If you have a blog, please blog this. Action is needed now. I urge that you makes the calls to stop the demolition of New Orleans public housing.
Watch this excellent video to understand…
Here is what you can do.
FromFacing South…
Next Monday, Dec. 10, is internationalHuman Rights Day.
It’s also the day when activists in New Orleans are calling for actions
opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentplans
to tear down more than 4,600 public housing units in four complexes
across the city — while replacing them with private, mixed-income
developments that will set aside only 744 apartments for low-income
people.
The decision to demolish these public complexes, whichsuffered only relatively minor damage [PDF] during Hurricane Katrina, comes as rents across the city havedoubled since the storm — as has the homeless population.The
activists are asking concerned citizens across the country to join the
actions in New Orleans or to take action at home. According to astatement from Kali Akuno, director of the Stop the Demolition Coalition:What
is at stake with the demolition of public housing in New Orleans is
more than just the loss of housing units: it destroys any possibility
for affordable housing in New Orleans for the foreseeable future.
Without access to affordable housing, thousands of working class New
Orleanians will be denied their human right to return.Although
this situation is unique and urgent in the city of New Orleans, it does
not occur in isolation. The plans for redevelopment here are part of a
national assault on public housing, in which tens of thousands of homes
have been demolished in the past decade.Organizers are
asking supporters from across the country to organize demonstrations at
local HUD offices and other government buildings. They are also asking
them to make calls to government officials demanding the reopening of
public housing in New Orleans. Among those leaders they are asking
people to call:* New Orleans City Council MemberStacy Head, who has been a leading force in pushing for the tear-downs. Her number is 504-658-1020.
* New Orleans City Council MemberShelley Midura, who is being asked to oppose the demolitions and support the reopening of public housing. Her number is 504-658-1010.
*D.H. Griffin,
the North Carolina-based contractor hired to demolish the Lafitte
complex. For locations of the company’s offices across the South, click
here. The toll-free number is 888-336-3366.*U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who’sblocking passage of theGulf Coast Housing Recovery Act
(Senate Bill 1668). Sponsored by his colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu
(D-La.), the measure would require any demolished public housing units
to be replaced by other units available to low-income residents. Vitter
can be reached in Washington at 202-224-4623 and New Orleans at
504-589-2753.* Members of theSenate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee,
where SB 1668 is currently stuck. They are Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) at
202-224-6361, Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) at 202- 224-5941, Evan Bayh
(D-Ind.) at 202-224-5623, Robert Bennett (R-Utah) at 202-224-5444,
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at 202-224-2315, Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) at
202-224-4343, Tom Carper (D-Del.) at 202-224-2441, Robert Casey (D-Pa.)
at 202-224-6324, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) at 202-224-6142, Christopher Dodd
(D-Conn.) at 202-224-2823, Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) at 202-224-6342,
Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) at 202-224-3424, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) at
202-224-4224, Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) at 202-224-1638, Mel Martinez
(R-Fla.) at 202-224-3041, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) at 202-224-4744,
Jack Reed (D-R.I.) at 202-224-4642, Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at
202-224-0420, Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) at 202-224-5744, John Sununu
(R-N.H.) at 202-224-2841 and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at 202-224-2644.Send
information about any solidarity actions to action@peopleshurricane.org
with “Solidarity” in the subject line. If you have any questions,
contact the Stop the Demolition Coalition at
action@peopleshurricane.org or call 504-458-3494. For more information
on the issues at stake and planned protest actions, visit the websites
ofDefend New Orleans Public Housing, Justice for New Orleans and thePeople’s Hurricane Relief Fund.
Please make the calls
As a New Orleans resident from the late 80s to the mid-90s, let me say: cut the crap. The brick housing developments were shit. Horrible places, ill-kept and breeding places and refuges for dealers and stealers. These places were utopia for nothing but roaches.
That being said, the solution doesn’t necessarily include bulldozing the complexes in entirety. Some TND developments here would do the city very well – especially if subsidized on a weighted schedule.
Not sure,
I lived in New Orleans in that same period. If the public housing in New Orleans was in horrible condition with desperately poor tenants, that had more to do with the piss-poor public education available in New Orleans pre-Katrina (thanks to a legislature in Baton Rouge which would rather see all of New Orleans, minus the cash cows of the French Quarter and the casinos, float off into the Gulf), along with “right-to-work” employment laws – products of that same state leg. – that kept hourly wages for city dwellers in the toilet, and overt and covert racial discrimination.
The time to upgrade and diversify low-income housing in New Orleans was 20 years ago. To do it now, when there is so little rental stock available in New Orleans and reopening public housing means the difference between returning to the city or not, is ludicrous.
Open the public housing and welcome residents back. Bring back the life-blood of the city, its people. Then look to the other 60%-70% of housing that’s damaged/destroyed for your “mixed income” developments. Once that new housing is available, you can start moving residents out of public housing.
Scout, I’m copying your post over to my blog. Thanks for staying on top of this.
Hi,
I love your blog. I found your’s through another blog that came up on one of my many News Alerts for Nola News. Actually, you showed up too after I had already posted ‘No Fish No Nuts’, who gives the nod to your post. I hope that you enjoy the NO News Ladder and would be honored by a place on your links list. More rungs on the Ladder, more Stitch-hiking on the Net.
Thank you,
Bruce
editor / NO News Ladder
I have been writing on this topic many times since the Flood.
What is going down with the elimination of the Projects is the “Shock Doctrine” writ large. This is a Racial and economic purging of a city, and it must not happen.
If you see a middle-aged woman getting run over by a bulldozer this week, that will be me.
The buildings have good bones, better than many other structures in New Orleans. If they were renovated right and run right, they could be suitable as mixed income housing.
Gentilly Girl, you do your thing, but don’t you dare get run over by a bulldozer.
The buildings have good bones, better than many other structures in New Orleans. If they were renovated right and run right, they could be suitable as mixed income housing.
Gentilly Girl, you do your thing, but don’t you dare get run over by a bulldozer.