New Orleans madness…
Wow this is crazy.
The City Council of New Orleans is voting today on the demolition of thousands of public housing units in favor for new mixed-income housing for white people. Instead of letting people in and voice their opinions, they locked the gates to the city council building and wouldn’t allow people to come in. Violence erupted in frustration and people were gassed and tasered. There were even a fight inside the room!
I’m especially worried as my family is based in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and some of them rely on that public housing to live. Also, I have a lot of friends GAM included that are down there helping out and I know council meetings are something they attend while they’re there.
In regard to the issue though, it doesn’t do much to counter the theory that the Katrina incident was a wag the dog type tactic to gentrify New Orleans further. Eliminating 4500 public housing units is a huge hit…especially when hardly anything is being done to rebuild the hardest hit areas by the government. Sure celebrities, organizations (like the group from Georgia Tech that’s there now), and other non-profit people are working hard there, but why isn’t the government…that seems very suspect…
A couple of comments from the city council meeting:
“Instead of thinking about the residents and how to support them, you’re saying let’s build more prisons to house the folk that got frustrated with a system that does nothing for them.”
“If you’re going to spend 700 million dollars off the backs of the 4500 families you’re displacing (from the money they paid), it should be for THOSE families homes instead of just for clearing the way for higher income families to move in.”
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I wish I could say I was surprised about all this, but I’m not. Cynthia Willard-Lewis is pretty “trill” though I must say…
