So, on Monday I was listening to Love, Lust, and Lies - Michael Baisden's afternoon show on urban radio and a discussion surfaced on Hurricane Katrina. Supposedly, the city will knock down some housing projects that are an incubator for crime, as far an ad-hoc or permanent housing plan for the displaced individuals that is unknown -- check out the Times-Picayune for more details. Now some folks feel like they shouldn't knock 'em down (let the status quo prevail) and some folks feel like the ghettoization of urban communities must die now (change is comin') and Katrina was the impetus needed for change. Bellini would be doing you a disservice if I didn't inform you that many NO resident's fear of a demolition stems from the city council's failure to secure housing for the displaced. Apparently, the New Orleans housing authority mismanaged funds which coerced the FEDs to take the agency over. The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) wants mixed-income housing to replace four public housing communities. But for the residents of public housing the pitch about "mixed-income housing" is a code-word for forever displaced. Once you factor the emotional distress residents already endured with Katrina and now this. . . you can't help but understand their frustration. The aftermath of Katrina is played out in urban communities across the states, so I feel like you guys can relate no matter where you are. . .
So do we knock down a breeding ground for crime, violence, rape, etc. or do we acknowledge that a dilapidated building is home to many and we should allow the stucture to keep on keepin' on. . .???? ponder on that for a few minutes -- cu'z when I got to thinking I realized Bellini was stuck in a rut -- but not for long . . .
This is when my political background comes to good use. . . if city council had the gumption to propose a linkage policy (what is that you might ask-- a policy complemented with a guarantee clause that protects citizens against the perils of doing business on their behalf [i.e. a developer wants to build condominiums and demolish public housing, but claims they will build housing for the poor -- well city council fine the mess out of the developer per day that displaced are left without housing and use those monies to secure housing for the displaced]) but like I said it takes gumption. So, in the meantime what are we to do as we stay stuck in a rut?
cheers,
Bellini
4 comments:
Ride it out. That's all they can do. If they had any gumption, they would have demanded adequate levies for their city pre-Katrina.
it's unfortunate, I was there 9 months ago and I couldn't believe the lack of attention neighborhoods on the periphery of French Quarter just haven't gotten. The history books are gonna shame us.
i was there bout a month ago and things haven't changed much since you been there bellini. i actually had the pleasure of meetin and chattin with a dude who does housin work down there. the thing is new orleans was having housing problems way before the storm so any solution must be thought out, way more than a quick fix. and i don't think demoliting the projects is a quick fix. hell at the moment, there are no functional "projects" but the city remains saddled with an extremely high crime rate. what's causing that? certainly aint the projects. new orleans' problems go way beyond just whether to keep or destroy the projects, that's just a part of it.
aaahhh. . . yes, which is why we are truly stuck in a rut -- we've got to dig deeper and we're not doing that (perhaps 'cuz it's not politically expedient?) -- it's all about the quick fix, but we ain't fixin' shit.
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