White Washing New Orleans

The City Council voted unanimously to greenlight the demolition of the city's four largest public housing developments, saying they are too damaged by Hurricane Katrina to allow residents back into them.

But many in New Orleans, including former residents of the developments, say they fear the local and federal governments will not guarantee similarly affordable housing be built in their place -- calling the demolition an effort to move poor people out of the city.

Below see some clips of the violent protests. The city concil meetings are usually open to the public, but of course the "public" disagrees with the council, they close the doors.

This is a direct assault on black New Orleans and an attempt to "whiten" the community. There is no doubt our America is in crisis.

Two Years of Government Inaction. What an Anniversary!

It's two years after Hurricane Katrina and the thousands of New Orleanians and other Gulf Coast residents are still displaced.



I just came across this video and story on Alternet about the anniversary. So while you are listening to all of the media spin today, remember that there are still Americans that we should be working hard to help. In the mean time, sign the petition to support the Gulf Coast Recovery Bill.

UPDATE: If you are in/around NOLA today, consider joining in the national day of action. 8/29, A Day of Presence will take place today from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ernest N. Morial Conventional Center.

Who is Killing New Orleans?

The title of this post is the title of an article in The Nation written by the urban theorist and sociologist Mike Davis, and in it, the radical writer of Planet of Slums exposes the current reality of a "rebuilding" New Orleans. In it, he writes, "In greater New Orleans about 125,000 homes remain damaged and unoccupied, a vast ghost city that rots in darkness while les bon temps return to a guilty strip of unflooded and mostly affluent neighborhoods near the river. Such a large portion of the black population is gone that some radio stations are now switching their formats from funk and rap to soft rock."

What has happened? It seems that, as usual, a predominantly black city has been left to rot by a Republican administration, and subcontractors and investors have swooped into salvage and exploit the disaster. Davis' expose is a tough pill to swallow. Take a few minutes to read about what is happening in a national treasure.

http://www.nation.com/doc/20060410/davis