They don't seem to want to help with the recovery.
NIMBY thought patterns strike once again.
At-large councilman Oliver Thomas held up enlarged images of several New Orleans areas, including land that once was home to low-income housing projects since torn down. Those lots already have sewer, water and electrical service.
"You don't have to take away a park — the infrastructure's already there," Thomas said, adding that the lands are federally controlled.
Donna White, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said HUD is negotiating with FEMA over use of the land, but did not know how many trailers might eventually be placed on the land in question, which includes the former C.J. Pete and Desire housing developments.
FEMA is installing or has plans to install 22,500 trailers for returning evacuees in New Orleans — either at individual home sites where repairs are under way or at makeshift trailer parks on large tracts of land. Public opposition has arisen, however, over some of the proposed locations, particularly the use of some neighborhood parks and playgrounds.
Already, public opposition has led to the halt of work on a trailer park at a playground in the Lower Garden District, a once-blighted neighborhood now full of renovated 19th century homes.
The ordinance was sponsored by council member Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, who represents the hard-hit Ninth Ward. It was designed to make it legal for trailers or mobile homes placed on individual lots to extend over sidewalks.
But the council added an amendment by Jacquelyn Clarkson saying trailer parks would be allowed only with written approval of the council member in the affected district.
"We have children home, playing on playgrounds," said Clarkson, whose district includes the French Quarter and neighborhoods on the west bank of the Mississippi River that received the least damage from Katrina.
The unmitigated gall of these people is beyond belief!!! They demand that the rest of the country pony up to pay for the historic screw-up and when the gov't does try to help they stand in the way because they don't want FEMA trailers in cuty parks??? Someone needs to take these a-holes to the woodshed, very loudly and very publicly.
Just a beautiful example of the gross incompetence and corruption of a typical liberal government...everything they touch turns to...oh, forget it.
Do you ever get the impression they are all working together against the residents?
Huh? I thought the trailers were for temporary housing for people involved in the rebuilding effort? Who has time to lolligag around in parks and playgrounds?
-PJ
It appears every council person wants a little payola before allowing any benifits to flow to the people.
I think the mayor deserves a doublewide in front of his Dallas home!
I don't know if the Council isn't doing the smart thing...
The folk who have insurance and are rebuilding are doing so without relying on FEMA or the public dole (mostly). These are the taxpaying citizens who planned and protected themselves. Furthermore, they still believe in the city. If they needed temporary housing, they probably borrowed, bought or leased a mobile home or RV.
So, who is going to be occupying these trailers? Is this an "instant ghetto"? An area to be populated by the sort of population that N.O. really doesn't need or want back? The impoverished underclass that makes a profession out of living on public assistance?
NIMBY, indeed. Why would you want to attract people who are a drain on your resources, a source of crime, (and all of the other attendant problems)... unless of course, they're going to vote to keep you in office.
Right, Ray?
ping