It is interesting that Congressman Cao led a tour of Charity today to illustrate the damage done to Charity by the storm.

I was watching the “NCDC meeting”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/prc-advocacy/sets/72157618430626904/ interested to see what would happen to these 2 properties which were on the agenda.

3728 S Claiborne

and this gem

3718 S Claiborne Ave.

Sale Date 22-JUN-07
Sale Price $40,000

Both of these properties are in terrible shape, but like my own home which flooded they are probably in a lot worse shape than they were In August of 2005. In fact I remember being told by my insurance company that if we didn’t do everything in our power to mitigate the damage we would be looking at a deeply reduced payout from our homeowners policy.

And both of these properties are owned by “Congressman Cao”:http://www.caoforcongress.com/ here we have bllght brought to you by our own Congressman. In a City struggling to recover and prosper the first rule of thumb should be, “first do no harm”.

So how is it that Mr Cao begs for more “FEMA money for Charity”:http://www.savecharityhospital.com/content/congressman-cao-pushes-demonstrable-falsehood-president-obama which he claims to have endured millions of dollars in damage, he can be foisting his own form of blight with his own properties on his constituents in Central City?

His plans for the site? A strip mall.

Any questions? “Contact his new Director of Communications”:http://princellasmith.com/

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...

13 replies on “Does Joe Cao know what blight is?”

  1. These were deferred til the next NCDC meeting, no plans were presented to the NCDC for redevelopment, which is part of the NCDC’s consideration. Residents are all worried about pie-in-the-sky ideas that are not truly viable. Much like the void that could result from the LSU/VA project . . . since they haven’t lined up the necessary funding to complete the project. I was fortunate to catch Cao today as he was coming out of his meeting at Charity and I took advantage of the opportunity to voice my support for renovating Charity to him directly and loudly.

  2. I’ve been watching this snaller house as I pass it every morning. The inside is full of someones belongings…never gutted nor cleaned and as of this last week, someone has been stripping the rod iron off the front and side areas. Coincidence, theives or another lying politician?

  4. Thanks to the Assessor’s Office Website and Google maps I see these two photos are next to each other on S Claiborne Ave. plus and other address that’s probably adjacent to these two. What else are you going to put there but a strip mall? Who wants to live on Clairborne between fast food, oil change places, daquiries shops and other such things?

  5. It was stated that they wanted to build a strip mall.

    My point is not the plan but rather the lack of securing the building that has NOT taken place.

  6. I agree Karen. I can’t fault him for having a plan to redevelop, but by law he is supposed to be receiving a monthly fine for failing to secure the building. Nevermind the fact that he is not being fined! What the heck is going on that our “Leadership” is treating our neighborhoods in this way. For what it is worth, I called his office and gave them an earful. I’m so angry and disgusted that another “hero” we voted into office turns out to be a zero. Well, at least I mean a hero in that he is not Bill Jefferson. Can we please have Lindy Boggs back?

  7. Looks like he’s assembling a strip of land.
    3730 CLAIBORNE S AV and 3722 CLAIBORNE S AV were bought this past March. 3718 CLAIBORNE S AV he’s owned since June 07. We should write him and tell him he needs to set a good example and secure the buildings ASAP. He’s had a month and a half to do so.

  8. This is disturbing, and very good to know. I never suspected that owners of blighted residential buildings might be owned by respectable local citizens with means, who should know better than to allow properties to sit and rot. Even more upsetting from an elected official.

    Thank you for reporting on this, and for all the work you’ve done for the city.

    On a related note, I recently became aware of a technology that has tremendous potential for helping to facilitate tracking the status of properties such as these, and is available to use at no cost. See http://SeeClickFix.com for more info.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on SeeClickFix, because I believe it’s a tool that could have a profitmd impact on the state of our city, and it’s people like you who would know the best ways to put it to use.

  9. P.S. Please excuse typos in my previous comment. Am typing this on my phone, and couldn’t scroll up to proof or correct them. 🙂

  12. that plywood has been up for over a week. they were pulling out the gas lines this morning….they are on their way to demo-landia, as Karen would say.

  13. Pingback: Funny Stuff « Tom Talks Politics

Comments are closed.