And the legacy of Katrinacontinues
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Police used chemical spray and stun devices Thursday as dozens of protesters seeking to halt the demolition of public housing in New Orleans tried to force their way through an iron gate at City Hall.
And the pictures aren't pretty. But it's about more than simple protest:
The City Council vote is a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists.
HUD wants to demolish the buildings, most of them damaged by Hurricane Katrina, so developers can take advantage of tax credits and build new mixed-income neighborhoods.
The council's approval of the demolition is required under the city's charter.
Yesterday in the NYT architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote about compounding the tragedy of Katrina:
The projects in New Orleans have little to do with the sterile brick towers and alienating plazas that usually come to mind when we think of inner-city housing . Some rank among the best early examples of public housing built in the United States, both in design and in quality of construction.
On the contrary, it is the government’s tabula rasa approach that evokes the most brutal postwar urban-renewal strategies. Neighborhood history is deemed irrelevant; the vague notion of a "fresh start" is invoked to justify erasing entire communities.
This mentality also threatens other public buildings in New Orleans that can be considered 20th-century landmarks. If the government gets its way, a rich architectural legacy will be supplanted by private, mixed-income developments with pitched roofs and wood-frame construction, an ersatz vision of small-town America. That this could happen in a city that still largely lies in ruins is both sad and grotesque.
Both Edwards and Obama have voiced support for demolition to be halted.
Update: A NOLA Affordable Housing Fact Sheet
HANO’s own documents show that:
Lafitte could be repaired for $20million, even completely overhauled for $85 million, yet estimate for demolition and rebuilding many fewer units will cost $100m;
St. Bernard could be repaired for $41m, substantially modernized for $130m, demolition and rebuilding LESS UNITS will cost $197m;
BW Cooper could be substantially renovated for $135 million compared to $221m to demolish and rebuild LESS UNITS;
HANOs own insurance company reported that it would take less than $5000 each to repair CJ Peete apartments.
St. Bernard will go from 1400 units to 595 apartments – of which 145 will be market rate – leaving 160 low-income public housing units and 160 tax credit (mixed income) units.
CJ Peete will go from 723 units to 410 units – 154 public housing; 133 tax credit (mixed income) and 123 market.
BW Cooper will go from 1546 units to 410 units – 154 public housing, 133 tax credit (mixed income) and 123 market.
Lafitte will go from 865 to only a fraction as well.
The developers of these properties will get federal assistance to demolish habitable affordable housing in the following amounts:
$12.8m in Go Zone tax credits for Lafitte, plus $16.3m in CDBG funds
$7.4m in Go Zone tax credits for St. Bernard plus $27m in CDBG funds
$6.9m in Go Zone tax credits for BW Cooper plus $27m in CDBG funds
$7.3m in Go Zone tax credits for CJ Peete plus $27m in CDBG funds
Hope this helps answer questions and claims as to whether this is fair, equitable and/or economically sound.
Update 2: Lafitte will be demoed.
By a 7-0 vote, the City Council has just voted in favor of the planned demolition of Lafitte, overruling a housing conservation committee's tied vote last week.
Now they can put away the tasers and let the bulldozers roll.
Update 3: It's over. They are all coming down and I am haunted by the words of Bill Quigley
Every one of the displaced families who were living in public housing is African-American. Most all are headed by mothers and grandmothers working low-wage jobs or disabled or retired. Thousands of children lived in the neighborhoods. Race, class and gender are unstated parts of every justification for demolition, especially the call for "mixed-income housing." If the demolitions are allowed to go forward, there will be mixed income housing - but the mix will not include over 80 percent of the people who lived there.
And once again, I wonder what kind of city has New Orleans become and why have we done so little to help.