Day 1014: NOLA All Set For Hurricane Season!
June 6, 2008 - Filed Under WTF, We Are Not Ok, city planning, government, new orleans, photographs, recovery, weather
Folks must leave their trailers by July 1st and New Orleans emergency connectivity having problems
Assessor Hell by nolareno
No, no, this isn’t a problem. To the contrary, it is a foolproof plan concocted by the architects of our recovery. See, folks in trailers will be safe from any possible hurricanes and flooding because they will still be standing in line at City Hall on November 1st, waiting to prove that their homes are as yet unlivable thanks to the scarcity of reliable contractors and loads of time previously sacrificed to standing in line at City Hall to lower their erroneous home assessments and to get pieces of paper permitting intermittent progress on their respective properties. And they will be right there to get those NOLAReady messages, which will be yelled out over a generator-powered PA system instead of texted to cellphones. All while the mayor is safe in his Dallas home. Mission accomplished!
If you think the above scenario is absurd, how about the City’s decisions and ineptness that brought New Orleanians to this point?
Day 967: Sinkholes At “Former” Ninth Ward Superfund Site
April 21, 2008 - Filed Under We Are Not Ok, city planning, environment, government, new orleans, recovery
Which up until 1994 was the site of an elementary school and surrounding community that were initially put there by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Desire Community Housing Corporation.
NO City Business: Superfund dilemma pollutes school master plan
The Environmental Protection Agency maintains its cleanup from 1994 to 2000 has made the former site of Moton Elementary School safe … The EPA asserts a 3-foot deep layer of topsoil placed on the property prevents buried toxic contaminants from surfacing.
… 6-foot deep holes alongside the building are a cause for alarm, but [EPA spokesman Dave Bary] said no toxins have been found at the site since its Superfund status was removed.
Sarah Elise Lewis is quoted in the above article and on the case. She has video-documented the sinkholes, which I urge you to watch in full for more details on the top soil and subsidence.
… The breaches of the levees could have provided a rare opportunity to try to make right the mistakes of the past in this neighborhood, built on a toxic landfill. Placing a moratorium on building permits, offering homeowners’ equitable buyout programs and assistance in moving to safer areas. Returning the area to its natural state. All could have been done with some foresight. Instead homeowners are moving back into environmentally compromised homes and the school sits unsecured and full of furnishings.
and visits the site periodically.
I went back to Moton yesterday to take a few pictures … And so I am angry. Not that the school is ungutted, unsecured, and still full of its contents nearly three years after Katrina, but because a neighborhood was ever built there in the first place.
Besides the possible exhumation of untreated contaminants from a shallow grave, there is another glaring threat: the sinkholes themselves, which suggests the ground in the area is structurally unsound to build upon. Six feet is enough to instigate building collapse. Nothing should be rebuilt in this area, especially not schools and homes.
These are the things a RECOVERY school district, a RECOVERY czar and a RECOVERY-oriented city government ought to have been able to achieve consensus and make progress on by now.
Jeffrey encapsulates my feelings about New Orleans’s Recovery Czar, Ed Blakely: “… the addition of a self-aggrandizing “Quarterback” type to an atmosphere already flooded with similarly ineffectual prima donnas is exactly what you don’t want.” Read the Authoritative Ed Blakely Timeline, something that needs posting to the New Orleans Wiki. 0 comments #
Day 856: Home In New Orleans
December 31, 2007 - Filed Under We Are Not Ok, city planning, new orleans, recovery
Who am I, who has never lived in one of these buildings, with the stigma and hopelessness that have come to be associated with them, to have a say? Who am I, with my own aforementioned and tenuous notions of home, to say don’t come back? Who am I, with my own priveleged experiences of home, to invite people back to buildings I wouldn’t inhabit, to deplorable amenities and to the first line of the New Orleans trenches? According to some, the classifieds contain many job openings for janitors, dishwashers, valet parkers, sweepers, bank tellers (but not really, some of my friends in the service industry say). Who am I to say come back to these jobs, with no hope for upward mobility and, while you’re at it, work three of them at $7-10 per hour each, while your children go unattended? Who am I to welcome you back to being the wage slaves of the Copelands, Brennans and Impastatos of the city? Who am I to ask to have your kids in better school systems re-enter this mess so they, too, can grow up to be janitors, dishwashers, valet parkers, sweepers and bank tellers, if they somehow manage to avoid lives of crime and despondency? Yet, who am I to say, no Ms. Rosie, you may not come back home to the only world and culture you’ve ever known because this city cannot take care of you who were once a contributor but are no more? Who am I to say you’re better off or not in Houston, Atlanta, Baton Rouge or New York City, anywhere but here?
More importantly, are any of my aforementioned thoughts even the damned point?
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Out of sorts and out of town for the last ten days, I am now playing catch-up with New Orleans news, especially blogger encounters of the tasering/pepper spraying/riots kind that took place outside City Hall on the 20th.
Meanwhile, Oyster keeps track of exactly how many public housing units are available in New Orleans today:
Why didn’t activists press hard on this dubious, evolving HUD number upon which the T-P based so much of its reporting and editorial opinion? Wasn’t this a politically exploitable “soft spot”? If the T-P was forced to retract its false subheading about the “fact” that “hundreds” of units were available “right now”, and if HUD was shown to be lying about the 154 unit number– a distinct possibility in my view– wouldn’t the activists be in a very strong position to demand a second opinion on, say, HUD’s rehab vs. redevelop cost numbers?
Activists, like some bloggers, possess a certain usefulness; they call attention to issues that would normally be twisted or swept under the rug by the government-media complex. Unfortunately, what has formed here are two wrong sides to this story and, since most people cannot think beyond a pre-packaged and two-sided morsel, this has come down to a battle between Theatri-vists/neo-Yippies and Vitter/Head/pro-demolitionists. The saddest aspect of it all is that none of them would live in the housing units they are fighting over.
Arguments like those of Karen’s, Cliff’s and Breez’s which address the situation of the people who would live, have lived, will continue to live in such housing is lost. Life has been good to me so far; heaven forbid that I ever experience such a situation where wealthier and more secure people address me as a castoff or in the third person, while arguing amongst themselves over my fate.
Again, I know people extremely well who’ve had to start over from bankruptcy, prison, divorce, family disownment and single motherhood, who scrounged food out of trashcans and hitchhiked cross-country to avoid getting on government assistance. Do we want our fellow citizens to live like that? Conversely, would we prefer them living in public housing permanently? What’s the right formula?
The elephant in the living room: Race. Black people. Karen talks of it as deconcentrating large populations of poor black people, ostensibly to help them merge in with Normal, Productive Members Of Society like you and me. The question is How? How have black people, or any grouped minority, historically come out of the ghetto and where do they go? Cliff says it took his grandmother 19 years to exit and to what? What did she and her fellow “escapees” work their way into? What concrete avenues do we as a people set up to help those wanting to get out? One idea is scattering low-income and affordable housing throughout the city but this is normally met with NIMBY backlash. Where can these folks get on Assimilation Express if that’s what the nation really wants?
The next person who says “Mixed-income housing has worked in Atlanta, it can work here, too” is going to be bitch-slapped. Have you experienced the dysfunction of this city? Where do folks go once the projects are torn down but promised housing remains undelivered? D and I recently listened to a Bob Edwards Show special on homelessness in America and were stunned by the statistics:
… the fastest growing homeless population in the United States is homeless families. Increasingly, single parents are unable to provide basic necessities for their children – food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Forty percent of homeless Americans are homeless families with children. In New York the number of homeless families is at an all time high, with 9,500 in shelters. In Washington, DC the only emergency shelter for homeless families has been closed, causing hundreds of families to be put on a waiting list for housing.
Such problems in DC and New York, cities that hold a lot more political and economic sway than New Orleans does. This is America today, folks, coming soon to your very own sterile town. Do you now see why this cannot be a rhetoric-filled, false dichotomy between Government-Subsidized Housing Good vs. Government-Subsidized Housing Bad? Projects aren’t the answer, homelessness is also anathema, so we’d better start discussing and doing in constructive terms. Now I ask: is that possible here?
Like I’ve said before, if HUD/HANO, Senator Vitter, Stacy Head and her City Council and the cast of government thousands could find their way out of a wet paper sack, I’d change this blog’s day count to something utopian actually taking place in this town. If recovery/rebuilding for everyone were really on the minds of the architects of New New Orleans, I’d honestly plead, “Come back, everyone!” If people were to realize that government is the problem, not the solution, there would be no issue here. But, this city backed by this government just cannot, will not do it. With this in mind, do I want the poorer of my fellow citizens to become embroiled in this mess again? I’m not so sure.
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These are my vertiginous thoughts about this potential-ridden city on December 31, 2007, 2.35 years after the storm/flood. My sincere hope is that 2008 brings nicer things to New Orleans. She sure could use them.
Day 842: Housing In New Orleans
December 17, 2007 - Filed Under We Are Not Ok, city planning, government, new orleans, recovery
While pitting housing advocates and developers against one another, in yet another made-for-media black and white battle of the haves and have-nots, the controversy surrounding the demolition of the B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, St. Bernard and Lafitte projects stinks of one thing: There is more to this mess than meets the eye, and it’s hard to believe anything as hard fact at this time.
I just asked the NOLA Bloggers the following, “Who’s going to make the most economic and political dollar off this? Little progress-wise happens in this town without someone making a lot of money (they shouldn’t have made). But, does that mean it shouldn’t happen?” On the face of it, these are two different questions, but plans for the land dictate who will live there post-demolition.
Will those who desire to return to New Orleans be treated fairly when it comes to housing? I don’t care for the projects, not one bit, but will they be replaced with mixed-income housing or high-dollar condos? Who will own the land and units? All I ask for is a concrete plan with the city’s assurance of sticking to it before we get a bunch of empty lots, while other, more blighted housing developments still stand.
And then there’s the ultra-cynical streak: Forget the projects, forget mixed-income housing, forget the condos, forget building anything in New Orleans until these questions are answered: Who’s going to live in these places? Who’s going to live in St. Bernard and who will occupy Tracage? The problem of infrastructure (or lack thereof) cuts across all income boundaries. A flawed criminal justice system, horrible school administrations, robberies, assaults, murders, Entergy, S&WB, potholes, pumps, levees and corruption affect us all. We can’t make this city better for all who live here now, and want more back to join us in our misery?
Day 807: New Orleans News
November 12, 2007 - Filed Under city planning, education, food & drink, movies/tv, new orleans, recovery
As much as the newspapers and TV push me towards other stories, the news keeps coming back to New Orleans.
1) New Orleans - America’s #2 most sedentary city.
The Big Easy has faced challenges more formidable than any city in this group. Perhaps slow rebuilding and changes in the local economy have contributed to the TV watching habits of the city’s residents. They clocked a staggering 42 hours per week. At 31%, the city almost tied Houston for the highest percentage of residents who hadn’t had any physical activity. Lastly, 63% of the population is obese or overweight.
… According to the city’s health department, the area lost 21 of 36 major supermarkets and local residents turned to corner stores stocked with calorie-rich but nutrient-deficient junk food to meet their shopping needs. As a remedy, the city recently spearheaded an initiative to stock and promote 13 corner stores with fresh fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy and whole-grain products.
Had Forbes even thought about the city’s increased alcohol and brownie consumption and cortisol levels since the rebuilding process began? Also, for a second there, I thought that TV watching rate was going to spike until I realized that Sweet P on the upcoming Project Runway Season 4 is not a New Orleans designer. Makeup gumbo parties, anyone?
2) Area Harrah’s casino worker earns karma points
Very touching. We don’t read stories like this enough, except when in the opposite anti-New Orleans.
3) City-Wide School Facilities Master Planning Meeting [LINK]
When: Saturday, November 17th, 9:30am to 3:00pm
Where: Warren Easton Sr HS, 3019 Canal Street (Auditorium)
The education of our children and young adults is the most important business of Orleans Parish. The future of our community, state, and nation is dependent on how well we perform this important function. Our school facilities play a significant role in this critical work. The Louisiana Department of Education, the Recovery School District and the Orleans Parish Schools are in the process of developing a School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish. All community members and supporters of high quality education are invited to attend a Citywide School Planning Meeting to begin the community wide conversation to develop the facilities master plan.
Who runs SFMPOP and what should we be watching for here?
4) New Orleans brother-sister duo, Azaria and Hendekia Azene, make it to Amazing Race Season 12 Episode 3 in fifth place, having taken first place last week. Disclaimer: I only watch this show because I know one of the contestants.
Day 723: Poor Black Homelessness In Post-K/Flood New Orleans
August 22, 2007 - Filed Under We Are Not Ok, city planning, government, new orleans, recovery
This article in The Jewish Daily Forward* makes a more straightforward connection between being black and post-Katrina/Flood homelessness. Jeffrey would argue that it’s not race but class, and I would also include the elderly.
… One of the reasons for [the slow rebuilding of New Orleans] is the failure to rebuild the 77,000 destroyed rental units that once housed a large number of New Orleans’s poorest citizens. Nor is that failure the product of neglect; in many cases, it is quite purposeful.
“Rental units” at a price poor people can afford, built in the neighborhoods where they would be best insulated from natural calamity, would intrude on the middle class character of the housing. According to The New York Times, “at least five jurisdictions in Louisiana and Mississippi — St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana, and Pascagoula and Ocean Springs in Mississippi — have begun revoking permits for trailers or allowing their zoning exemptions to expire.” Those moves affect families still living in 7,400 trailers across the Gulf Coast — at the same time that there is money in place to build only 1,000 new affordable rental units.
Race, anyone? There’s no readily available racial census of the remaining 30,000 evacuees, but the informed estimates tell us that at least 90% of them are black. And we know their fate: Come the annual anniversary of the disaster, they’ll get their 15 minutes of attention and we will cluck our tongues once more, very sincerely.
Is the author trying to say that the one thing New Orleans’s poor haven’t lost is their invisibility? Funny, I’d swear that invisible is exactly how the New Rebuilding Order keeps them, especially when it’s all about wholesale home and neighborhood demolitions invariably pointing to questionable ideas and schemes on redevelopment, rising insurance and construction costs that deter rental housing construction, condos, “football” condos, golf courses and plans carved into redevelopment zones. 6000 more invisible in New Orleans in the last two years while the rest cannot afford to move out of their tin cans due to the increased cost of housing is more like it. Which government agency now involved in rebuilding this area cares about, much less prioritizes, affordable housing? FEMA? HUD? The Road Home agency? NORA? HANO? The mayor? Ed Blakely? Invisible man?
So far, I’ve questioned the availability of affordable housing in general, but now address low- to no-Income housing, more specifically. A colleague and I recently talked about the status of government-funded housing in this city, while staring out at the Iberville projects and Treme. Not an American citizen, he asked, “This may sound naive, but now we have nothing but land and space in New Orleans. Instead of housing loads of low-income families in cheerless bunkers, why does HANO not build more mixed-income neighborhoods like River Garden, where people will then own more of their home, yards and not everything is public space?” I explained to him exactly what I said above, and then frankly stated, “The best interest of citizens, whether it is to progress them out of the projects or to help house them in any way, is really low on the recovery priority list now, or so it seems. I don’t know what HANO’s or Road Home’s plans are in this process. Meanwhile, more and more homeless are being created and that is not a forward-moving trend.”
Something is terribly wrong with the equation if rising material costs keep the authorities from building modest housing but not football condos and golf courses. We’ve got to find out who really calls the housing shots around here and nail that agency’s ass to the drywall. Between outrageous housing assessments and this mess, how can Mayor Nagin fly into town every once in a while and plead with ex-residents to come home?
* For some reason, I’ve begun to take more interest in Jewish viewpoints and relief efforts in this region. Must be Liprap’s influence or me channeling my inner HinJew.
An example of the news I find when out of town: $3.5 million Katrina memorial proposed for New Orleans. “The [Unified New Orleans Plan] is making its way through city approval processes. While the memorial is a far lower priority than upgrading drainage and reconstructing neighborhoods during the next decade, it is still listed among the top projects … It is not clear whether the memorial will ever get built. No money has been secured for it.” Aaah, priorities, especially hurricane-shaped ones that have nothing to do with the FLOODING that almost destroyed New Orleans. 0 comments #
