Posted on 04/05/2006 5:51:37 AM PDT by libstripper
NEW ORLEANS, April 4 — A mayoral election is less than three weeks away, and the sympathy of elected officials for the irritations of voters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is boundless.
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Lee Celano for The New York Times Work on this FEMA trailer park rising in the Algiers area of New Orleans has been stopped, officials say. As a result, there will be no trailer park in Lakewood Estates, a collection of solid, spacious homes behind a high locked gate in the Algiers section.
Last weekend, angry residents of the neighborhood took to the street to protest a trailer park being built on their doorstep by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 34 single women and their children who were left homeless by the hurricane. FEMA, their signs proclaimed, was "raping" their neighborhood.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They demand homes then trash them and demand new ones...
A lot easier than taking care of what you got...
This all comes from the disease of an ungrateful heart.....
Every community in this country, having been destroyed by natural disaster, immediatly rebuilds their community, and is gracious & appreciative of outside help. Every community, that is, except NOLA.(the outsiders outnumber the residents)
NOLA was grazed by a category 4 hurricane, for three hours. It doesn't appear they will ever recover. A few weeks later, Cozumel(Mexico) had a category 5 hurricane sit on top of them for almost 5 full days.
Today, Cozumel is a bustling community once again. Today, NOLA is a cesspool of sinning, whining, and corruption....once again.
Like all communities, NOLA has rebuilt those things important to them.
New Orleans Mayor Blocks FEMA Trailer Park
Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_TRAILER_DISPUTE?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-04-05-10-33-24
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mayor Ray Nagin suspended the construction of FEMA trailer parks in the city after a confrontation between federal workers and homeowners who were outraged that a government trailer park was being built inside their gated community.
With an election three weeks away, Nagin sided with the residents of Lakewood Estates, a community of spacious homes in the city's Algiers section, and suspended the nearly completed trailer project there and similar projects elsewhere in New Orleans.
The Lakewood Estates trailer park was meant to house 34 single women and their children who were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, but area residents complained it was too close to their homes. The neighborhood association also sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking a permanent injunction against the project.
FEMA officials said they were surprised by Nagin's decision, especially since he had approved the Algiers trailer site months earlier, FEMA spokesman Darryl Madden told The New York Times. All the necessary building permits had been obtained, Madden said.
The city may have to reimburse the federal government $1.6 million if FEMA is not allowed to finish building the trailer site, Madden said Tuesday.
Fights over where to put trailers for displaced residents have been a persistent problem. Disputes have erupted over whether trailers should be put on playgrounds, in parks and in historic areas, and Nagin decided that council members would be able to veto trailer locations in their districts. In December, Nagin backed away from a list of proposed sites because of protests.
The mayor said Monday he might use the impasse to push FEMA to abandon its trailer plan in favor of modular housing or investments in existing apartment buildings.
The Lakewood Estates protest Saturday started with a human and vehicular chain to block federal workers. When federal security officials threatened to arrest them, New Orleans police were called in and threatened to arrest the federal workers, residents said.
The sympathy of the American people, it appears, is largely gone for New Orleans; the odds that it will EVER be rebuilt, save for preserving the French Quarter, grow longer every day.
I wish that you were correct about this. But I fear that despite the fact that it is no longer "the will of the people" to rebuild the place, the wheels of government have already been set in motion, and sooner or later countless billions of dollars will end up disappearing into this rat hole.
I saw another article here in FR today where some hotel in D.C. (I think) still has some of them living in the hotel. The hotel is offering them $2,500 if they'll leave this week, $2,000 if it's next week, and so on until the bribe goes to zero in 45 days or so. Now that's pathetic.
It appears that the scratch-each-others-backs form of city government hasn't missed a beat, either.
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