Comments on: Infohazard: Terrorism, Housing, and Social Unrest in the Humid City

By: out of my face » Blog Archive » New Orleans Recovery Continues

out of my face » Blog Archive » New Orleans Recovery Continues — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:03:00 +0000

[...] For the second year running New Orleans has shown that despite criticism it is recovering to pre-Katrina levels of murder and violent crime, by once again seizing the title of most-violent American city! This year the murder rate reached an impressive 71 murders for every 100,000 citizens up from a mere 63.5 last year. That’s a 209 murders for 2007. LINK The housing boom also continues as scheduled following recent unanimous decision to destroying public housing facilities. (image from Humid City) [...]

By: Rene

Rene — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:11:44 +0000

So far the only candidate I like is John Edwards.
Regarding this whole plan to demolish the projects and replace them with $400,000 units, they are cutting their own throats.
Check out the rentals and the for sales in the Times-Picayune, and on Craigslist for New Orleans.
There are thousands, but they continue to be listed, because no one can afford them.
Most are way over the range of low or even middle-income earners.

Why do they think the ‘wealthy ‘ are going to come to New Orleans and rent or buy, when there are just not enough high-paying jobs for them to afford them?
Also I see many reducing their rental fees or giving move-in specials and they still go begging.
So where is that at?

Everybody keeps on about the ‘poor’, but middle income earners are SOL too. The jobs aren’t there and affordable housing is no longer there.

These ‘developers’ are just going to grab benefits from the govt, for grants, tax credits, etc. If they actually build, well, they will be begging too. Don’t think they’ve really done their homework.

There really isn’t a “Desperate shortage of shelter”, but there is a desperate shortage of affordable shelter, even for the middle-incomers. Rental owners have had to come up with their own financing to fix up their rentals. The FEMA program for rental owners has not paid out a cent yet. So they have HAD to raise rents on their once affordable rentals.

I think the “Elite” of New Orleans have lost their minds, along with their ’slaves.’

By: Carmen

Carmen — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:46:20 +0000

The main issue here is fundamental distrust of government on all levels. It’s rather like listening to the Republican debate and hearing the candidates talk about job elimination. They don’t call it that, they spew about tax reform and the millions of wasted dollars people pay out to accountants et al, but we are a nation of paper pushers (as evidenced by the outcry when middle management jobs were outsourced to India and other lands) and the ones who will be affected hear only the bottom line. Which is why policy never gets changed, the logic isn’t thought through beforehand and, heh, accounted for. If we want to eliminate industries - even the 13 teenage pregnancy programs - then why not eliminate gun manufacturing instead, I always say. Eliminate hobbyists before professionals.

Back to the point (more or less), the fact that one or more new housing developments could have been erected before demolishing others is the primary mistrust factor. It’s gerrymandering here in New Orleans to keep the Democrats… I mean, poor… out until after the next census. Have all of them even been allowed to retrieve personal belongings from their former homes? I always wonder about that.

I’m on neither side, personally. I just see incompetence. Where is the list of former residents and their expressed wishes to return or not return? Accommodate them first. Where is the official negotiator? The public is in an uproar because business, of which more and more these days government appears to be one, is leaving them out of the process. It used to be - with real leaders - heartfelt concern caused corrective measures to be taken before the powermongering took place. Or was that just in my LookingGlass world again?

Oh, no, it was in the Constitutional writing sessions, wasn’t it? The original ones, I mean.

By: Modern Day Estella

Modern Day Estella — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:54:08 +0000

This issue has been playing around in my mind for some time now. Nobody can deny that concentrating poverty where nobody has to see it is not beneficial to those who live in said areas. Hopelessness, despair, and full belief in lack of opportunity are bred in such environments. The majority of the residents of the projects were hardworking individuals, not crackheads and criminals.
At the same time, there is a great need for affordable housing in New Orleans. The service industry is suffering from a lack of workers, because said workers can’t afford to live in the city. The projects, disregarding anything else, are extremely well-built structures that with renovation could house people who need a place to live to return.
The main thing I’m seeing is why would many of these people want to return? Yes, New Orleans is an amazing city. Yes, it’s hard to leave home. Yes, there’s a strong pull of Hiraeth, as the Welsh call it. BUT - there simply are more opportunities in most other major metropolitan areas, like the ones to which so many New Orleanians evacuated. Especially for the working poor.
And this doesn’t even touch on the problems of getting the middle class to invest in property next to subsidized housing. We’ve all seen the decline in property values in the neighborhoods surrounding the Projects over the years, many of which are lovely, historic neighborhoods with a stock of great houses with loads of gingerbread. Most home buyers aren’t going to ignore that trend, especially with the national housing market being in the state it’s in and mortgage problems. There’s a lot of NIMBY in this city.

There are too damn many issues in this, and caught in the middle are the people who don’t have any housing options in New Orleans.