Public Space

Sunday

Last month we walked with the Mardi Gras Indians by the landscape of change.

Public Housing

With all the talk of the buildings coming down I found little discussion of the impact of “changing the public space”:http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/elie/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1208323471243710.xml&coll=1, and what that means for future walks through the City. “I found this lecture series very interesting”:http://www.invisibleinstitute.com/conference

In it they discuss the reconfiguration of public space and what that means for “8 blocks in Chicago”:http://www.thecha.org/housingdev/stateway_gardens.html. “I found this article from 2003”:http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1117/p03s01-uspo.html which seems to suggest that the plans for Stateway would set policy for the rest of Public Housing nationwide. This “map”:http://www.communitywalk.com/labor_trail/map/5258#0003KXi illustrates a little of what I am talking about.

The buildings may be gone but who was there before will continue to struggle with identity and place.

Karen Gadbois

Karen Gadbois co-founded The Lens. She now covers New Orleans government issues and writes about land use. With television reporter Lee Zurik she exposed widespread misuse of city recovery funds and led to guilty pleas in federal court. Her work attracted some of journalism's highest honors, including a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and a gold medal from Investigative Reporters and Editors. She can be reached at (504) 606-6013.