Press Release--Protest at home of DDD director Kurt Weigle

Press Release
November 14, 2009

Community to Rally at Home of Downtown Development District Director Kurt Weigle
DDD Must be Removed from the Iberville Advisory Committee

Public Housing residents and community supporters will rally at the home of Downtown Development District (DDD) Director Kurt Weigle, located at 4516 Perrier St., at 5:30 PM on Saturday, November 14 to defend the homes of the Iberville Public Housing residents. Weigle’s home was chosen as the most appropriate site for the demonstration since he has been relentless in his efforts to drive the African American working class residents of the Iberville from their homes.
As part of the DDD’s agenda of destroying Iberville, Weigle has succeeded in placing a DDD operative--Henry Charlot--to head the Iberville Advisory Committee. The committee members were selected by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and commissioned to forge a redevelopment plan for the Iberville. Placing the DDD to head, let alone participate on this committee, is like placing the proverbial fox to look over the chickens. Kurt Weigle, the DDD director, has made perfectly clear his agenda to destroy Iberville. In a May 21, 2009 interview with WWL-TV, reporter Susan Edwards found that from the perspective of “Kurt Weigle …redeveloping and demolishing Iberville removes a barrier to investment, opening the corridor up to more than just retail and residential possibilities.” Edwards reported that Weigle believes that "It [the demolition of Iberville] is going to have a positive effect on the medical district, the construction of the two hospitals...will have a much greater potential to attract investment around them.” Mr. Weigle is enthused by how much people will feel safer with the violent removal of the working class African American community of Iberville. He exclaimed to Edwards that “It's going to make people feel the area is safer than it may be perceived to be today, and will make the area one of the most attractive for the entire city.”
It is unconscionable that Weigle and the DDD has anything to do with a committee designed to develop a plan for the Iberville. New Orleans does not need the DDD’s demolition and privatization agenda for Iberville. Instead, we need to not only defend all the units at Iberville, but expand the number of Public Housing apartments in the city. Indeed, underscoring the city’s desperate need for affordable housing, a 2008 study by the federal government found that New Orleans renters spent more of their income toward rental housing and utilities than renters in any other city in the US. The Weigle/DDD plan to destroy Iberville would only aggravate this crisis even further.

A first step toward defending Iberville and expanding affordable housing is to remove the DDD representative, Henry Charlot, from the Iberville Advisory Committee.

Sponsor: C3/Hands Off Iberville and May Day New Orleans. For more information call 504-520-9521