Old-line families plot the future (in NOLA - antebellum "gentrification")

[TahitiNut]

Old-line families plot the future

Thursday, September 08, 2005
By Christopher Cooper, The Wall Street Journal

NEW ORLEANS -- On a sultry morning earlier this week, Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water to flush the toilet in his home.

The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by generators. Wednesday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the order.

The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By Wednesday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline.

Despite the disaster that has overwhelmed New Orleans, the city's monied, mostly white elite is hanging on and maneuvering to play a role in the recovery when the floodwaters of Katrina are gone. "New Orleans is ready to be rebuilt. Let's start right here," says Mr. O'Dwyer, standing in his expansive kitchen, next to a counter covered with a jumble of weaponry and electric wires.

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[Lindacooks]

1. I think it's time for the French Revolution.

ICE CUBES FOR HIS HIGHBALLS??? If ever a person needed to be put up against the wall, it's this asshole.

[MN ChimpH8R]

2. Agreed

[barb162]

5. well now, that's not very friendly

bwa

[Southpaw Bookworm]

22. Someone posted the other day

About placing a replica in Lafayette Park in front of the WH and just sitting in a rocking chair and knitting.

[TahitiNut]

3. It's interesting that a "mandatory evacuation" doesn't seem to apply.

It's also interesting that "oil company engineers" have enough time to perform such personal services for the wealthy as the refineries and oil platforms are being repaired. These people who owe much of their income to the labors of others don't seem to be motivated to "return the favor."

Yes ... I'm looking forward to Madame LeFarge's knitting.

[Binka]

12. Those HIGHBALLS are the only balls this dude has

Fuck the corporate elite and their money scheming rotten souls. Fuck them to hell. Hey Mr HIGHBALLS don't forget to take your ice when you meet Satan.

[Radio_Lady]

35. Wow! This is beyond disgraceful and disgusting...

Power corrupts, and absolute power (and money) corrupt absolutely.

[NNN0LHI]

4. OK we got the rift raft out. Time to divide up the loot! n/t

[sasha031]

6. If this is true

Nagen is a monster, not a surprise for ex slave owners to have such high family values.To think we all were on his side, his sobbing moment is still on AAR web page.
I mailed this to Randi, I hope she talks about it today. I am now staring to believe that you expect just the worst of all people unless they are 100% liberal.
So what if there are 25,000-35,000 dead and millions of homeless!Lets celebrate with cocktails!:sarcasm:

[NNN0LHI]

11. Ummm Nagen said EVERYONE had to leave but everyones hero...

...around here GeneraL Honore said he was not going to remove everyone. He even said he was even going to keep bringing these folks supplies.

Don

[DoYouEverWonder]

33. They might be playing bad cop - good cop?

Have they forceably removed anyone yet?

As long as they don't have an outbreak of some nasty disease, I think we will start to see people returning to areas relatively soon. They just need to get the water and bodies out first. I'd hate to go back to my wrecked house, to find grandma whose been dead for a week. These folks have been through enough. Then they can flush the water pipes and there will no longer be a good reason to keep anyone out.

[ikojo]

40. This is why it is also very important to look at things

from a class based perspective as well. Look at Condeleezza Rice...she is black but obviously was not concerned with the plight of suffering blacks in New Orleans because she found time to shop for expensive shoes and see a play.

[me b zola]

51. Interesting that you would single out Nagin as the monster

Although almost all of us were glad to hear Nagin rail against the federal non-response & denial of life saving aid, our real concern is what has happened/ is happening to the people of New Orleans.

While we are still trying to deal with the horrific things that happened to the people of NO by the federal government, we are also becoming aware of the neo-con/elistist desire for gentrification of a "new New Orleans". It is our national AA leaders who are leading the charge to try to prevent this. Might I suggest we join their endevors rather than accusing Nagin of being a monster.

BTW, welcome to DU.

[EFerrari]

7. This was coming. That's why I'm sending money to

Baton Rouge, not the Red Cross or Houston or any of those other places.

[KamaAina]

8. This is how the elite behave in the Third World

in cities such as Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable.

Or, like another yuppie asshole said in "Bonfire of the Vanities", "If you want to live in New York, you've got to insulate yourself from these people." :puke:

[peacebuzzard]

38. I cannot think of a single instance of such a calamity in Sao Paulo

sure there are deplorable putrid rancid slums around the metropolitan area and yes, the elite there live in gated communities and are guarded by their own private militia, but so help me, where in the history of Brazil has such a natural predictable natural disaster occurred where the elite sat on an island surrounded by corpses and plotted their future? This is a single unprecedented event, as far as I can recall. In Brazil, they do not let the corpses rot and leave people to die without a haste for rescue. There is a sense of compassion and humanity among the latin community, and, so I previously thought, here in this great nation.

What have we become?

However, on edit, yes, the third world Brazil is famous for its impoverished slums and the very dirt poor population in the northeast of the country, where heavy floods happen and death rates are high. However, the rescue, even in Brazil, comes as soon as possible with everyone pitching in to help. In the mining areas, also, the poor do live like squatters around the rich foreign miners and other elite but it is a predictable future which many try to escape when they are ready, on foot, or by bus when they have saved enough money. In the northeast It is very squalid, with no resources and rampant disease...but escapable, if one has the initiative. The differences are great between the two scenarios. I grew up in Brazil, and I have never, never seen or heard of anything of this horror in magnitude, ever.

[disconnected]

9. Oh geez

These people were just "living it up" while people were dying. This is horrible!
I REALLY wanna declare his property emminent domain and let all the folks who do not wanna be evacuated go live there.

[Trillo]

17. It also relates to the need for a stiff estate tax, so that

obscene weath cannot be passed from one generation to the next.

[classics]

10. The bitter truth is the poor will never return to NOLA

Thier housing will be condemned and destroyed, the lots bought up at pennies on the dollar by speculators who will build new housing apartments and houses for the techno-rich and middle upper class white elite only.

Poor people cant afford to live in new housing, ever.

[TahitiNut]

15. There WILL be "housing projects".

The idle rich don't work. Ever. They have hirelings for cooking, laundry, cleaning, and ... security. Those hirelings must be housed. The lowest land, most susceptible to floods, will be for the hirelings and cast-offs.

Besides ... there's profit in building trashy housing.

[howmad1]

23. Just imagine:

Turning the 9th ward into a rich mans playground. Yes, I can see it now, luxury condos, 5 star hotels, billion dollar casinos, world class golf courses, multi-million dollar single family homes, shopping malls anchored by Nordstrom, shuttle buses to to the French Quarter, levees rebuilt to protect against cat 5 hurricanes, and hidden tenement projects for those "underprivileged" workers keeping this new rethuglican utopia going strong. Hooray for Katrina. Yes, there is a god!

[2Design]

24. news last night in rich town - were glad to get some evacuees

because they have lots of jobs to fill
cook
waitress
cleaning
bus boys
taking care of people who come for the golf courses

And of course 'these people' are already trained since they came from a service area environment

this is the reason to not up the minimum wage - exploitation - like turn of the century factories and plantations - AAArrrggghhh

[TahitiNut]

28. LA, MS, & AL have no minimum wage to increase

Since they have no state minimum wages laws to begin with. Only the federal laws apply. (TX minimum wage laws incorporate the federal rates by reference.)

[Moloch]

42. The city of New Orleans

has a $6 per hour minimum wage.

It's certainly not a livable wage, but its better than the $5.15 that is the federal minimum wage.

[ikojo]

41. Of course they will need SOME poor people to do the work in

the hospitals, nursing homes and restaurants and such as well as to clean their palatial estates.

What will happen is that the poor will be relegated to far flung areas and will spend a considerable amount of time just getting to and from work. Remember that woman in Fahrenheit 9/11 whose son killed a fellow first grade student in Flint, MI? Due to welfare reform (thank you Bill Clinton and the Democrats) she commuted by bus to a wealthy mall to work for a restaurant chain owned by Dick Clark. Her commute was so lengthy and her pay so paltry her son was left with an uncle. This will be and is being repeated across the country, especially as the five year lifetime limit on welfare comes upon many people.

[Blaq Dem]

52. Yes they will..it'll be the illegal immigrants, not blacks and poor whites

The southern rich still have that antebellum planttion taste in their mouth. They want free labor. Illegal immigrants are the closest they'll get to it. They can't complain. Filthy disgusting rich people always need poor slave hands by their side to clean their poop.

[xxqqqzme]

13. Maybe pat robber's son will want 2 invest!

'...He says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin to begin mapping out a future for the city.

The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.

The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and FEWER POOR people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."...' (emphasis added - probably just enough 'poor people' to clean their houses & offices, take care of their kids, cook their meals 'n tend their gardens - where else R they gonna get their 21st century slaves)

[KamaAina]

21. Robertson invest in a wicked city with sex and gay people in it?

:sarcasm:

[Trillo]

14. So it is an organized group fighting against the poor

to forcibly remove them from their roots.

It's the civil war, still being fought 150 years later.

[Sarojin]

16. There was another story about a housekeeper

Along that same street. I think it was an interview on NPR. A woman with a Spanish accent explained how she could not leave for the hurricane because the family she worked for had fled NO for the storm and left her to care for the dogs.

Now she needed help because the family only planned on being gone for 3 days after the storm passed, so she ran out of supplies and was trying to get the SPCA to take the dogs so she could vacate.

Compassion.

[lateo]

18. Wearing their racism on their sleeves.

It seems a badge of honor for them. Disgusting.

[Selatius]

19. Inequality must exist for our current way of life.

There will always be the rich, and conversely, there will always be the poor. This has been the case for as long as our way of life has largely been based around the concept of private control and ownership over vital resources and competition for those resources, not cooperation. When two people are made to compete for limited resources in a winner-take-all way of life, somebody always loses.

This is the lowest common denominator, and social programs were invented in order to help those who lose, but they are slowly being dismantled by those who have won the game. They do not want to pay the taxes to help the "loser." With disparity in wealth comes disparity in power...political power. This is the reality in our world.

The only question left then is whether one accepts the status quo or rejects it and chooses to fight against it.

[underpants]

20. Right this is just a sudden example of it

add to that-blame continually laid at the feet of the poor and powerless so as to distract the poor white and middle class (of all colors) attention from the moneyed rich who make profit on their work and now want them (the middle class) to pay the rich's wages.

BTW_ if you didn't notice they cleaned out the treasury and are raping the public lands.

[formercia]

25. It would be a real shame

if a few 10,000 black people from NOLA move to sugerland TX and register to vote there. Think of the possibilities, sort of gerrymandering with your feet.

[WinkyDink]

34. Heh.

I'll bet my Republican in-laws in Sugarland (and Houston) are fit to be tied right about now.

[tanyev]

44. I'm so glad we have accepted a lot of evacuees in Collin County.

I hope they all stay, find jobs, and register to vote. :evilgrin:

[formercia]

56. Yup, Katrina just created a mobile force

with lots of voting power,now all we need to do is direct them at the ogre du jour.

[merci_me]

60. You read my mind..............

I'm here in Houston, which includes a fair portion of Dist 22 and a fw days ago I pulled the map to see what the possibility of housing might be, through the 22nd. Looks promising, throughout the 22nd.

There's not only SugarLand, but Houston, Webster, Clear Lake, South Houston. I seriously think it's very do-able.

[Redstone]

26. The rich have always had it easier than the poor, and

they always will. It's the way the world has always been, and the way it always will be.

This is news to anyone?

Redstone

[DELUSIONAL]

27. Just wondering -- who owns the land?

who owns the land in the "mostly black neighborhoods" or areas?

I've never done research in Southerns land ownership -- only Eastern US and Midwest and Western States.

In the South land ownership by blacks didn't happen until after the Civil War -- and then probably in restricted areas. But I don't know -- I have no idea.

It will be interesting to see what sort of rebuilding goes on -- and the racial component in the "new sections" of New Orleans. Of course the old money rich would have to allow some workers quarters (sarcasm intended).

[Hardrada]

29. Massa wants some cheap waterproof

slave quarters.

[JDPriestly]

31. Some cities put the tax records on line.

Some even have the county recorder's records on line which shows the recording of deeds. You will need addresses.

[DELUSIONAL]

36. I will be checking this out

I've done Land title research -- old records for Genealogy -- this would be an good current research project -- add one more dot for the question: Why did this happen?

[JDPriestly]

30. They will bulldoze and "take" properties of the poor

and middle class. Remember the S&L crisis, the stock market crash, the Bush tax cuts. The filthy rich in our country never miss the chance to grab the assets of the poor. And this disaster is going to be the biggest opportunity yet.

The city fathers will declare large areas of New Orleans to be disaster areas, not habitable, superfund sites, everything bad they can think of. That's OK and probably won't be a lie.

Many of the "disaster areas" will include the properties, the homes and small businesses of middle class, lower middle class and poor people. These people will not be able to pay their mortgages or rent because they will not have jobs or income. They will not be able to keep paying the double rent to keep the NO property as well as another property where they live in another place.

Meanwhile, two things will happen. First, banks will foreclose on some of the properties and sell them cheap to people and corporations who have the money to pay for them. Second, the city will declare some of the properties to be dangerous and use its eminent domain rights to simply take them at bargain rates because they will say that their potential use is very limited due to the contamination.

Next, the city with federal and state help will start a redevelopment plan that allows those with lots of money to get grants and low-interest loans to rebuild on the sites that have been foreclosed and/or taken under eminent domain. They will justify this as being in the public interest since it will improve the city's tax base (which after the hurricane and floods is next to nonexistent).

What will happen to the properties? Most of them will be bulldozed. If the land is salvageable, the very wealthy will build something new on them, which they can sell/rent to the poor people from whom the properties were taken and other poor folk.

There will be massive fraud and disgusting compromises made in determining what level of clean up of the contaminated sites must be done. The "clean up" will be done by the very wealthy, companies like Halliburton, as will the "rebuilding" of improvements on the bargain rate land. The very wealthy who "rebuild" will be congratulated on their humanitarian efforts as they grab the profits from the situation.

Ordinary people like you and me, the poor and those who are even slightly better off than we are will be wiped out. They will lose any equity they may have accumulated in their homes as well as the ability to profit from the massive government investment that will go into the "rebuilding," which by the way will be funded by taxes that they will pay in the future thanks to the enormous national debt. Many of the less than filthy rich will declare bankruptcy and have to pay and pay to wipe off the debts they are incurring just to survive right now.

The money for rebuilding will not go to the current home or Small business owners. It will go to the big money interests, the Halliburtons, the banks. That's what happened in the S&L crisis and in every crisis in recent years. It's a game. The wealthy just hold their bets until something bad happens and then they ride in on white horses, play their cards and collect, often from taxpayer money or assets that have been taken by government entities.

The filthy rich know a sure thing when they see it, and this is going to be a great thing for them. I pity the poor home, condo or small business owners in NO who have paid on mortgages for years and who will get cheated not once, but three times as the rich rebuild their city. They lose what they have right now. They pay taxes to rebuild. Then they will be charged premium prices for the "rebuilt" properties they lost. The poor will be three-time losers. The filthy rich "investors" will be three-time winners. What a game.

[trogdor]

32. So the question remains...

...where will they go? Sugar Land is ten minutes from the Astrodome. Does Tom DeLay want any of these people as constituents? Two grand in cash would allow people to pay rent, buy crappy little used cars, and get jobs in the areas they've been sent, like Houston, Texas. If ten percent of them were to register to vote, it could be bad, bad news for certain Republican stuffed shirts next year.

[NorthernSpy]

37. we will put the phrase "Right of Return" into our political discourse!

We will drive off these rich vultures, and bring all the refugees home again. We'll build the best levees known to man, and put all the houses back where they're supposed to be -- only we'll make them all better than they were. We'll restore the marshes. Rebuilding New Orleans will be the project that redeems the entire nation.

And we'll name a public toilet after Ashton O'Dwyer.

[Skink]

39. So the cotton Barron's finally pulled it off...

Looks like the cloud seeding was right on the mark.
Dick Cheneys gonna clean the mess up for you too. Cause that's the kind of guy he is.

[Redstone]

49. "Cloud seeding?" Ohhhhhhkay.

I've seen some crackbrained stuff on DU lately, but please, PLEASE tell me you're not saying that you think someone "seeded the clouds" to make Katrina stronger.

Please tell me you didn't mean that.

Redstoe

[Skink]

53. Sorry made that up...

In Texas though we seed with the best of em. Oh and I watched news online 24/7 from NO and the newscasters new the hit was going east but they couldn't say anything because they were informed of what would happen after. Seriously the seeding is comical but the genocide isn't.

[Redstone]

54. Boy, am I glad to hear that was a joke...

You can never tell with some of the whacknut theories that get batted around here sometimes.

Redstone

[Erika]

43. The South was built on the backs of the blacks

Yet, these elitists shared nothing with them in their days of need.

These people definitely have the GOP mindset.

[cyr330]

45. Uggghhhh

I spent many years in New Orleans, working as a Registered Nurse. There were many, many things I loved about living there, but I loathed the attitude of the "old line" families whose sense of entitlement just made me want to vomit. Often, at the hospital, we were told to be mindful of certain patients because they were "VIP." I usually answered that all my patients were VIP, and I had no intention of providing care to "old line" families any different than what I gave to others.

This "old line" shit is really irritating and should be retired. Who gives a fuck how long someone has been in a city?

[KamaAina]

46. Oh lovely. They're planning to turn N.O. into Repukeville.

Calvin Fayard, a wealthy white plaintiffs' lawyer who lives near Mr. O'Dwyer, says the mass evacuation could turn a Democratic stronghold into a Republican one. Mr. Fayard, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, says tampering with the city's demographics means tampering with its unique culture and shouldn't be done....

How DARE they?! One wonders how much of a hurry they'll be in to get evacuees registered to vote where they are, for that matter.

[dcfirefighter]

47. Land and Liberty

the very foundation of freedom is self-ownership. Self-ownership is impossible without access to the fruits of nature required for life. These are air, water, & land.

More so than an estate tax, a healthy tax on land values (and other natural resources) would correct 200+ years of injustice.

When it is time to rebuild NO, buildings will need to be built. To encourage this, don't tax them. The construction efforts will employ thousands of fairly well paid workers. The buildings, once built, will be filled with working people.

People will be employed in NO. To encourage this, don't tax wages, or income. If you must tax income, exempt at least $50,000 of it.

To encourage the jobs, and the employment, allow commerce to flourish unfettered. Don't tax sales, or restaraunts, or food. These all require salespersons, servers, security, and all of the other working class occupations.

This leaves land values to tax. No one is employed creating land values. Tax them, and 300+ years of accrued wealth gets used to benefit the populace. Tax them and valuable locations get built upon - minimizing the cost of building space and homes. Tax them, and wages will rise.

I'd love to see the Feds condemn the entirety of NO, return salveageable built property to their current owners, leave the lowlands as swamp, and charge market rate ground rents - to be used by the gov't of NO.

[Coventina]

48. ....And happy darkies will sing in the fields......

:puke:

[leftchick]

50. If People do not wake up now as to wtf these rat bastards are up to?

We have no fucking hope. NONE. :(

[NorthernSpy]

59. we WON'T let them do it

Right of Return!

[mitchum]

55. Gullotines for these inbred chinless twits

[Blue_Tires]

57. i'd recommend if i could n/t

[derby378]

58. Herring with mustard sauce?!?

Sounds like their priorities are dramatically diffeent from everyone else's.

[buzzsaw_23]

61. Saw a picture of Ashton

and he seemed downright relaxed and nonplussed by all the grief and strife. Well okay he wasn't exactly feeling the pain. Saw the picture in the Wall Street Journal and in a nearby article the positive side of rebuilding New Orleans was being spun by the Gods of the Market.

These people simply don't care. There is nothing that will ever change them. They have dead hearts.