The article refers to a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. plan to raze four of the largest and most successful public housing units in New Orleans, even though the City cannot house its population 16 months after Hurricaine Katrina. The project's goal seems to be "relieving the entrenched poverty of the City's urban slums."
Five thousand units of public housing will be replaced with a range of privately owned "mixed income" developments.
"Residents suspect a sinister agenda is at work here."
The article goes on to explain the history of post-war public housing in New Orleans. Originally comprised of the most habitably designed New Urbanism style projects, the 1950s public housing communities in New Orleans were originally afforded quality nursery schools, recreation facilities, and access to public health care. But they were victimized by the region's racist politics and, as the whites fled to the suburbs, the poor blacks remaining in the housing projects had their quality of life provisions stripped away.
The deterioration continued until, by 2002, the City of New Orleans handed over their housing projects' control to the federal Bureau of Housing and Urban Development.
Today, the richly landscaped gardens are gone. Many of the lawns have been paved over and replaced by basketball courts. Huge garbage bins, some with fading paintings of balloons, are scattered across decaying lots. Towering floodlights illuminate forbidding concrete pathways.
The article ends rather abruptly on a note of frustration with the New Orleans planners. They are unwilling to compel funders to piece the city back together, and are willing to accept development models that "replace one vision of social isolation with another." The colors and materials may change, outside money will be spent on develpment, but the communities are going to be designed to be cut off from the lifeblood of the urban centers.
No comments:
Post a Comment