With the poor gone, developers are planning to gentrify the city

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Power to the victims of New Orleans

Naomi Klein
Friday September 9, 2005
The Guardian

On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. "The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funnelled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants. We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans."

<snip>


Except relief and reconstruction never seem to work like that. When I was in Sri Lanka six months after the tsunami, many survivors told me that the reconstruction was victimising them all over again. A council of the country's most prominent businesspeople had been put in charge of the process, and they were handing the coast over to tourist developers at a frantic pace. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of poor fishing people were still stuck in sweltering inland camps, patrolled by soldiers with machine guns and entirely dependent on relief agencies for food and water. They called reconstruction "the second tsunami".

There are already signs that New Orleans evacuees could face a similarly brutal second storm. Jimmy Reiss, chairman of the New Orleans Business Council, told Newsweek that he has been brainstorming about how "to use this catastrophe as a once-in-an-eon opportunity to change the dynamic". The council's wish list is well-known: low wages, low taxes, more luxury condos and hotels.

Before the flood, this highly profitable vision was already displacing thousands of poor African-Americans: while their music and culture was for sale in an increasingly corporatised French Quarter (where only 4.3% of residents are black), their housing developments were being torn down. "For white tourists and businesspeople, New Orleans's reputation means a great place to have a vacation, but don't leave the French Quarter or you'll get shot," Jordan Flaherty, a New Orleans-based labour organiser told me the day after he left the city by boat. "Now the developers have their big chance to disperse the obstacle to gentrification - poor people."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1566199,00.html

The good people of New Orleans are going to need a lot of help to stand up against these theives. Indeed, power to the victims of New Orleans.

[JDPriestly]

1. I agree with the post that started this thread. What will happen in NO.

I posted this elsewhere a couple of times, but I want to be sure more people see it. I have experience in redevelopment law/practice. Here is what I predict will happen in NO after the flood. It's based on experience, not empty theorizing.

The city fathers (meaning the filthy rich elite "investors") will bulldoze everything that belonged to the poor and middle class. Remember the S&L crisis, the stock market crash, the Bush tax cuts. The filthy rich in our country never miss the chance to grab the assets of the poor. And this disaster is going to be the biggest opportunity yet.

The city fathers will declare large areas of New Orleans to be disaster areas, not habitable, superfund sites, everything bad they can think of. That's OK and probably won't be a lie.

Many of the "disaster areas" will include the properties, the homes and small businesses of middle class, lower middle class and poor people. These people will not be able to pay their mortgages or rent because they will not have jobs or income. They will not be able to keep paying the double rent to keep the NO property as well as another property where they live in another place.

Meanwhile, two things will happen. First, banks will foreclose on some of the properties and sell them cheap to people and corporations who have the money to pay for them. Second, the city will declare some of the properties to be dangerous and use its eminent domain rights to simply take them at bargain rates because they will say that their potential use is very limited due to the contamination.

Next, the city with federal and state help will start a redevelopment plan that allows those with lots of money to get grants and low-interest loans to rebuild on the sites that have been foreclosed and/or taken under eminent domain. They will justify this as being in the public interest since it will improve the city's tax base (which after the hurricane and floods is next to nonexistent).

What will happen to the properties? Most of them will be bulldozed. If the land is salvageable, the very wealthy will build something new on them, which they can sell/rent to the poor people from whom the properties were taken and other poor folk.

There will be massive fraud and disgusting compromises made in determining what level of clean up of the contaminated sites must be done. The "clean up" will be done by the very wealthy, companies like Halliburton, as will the "rebuilding" of improvements on the bargain rate land. The very wealthy who "rebuild" will be congratulated on their humanitarian efforts as they grab the profits from the situation.

Ordinary people like you and me, the poor and those who are even slightly better off than we are will be wiped out. They will lose any equity they may have accumulated in their homes as well as the ability to profit from the massive government investment that will go into the "rebuilding," which by the way will be funded by taxes that they will pay in the future thanks to the enormous national debt. Many of the less than filthy rich will declare bankruptcy and have to pay and pay to wipe off the debts they are incurring just to survive right now.

The money for rebuilding will not go to the current home or Small business owners. It will go to the big money interests, the Halliburtons, the banks. That's what happened in the S&L crisis and in every crisis in recent years. It's a game. The wealthy just hold their bets until something bad happens and then they ride in on white horses, play their cards and collect, often from taxpayer money or assets that have been taken by government entities.

The filthy rich know a sure thing when they see it, and this is going to be a great thing for them. I pity the poor home, condo or small business owners in NO who have paid on mortgages for years and who will get cheated not once, but three times as the rich rebuild their city. They lose what they have right now. They pay taxes to rebuild. Then they will be charged premium prices for the "rebuilt" properties they lost. The poor will be three-time losers. The filthy rich "investors" will be three-time winners. What a game.
Al

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. This is the new face of America. RW'ers have made us bloodthirsty

opportunist. Forget the "careless people," we're reckless as hell because no one holds these leaders accountable.

[JDPriestly]

5. The corruption of the rich thrives on the silence of the poor.

We need to make a lot of noise about what is likely to happen here. This is really a middle class issue more than a poor people's issue. As we saw after the recent Supreme Court decision on eminent domain (don't want to be snooty, but it's eminent, not imminent), middle class people are sensitive to this issue and rightfully so. This is a good talking point right now. New Orleans could be the opportunity to stop the property grabs by the rich developers.

[papau]

11. If I could spell eminent I could have got an honorable job! :-)

I agree this is a good talking point for Dems -

Dems should be ready to have it on the table after water is drained but before "reconstruction" begins.

Someone should note that mold does not kill or cause sickness - except for the auto-immune response problem folks (who it can kill), and for those with allergies (who will react).

[Nihil]

7. Well-written. Tragic but well-written.

Thank you.

[papau]

2. I agree - the "Katrina Diaspora" will be followed by Imminent Domain

http://www.blackcommentator.com/149/149_davis_new_orleans.html


From Prior Black Commentator had Thulani Davis's "Katrina Diaspora"
<snip>
Lastly, there is now what is called the Katrina Diaspora. This diaspora of people without resources puts the restoration of families and community at risk, and in the case of New Orleans' black community, probably makes that impossible. Even people who own land there are going to be in deep trouble trying to hold onto it when the real estate boondoggle gets in the courts. I'm afraid we'll be reading a lot of stupid crap about how they couldn't be found, taxes were owed, etc. as in times past throughout the South. That's why I hope Jesse gets someone to bring people like Congressman Bennie Thompson into the fold, as he is familiar with the commission that had to be set up in the Delta because people are still trying to get back land stolen in the 1930s. And the developers are probably asking for eminent domain to be declared even as I'm typing.
<snip>

As DU'er KoKo01 has posted

"I've been worried about right of Imminent Domain...if the
Real Estate folks get in. I even posted worried they would do "controlled burning" in NO because they would claim some areas are health hazards and Disney would come in an build a recreated NO's theme park or an area like "Celebration" in Orlando.

With Halliburton getting the contracts they could bring in Disney, or Centex Home Builders or any of the dozens of the big builders cutting out any of the local construction folks who could use the jobs.

The Repugs are steamrolling the funding through and the writer is probably correct they are working out the "land grabs" right now. If they can't steal it outright they will offer a low price to elderly folks or their kids telling them the house is not habitable and will be bulldozed. Many folks will be happy to take the money because they are still in shock and decide its for the best.

I hope folks can get on this quick with some good lawyers."

[JDPriestly]

4. Kick this thread. Maybe we can get some attention to this issue.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. We can't let this happen

It is up to the people of New Orleans to decide what to do with New Orleans.

It is up to them and only them who will get the contracts and what the rebuilding will look like. The Repugs need to take their dirty, greedy hands off of these people. Remember state and local rights. Okay time for them to put their money where they big fat mouths are.

This is a very important issue and we are going to see some real ugliness and corruption in the greedy ones has they try to get their hands on all these redevelopment opportunities.

[bleedingheart]

8. Sadly in the end Money Talks ....and those with cash will

be the ones who determine what happens.

Don't Worry though.. :sarcasm: the well to do will make sure enough low income housing comes back cuz they will want folks to clean rooms, wash dishes and tend to gardens...

[soup]

9. Who will clear the land

dig the trenches, set the rebar, haul the lumber and set the block, clean up the debris, frame the walls, lay insulation, carry, throw and pound down shingles, install the sprinkler systems, toss the sod, carry and plant the landscaping, etc., etc., etc.? and that's just the beginning of the process of rebuilding.

Where will the skilled, semi-skilled and manual labor people come from? Where will they live?

I understand what you're saying and have few doubts that a lot of it, unfortunately, may well come to pass. My question is how do they get it done, how does it then maintain and sustain itself without a balance of housing and services for those who provide the services?

The people at the top with blood on their hands cannot survive without the people at the bottom with callouses on theirs. Wouldn't there be a tipping point somewhere?

just some (quite possibly naive) sipping morning coffee questions.

edit to add - recommended.

[MsTryska]

10. I think the only way to avert that disaster

would be to get anybod who makes zoning decisions for those areas understanding that not allowing for lower income people is unacceptable.

this means city commissioners, parish commissioners and councils - those people.



they'll be thinking in terms of tourism, and tax base. They will naturally gravitate to developers who provide them with plans for fantastically ugly, high priced condos and huge business districts including a bed bath n beyond, a borders booksstore, and starbucks.


it's up to those who have money and power in NO to fight to not lose her in reconstruction.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. kicking so more might get to read this.