[NYTr] Washington Post Misses the Point: Not Getting It About New Orleans

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Counterpunch - Dec 24, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/munson12242007.html

Not Getting It About New Orleans

How the Washington Post Misses the Point

By CHUCK MUNSON

It comes as no surprise when a major U.S. newspaper backs real estate
developers over the rights and interests of the poor they have a long
track record of doing so, while the poor are lectured in patronizing
language to emulate the people the papers celebrate. This week the New
Orleans Times-Picayune has an article on their website titled "Protests
ignore realities." This article is a response to the struggle local
residents have been waging against the planned demolition of their
homes--protests which made national headlines this week. The
"realities" these people supposedly ignore is that the government and
wealthy real estate developers know what's best for them.

But the poor just don't seem to be getting it. Over the past week, as
residents of New Orleans public housing complexes and activist allies
have been resisting the demolition of four public housing complexes,
comprising of 4,500 units, the city council--now racially skewed to the
white end of the spectrum--voted to bulldoze those complexes to make
way for new "mixed income" developments that purportedly would provide
homes to some of those being displaced. The reality of similar programs
around the country is that they seldom provide even a fraction of the
affordable units promised by officials when older housing complexes
were demolished.

Housing activists are not against programs that create more and better
affordable housing, but they correctly point out that people should
have a say in what happens to their current homes. In the case of New
Orleans, it is outrageous that the city should demolish so much public
housing when there are tens of thousands of displaced residents still
looking for a place to live.

The Washington Post, too, weighs in on the side of real estate
developers with an unsigned editorial ("A Better Life in New Orleans"
December 20, 2007) calling for the demolition of public housing in New
Orleans. The Post dismisses the fight by local residents for their
homes as being mistakenly based on a "conspiracy." The Post repeats
standard myths about the housing complexes being havens for crime and
poverty. These myths ignore the fact that these complexes have been
closed since Katrina, that residents worked hard to keep crime out, and
that crime is high all across New Orleans. Residents of these complexes
are working people and this housing was affordable. History suggests
this will not be the case with the developments proposed to replace
them.

The Post also recycles the claim that most of these complexes were
seriously damaged by the hurricanes. This is simply untrue.

What the Post doesn't get is that New Orleans residents should first
and foremost have the power to decide what is best for their interests.
The Post would never editorialize that a group of white residents
living in, say, Arlington, Virginia shouldn't have input on the future
of their homes if they were being threatened by a government-backed
redevelopment project. When housing in New Orleans is so scarce and
rents so high, the right of people to have access to their existing
housing should take priority over any project to demolish housing--and
certainly over any project so clearly aimed at fattening the wallets of
developers and construction companies.

The Post tries to cast the New Orleans housing struggle as being
fomented by a few people who just don't want to get rid of poverty:
"What makes no sense is perpetuating a housing policy that trapped
people in poverty." What makes no sense is a policy that would tear
down thousands of habitable units when tens of thousands of people are
looking for homes. The current policy only replicates failed national
programs such as Hope VI, which purports to turn housing complexes into
mixed-income developments with affordable units, but which are really
just a form of ethnic cleansing, gentrification, and welfare for the
rich. It's hard to believe that the New Orleans government is
well-intentioned when it is replicating housing policies that elsewhere
have turned out so unfavorably for the urban working poor. It's also
clear that the New Orleans ruling class is using the dislocation caused
by the hurricanes to enact policies that haven't gone through a
democratic process. To cite just one rather important detail, the
current plan lacks any details about where people are supposed to live
during the years that these new projects are under construction.

It's ironic that the Washington Post should dismiss the New Orleans
housing struggle as some kind of "romantic" lost cause, a day after the
New York Times' architectural critic wrote that the demolitions are
"one of the greatest crimes in American urban planning." One of the
reasons why so many people enjoy visiting New Orleans is because it is
one of the few American cities left with a truly unique gumbo of
architecture, culture, environment, and diversity of people. If the
Post feels that the interests of New Orleans should be swept aside in
the name of modernization, why stop with the demolition of these four
housing complexes? Why doesn't the city bulldoze the French Quarter and
replace it with an upscale mixed-use development? Such a project would
create new jobs and more income for the city. Tourists wouldn't miss a
beat if the new and modernized French Quarter had a Panera that sells
beignets, a Hard Rock Cafe and all of our favorite sports bar chains
lining Bourbon Street.

Why, the tourists would feel right at home!


[Chuck Munson is Kansas City-based a webmaster and editor with Infoshop
News, a project of the Alternative Media Project. Infoshop.org was
instrumental in getting the Common Ground Clinics started in New
Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Munson is also a
volunteer with the Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore in Kansas
City, Missouri.]