Kellye Voigt // Jan 1, 2008 at 10:26 pm
My house at 5537 Franklin Avenue was demolished without proper notification to me or the mortgage company. Out of 4 notification channels, the city only followed 2 of their 4 channels.
We had been waiting for the city to issue us a renovation permit for almost 18 months. I had called and traveled to the 5th floor of City Hall. I had taken pictures and filled out all correct forms for my permit. As of the day that they knocked my house down, the permit was still “pending.”
My house was a 1945 Gentilly bungalow with double parlor, original floors, the Gentilly tile, and deco molding. It was in no danger of falling down. My contractor drove by, called, and asked why there were bulldozers on the property the morning they tore it down. Before he could reach us, the house was gone.
I was a teacher who only taught at-risk children in New Orleans Public Schools. My husband was a criminal defense attorney. We never made a lot of money in the city, but we felt that we gave to the city whatever we had.
The city gave back to us by perpetrating this horrific crime. That house was a jewel. The 1970’s house next door to my house was zoned for section 8 housing. It has no windows and little chance for renovation. Yet my house is the one that is down.
I cannot return to the city now. I feel such pure fury when I think of my house being torn down. City bulldozers trespassed on my property and tore down my lovely Gentilly bungalow. New Orleans has nothing to do with America anymore. New Orleans is dead to me, and I will not lift a finger to help or give back to it again.
Kellye, if you see this email, PLEASE send an email to me privately at savehistoricnola@gmail.com.
A group of citizens is suing the city for this sort of mistake and you can join them. Perhaps you can recover something for your lost home.
At the minimum, although I do not blame you for hating NOLA now, please do not blame the city for the stupidity and possible fraud of city employees. A dedicated group of us are working on this and we are going to change things.
Please consider joining us, even if it is so you can use your money to rebuild somewhere else.
Jennifer Farwell
savehistoricnola@gmail.com
This just makes me sick, sad, hurt, mad, angry, and really upset. It is difficult to explain my feelings about this whole process. Bureaucracy at its worst, and who knew the city could be worse than FEMA? So many houses that NEED to be demolished, and so many houses it seems that are being NEEDLESSLY demolished. I don’t get it–it doesn’t make sense–other than pure bureaucracy gone wrong. Very sad….
Very concerned about the home demolitions going on. All the bloggers here should be recognized for bringing the much needed attention to this matter. Please visit my website, post in the forums, send comments and let’s get involved with each other to focus attention on this matter.
I am trying to block the imminent demolition of the property at 3707-09 N. Claiborne. We have posted notification of our interest in the property as mortgage holders and filed other affidavitts and documents as well as getting a receipt from the Dept. of Code Enforcement for our application for a Request to Cancel the Imminent Health Threat Demolition order. Despite all of which, an Entergy sub-contractor showed up this morning (4/14/08) to shut off the gas preparatory to demolition. We cannot monitor the property 24/7, & live in constant fear that the next time we show up there, the structure will be gone.