All Fall Down

NY Times ^ | November 19, 2006 | Nicolai Ouroussoff

[Lorianne]

The ravaged neighborhoods of New Orleans make a grim backdrop for imagining the future of American cities. But despite its criminally slow pace, the rebuilding of this city is emerging as one of the most aggressive works of social engineering in America since the postwar boom of the 1950s. And architecture and urban planning have become critical tools in shaping that new order.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s plan to demolish four of the city’s biggest low-income housing developments at a time when the city still cannot shelter the majority of its residents. The plan, which is being challenged in federal court by local housing advocates, would replace more than 5,000 units of public housing with a range of privately owned mixed-income developments.

Billed as a strategy for relieving the entrenched poverty of the city’s urban slums, it is based on familiar arguments about the alienating effects of large-scale postwar inner-city housing.

But this argument seems strangely disingenuous in New Orleans. Built at the height of the New Deal, the city’s public housing projects have little in common with the dehumanizing superblocks and grim plazas that have long been an emblem of urban poverty. Modestly scaled, they include some of the best public housing built in the United States.

So it’s not surprising that many of its residents suspect a sinister agenda is at work here. Locked out of the planning process, they fear the planned demolitions are part of a broad effort to prevent displaced poor people from returning to New Orleans.

[sdillard]

The LAST thing N.O. needs is "displaced poor people".

For one thing, it's been well over a year since Katrina. No one is "displaced". They have "moved". We don't do "refugees" in this country. No one has a "right of return".

Last time I looked, the unemployment rate in this country is well under 5%. There is no excuse for anyone to NOT have a job...as long as the person is actually WILLING to WORK.

Get over it. Move on. Everyone else has.

[samadams2000]

That liberal must have felt really good about himself for several hours after writing that piece (of sh*$).

[unkus]

I have a friend in Corpus Cristi, TX who recently told me there are a lot of New Orleans people there on welfare, etc.

[sdillard]

I work in the welfare bidness here in CA. Believe me, welfare in Texas is a whole other experience than it is here.

We had a few Katrina "evacuees" here right after the storm. They applied for emergency welfare, which they were entitled to at the time.

But then, they wanted permanent housing. We informed them that in this county alone there is a waiting list of over 30,000 people for public housing.

They left.

[brushcop]

Everywhere I go I see Help Wanted signs, they range from fast food outlets to pretty doggone nice businesses where a person would have a chance to really start a career. At LEAST earn a paycheck. I have no sympathy for the N.O. welfare wonks and thugs.

[unkus]

Thanks for info.

[sdillard]

By the way, here in the Bay Area, the unemployment figure is 3.9%. Strangely, for black men between 21 and 30, it's over 60%.

My department works with employers all the time to find jobs for welfare recipients. Their main complaint? Hardly any of them can pass a drug test. Most are functionally illiterate. "Attitude" is also a big, big factor.

Our welfare recipients here also tell us that they simply don't WANT to participate in work or training. They will accept a financial penalty (25% of the montly welfare grant) rather than even LOOK for work.

We do have some nice folks who use the system as it was intended and move on. But at least 75% won't lift a finger.

[Vigilanteman]

According to the theories of the New York Times, the high density drab housing of Tokyo, Japan should be breeding grounds to just about the worst crime and poverty imaginable. Instead, this particular scene is considered one of the funkiest neighborhoods available among the city's housing options.

[unkus]

All part of the wonderful "Great Society". Liberals should be absolutely ashamed.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Modestly scaled, they include some of the best public housing built in the United States.

Sure. If you can overlook all of the mud, muck, mold, and mildew. And do not mind living under the rule of drug gangs, and corrupt NOPD. Maintenance is nonexistant. It is a little slice of socialist utopia all things considered.

[SuziQ]

Modestly scaled, they include some of the best public housing built in the United States.

The writer obviously didn't live in one of them. The 'projects' in New Orleans have been hell-holes for years.

[SuziQ]

According to the theories of the New York Times, the high density drab housing of Tokyo, Japan should be breeding grounds to just about the worst crime and poverty imaginable. Instead, this particular scene is considered one of the funkiest neighborhoods available among the city's housing options.

Apples and oranges. There are two different attitudes going on, one is industrious, one is just lazy.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"But despite its criminally slow pace, the rebuilding of this city ..."

How long did it take to build it the first time?

[Lorianne]

Excellent question

[Fitzy_888]

They regularly build and demolish and rebuild the same public housing every 30 years in the Northeast.

It's cycical:

1.) The cities are criticized for not having "affordable housing", hence they build it. 2.) Once built, the city is criticized for building the housing because of the conditions which has everything to do with the occupants. 3.) Later, the city is blamed for ever building them as it was misguided. 4.) Then there torn down. Return to 1.)

If they were encouraged to build some equity in anything they might turn into crazy right wing "ownership society" types. Can't have that!!!