You're right NonCaringLady, no one owes anyone anything except leaving them the hell alone. And that is what makes a functional society. We should definitely go and tear down all the housing projects that exist right now just to teach these people that their lives are meaningless unless they are gifted enough to make it in life without help.
Because I know you never had any help.
You know what's wrong with women today? They go out and shout things like "that's the problem with women/black people/gays/whatever these days".

Geez.

I have to disagree with you on a couple of points, caringlady. First of all, the state does owe its citizens something; the protection of their basic human rights. This includes shelter. And if those displaced by Katrina want to return, they should have that right.

I personally don't think that women are caught up in the "we are owed" mentality...I'm not even sure what that means. I'm not "owed" anything as a woman; I have a right to be treated equally. And if I fall on hard times, its not going to be because I sat on my ass, its going to be because of the skewed nature of the system against me because I am a woman. Living in government paid housing doesn't mean you need to hang your head in shame; if you are on any assistance at all you shouldn't be shameful. The destruction of the housing project not only is racist; it's classist and sexist as well. Therefore, what I think you are missing in the "attack on colored people" is the fact that those who live in housing projects are disproportionately women of color and their families.

I'm sorry, but clearly these people largely do not live and are not from New Orleans. As a 7-year resident of New Orleans, a Katrina victim, and a public school teacher (many of my students are from SBP, a project they are tearing down), it is laughable that anyone would defend these public housing developments. These are not like the developments that exist in the North or on the west coast; they look like prisons, and we cannot pretend these are happy, joyous places to live. I am extraordinarily tired of people, both here in New Orleans and not, defending how we run things. New Orleans is not a happy place to live right now-we have a high crime rate, a doctor shortage, a teacher shortage, and high poverty rates. Projects like the SBP and Magnolia Street are emblematic of the violence and poverty that plague our city. I'm not proposing that people be kicked out or replaced by wealthier people, but to defend these housing projects is the height of liberal guilt. I find that the people who are protesting these prisons being torn down are largely from out of town, and it angers me. These posts simply continue the tradition of outsiders writing about an area they have very little understanding of.

I'm sorry, but clearly these people largely do not live and are not from New Orleans. As a 7-year resident of New Orleans, a Katrina victim, and a public school teacher (many of my students are from SBP, a project they are tearing down), it is laughable that anyone would defend these public housing developments. These are not like the developments that exist in the North or on the west coast; they look like prisons, and we cannot pretend these are happy, joyous places to live. I am extraordinarily tired of people, both here in New Orleans and not, defending how we run things. New Orleans is not a happy place to live right now-we have a high crime rate, a doctor shortage, a teacher shortage, and high poverty rates. Projects like the SBP and Magnolia Street are emblematic of the violence and poverty that plague our city. I'm not proposing that people be kicked out or replaced by wealthier people, but to defend these housing projects is the height of liberal guilt. I find that the people who are protesting these prisons being torn down are largely from out of town, and it angers me. These posts simply continue the tradition of outsiders writing about an area they have very little understanding of.

Oops...sorry I posted twice :(

Caringlady's comments seemed to have disappeared. Sorry about that I will check on it.

Parisa, it's funny, my family grew up in Boston's public housing and I found, working in New Orleans for the last 2 years (splitting my time there though, never fully relocating), that much of the public housing there was far superior in design than the low-rise, less architecturally detailed stuff, no grass-paved over nastiness-littered w/trash that we have up here. However, while design matters, it's not really the point. All of New Orleans is suffering, and crime and the problems of poverty and inequality appear to be worse now, in many ways, then my understandings of what the associated issues like crime, homelessness, and mental health were like prior to the storm. The fact that crime is so rampant now reveals that the presence of the projects are not as tangibly tied to crime as legend has it. It's also my understanding of SBP that it got much worse after it was integrated with folks displaced from St. Thomas and elsewhere.

I know first hand as an outsider and commuter in an out of NOLA that listening to my ilk "champion" public housing is beyond infuriating when we are not forced with trying to rebuild our lives too. I've been navigating these boundaries since the storm hit. Yet, I know this in part from working with local advocates who are fighting on behalf of residents to protect their right to housing and their right to come back to the city from which they were involuntarily displaced.

The point is less about "saving" public housing, then about rehabbing it equitably. This may mean taking it all down (and likely does), but it means doing so in a phased process, with one-to-one replacement of all the units so there's not a net loss of affordable housing in the city, and enabling people who were involuntarily displaced to return - or not, if they so choose - but to give them the choice to do so.

At the end of the day, you're right, we're not there, and the best we can do besides relocating if we can be of service and it's needed, is to enage in what often feels like futile sh*t, i.e., blogging and spreading the word. I know the die hard core of activists who appear outside the projects are mostly white non-residents of the developments (and Marxists, many of them), but I've also talked with the residents who've been there, who have just wanted to get in and get their stuff and get an affordable place to live in Iberville. I also know that Quigley and the Advancement Project represented a class action of residents.

There are dense networks fighting for the equitable preservation of affordable housing - which is fast disappearing across the U.S. - in NOLA, that fight includes public housing, which admittedly is an outsized and somewhat unfairly cast symbol of poverty, pathology, crime, shiftlessness, victimization, you name it. But it's shelter of last resort, and it's wholesale lost by the collection of corrupt liars at HUD and under this Administration is not worth accepting quietly. I hope you will consider this my respectful disagreement.

Parisa, you're right, a lot of the activists who are blocking the bulldozers are from out of town - I know several of them personally who traveled down from Washington DC and other points in the northeast. But you're wrong about them doing it out of "liberal guilt" or lack of knowledge about the situation.

Out-of-town activists were ASKED to come down by New Orleans residents who have been organizing against the destruction of this housing for 2 years. If you actually watched the video Samhita posted, you would see some of them. Many of them are also featured in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXJLzS4__BM
They have coordinated many marches, occupied the multiple housing complexes, done sit ins at government officials offices in Washington DC, erected protest villages in front of the fences holding them out, had sit down meetings with city, state and federal officials and much more. It was not enough, and that is why at this critical time they have asked for solidarity actions and activists from out of town to come join their fight.

Parisa, you're right, a lot of the activists who are blocking the bulldozers are from out of town - I know several of them personally who traveled down from Washington DC and other points in the northeast. But you're wrong about them doing it out of "liberal guilt" or lack of knowledge about the situation.

Out-of-town activists were ASKED to come down by New Orleans residents who have been organizing against the destruction of this housing for 2 years. If you actually watched the video Samhita posted, you would see some of them. Many of them are also featured in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXJLzS4__BM
They have coordinated many marches, occupied the multiple housing complexes, done sit ins at government officials offices in Washington DC, erected protest villages in front of the fences holding them out, had sit down meetings with city, state and federal officials and much more. It was not enough, and that is why at this critical time they have asked for solidarity actions and activists from out of town to come join their fight.

Mixed income housing is good they say? In this town, similar things have been going on. They tore down the projects without first ensuring replacement housing, of course, displacing thousands and thousands of low-income blacks. What replaced these projects are gorgeous "mixed-income" condos, replete with plazas full of Starbucks, Aveda salons, etc. Less than 10% was set aside for "low-income" households whose annual income is _29k_ a year. What a fucking joke. A lot of folks do not make that in one year - I grew up in a family that made less than 20! THAT is "mixed-income" housing. A fucking joke and a slap in the face to people who are economically disadvantaged.

And I am sorry, I may not live in the area but I strongly feel I have a right to have an opinion. It is not the same thing as mandating how everyone who does live there should live. If folks are coming from out of town for solidarity, then so be it but clearly there are plenty of people who are residents and who are angry.

BTW, has anyone else here seen the articles on Planetizen ( http://www.planetizen.com/ )? It covers urban planning issues, including New Orleans' public housing. Also, you don't have to work in the urban planning field to comment on the articles but a whole bunch of people in the field read the site...