Squandered Heritage: factchecking New Orleans' Imminent Danger Demolition List

I should have thrown a link up to the Squandered Heritage blog a few weeks ago. They have been putting up photos of houses slated for demolition by the city of New Orleans, as there are some peculiar shenanigans going on. The city claims that it's only going after houses that are a blight on the neighborhood, mostly ones damaged in Katrina and left abandoned.

If one spends any time going through the photos of the properties that the city has listed on their Imminent Danger List, one can see that this is unadulterated bullshit. Some of the houses have been repaired and are in good condition. A few were never damaged at all, and are inhabited. There are some absolutely necessary demolitions slated, but there is a land grab being cloaked under this work. New Orleans is selling out its citizens for some greedy developers it seems.

The most recent post on Squandered Heritage links to the Flickr photosets of the houses, and links how to appeal one getting one's house off of that Imminent Danger List.

Katrina is still fair game

Maybe impeachment is off the table, but it would be pragmatic and appropriate to pursue a probe into the mismanagement of the post-Katrina disaster. It looks like the Democratic-controlled Congress is considering it. I want blood.

Only a couple of weeks ago, i had to walk away from a customer (an upper middle class white woman) at the bookstore because she was insisting that everyone who stayed behind in New Orleans got exactly what they deserved. She wanted a coffee table book of the disaster, but apparently not one with too much human suffering. She just mourned the buildings. I tried to tell her the story of a coworker of mine from the other store, who was stuck on her roof for days with snakes, waded through sewage water and dead bodies, and sexually assaulted... but she was not interested. Monster.