Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to speak to and befriend many homeowners who are trying to get off this list. For some reason may New Orleanians have chosen to believe that the displaced property owner is the enemy.
Yesterday Ryan and his crew from “PNOLA”:http://www.pnola.org/ helped Beverly clean out her house.
The follow up and care and concern he exhibited for Beverly and her house was amazing, as well as reassuring that people understand the rugged nature of these old houses. This house had very little water inside yet all of the contractors she has spoken to want to rip out the plaster and lath.
This house belonged to Beverly’s mother who passed away after the storm. It was a pretty emotional week for her moving her mothers belongings into a Pod, and still she is very anxious about having her house targeted for demolition.
A lawsuit has just been announced in the “T-P”:http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1187852802307830.xml&coll=1
I know some of the people named in the suit, these are the bedrock of our City, these are not the people we want to run out of the City.
The disconnect at City Hall is great, and we will continue to advocate for transparency where there has been none.
The City government’s desire to essentially bulldoze buildings is nothing new. The municipal government’s direction in the last 2 decades has been to embrace an Atlanta style “re-birth”. Remember when the younger Morial wanted to widen Carrollton uptown of Claiborne? My mama was one of the ladies threatening to chain herself to the oaks Morial felt stood in the way of progress.
Going back furhter than that was the desire to shift the CBD from Canal to Poydras for that Houston feel. Canal might still have lost its department stores, but the Poydras push sure made it easier. There seems to be an attitude that New Orleans wants its heritage, but would prefer a re-built version with slab construction and 8foot ceilings rather than the real thing.
I admit that I have not lived in New Orleans since 1987. As such, though, I can see that the charm and strength of New Orleans is its authenticity, a quality lacking in many other US cities. It will be costlier, and take more time, but trying to save such little things as lathe plaster and cypress moldings will be worth it in the long-haul.
New Orleans, embrace what makes the city wonderful. And do look back: all of those raised bungalows from the 20s, with full 1-story basements, now make a lot of sense, as do raised greek revival houses, or even the piers under shotguns in neighborhoods with only intermediate flooding issues.