New Orleans to Raze Public Housing: "This is a government-sanctioned diaspora"

[BurtWorm]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120701482.html

Many Units Closed Since Katrina to Be Demolished, Despite Protests

By Julia Cass and Peter Whoriskey
Special to The Washington Post and Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 8, 2006; Page A03

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 7 -- Public housing officials decided Thursday to proceed with the demolition of more than 4,500 government apartments here, brushing aside an outcry from residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina who said the move was intended to reduce the ability of poor black people to repopulate the city.

Residents and their advocates made emotional, legal and what they called common-sense arguments against demolition at the housing authority meeting. "The day you decide to destroy our homes, you will break a lot of hearts," said Sharon Pierce Jackson, who lived in one of the now-closed projects slated to be razed. "We are people. We are not animals."

She and others questioned why the Department of Housing and Urban Development would destroy affordable housing in New Orleans, saying it is essential to the city's recovery.

C. Donald Babers, the federally appointed administrator running the Housing Authority of New Orleans, did not respond to that question in tersely approving the demolitions.

Previously, HUD officials have said the old projects should be cleared out to make way for less dense, modern housing. But those new developments, to be constructed in partnership with private investors, would probably include far fewer apartments for low-income residents and would take years to complete. An unresolved lawsuit on behalf of residents charges that the demolition plan is racially discriminatory.

"This is a government-sanctioned diaspora of New Orleans's poorest African American citizens," said Bill Quigley of Loyola University's law school, who is representing the displaced. "They are destroying perfectly habitable apartments when they are more rare than any time since the Civil War."

[OneBlueSky]

1. when the conflict is between money and people, money always wins . . .

such is the state of affairs in 21st century America . . .

[Neecy]

2. This sickens me

So, it's the Federal government that's making this decision? Yeah, we know just how much they embrace the poor.

What galls me is the pretentiousness of this guy's name - "C. Donald Babers" - and how "C. Donald" is razing people's homes. Mr. Prep School is also not making even an attempt to give the appearance of giving a shit: The meeting, the last of a series of required "consultation meetings" with residents, appeared to be a formality. Babers thanked each person for his or her comments but made none himself. Nor did he answer any of the questions put to him. Residents called the process a sham.

Some people will just burn in hell.