_haney_rant/2007/12/hano-to-demol...
They've been trying to tear down the Iberville and Orleans projects for decades. They just figured now was a good time, while people were shocked and awed. The people they are trying to displace have been getting the shaft for probably 300 years. People were all shocked when they heard about so many people cut off from resources in New Orleans during Katrina. The people who've lived in New Orleans weren't shocked. Those people were cut off from resources long before Katrina (Barbara Bush knew a little about this). And they aren't quite invisible.
It's shameful and depressing.
Well what they don't say is that there are brand new public housing units that are empty... and why are they empty? Because the housing authority of New Orleans has more houses that it does requests for them.
How do I know? I live here, and drive by them every day on my way to work.
While I'm not in favor of the old style barracks-like public housing, I'm painfully aware that the need for public housing, both in New Orleans and other urban areas is very real, and should be fulfilled.
"There will be poor always, pathetically struggling.... "
Thank you for printing this...Randi Rhodes interviewed someone from the Advancement Project about this issue yesterday. The Advancement Project brought in engineers from MIT to inspect the buildings that are about to be demolished -- they are structurally sound!! Being destroyed for no good reason, only so that the vultures can sweep in and benefit from the disaster. This is EXACTLY what Naomi Klein is talking about.
pissed off patricia @ 10:
You know, I keep making fun of the figmental 'god', but I can't actually prove there isn't one. (That's what keeps Santa alive).
And bulldozers don't work very well, upside down with their tracks in the air.
So let's all just close our eyes, bow our heads, and pray real hard. If in a day or two, we don't see any news releases on the upside-down dozers, we'll figure either we didn't pray hard enough, or turning over dozers was too tough for 'god'.
Then we can go for something easier, a couple of days of praying for turning gasoline into wine. We know 'HE' can do that.
If that don't work, we take up a collection, and send Blackwater to NO in their up-armored Hummers to confront the dozers.
the bad guy in this is that hypocritical scum-bag, david vitter.
and yes naomi klein is right.
and yes naomi wolf is right.
and yes chalmers johnson is right.
and jitnol, @34: why then has the homeless population doubled? jooc...
All part of the plan to keep poor people out of NOLA. Ignore the rich history of the city - turn it into a Disneyfied version of New Orleans, just like Guilianni disneyfied Times Square. Keep it tidy, plenty of bathrooms and only enough poor people to make the beds and wash the dishes. We don't need to pray, Preacher, B, we need to have a gris-gris.
dadams @ 4:
while i agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly, i must disagree with your interpretation of their modus vivendi. it is not racism, per se. it is capitalism, the consequence of the singleness of purpose which profit demands. racism is a by-product, because it is "cost" effective in reducing the expense of maintaining a work-force. they don't care, actually, whom they dispossess, it is of a muchness. obstacles to profit are removed as expeditiously, and with as little fuss as possible.
what? you against the free-market?
pissed off patricia @ 31:
Sorry if I misinterpreted you. We're a bit thin-skinned down here the last couple of years..
As for da mayor (the Honorable C. Ray Nagin), I think you'd need the FBI to find his position on anything lately. The joke is, "C. Ray? Not lately." He's Mr. Low Profile these days.
Sooooo, this is the way they flush out the undesirables?
the caste system never sleeps in this country
I'm from New Orleans and have seen first hand how absolutely awful these places were to live. While I do believe that the number public housing needs to be replaced to more closely match the number who need them, a good many of the poor people who lived in New Orleans before Katrina have not come back. They are now spread out throughout the country, but mostly in Texas, making your 82% reduction somewhat of a distortion.
These housing projects were also crime and ignorance breeding nightmares - I, for one, will be glad to see them go
Anyone who has watched the way the Olympics operates has seen the same thing.
For instance in Atlanta before the 1996 Olympics one deceit after another was employed to dispossess the poor of their housing - owned as well as subsidized - to "rebuild blighted areas".
Beonda Pale @ 43:
Well, there's two sides to every story. For the other side, I'd suggest either living in one of the 'jects for a while (not really a possibility now) or checking out some of the books written by former project dwellers
http://www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org/
For every story of "crime and ignorance," there's also one of hope and community. The members of the 9 Times Social and Pleasure Club, for instance, were greatly saddened to see the Desire demolished by HUD pre-Katrina. Many of those people's families had lived there since they were constructed in the 50s. The crime and decrepitude in these places is often just as much a result of manegement organizations like HUD's and HANO's refusal to do basic maintainance or vet prospective tenents properly. Like with much of the infrastructure in this country, we're big on building it, but not maintaining it.
Also, some of those buildings are very well constructed. The Lafitte Projects, for instance, which are just a few blocks from where I live, are some of the most solidly constructed buildings in the city. Their design is modelled after the Pontalba Apartments in Jackson Square, some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the country.
It wouldn't take much to reno the Lafitte, but HUD is tearing it down, because that's the best way to encourage all those black (and democrat-voting) project dwellers to stay in Texas, where their votes will be diluted in a sea of Republican gerrymandering and vote caging.
I used to have to work next to a crack infested public housing block in NOLA.
After they bulldoze the building down, they need to burn it for at least 2 days, just to sanitize the rubble.
And the St Bernard project is very close to where I use to live. I'm not doubting their strength but you can not deny how fenced in and prison-ish these places were, the schools and crime rates in these areas were the worst in the city and the schools and crime rates in the city were some of the worst in the country. Surely you cant be nostalgic about that, can you?
Agreed, Property management is one area that the federal and most especially local New Orleans government truly stinks - individually owned or rented housing is ALWAYS preferable. There's no place like home of course - until you are able to call another place home for awhile.
pissed off patricia @ 5:
wheres the christian community? why thier building bigger churches for the lord, they have to keep up with the church down the block that just upgraded thier temple to the sublime, giveing money to the poor is over , if god wants poor folks to be poor then the good reverend whos whacking thier childrens bungholes says fucking over the unwashed good enough for him and his parishioners, pass the plate gods going broke paying out for law suites for takeing care of reverand pervert, gots to love a buisness that dont pay no taxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing has worked. All the empty promises, the missing and poisonous trailers, the raw bigoted comments from Barbara 'Queen C*nt' Bush, et al...
They will not listen until they are put in our place.
STOP PAYING TAXES. Taxation without representation is clearly the state we are in.
Occupy EVERY government building you can find. Take the governor's mansion and use it for a toilet.
Fuck this admin and trample them under your feet.
If we do nothing, we will all be lost.
I wanna go back home, too.
Thanks, moderator.
fuck you, too.
Remembering THIS ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm5PC7z79-8
...and arrogant Blackwater guards stationed as far north as Alexandria, La is really what make MY blood boil
....Imagine being forced from YOUR home by gunpoint
Compassionate conservatism my ass. Give me a skirt chasing, blow-job loving, cheating husband for President any day of the week over this cowardly, bastard with absolutely no soul.
I hope he and the entire crooked administration gets reincarnated as dirt poor, gay minorities with no health insurance and chronic medical conditions. bea
Again, I'm from New Orleans, and I am a Democrat, and I am overjoyed that those projects are being torn down. However it gets done, more power to them. You would think differently of them if they were in your own back yard. But they aren't. Where do you guys keep your black people, anyway? You seem to be so concerned, but I don't think I saw any in Boston or in Portland, Maine or Oregon. You know what we New Oreanians get at cocktail parties in northern liberal company when people talk about the way those project dwellers kill and rape the 30% white minority of New Orleans with impunity? They say, "Well, I can understand it. Slavery, etc." They kill us, real good people with real bullets, and you understand it. No sympathy for your attitude. If you saw one of these creeps in your neighborhood, you'd put up a for sale sign, and they're not creeps because they're black. They're creeps because they are creeps. We can blame the education system. Fair enough. Blame the federal government, even though the local government that presides over this killing field is all Democratic, and I don't mean killing field in terms of Katrina. New Orleans was an absolute killing field before Katrina. Katrina was the least of it, fatality-wise. Gun violence alone would routinely kill about 400 a year, and they weren't all drug dealers. I've had friends shot to death for a few bucks. Half the women I know there have been raped brutally, most of them when they were just kids. And guess where the biggest hotbeds of crime down there are? The projects you want to save. Those projects are a black eye to the Democratic Party, the most undeniable and palpable proof of well meaning Welfare programs stripping the humanity from people. Where were you all those years that thousands died, only to pop up when Katrina a thousand? You know, I haven't done the math, but someone could really make an embarrassing statistical comparison between gun deaths in New Orleans per capita on a bad year and people killed by terrorists on 9/11. I feel sure, per capita, New Orleanians were facing greater than 9/11 casualties from gun violence every single year. Just this week they had a benefit for an older gay waiter at Crepe Nanou whom everybody liked. He was just shot in the face, and everyone was getting together to have his jaw and tongue rebuilt. Although, taking a broad historical context like you guys like to do, I am sure it's something you can "understand." Katrina is the best thing that ever happened to the people in the projects. Finally, they get to see what it's like elsewhere, and maybe they will learn a new way of life. ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN SENDING THEM BACK. It might not have been the ideal way to end the cycle of corruption, dependence, degradation, and violence in New Orleans, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. All it would take was two years in New Orleans, and they would have the same chance of dying from a gunshot as they did weathering Katrina. There are some great black neighborhoods in New Orleans, like the Black Pearl for one, that exists in perfect harmony with uptown New Orleans. The projects, not one of them, is anything less than a total disaster. If you want to help New Orleans, help them GET THE STUPID LEVEES FIXED RIGHT ALREADY! Oh, and you could let law abiding citizens carry concealed guns without posting a $10k bond because the NOPD couldn't catch a cold. Yes, I swear, I really am a Democrat.
If you like Brad Pitt or not, I find this project convincing and worth sponsoring:
"In December 2006, Brad Pitt convened a group of experts in New Orleans to brainstorm about building green affordable housing on a large scale to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Having spent time with community leaders and displaced residents determined to return home, Pitt realized that an opportunity existed to build houses that were not only stronger and healthier, but that had less impact on the environment.
Previously, Pitt sponsored an architecture competition organized by Global Green with the goal of generating ideas about how to rebuild sustainably. Several of those designs are currently under construction in the Lower 9th Ward and the project inspired him to expand his efforts.
After discussing the hurdles associated with rebuilding in a devastated area, the group determined that a large-scale redevelopment project focused on green affordable housing and incorporating innovative design was indeed possible.
The group settled on the goal of constructing 150 homes (one of the larger rebuilding projects in the city), with an emphasis on developing an affordable system that could be replicated.
To demonstrate replicability, Pitt determined to locate the project in the Lower 9th Ward, one of the most devastated areas of New Orleans, proving that safe homes could and should be rebuilt. Pitt hopes that this project would be a catalyst for recovery and redevelopment throughout the Lower 9th Ward and across the city of New Orleans.
Having listened to one former resident's plea to help "make this right," Pitt was inspired to name the project "Make It Right" (MIR). "
http://makeitrightnola.org/index.php?isDirect=true
http://makeitrightnola.org/mir_SUB.php?section=donate&page=main
Help Wanted... TONIGHT
Call Larry King Show, Tonight, Dec 5
ASK, Brad Pitt... &/or Larry
Do U Like - Earth Ball Homes ?
they... FLOAT
http://www.EarthBall.org
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E.B.A. and Greenhouse, Can be mass produced, create jobs in...
the 9th ward, & all over New Orleans
& All Around OUR Earth
If you put your boot on those that have the least, and then start grinding, it elevates your stature, doesn't it?
Doesn't it?
I read in a local newspaper that Donald Trump and Pensacola lawyer (who has made multi-millions in tobacco money), Fred Levin are teaming up to build expensive high rise apt buildings in New Orleans.
I've seen nothing about it since the initial announcement but that is par for the course in our secret government.
I can only pray that these douchebags will be punished with the full wrath of all the Gods. What a horrible thing to do.
I am from here...
I can understand alot of your comments, however you have to realize the drugs, murder, rapes, and filth that had taken over MANY segments of public housing in New Orleans.
The sad part of this isn't that those places are being destroyed, it's the cost of replacement and the fact that the citizens who deserve to be home, are not being given the correct opportunity too. I believe part of this was to rid a crime nightmare that plagued the city before Katrina. Many police and firemen would not even go into these communities without backup or escorts.
And this is the tip of the iceberg, the roadhome funds are funds for people who were homeowners only! The renters and non property owners, ONLY received assistance from FEMA and the cut off was $26,000.00 for personal property, and living..PERIOD! They are the majority of the city and outlying places like where I was from in Saint Bernard parish, yet they are the only thing that has never been addressed. And that $26,000...did not come easy...and 2 years later...we are still fighting for the help.
Justin Case @ 46:
mebbe they could throw you in to sorta sweeten the smoke?
Heretic @ 54:
i'm guessing you're also white and not poor?
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