Activists, homeless advocates protest New Orleans housing complex
Hayley Richardson | Wed, Dec 19th, 2007 | Category: Report | Tags: hayley richardson, new orleans, protests, b.w. cooper, architecture reflects immigrant population, post bloomberg nyc
“Activists, including affordable housing and homeless advocate Jamie “Bork” Loughner, have chained themselves to bulldozers this morning at the B.W. Cooper housing complex in New Orleans. The government this week started demolishing buildings at the B.W. Cooper complex, which has 1000 buildings and is located across the highway from the Superdome. The city this week delayed demolition at three other complexes, but started demolishing B.W. Cooper over the objections of residents.”
Nicolai Ouroussoff weighs in on the debate, arguing that the projects are indeed representative of good urban design, and should not be demolished
Residents are trying to adapt to life elsewhere:
“With resignation, anger or stoicism, thousands of former New Orleanians forced out by Hurricane Katrina are settling in across the Gulf Coast, breaking their ties with the damaged city for which they still yearn. They now cast their votes in small Louisiana towns and in big cities of neighboring states. They have found new jobs and bought new houses. They have forsaken their favorite foods and cherished pastors. But they do not for a moment miss the crime, the chaos and the bad memories they left behind in New Orleans.”
Meanwhile, in the bougie paradise of San Francisco, gourmet apartment complexes become the rage
“The great chefs of San Francisco are selling real estate. No, they haven’t all gotten their broker’s licenses. And they’re not participating in some strange reality TV show. They’re opening restaurants in San Francisco’s newest luxury residential complexes. And their cachet is bringing in buyers.”
Planning for Post-Bloomberg NYC
In an effort to keep Mayor Bloomberg’s sustainability program, PlaNYC, from falling by the wayside after his term ends, the Citizens Budget Commission is proposing laws and policies that would force future leaders to plan ahead.
Nation’s First Green Suburb
“IT was last spring, during a dinner conversation with a friend about global warming, Thomas R. Suozzi said, that he got the idea to develop the nation’s first “green” suburb in Nassau County.
Then came a place to do it: in Levittown, which is often called the country’s first suburb and is celebrating its 60th anniversary.”
Architecture Reflects Immigrant Population
As the Washington region’s population of foreign-born residents tops 1 million, the influx is changing the way homes and subdivisions are built. Custom home builders are planning prayer rooms for Indian families and using feng shui, the Chinese art of home design, for Asian customers. They’re fielding requests for white brick and mortar, rather than bricks made from Virginia clay, from customers who want to evoke the sun-baked dwellings of their Middle Eastern homelands.
Jeffrey Hill in Washington, D.C.
Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 1:36am
There’s so much at stake in New Orleans. I hope the government pays a little more attention to the past when planning for the future. There’s going to be a lot of discussion on what’s in store for this city and it’s more than just a matter of quality construction. The culture of the Louisiana Creoles and Cajuns are so special and unique to America. Hundreds of years of forced immigration from France and Spain, through the Carribean slave trade, and mixing with the Acadians from as far north as Canada created a concentration of people that gave us their own folklore, music and art. If the government attempts to rebuild New Orleans, it should preserve as much of its past as possible. It would be sad to see it wiped clean like an Etch-a-Sketch and replaced with the neighborhoods from “Leave it to Beaver.” New Orleans’ people need a home to identify and come home to. I’m sure we will hear more of this from TNAC.
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