Edgy New Orleans OKs Razing Public Housing

Amid Protests, Council Approves Public Housing Demolition As City Rebuilds From Katrina

(CBS/AP)  Despite occasionally violent protests outside, the City Council voted Thursday in favor of demolishing some 4,500 public housing units, a milestone in the city's effort to balance its heritage and its hurricane rebuilding efforts.

The unanimous vote to permit the federal government to tear down four public housing developments - a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists - followed hours of debate and periodic clashes in the street.

Police used chemical spray and stun guns as dozens of protesters tried to force their way into the packed City Council chamber. One woman was sprayed and dragged from the gates. Emergency workers took her away on a stretcher.

Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her shirt.

"I was just standing, trying to get into my City Council meeting," said the dazed woman, Kim Ellis, who was taken away in an ambulance.

"Is this what democracy looks like?" Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor who opposes demolition, said as he held a strand of Taser wire he said had been shot into another of the protesters.

Quigley said he believed the crackdown violated public meetings laws.

Protesters said they pushed against the iron gates that kept them out of the building because the Housing Authority of New Orleans had disproportionately allowed supporters of the demolition to pack the chambers.

After roughly 30 minutes of on-again-off-again struggle to get into the meeting, protesters fell back, continuously chanting with bullhorns. An afternoon storm thinned the demonstrators, some of whom had been waiting since 7 a.m. to enter, and the crowd disappeared altogether shortly after the afternoon vote.

At the peak of the confusion, some 70 protesters were facing about a dozen mounted police and 40 more law enforcement officers on foot.

Details on arrests were not immediately available.

The meeting itself was mostly peaceful, although an early fight in the chambers between protesters and police caused a brief interruption.

Some public housing residents repeated during the daylong debate that they welcome the plan to replace the decades-old structures with mixed-income housing.

Other residents and their advocates said they fear the plan will result in loss of badly needing housing for the city's low-income black residents.

The vote crossed racial lines, with the three black council members joining four whites.

HUD says about 3,000 families who once lived in New Orleans public housing remain scattered across the country, and social workers say the number of homeless people in the area has doubled to about 12,000.

The housing projects have long been a center for high crime, conditions made worse by damage from Hurricane Katrina, reports Mike Hoss of CBS affiliate WWL-TV. But HUD says the transition from housing projects to mixed income was underway long before the hurricane.

There is no consensus on what's best for New Orleans' poor, even among public housing residents. Redevelopment would diminish the public housing stock and drive many into less stable voucher programs. Repair of brick and barracks-style projects badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina would keep intact poor but close-knit neighborhoods.

Mayor Ray Nagin said the resolution approved by the council includes language that will assure that public housing residents have a voice in the redevelopment plans.

Opponents were not immediately available for comment on the decision.

Thursday's vote was required before demolition work could begin, but several legal challenges to the plan have not been resolved.

[libsluvsuvs]

Posted by bennyblack1 at 01:54 PM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse*****

well who do you think pays for that all that welfare,medicare and all social programs to feed and care for the "POOR"???

but you have a choice.

you can move to cuba or valenzuela and owe nothing..take michelle with you.

[klingon69]

Makes me very sad...you would think ignorance, intolerance, racism, etc. would be bred out, but it appears to still be in-bred.
Posted by rwassel at 08:31 AM : Dec 22, 2007
Unfortunately these stated qualities seem to be human nature. People are naturally distrustful of someone not of their group. I forget which country it is, but the word for stranger translates to the same word for enemy. Humans have always viewed people differnet from them as less than human; look at Nazi Germany and the Jews, The Japanese and Chinese, Whites and most any other race. Education and being proper raising would eliminate these things, at least you would think.

[rwassel]

Amen kailumego1.

Isn''t it sad that there are still so many ignorant people out there? People who have been blindly drinking the Kool-Aid that either their government, or their racist, bigoted parents have been giving them.

Makes me very sad...you would think ignorance, intolerance, racism, etc. would be bred out, but it appears to still be in-bred.

[klingon69]

They should not get rid of one housing unit, while there are homeless people in New Orleans especially with what happened there before. They have every right to continue every type of action of non-violent resistance possible until that happens.
Posted by ttinsly at 08:30 PM : Dec 20, 2007
I don''t believe that "storming the gates" would be considered non-violent.

[klingon69]

Fire codes are not the issue--this is about peoples tight to petition and hold elected officials accountable. That supersedes fire codes. If the meeting hall was inadequate, the meeting should have been rescheduled, postponed, televised--city councils do this all the time.
Posted by andor3 at 04:36 PM : Dec 20, 2007
Maybe they should''ve held the meeting elsewhere, but the fact is the maximum capacity had been reached, and there was NO violence until the protestors started trying to storm the gates.
If you really believe that it supersedes the fire codes, you have proven your lack on knowledge. Very little supersedes the fire codes. The fire chief can and will order the police, mayor and city council if they choose. In my town the firechief can write tickets, and has full arrest powers, just for people who "stand" their vehicles in the fire lane while picking up somebody.

[kailumego1]

Taxes, taxes, taxes, why are Americans always crying about taxes, especially when it comes to social programs, when the majority of TAXES goes into giving corporations tax breaks, fund illegal wars gunrunning, subsidies to the rich, funding backhanded deals with companies like Haliburton, and Osama Bin Laden, etc. etc.

You people only whinnnnnnnnnnnnn repetitively when the thought of your tax money being given to the poor, particularly blacks, of which this "free market enterprise" is founded on the principle of having an "underclass" which to exploit.


All of you lamenting over taxes going to feed the poor, black women having babies, babies, babies, etc. etc. means absolutely nothing, because if you''ll get your head out of your A[SS] and critically think for a moment, the idea of having an "underclass" is an absolute necessity if "BIG BUSINESS" is to survive.

Where are the intellectuals on this post?

Big business desperately needs an "underclass", e.g. the poor, the socially inept, etc. to "fund" it''s elaborate scheme for imperialistic dominance, globally, e.g. WalMart, Home Depot, Eastman Kodak etc.

[kailumego1]

Your argument, therefore, should not be with blaming the poor and downtrodden for your taxes, but blaming them for supporting "Big Businesses" continuance in global domination--because as long as the poor and downtrodden fail to envision the "dream" and keep giving away precious resource dollars to Big Business, then we all FAIL.

Do you morons know exactly how much tax dollars goes to funding social programs, e.g. welfare, 1%, yes 1% look on the back of your tax booklet sometimes before speaking out of turn.

The majority of your so-called welfare dollars goes to military spending, military spending, military spending, what part of this equation don''t you people understand.

Our government, past and present has never really been for the "PEOPLE", it has always served as a springboard for "BIG BUSINESS''S" or the INDUSTRIALIST''S opportunistic HEGEMONIC CONTROL, since after the Civil War, when some citizens were forced and literally "blackmailed" into working for industrialists.

Corporate America, the industrialists, the mercantile, etc. play on your misanthropic collective consciousnesses, your disdain for black folks, Africans, outsiders etc., to keep you in the dark, while they cleverly consume wealth and power at your expense, and you''re too blinded by your own hatred to see the rug being pulled right from under you...

[michellem99-2009]

Benny dear..I hear yer dear..I am pissed that we GIVE to other nations,fight wars..give to illegals. I met a nice lady who wanted a newspaper and asked the person w/ her. No Sah. I bought her that bloody paper and wss happy to do it. She told me why she wanted that paper. Yer post hit the nail on the head. I don''t like paying for the schools. I have to. I WONT HELP OTHERS DRINK SMOKE. I can''t. I heard a woman say she handicap by having a child. Nope. Yer got a baby yeah right. I told her yer could not handle it. Lady I was born Legally blind with C/P. Shut yer trap. That was years ago. My vet room mate is a heart/diabetes/COPD patent. I am not down on those that truly need the aid. The lazy able bodied ones are the ones. My mother told me ye need it. I don''t have a problem that.

[rwassel]

bennyblack1 -

Exactly. So why do some ignorant people on here bit** and complain about paying taxes? I may not agree with the Iraq war, but I can''t stop paying taxes. Others might not agree with welfare, but get over it.

Oh, and I would NOT agree that "every dime is for the health and welfare of individuals in some shape". See: Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere, Halliburton, etc.

[bennyblack1]

Interest, I might add, on Federal Reserve Loans made to the US Government at a rate of 33%APR. And the Federal Reserve is not just a US Bank. It''s part of a conglomerate of world-wide reserve banks. Gee, if you can, think about THAT for a minute.

[bennyblack1]

So, basically, when I was born, I was born forever owing the US Government. A national average debt per US citizen to the government ALONE without taking into consideration his own bills, taxes, and living expenses, was estimated to being between $34,000 and $50,000. And it''s a debt that can never be paid off! If you pay it off one day, the next, you will still owe the same amount of money. That average national debt is merely INTEREST.

[bennyblack1]

Not to mention wards of the state (prisoners).

[bennyblack1]

rwassel;
Just who do you think the Iraqis are? Or the Afgahnistani people? Or anyone else we send troops in to aid? I''m paying for; the health and general welfare of welfare recipients in the US; science and technology; payroll for troops, health, general health and welfare, and food for their families; the use of new technologies in aiding 3rd world countries rise in status; veteran''s benefits; social security for myself, though it''s being used to pay for the health and welfare of many who are fraudulent claiments; salaries paid to non-profit organizations, many of which are pork programs; general campaign funds for all candidates running for office; the funding of abortion; the funding of the National Education Association; the funding of the National Endowment for the Arts; funding for refugees and evacuees both here and abroad; federal block grants for community improvement granted to the individual states; salaries for our police; salaries for educators; etc etc etc ... every dime is for the health and welfare of individuals in some shape or form.

[bennyblack1]

brian
I chose one as an example. There are those who did RIGHT with what they were given that still live here. But, many just wanted to transfer their crimes and illegal activities from one place to another. Not to mention fraudulently claiming damages when; either they had already collected; were no where NEAR Katrina and claimed and collected; or contractors bidding for jobs, starting them, and never finishing them. I''ve been up on the news. Things that you dismiss and throw out as hogwash, I retain.

[rwassel]

crosslakebum -

Since Bush has taken office, he has increased defense spending by 50%, and homeland security (totally separate) by 100%. This does not include "discretionary funds" that have mostly been spent on the "War on Terror". To say that these increases have not had an effect on people''s taxes would be totally ignorant.

It''s just ridiculous that people whine and complain about where their tax money goes to. They have no problem sending it off to help fight a civil war in another country, but then suddenly the become Johnny Pennypinchers when it comes to taking care of people who are on hard times in this country, or expanding health care coverage to more children.

[michellem99-2009]

The goodness we were taught. I am 53,

[michellem99-2009]

I was told this is a great nation growing up .
If yer a white able bodied male.
Not for white girls.
Not for the legally blind
Not for the phy handicapped
Males came first.
They got the best of every thing.
Girls for marriage/babies.
That was my day.
What I wanted was denied me.
I was barred from school for being disabled. I was barred a proper education. Blacks think they are mistreated. They are not. They got more and they are not one bit grateful that they ruin their homes,tag etc. White do the same too. I want what I can''t have and will never have. To see .walk properly, hear better. That is not much. Yer got all that and yet yer rather do this. Ye can''t fight the gov''t ye know that I am appalled that wars,gangs are numer 1. What is the goodness.

on th eother hand I am also suprised at how much money the US govt wastes, just look at Iraq. Saddam could have been removed, but even then he was being controlled, for so much less.

We wasted a $Trillion which could have been used at home. I dont get Americans sometimes, you people go around the world adopting foreign babies when your own babies are here to be taken care of. Charity begins at home.

We shoudl have used that $1 Trillion to feed, clothe and house the homeless, for better schools and healthcare for all, but war war war is all the US leaders have money for. Do they realize how hard it is for Americans to pay taxes and get out of bed every morning and to work and then to watch money for wars but not for poor Americans.

Again as an immigrant, I feel it is the US public that is too patient and too quiet for too long.

There is massive wate of public money and no one seems to question the govt. I would never run my house or business like this, its amazing at the lack of interest from the public.

Secondly why taser protesting people, they are not criminals, they are sad for losing their property, they should be listened to with sympathy not beaten up by the cops like Gestapo. The US is becoming really crazy and notlooking like the free country i came to many years ago.

as an immigrant I came to the US with barely $100 in my pocket, just a intense desire to succeed. However I left behind in my home country millions of lazy, no good bums who will stil be where they were 15 years ago. I never felt entitled to any freebie in the US nor did I want any, I was too proud for a handout and I prayed to God I would never need one. Today I am a business owner, a property owner, raising 3 kids, paying taxes, live in the wealthiest neighbourhood of my city.

I can see that Welfare is important for some, for a certain time, but it can be a like a drug and destroy any ambition. It shoudl be for the very needy, the infirm or people who cannot do without. If someone is healthy, got all their limbs intact, they should be given only temporary help.

[barbaraf4]

2 questions: 1. Why would New Orleans rebuild slums? 2. Didn''t you know that Ray Nagin was going to sell you out?