Poor people stopped from checking out homes in NOLA

[eridani]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2491

As residents of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward trickled into their neighborhood this week at what they thought was the behest of city authorities, the National Guard set up checkpoints along Claiborne Avenue and blocked many from reaching their homes on the northern side of the heavily damaged area.

Frustrated residents – many who had traveled hours last week to finally see what had become of their homes – milled from blocked intersection to blocked intersection, pleading with soldiers to let them through. For the most part, the guards stood their ground, telling angry flood survivors that the area was still too dangerous to enter.

But for many who waited over a month to see if there is anything of their former lives to salvage, to show insurance adjusters proof of damage, or simply to find closure so they can begin to rebuild their lives, the roadblocks symbolized just one more insult from a city they increasingly feel is trying to push them out.

<snip>

The rules and the reasons for denying people passage beyond Claiborne varied depending on which checkpoint soldiers were asked. Most were allowing insurance inspectors, contractors and government workers past the checkpoints, but denying residents and press.

[itzamirakul]

1. I am not surprised.

They will set up a selective residency for the city...esp to turn the political base from Dems to Repubs.

[curt_b]

2. Good Article, Good Source

I subscribe to The NewStandard (the source of this story) and have referenced it here and on other boards, because it reports hard news from an independent progressive point of view. They accept no advertising and owe nothing to the corporate interests that dominate most media outlets. For the past couple weeks the author of the the OP’s post, (one of the editors/reporters) Jessica Azulay has been on the ground in the Gulf region. In fact she was the first reporter to interview Robert Davis, the 64-year-old retired elementary school teacher beaten by NO police and writes extensively about “Camp Amtrak”, an improvised jail in what used to be the New Orleans bus terminal in this article:

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2475

They have built an impressive original body of critical work on post-Katrina news, including another Azulay article published yesterday titled “Bayou Towns Still Fending for Selves After Rita’s Floods”. It’s a great source for reliable news.

[FloridaPat]

3. This is being done right under our noses. Imagine what Iraq is like.

How did things go so wrong in this country? What happened to the America that was concerned about that blue dress? The one with jobs and hope.

[eridani]

4. Wondering who to complain to--

--that is in order to get something actually done about it.