:-/
This is a ch__ch. What's missing?
Posted on 01/11/2006 6:46:22 PM PST by Libloather
New Orleans residents express anger at first wave of rebuilding ideas
By: CAIN BURDEAU - Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS -- Angry residents expressed frustration Wednesday at the debut of rebuilding proposals for this devastated city, taking aim at a suggested four-month moratorium on new building permits in areas heavily flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
"Our neighborhood is ready to come home," said property owner Jeb Bruneau of Lakeview, which borders Lake Pontchartrain. "Don't get in our way and prevent us from doing that. Help us cut the red tape."
The Bring New Orleans Back Commission, appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin, released its initial recommendations to a packed crowd of local residents. The plans could become part of a blueprint for rebuilding New Orleans -- a task unparalleled in American history.
The idea behind the moratorium is to ensure that enough people would move back to a neighborhood to avoid large expanses with isolated houses.
But that didn't sit well with residents from the hard-hit Ninth Ward, Lakeview and east New Orleans. Several lashed out at commission members such as prominent New Orleans developer Joseph Canizaro.
"I don't know you, but Mr. Canizaro, I hate you," Harvey Bender of the Lower Ninth Ward said as he pointed his finger. "You've been in the background scheming to take our land."
After the meeting, Canizaro met with Bender and promised to explain the commission's recommendations in greater detail.
"I told him I want to do everything I can to help this city. I'm not going to make a dime off this," Canizaro said. Commission members have pledged not to profit from their positions on the panel.
Another resident, Caroline Parker, said: "I don't think it's right that you take our properties. Over my dead body."
Others vowing to fight the plan include City Council members, the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP and former mayor and National Urban League president Marc Morial.
The NAACP said it would be unfair not to allow residents to rebuild and questioned suggestions that some areas of the city should not be rebuilt because they are not "sustainable."
The commission will unveil more rebuilding plans in the coming days, and it hopes to form a clearer picture of what areas would be rebuilt by the end of the year. Besides home and neighborhood reconstruction, the proposals will cover schools, transportation, entertainment and other topics.
But the most contentious issues have to do with how flooded neighborhoods should be rebuilt.
Despite residents' complaints, the rebuilding recommendations have actually been characterized as too liberal and unrealistic by many urban planners. The Urban Land Institute and other planners have said it would be unsafe and unwise to rebuild those sections of the city where the flooding reached rooftops and which could be flooded again by another hurricane.
Nagin is expected to have all proposals in hand on Jan. 20. He then can approve or reject the recommendations. The plan is expected, though, to be presented to President Bush, who asked early on that Orleanians come up with a vision for rebuilding the city.
The commission offered a phased-in approach for rebuilding. It said each of the city's 13 neighborhood development districts should come up with a rebuilding plan by May 20, and that a citywide picture should be formed by June 20.
The neighborhood groups would need to figure out if and how their sections of the city could be built. The commission envisions setting up a federally funded land bank that would have the power to buy homes and land that residents choose to abandon.
Nagin sought to assuage residents' fears that the recommendations are the final word on rebuilding.
"This is a process," he said. "This is a journey."
So are elections. Good luck to you and your family in Dallas...
"Nagin in trouble"
Well that's an improvement.
I can see why the residents are ticked, but aren't most the houses ruined from flood damage - mold, etc? Don't they have to be bulldozed? Be gentle, I'm just asking.
I wonder what the lovely residents have in mind. More stores to loot?
Hulloooooo
Unfortunately, as long as Nagain has a D by his name, I'm suspecting he'll remain Mayor.
He might lose in the primary, which would be an improvement assuming the D is even remotely sane, but I don't see an R actually winning.
Flatten the place. Make it a refinery farm. How's that?
And the Saints are going to win the Superbowl in 2007.
Amen. May the people of New Orleans fire this crook.
Also, may the people of Dallas, or any other city, ever lift a finger to elect him to any public office for the rest of his miserable life.
Make it one big ship channel. The Port is more important than the City.
Sinking is sinking is sinking. It ain't gonna stop sinking. New Orleans is toast mud. Keep it out of the ship channel.
A lot of these places were ratholes built many years ago. Since then in most cities housing rules have changed. I dont know about New Orleans but in mostplaces new building codes have come into effect Codes on plumbing, electricity, the way the roof is put on ,square footage required and porches and decks. so many new rules and applying them takes money. Most of these residents probably didnt own the houses in the first place. many got cheap rent because the homes were rat traps. Rents are going to go up. Lots of problems. Saying it can be done and doing it are two different things.
I wonder what the lovely residents have in mind. More stores to loot?
To allow them to manage it - is criminal.
Semper Fi
Drill for it in the gulf. Refine it in the ex-New Orleans area. Ship it.
Where do I invest?
Let me preface my comments by stating that I am not now, and have never been, a "property owner".
If my apartment complex is destroyed, whether through an "act of God" or by criminal intent, unless I had purchased renters insurance, I will have lost all my personal possessions, and must begin anew to acquire "stuff" entirely by my own devises.
OTOH, if I own a designated patch of land, and even if the building(s) and/or contents were entirely destroyed, by either means, and even if I did not have insurance on them, the land itself is still mine, isn't it?
Someone explain to me again the joys and benefits of property ownership!
It appears to me that even if you "own" property, it is not really your property.
You just have to pay the government directly, and with a separate check, for a portion of your "rent".
Don't get me wrong, I am very much in favor of individual property rights.
I just don't see any actual evidence that such a "right" exists anymore, if it ever did.
:-/
This is a ch__ch. What's missing?
TA-DA! In my state, they tax you on the value of the property, anything that sits on the property - including boats & sheds - and any rain (yep, precipitation) that may or may not hit the property.
And you got problems?
Some where around Baton Rouge. New Orleans is kaput. The ship channel is paramount. You don't build refineries where they are so vulnerable. Sinking land means sinking refineries, sinking terminals and sinking investments.
These people have every right to build on their own property, just don't ask me to pay for it.
FEMA's fault.
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