C3/Hands Off Iberville

The New York Times’ Nicolai Ouroussoff: Architecture Critic or Real Estate Publicist?

2011-05-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

The New York Times’ Nicolai Ouroussoff: Architecture Critic or Real Estate Publicist?

Jay Arena
C3/Hands Off Iberville

“[A] human and architectural tragedy of vast proportions”, is the words New York Times’ architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff used in 2007 to denounce George W. Bush’s demolition of New Orleans’ historic Lafitte public housing development. At the time he issued his critique, Ouroussoff was joining a host of others in condemning the Bush administration’s bulldozing of 5,000 badly needed and little damaged public housing apartments in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Yet, in 2011, as Barack Obama fires up the bulldozers to finish off New Orleans Iberville public housing development, Ouroussoff has changed his tune. Rather than expressing indignation over this crime, he instead expressed concern that Republican budget cutting efforts could nix a program--the so-called “Choice Neighborhoods Program”--needed to demolish Iberville! In his April 6th piece, entitled “To Renovate, and Surpass, City’s Legacy”, he shamelessly claims that not demolishing one of the few sources of housing for poor people would actually “be a significant backward step in the rebuilding of New Orleans”. A backward step? For who? Certainly not for poor people, whose lack of affordable housing has wrecked havoc on their lives. A recent report by University New Orleans Business professor Ivan Miestchovich underscores the dire market poor, working class people face in securing affordable housing in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Before Katrina, 78 percent of apartment units had rents under $800: some 28 percent had rents under $500, and 50 percent had rents between $501 and $800. Today, only 29 percent of apartment units charge rents less than $800: only 12 percent of units carry rents below $500, and only 17 percent have rents between $501 and $800.”

The demolition of Iberville would only further reduce the stock of affordable housing, and add to the obstacles that have kept over 100,000 displaced African Americans from returning to the city, and kept the city’s homelessness rate at record levels. In fact, Housing Authority of New Orleans’ (HANO) director David Gilmore, on behalf of his developer pals, is already closing the doors of Iberville to the homeless. On April 26th a homeless mother, Irvian Wells, was refused entry into both the Iberville development office, and later the central HANO office, by the HANO police. Her crime: the temerity to apply for housing at a public housing development that Ouroussoff and other voices of gentrification have called to be demolished.

All the News that Fits the Gentrification Agenda

Ouroussoff published his impassioned defense of demolishing Iberville in the country’s leading newspaper. Nonetheless, this piece of “journalism” actually reads like a brochure put out by Pres Kabacoff or Richard Baron, the two real estate moguls overseeing the “renaissance” at Iberville. As with most public relations pieces, if you scratch below the surface you discover some serious flaws and half truths. Let’s review a few.

First, Ouroussoff takes as good coin claims by the developers that their plans guarantee “one for one “ replacement of all of the 821 public housing a apartments now at Iberville (In fact Iberville had 858 apartments until a year ago, when over 30 were demolished in anticipation of the planned redevelopment). Under the current plans being floated by developers—which, as of yet, do not have funding--only 300 of the 830 planned on-site units will be public housing, in which people pay 30% of their income for rent (although they will have to pay utilities, which current residents do not). In addition, developers promise another 1600 units of housing will be built “around the site”, over 500 of which will be public housing, resulting in no loss of public housing units.

There are some obvious facts, the Ouroussoff conveniently ignored, which lead many in New Orleans to question the promises of one-for one replacement. For example Pres Kabacoff, one of the two developers in the Iberville deal, oversaw downsizing of the city’s St Thomas public housing development, shrinking it from 1,510 units, to only 182 public housing apartments. He touts St. Thomas--now renamed “River Gardens”-- as one of his grand successes. Furthering adding to consternation among those concerned about racial and economic justice is that in 2001Kabacoff had promised to build 100 three and four off-site bedroom public housing apartments in return for the city approving various tax changes needed to float his deal. The city complied, but Kabacoff did not. A decade later not one of these apartments have been built, and this is same developer that Ouroussoff wants us to believe will guarantee one for one replacement at Iberville.

Another issue left totally unaddressed by Ouroussoff, and one that further questions developers promises of “one for one” replacement, is how “off-site” units are defined. The public housing rights group C3/Hands Off Iberville, at a February 14th protest, highlighted that the New Orleans housing authority (HANO) and their developer partners have a very broad definition of promised units “around the site”. In fact a major portion of the promised 500 off-site units would be in an isolated, run down, abandoned property located on the city’s west bank side of the river, miles from the Iberville neighborhood. Finally, Ouroussoff, who was incensed over the destruction of the architecturally significant Lafitte, has no qualms with plans for bulldozing 2/3rds of the existing, sturdy red brick buildings that make up Iberville.

Choice Neighborhood Program: Old Wine in New Bottles

A second shaky claim made in Ouroussoff’s brochure--that he passed off as journalism--is that failure to fund Obama’s Choice Neighborhood Program (CNP) would mean “short circuiting a promising new model for housing the poor in cities in across the country”. In fact the same hype used to push the Obama’s CNP is eerily similar to that used to sell the now disbanded HOPE VI public housing program--which Richard Baron, Kabacoff’s developer-partner at Iberville, helped establish. During the 1990s and 2000s, HOPE VI “redevelopment” led to the net loss of tens of thousands of badly needed public housing apartments across the country, and fueled gentrification in the surrounding neighborhoods, leading to further losses in affordable housing. Like CNS, HOPE VI was also sold as a “bold” new way to address poverty. In practice it operated as simply the new packaging for the same old policy of poor people removal.

Class and Ethnic Cleansing: Then and Now

A final claim that Ouroussoff trots out to put a progressive spin on demolishing the homes of poor people is that the CNP, and its implementation at Iberville, will allow for “undo[ing] a pattern of racial discrimination that extends back decades”. In fact what the plans for Iberville represent is not a departure from racism in the United States, but rather a change in the form in which it is imposed. A brief excursion into Iberville’s history is revealing in that respect.

In 1897--only a year after the Supreme Court ruled against nearby Treme neighborhood resident Homer Plessey’s challenge to segregation laws--the area where Iberville now stands was designated as the Storyville red light district. The ensuing increase in land and housing costs led to the displacement of many residents of this long-established black community. After the closing of the district during World War I, housing and rents became affordable, and by the 1930s it was again a predominantly low income back community--but not for long. In 1937 the newly created Housing Authority of New Orleans appropriated the property through eminent domain for the then-new--and white-only--Iberville public housing development. Black families were forced to pack-up again. It was not until 1965, following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that black working class families were again able to reside in the area. Since then there has been an incessant campaign by real estate interests to seize this valuable property for their profit-making ventures, rather than to meet human need.

The only difference with the contemporary eviction plans are the faces and pretexts. Expulsions are no longer carried out under a Jim Crow, all-white officialdom as before, but instead in a post-segregation context, in which some African Americans are in positions of authority. A second difference is that in the past cases of ethnic and class cleansing there was little or no effort to legitimate the initiative. In contrast, developers and public officials--and journalists like Ouroussoff-- now expound on theories of “deconcentrating poverty,” drawn from academic sociology, to explain why driving poor people from their homes is actually a benevolent enterprise. What ties the different historical periods together is that power and profits--despite all the benevolent rhetoric--are still the driving forces behind the racist land grabs.

Ouroussoff, NGOs, and the Progressive Cover for Political Reaction

The political cover Ouroussoff is providing for Obama’s agenda at Iberville reflects a broader political tendency in contemporary U.S. politics. While Bush’s liberal opponents denounced illegal detentions and torture at Guantanamo, endless wars, bailouts of Wall Street banksters, and public housing demolition, they have become silent or apologetic when carried out under the direction of his much more eloquent successor, Barack Obama. This pattern is particularly evident in New Orleans where many “grass roots activists --especially those in the non-profit-foundation funding orbit--that had vocally opposed Bush’s demolition of public housing, have now become silent about Iberville. Challenging this layer of progressive apologists for the new CEO of American capitalism will be required to mount an effective defense of Iberville and other facets of the rapidly expanding racist ruling class offensive.

HANO BARS WOMEN & CHILDREN FROM ITS OFFICES

2011-05-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

HANO BARS WOMEN & CHILDREN FROM ITS OFFICES

Today, April 26, 2011, HANO police prohibited two homeless mothers and one infant child seeking to apply for housing assistance from entering first the Iberville Development Office on Treme Street and, shortly afterwards, the HANO Building on Touro Street. Chesnian Rixner, Chesnian’s ten month old daughter, Irvian Wells, and Irvian’s one and a half year old son arrived noon today at the Iberville Development Office to apply to live in an apartment in the Iberville Development. The mothers and children are homeless. Disgraceful is the word that best describes how HANO treated these New Orleanians.

When Chesnian and Irvian attempted to enter the Iberville Development Office four HANO PD officers, under the command of an Officer Mercadel, formed a human wall in front of the doors to the office. Mercadel told the homeless mothers that they could not enter the building despite the fact that the office was open for business. When Chesnian informed Mercadel that she and Irvian had come to apply for an apartment at the development the officer told them that they could not enter the building. Instead referred the mothers to the HANO building on Touro Street.. At this point Chesnian, Chesnian’s infant daughter, Irvian and three supporters traveled in the car of a friend to the main HANO office on Touro.

When Chesnian and company arrived at the Touro HANO building, about seven miles from the Iberville Development, four HANO PD officers formed a line front of the Senate Street entrance to the housing authority structure. These were the same four HANO PD officers who had prevented Irvian, Chesnian and infant from entering the Iberville Development Office. Upon approaching the entrance to the HANO building on Touro Irvian, Chesnian, Chesnian’s infant and three friends were told by Officer Mercadel that they could not enter the building! Mercadel and the other three HANO officers situated themselves between the entrance to the office and Irvian and company. Mercadel responded with silence when Chesnian pointed out that he was the one who had just told her to go to this address to apply for public housing assistance.

Mercadel did tell Irvian and Chesnian that a HANO spokesperson would speak to them outside the building. That promise was made at 1:05 pm. The mothers waited in the hot sun till 1:35 pm for the spokesperson but to no avail. At this point Chesnian, who was holding her ten month old, decided it would be best to leave. Chesnian and friends promptly left the scene of the degrading standoff.

Anyone who feels that this injustice should not go unanswered is invited to the 7pm Thursday meeting of C3/Hands Off Iberville in St. Jude’s Basin Hall. The time for silence is over.

Mike Howells 504-587-0080

Rally for Housing and Justice

2011-04-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Rally for Housing and Justice

Saturday, April 23

12 Noon

Corner of Conti and Basin Streets

New Orleans, in front of the Iberville Public Housing Development

We say no demoltion of the Iberville public housing development. Instead of demolishing public housing, and destroying other public services, we need a massive expansion of the public sector through a new public works program--Jobs for All, Legalization for All. Sponsors: C3/Hands off iberville, rev Raymond Brown, Eloise Williams, Coalition for Change, May Day New Orleans. For more info call 504-520-9521.

MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA ON THE STATE OF UNIVERSAL RIGHTS IN EGYPT AND NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC HOUSING

2011-02-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

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The people of Egypt have rights that are universal.
Barrack Obama, January 28th 2011.

Attention President Barrack Obama: yes, the people of Egypt have rights that are universal. What you fail to recognize is that the poor people of New Orleans have universal rights too.

That poor people who live in or want to live in public housing in New Orleans have universal rights is clearly an incovenient truth for you. Your committment to freedom of speech doesn't extend to the Iberville Development where HANO police, your police, use the threat of arrest to stop the distribution of fliers in the neighborhood that criticize your government's latest scheme to "redevelop" poor people out of the area. Your committment to universal rights is not so deep as to compell you to mention even a word of criticism when the New Orleans Police Department trampled on the freedoms of assembly and speech of public housing supporters, outside and inside New Orleans City Hall, who attempted to peacefully voice their opposition on December 20, 2007 at a "public" City Council meeting during which Council members voted to authorize the demolition of 4,500 of the city's public housing apartments. You, then a candidate for the U.S. presidency, responded to requests from the movement to condemn that brutal repression in the Crescent City with silence. And your administration continues and deepens the post-Katrina housing "redevelopment" initiatives of the Bush Administration that UN investigators and many others note effectively violate the universal right of return of low income, mostly African-American Katrina Survivors. These are but a very few of the violations of the human rights that public housing residents and supporters in this city have endured in Lousiana's largest city recently. Violations of universal rights that produce not so much as word of concern from you.

And Mr. President, you've said that the people of Egypt have a right to free and fair elections. Agreed. But what about the right of the people of the Iberville Development in New Orleans to have free and fair elections? The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations has clear guidelines regarding what constitutes fair and legal residents council election in an American public housing development. Yet, your appointed agent, Housing Authority of New Orleans Receiver David Gilmore, orchestrated a residents "election" at Iberville that clearly violated the guidelines that U.S. Code sets for residents council elections in the U.S. Only a handful of Iberville residents, instead of all of them, were given the opportunity to consider participating as candidates in last year's "residents" election. And Iberville residents were given no more than four days advance notice insteaded of the legally mandated thirty days advance notice.

How is last year's residents "elections" in the Iberville development under the direction of your government any less a rigged election than the elections held in Egypt under the direction of Hosni Mubarak's government? Poor people in the United States, including the poor people of New Orleans, have a right to free and fair elections too!

Mr. President. Have you ever consider that the use of police intimidation to prevent the distribution in Iberville of materials critical of your government's housing policies there is of one and the same spirit as the use of police intimidation to stop the distribution in Egypt of materials critical of Mubarak's government? Have you paused for even a moment to acknowledge, if only to yourself, that the tear gassing and tasering of public housing residents and supporters in New Orleans puts people here in just as much danger as the tear gassing and tasering of protesters in Egypt puts people in that country? And do you even realize that a government sponsored rigged election in Iberville is the moral and legal equivalent of a rigged election in Egypt? Are you oblivious to the reality that your government systematically violates the universal rights that thousands of displaced Crescent City public housing residents have as internally displaced persons just as the Mubarak government systematically violates the universal rights that Egypt's internally displaced have as internally displaced persons? Mr. President what blinds you to injustice in New Orleans, ignorance of hypocrisy?

The poor people of New Orleans have rights that are universal!!

Mike Howells C3/Hands Off Iberville

Mike Howell's commentary on tragic 9th ward fire of 12/28/10

2011-01-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

December 30th post on the C3 list on tragic Tuesday, Dec. 28 fire in an abandoned warehouse that killed 8 young people:

Hi Elizabeth,

While Landrieu is forced by circumstances to acknowledge that New Orleans suffers from a homelessness problem, he is also proposing "solutions" to the social problems highlighted by the Ninth Ward fire that in effect trample on the human rights of the city's homeless. Today's Times-Picayune reported the Mayor as saying, "It is, just from my perspective, if someone's in a dwelling and they're putting themselves and other people in danger, it's better for them to be on the street". That people who live on the sidewalks and streets of the city are in danger of dying from exposure to the elements apparently does not register with Landrieu. Another one of Mayor Landrieu's "solutions" to the dangers confronting the homeless who squat in abandoned homes is to have those who are fortunate enough to reside in safe, sanitary and affordable housing to rat out their squatter neighbors to the authorities. Just what the homeless need, new enemies in the form of neighborhood vigilantes! Yeah, you right Mitch. And, finally, another one of Landrieu's "solutions" to problems confronting the homeless, in particular those homeless drawn to squatting, is to step up the mass demolition of the city's true shelters of last resort-abandoned homes. These "solutions" collectively sound like a final solution to me.

So what can those of us who are in a positon to challenge the narrative on squatting and homelessness being spun by Landrieu and the gentrifiers in the wake of the Ninth Ward fire do? Bill Quigley and World Socialist Website have provided a progressive analysis of the tragedy for a national audience. I think it would be a good thing to network with the Crescent City Anti-Authoritarians and interested housing activists to see if there is intererest in organizing collective resistance to the most heinous of the Mayor's proposed "solutions" to the problems facing homeless squatters. Perhaps this networking will lead to a meeting, an educational, a press conference, a protest or something else. Whatever, I do have a gut feeling that the tragedy on Tuesday in the Ninth Ward is putting some fire into the bellies of the often beaten beaten down people of New Orleans.

Any feedback?
Mike Howells

December 29th post on the C3 list:

Today Mayor Landrieu put forward his solution to the acute problem of poor people in New Orleans being compelled by force of circumstances to find shelter in abandoned structures, demolish the abandoned structures! This is the same mayor who would like us to believe that the proposal to destroy the Iberville Housing Development, the city cente'rs single most important source of affordable and safe low-income housing, is an anti-poverty measure. Don't get the wrong idea though. Landrieu is not against all low -income housing close to the city center. He is a booster of that one form of state owned public housing for the poor that every member of the local ruling class supports, Orleans Parish Prison. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the Mayor is now attempting to use the tragic fire in the Ninth Ward as a pretext to promote "anti-bilight" measures that promise only to worsen the city's horrific shortage of low-income affordable housing.

If anything approaching a humane solution to the problem that forces thousands in New Orleans to take shelter in abandoned and unsafe housing here everyday is to be achieved, the first thing that needs to be demolished is the unspoken rule that as far as housing policy goes the government is only in the business of promoting gentrication. As part of this process well intentioned people need to come to terms with the reality that charity and self-help measures are band aids that do little more than partially cover the growing social cancer of homelessness. This is clearly a very hard lesson to learn for the people of a city who have given so much of themselves to self-help initiatives and charitable activities. Still, this is a lesson that needs to be learned. This is a stepping stone to the building of a movement that demands, fights for and achieves the addition of the tens of thousands of units of safe, sanitary and affordable units of housing that New Orleanians need but that politicians like Landrieu and his corpoarate paymasters don't want.

Tell HUD: No Choice Neighbrohoods Grant to Demolish Iberville

2010-11-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

Secretary Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20410

Dear Secretary Donovan,

This letter is to demand that the Department of Housing and Urban Development not award a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant to the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and City of New Orleans to demolish and privatize the Iberville Public Housing development. HANO and the City, on behalf of their for-profit developer “partners”, HRI Properties and McCormick, Baron, Salazar submitted their application in October 2010.

The decision of the City of New Orleans and the Housing Authority of New Orleans--the latter led by HUD-imposed director, David Gilmore, of Gilmore Kean LLC--to seek the demolition of Iberville is a continuation of the same demolition and dispersal policies pursued by the Bush and Nagin administrations. The demolition and privatization of Iberville, and forced eviction of residents--what HUD and HANO euphemistically call a “transformation plan”--will only deepen the dire affordable housing crisis confronting New Orleans. According to a study conducted by HUD itself, since the 2005 Hurricane Katrina the city’s homeless population has doubled and mid-priced rental units in the $300 to $600 have fallen from 66,300 in 2004 to 19,300 in 2009, while the average monthly housing cost has jumped from $662 to $882 a month. New Orleans, unsurprisingly, is now the most rent-burdened city in America, with a 2008 study finding that 41% of New Orleans renters spend at least half of their pre-tax income on rent.

Greatly contributing to the affordable housing crisis was the Bush administration’s demolition of 5,000 little-damaged, and badly needed public housing apartments in the aftermath of Katrina. Two investigators appointed by the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)--Miloon Kothari and Gay McDougall--condemned the demolition as a flagrant violation of a host of international human rights treaties. In their report they called on federal, state, and local authorities to “protect the human rights of African Americans affected by Hurricane Katrina” by, among various measures, “immediately halt[ing] the demolition of public housing in New Orleans.” Sadly, the Bush administration ignored these calls. Today we suffer the consequences, as even the limited number of public housing units promised have not been built, and Congress’ failure to renew the so-called GO Zone tax credits threatens the few units promised at the Lafitte and B.W. Cooper developments.

David Gilmore told the Times Picayune newspaper that the failure to renew the Go Zone bonds “would represent a tragic loss to New Orleans”. Well, we argue the demolition of Iberville would be an even greater one. It is doubly troubling that Gilmore awarded the redevelopment contract to HRI. This well-connected New Orleans company carried out the displacement of low-income black residents at the former St. Thomas development. The HRI-led “redevelopment” slashed the number of public housing units from 1,510 to less than 200, with even fewer for those that make under 30% of the area median income--the income level of 90% of the former residents, most of whom have never had the chance to return. Further raising concerns is that a decade after HRI demolished St. Thomas they have yet to build the promised and agreed upon 100 off-site 3 and 4 bedroom apartments for displaced residents. This is the same company that is to guarantee the so-called ‘one for one’ replacement at Iberville!

Instead of demolition—32 apartments of which have already met the wrecking ball —we demand the immediate refurbishing of all the 821 apartments at Iberville. It is a crime that hundreds of quickly repairable units lie empty at Iberville while tens of thousands of families are on waiting lists for housing assistance—lists that would grow longer if applications were again accepted for public housing and section 8.

The repairing of Iberville—money which was made available as part of the Federal governments stimulus package, but not properly used for needed repairs—should be part of a massive expansion of public housing in New Orleans and across the country. We do not need nor want an expansion of the “3-D” approach of Demolish, Disrupt, and Disperse, which HUD is contemplating with its PETRA plan to hand over the entire public housing stock to bankers and developers. Instead, we call for a massive expansion of public housing as part of a new, direct government-employment, public works plan. New Orleans’ Iberville public housing development, a land that has witnessed two earlier displacements of low-income African American communities, is a good place to start this renewed commitment to both the public sector and racial and economic justice.

Open Letter to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

2010-11-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Why did the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) Provide a Platform for a Privatization and Home Foreclosure Advocate ?

NLCHP’s Invitation to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan raises serious concerns

Dear Eric Tars and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty,

I always appreciate Eric Tars’ regular reports on efforts to use a human rights discourse and institutional framework to win housing as a basic human right in the U.S. and globally.

Yet, at the same time, I see as very contradictory and deeply disturbing that Tars’ employer, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, headed by Maria Foscanris, invited Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Shaun Donovan to be the key note speaker at the organization’s annual awards banquet on October 14th in Washington, DC. Donovan’s keynote speech was entitled “Ending Homelessness in Our Time”. Considering the HUD secretary’s attempt to sell off the nation’s public housing stock through the so-called “Choice Neighborhood Program” and the proposed PETRA bill now in Congress, a more apt title for his address might have been, ‘How I Make Appearances to End Homelessness, while actually expanding it through continued public housing demolition and forced evictions”

Indeed, Donovan has an aggressive plan to expand homelessness. He is working with HUD-imposed administrators in New Orleans to demolish the badly needed 800+ public housing apartments at New Orleans’ Iberville development—one that even convicted human rights violator George Bush and his henchman Alphonso Jackson could not get their hands on after Katrina. Donovan and his New Orleans collaborators are promoting the demolition of Iberville as a model for what can be done nation-wide under a generously funded and approved PETRA bill. But Donovan is not happy with just expanding homelessness by demolishing and selling off public housing. He’s an ambitious man. He also opposes any measures to stop the massive home foreclosures that bankers are carrying out, telling the New York Times recently that any measures to stop the forced evictions “would do more harm than good” (New York Times, October 28, 2010). Harm to who — banker’s profits or peoples’ lives?

Why would an oufit named the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty provide a platform to this enemy of public and affordable housing and a friend of bankers and homelessness?

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty invite is a disturbing sign that they and other NGO’s and ‘tenant leaders” are ready to be ‘realistic’ and sit down with Donovan to provide a fig leaf cover for the handing over of public housing to the banks and real estate sharks—on a larger scale than they already have.

We need to ask NLCHP and other NGO’s where they stand on PETRA and the attempt to demolish New Orleans Iberville Public Housing development?

We at C3/Hands Off Iberville denounce PETRA, Choice Neighborhoods, or any other scam to privatize public housing. We oppose efforts to ‘improve' the bill that some NGOs and sell-out tenant leaders are advocating. These bills and plans are rotten to the core. We also call for an immediate moratorium on all home foreclosures. On top of these defensive demands, we call for the creation of a massive, direct government employment Public Works plan , open to all workers, including immigrants and the formerly incarcerated, to rebuild housing, schools, hospitals and a infrastructure. This is what we need to fight for. Join the growing campaign!

In addition, call and/or email these officials and demand that HUD not approve funding for the Housing Authority of New Orleans' application for a "Choice Neighbrohood" grant to demolish and 'redevelop' the Iberville public housing development. We demands instead that all the 800+ apartmwents are repaired and maintaied as Public Housing, in which tenants pay 30% of their income for rent and utilities.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Email: Secretary.Donovan@hud.gov Phone: (202) 708-0417

New Orleans Mayor- Mitch Landrieu.
Email: mayor@cityofno.com Phone: (504) 658-4900

U.S. President-Barrack Obama.
Email: president@whitehouse.gov Phone: (202) 456-1414

Jay Arena
Hands off Iberville

Lessons of History for Defending Iberville Today

2010-10-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

HOW THE PEOPLE STOPPED HANO’S ATTEMPT TO DESTROY IBERVILLE IN 2005 & WHAT THEY CAN DO TO SAVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD FROM HANO TODAY!

The widely disseminated idea that a Big Four style “redevelopment” of the Iberville Housing Development is a done deal fails to account for why HANO and HRI attempted to impose a virtually identical scheme on the public housing neighborhood in 2005 but failed. If anything, in 2005, the position of the forces that wanted to destroy Iberville by way of mixed-income housing reform was stronger than today. Iberville was closed at the time. Its residents were scattered throughout the country. And HANO was under the control of the Bush Administration. Yet Iberville, the conventional public housing neighborhood, reopened despite the opposition of then Mayor Nagin, City Council and HRI.. Why?

Come to a public discussion putting the spotlight on the people’s fight back of 2005 that forced the Administration of George W. Bush to reopen and maintain the Iberville Housing Development. Learn how a grass roots coalition of Iberville residents and non-resident public housing supporters accomplished what most “experts” at the time thought impossible, the reopening of the Iberville Housing Development as a conventional public housing neighborhood. And get insights into what can be done to stop HANO’s new attack on Iberville.

7pm Thursday
October 14, 2010
St. Jude’s Basin Hall
410 Basin Street

Sponsor: C3Hands Off Iberville. 504-587-0080

Please forward.

C3/Hands Off Iberville member Malcolm Willison: Letter to Editor Denounces Demolition Plan

2010-09-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

To the editor:

Your recent editorial on News Orlean's housing crisis (September 2, 2010) is much appreciated by those in the city faced with a continuing crisis in af-fordable housing.Rental housing scarcity, as you point- ed out, means that a major part of the income of low-pay workers and of those retired or handicapped or oth-erwise unable to work full time or at all, has to be de-voted to rent. Far too many pre-Katrina New Orleans residents are stuck far away, unable to come back to their city. In abandoned housing, shelters, or on the streets are between three and twelve thousand home-less, many veterans, twice the number before Katrina. Yet HUD continues its recent mass demolition of loc-al public housing: the HUD-run Housing Authority of New Orleans is pursuing federal funding for demoli-tion and radical downsizing of conventional public housing at the Iberville Development, the last of the sturdy, repairable public housing aimed for the low-income, retired, and disabled. The “mixed-income” housing redevelopment HANO has sought is part of the disastrous post-Katrina HOPE VI “revitalization” of the city’s Big Four housing developments, eliminating 5,000 crucial public housing units after Katrina. Yet Congress has sharply reduced funding for HOPE VI, and private corporations involved struggle to sell bonds for the building, while long waiting lists bedevil those seeking inadequately funded Section 8 housing, with constant difficulties with landlords and evictions.The administration needs to improve its housing policies.

Yours sincerely, Malcolm Willison

The Iberville Development: No Murders, No News!

2010-08-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Iberville Development: No Murders, No News!
By Mike Howells

With the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching the struggle to defend and expand public housing in New Orleans continues. As part of that effort the local public housing support group C3/Hands Off Iberville held a press conference on August 3rd highlighting the Iberville public housing development’s status as one of the few murder free neighborhoods in New Orleans over the last year. The press conference was held on the date of the national Night Out Against Crime. The press conference was met with a corporate news blackout. The refusal of the corporate news to cover the Iberville press conference is perfectly in line with the longstanding media practice of nurturing an image of Iberville as a spawning ground for criminal violence. The general drift of this news coverage reinforces the widely held view of the public housing complex as a hothouse for violent crime in dangerously close proximity to the French Quarter. Recent crime statistics, however, contradict the widely disseminated view that Iberville is one of New Orleans’s ultra-violent neighborhoods.

The absence of the local press is not due to a lack of notification or media interest in violent crime in the Iberville Housing Development The news blackout happened even though press releases were forwarded the day before the event by organizers to the city desk of the Times Picayune and the news rooms of WWL 4, WDSU6, WVUE 8 and WGNO 26 on August 2nd. These news outlets devoted coverage to neighborhood based Night Out Against Crime in previous years and 2010. And the post-Katrina murders that did occur in Iberville also received media coverage. For example, the Times Picayune, the New Orleans paper of record, carried articles on each of the three murders in the public housing complex in 2008. These same news sources ignored the message the Iberville is a murder free neighborhood. And the fact that Iberville went murder free in a city with the nation’s highest murder rate did not convince the TP and company of the newsworthiness of this development. The New Orleans media is clearly in no hurry to highlight a public housing success story in the midst of the city’s murder epidemic.

A dearth of murders and shootings in Iberville did not stop the corporate news from linking the public housing development to violent crime. A WWL news report broadcast on August 18, 2010 described Iberville as a “hotspot” for crime. The same report makes no mention that the neighborhood went murder free the twelve preceding months. A September 23, 2009 article in the TP put Iberville in the headline of a piece covering a non-fatal shooting that transpired in another neighborhood, the Sixth Ward. And the headline of another TP article, dated October 28, 2009, identified Iberville as the site of a murder on Bienville and North Derbigny. This intersection is actually located in another neighborhood. Even when Iberville is free of murders and shootings the corporate media insists that the neighborhood is experiencing murders and shootings.

The widely disseminated view that Iberville is the French Quarter’s ultra-violent neighbor is contradicted by crime statistics. From January 2008 through July 2010 New Orleans suffered 443 murders. Iberville was the scene of 6 of those murders. This accounts for 1.3% of the city’s murders. And the widely disseminated view that Iberville is a publicly subsidized killing field located dangerously close to the French Quarter does not withstand an examination of murder and shooting statistics. During the period mentioned above the French Quarter, like Iberville, recorded 6 murders. On the matter of shootings in this period Iberville registered far fewer than the city’s oldest neighborhood. A total of 10 people were shot in Iberville..In the city’s oldest neighborhood 21 people were shot. Judging from these figures the high income, privately owned French Quarter is actually a greater source of criminal violence in New Orleans than the low-income, publicly owned Iberville Housing Development!

The media image of Iberville as a haven for criminal violence serves the agenda of the cabal of politicians and real estate developers determined to eliminate public housing from the landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans. HUD responded to the epoch shortage of affordable housing following the storm by first closing and then demolishing 5,000 of the city’s 7,000 public housing apartments. The vast majority of the demolished apartments came out of the storm and flooding in habitable or easily made habitable condition. When HUD finally began demolition of these public housing apartments in late 2007 the size of the local homeless population was double that of the local homeless population in 2005. As of this writing, New Orleans has the highest per-capita rate of homelessness of any city in the nation. This bleak situation did not prevent the Housing Authority of New Orleans from announcing in August that it will seek HUD funding to radically downsize the number of public housing units at Iberville.

No persons were murdered or shot in the Iberville Housing Development during the twelve months that preceded the 2010 Night Out Against Crime. This reality clashes with the media supported image of Iberville as a breeding ground for criminal violence. This caricature of Iberville implicitly sends the message that government support for the neighborhood amounts to taxpayers subsidizing violent crime. This is a false message. Iberville is not a hot house for violent crime. And this is an inconvenient truth for the news establishment of the Crescent City.

Crime Statistics

Iberville/ French Quarter Murders and Shootings.[1]

Murders/ Shootings
2010[2]
Iberville 0 /0
FQ. 1 1

2009
Iberville 3/3
FQ. 4/7

2008
Iberville 3/ 6
FQ 1 /13

Totals
Iberville 6 /9
FQ. 6/ 21

New Orleans Murders[3]

2010 90

2009 174

2008 179

Total 443

[1] From January 1, 2008 through August 3, 2010. Sources examined: Online reports from WWL 4, WDSU6, WVUE8, WGNO26, NOcrimeline.com; and the New Orleans Times-Picayune
[2] Period surveyed for 2010 ends August 3, 2010.
[3] From January 1, 2008 through July 2010. Sources: New Orleans Police Department,
Administrative and Support Bureau for 2008 and 2009 murder statistics. The murder stat for 2010 is 58% of the 2009 murder total. NOPD murder totals for 2010 through July were not available online.

Media Fails to Cover Good News About Iberville--No Murders in Over a Year

2010-08-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

For the Night Out Against Crime 2010 residents and supporters of the Iberville Housing Development held a press conference to announce that the neighborhood is one the few in New Orleans to have gone through the last year murder free. The relative safety of Iberville in comparison to most of the city's other neighborhoods contradicts the image, carefully nurtured by the corporate media and real estate developers, that the neighborhood, indeed all public housing developments, is a de-facto killing field. Not wanting to put forward information that challenges the crime friendly depiction of public housing, the Times-Picayune and the television news reports on New Orleans television chanels 4, 6, 8 and 26 passed on invitations to cover the Iberville's Tuesday Night Out Against Crime press conference.

The refusal of the corporate news media to cover the good news on the crime front from Iberville is in stark contrast to what happens when a murder does occur in the neighborhood. When a murder does occur in Iberville, as it does at some point or another in virtually all New Orleans neighborhoods, news crews from the Times-Picayune and channels 4,6, 8. and 26 can be counted on to cover the tragedy. The slanted news coverage of the crime issue as it pertains to Iberville sends a loud and clear message of the type of image of Iberville that the media sends to the general public.

Mike Howells

Take Action NOW to Defend Sharon Jasper, Free Speech, and Public Housing

2010-07-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Public Housing activist and human rights leader Sharon Jasper is facing political repression --an attack that threatens the free speech rights of us all. On May 30, 2010 Ms. Jasper participated in a non-violent protest at the former St Bernard public housing development, renamed “Columbia Parc”, to denounce the exclusion of former residents. The protest was part of the nationally coordinated “take back the Land” actions. The following week a NOPD SWAT team arrested her at her home, charging her with “battery”--totally unsubstantiated and baseless---against a Columbia Parc employee during the May 30th protest. Then, on July 9th, she received a letter from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) revoking her section 8 housing voucher because of the battery charge. As part of the unconstitutional “one strike” law, passed under the Clinton administration, public housing residents can be evicted for being charged--not convicted--of a crime!

This attempt to evict Ms Jasper is a clear cut case of political repression. The phony “battery” charge and eviction order are designed to silence not only Ms. Jasper but the larger struggle against the real estate sharks and privatizers scheming to grab valuable land and carry out ethnic cleansing in New Orleans an across the country. Very powerful forces are behind the attack on Sharon Jasper. The partner of Columbia Residential in their redevelopment of the former St Bernard public housing community is an outfit called the, “Bayou District”, with, among others, former president George H.W. Bush, and influential local “venture capitalist” Gary Solomon sitting on the board. In addition, the Columbia Parc development is backed by the so-called “Purpose Built Communities”, with billionaire Warren Buffett, hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, and real estate shark Thomas Cousins being major investors. These capitalists identify valuable public housing proprieties as “emerging markets”, and activists like Sharon Jasper stand in the way of these vultures cashing in. We can’t let them get away with this crime.
For more information call C3/Hands Off Iberville at 504-520-9521

Call and/or Fax these officials and demand that the charges and eviction order be dropped against Sharon Jasper
· Columbia residential--Noel Khalil, CEO--(404) 874-5000, x111; Fax (404) 874-0999
http://www.columbiares.com/about/principals.html

· Bayou District--Gerard Barousse, Jr., Chairman, (504) 272-0307 Fax: (504) 523-1704
http://bayoudistrictfoundation.org/

· Purpose Built Communities--Charles Knapp, President, (404) 591-1400, email: interest@purposebuiltcommunities.org
http://www.purposebuiltcommunities.org/network-members/overview.html

· Housing Authority of New Orleans--David Gilmore, Executive Director, (504) 670-3300
http://www.hano.org/

IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL

2010-07-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

The BP Oil Spill is a New Orleans problem!

IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL.

The arrival of tar balls in Lake Pontchartain makes clear that the BP oil spill is reaching New Orleans. What impact will the oil spill have on the health and economic well being of New Orleanians? What can low-income New Orleanians do to avoid being exploited Katrina style by those forces who treat every catastrophe as another opportunity to rip off the poor? These are questions that Iberville residents and other low-income New Orleanians need to address and will be addressed at the Iberville Speakout On The BP Oil Spill.

You are invited and encouraged to attend and participate in the speakout below.

IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL
6PM THURSDAY, JULY 15TH
IBERVILLE COURT(Near Basketball Court)
IBERVILLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
Free and open to all.

For additional information call (504) 587-0080
Sponsors: Iberville residents and C3/Hands Off Iberville

All Out to Defend New Orleans Public Housing Activist Sharon Jasper

2010-07-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

All Out to Defend New Orleans Public Housing Activist Sharon Jasper

Stop Political Repression Unleashed by
HANO/Columbia Residential/Bayou District

Attend meeting and/or make calls (see info below)
HANO Board Meeting
4100 Tour St.
(near corner of Elysian Fields and Gentilly)
9:30 AM—Rally
10 AM—Board Meeting

Public Housing activist and human rights leader Sharon Jasper is facing political repression because of her defense of New Orleans public housing and the right of return. On May 30, 2010 Ms. Jasper participated in a non-violent protest at the former St Bernard public housing development, renamed “Columbia Parc”, to denounce the exclusion of former residents. The protest was part of the nationally coordinated “take back the Land” actions. The following week a NOPD SWAT team arrested her at her home, charging her with “battery”--totally unsubstantiated and baseless---against a Columbia Parc employee during the May 30th protest.
Then, on July 9th, she received a letter from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) revoking her section 8 housing voucher because of the battery charge. As part of the unconstitutional “one strike” law, passed under the Clinton administration, public housing residents can be evicted for being charged--not convicted--of a crime!

This attempt to evict Ms Jasper is a clear cut case of political repression. The phony “battery” charge and eviction order are designed to silence not only Ms. Jasper but the larger struggle against the real estate sharks and privatizers scheming to grab valuable land and carry out ethnic cleansing in New Orleans an across the country. Very powerful forces are behind the attack on Sharon Jasper. The partner of Columbia Residential in their redevelopment of the former St Bernard public housing community is an outfit called the, “Bayou District”, with, among others, former president George HW Bush, and influential local “venture capitalist” Gary Solomon backing sitting on the board. In addition, the Columbia Parc development is backed by the so-called “Purpose Built Communities”, with billionaire Warren Buffett, hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, and real estate shark Thomas Cousins being major investors. These capitalists identify valuable public housing proprieties as “emerging markets”, and activists like Sharon Jasper stand in the way of these vultures cashing in.

For more information call 504-520-9521

Call and Fax these officials and demand that the charges and eviction order be dropped against Sharon Jasper

· Columbia residential--Noel Khalil, CEO--(404) 874-5000, ext. 111; Fax (404) 874-0999
http://www.columbiares.com/about/principals.html

· Bayou District--Gerard Barousse, Jr., Chairman, (504) 272-0307 Fax: (504) 523-1704
http://bayoudistrictfoundation.org/

· Purpose Built Communities--Charles Knapp, Pres,. (404) 591-1400, email: interest@purposebuiltcommunities.org
http://www.purposebuiltcommunities.org/network-members/overview.html

· Housing Authority of New Orleans--David Gilmore, Executive Director, (504) 670-3300
http://www.hano.org/

The Iberville Public Housing and Mass Public Works Movements Make Gains!

2010-07-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Iberville Public Housing and Mass Public Works Movements Make Gains!

HANO Commits to Repairing All of Iberville--the Mass Movement Must Ensure This Happens

All Out to Defend Sharon Jasper at July 21 Court Appearance

In a major reversal, Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) administrator David Gilmore committed, at the agency’s June 29th hearing on their 2010-2011 annual plan, to repair and reopen all of the over 800 apartments at the Iberville public housing development. Only a few months ago Gilmore had said only 500 would be repaired and that there were “other [privatization] plans” for Iberville. Clearly this change of course is due to the determined and consistent resistance of C3/Hands Off Iberville and other forces that have denounced HANO’s demolition by neglect strategy, and the maneuvering of the Downtown Development District-led Iberville Advisory Committee to demolish and privatize Iberville.

Yet, we cannot be led into complacency by words and promises. Let us remember that in October 2001, after five years of demolishing several thousand units of public housing, then-HANO administrator Ben Bell reassured attendees at a board meeting that, “We have vowed not to build another HOPE VI project without the replacement of one-for-one public housing.” These words, of course, did not stop them from demolishing over 5,000 apartments after Katrina, with plans to only rebuild a handful. Indeed, HANO has more downsizing on the agenda. While committing to repairing all the units at Iberville, HANO’s 2010-2011 annual plan calls for selling-off 500 of the over 700 apartments in their scattered site portfolio, and includes no plans to rebuild the Florida development (that had been over 700 units), nor the Imperial Drive complex. With the two “tenant leaders” for these complexes--Diane Connerly (Florida) and Paula Taylor (Imperial Drive)--both enjoying HANO contracts for the “non-profit” agencies they head, you can be assured that these vetted leaders will not raise many objections.

The only power that can assure that the all the desperately needed units at Iberville are repaired, and that we win the equally needed mass public works plan, is a mass, independent, racially unified, militant, working class movement. The nucleus of that type of movement was present at HANO’s June 29th hearing on their annual plan. In attendance at a pre-meeting press conference and rally were C3/Hands Off Iberville members, Mike Howells, Michele Perez, Cody Marshall, Eloise Williams and Jay Arena, Pax Christi representative Paul Troyano, Joe and Katy Heeren-Mueller from the Catholic Worker house, Sam Jackson with May Day New Orleans, Endesha Juakali with Survivors Village, Public housing leaders Sharon, Kowana and Shannon Jasper, Rose Kennedy and a member of the housing group STAND.

At the rally and subsequent meting activists not only demanded the repairing of all the Iberville units, more public housing and section 8 vouchers, and the creation of a public works program, but also denounced the arrest of Sharon Jasper by a NOPD SWAT team on June 3rd at her home. The arrest and phony battery charge were in retaliation for Ms. Jasper’s heroic and continued defense of public housing and against police brutality. The week before her arrest she protested Columbian Parc’s (the former St Bernard development) continued exclusion of former residents. She also joined other community activists to as they picketed the NOPD’s central city station to denounce the reign of terror the cops have been carrying out in the area, one that has faced massive gentrification since hurricane Katrina. Ms. Jasper made it clear that, despite the repression, she will not be silenced and will continue the fight for justice in the city she loves.

Activists also gathered at the July 1, 2010 city council meeting to denounce Sharon Jasper’s arrest and the city’s plan to expand repression by building the only type of public housing they seem to support—prisons!

C3/Hands Off Iberville invites all friends of justice to join the fight for public housing and a massive public works program. All are encouraged to attend Sharon Jasper’s next court appearance, which will be on Wednesday, July 21 at 3 PM in Municipal Court, Court Room “D”. For more information call 504-520-9521.

Tell the Iberville Advisory Committee:Hands of Iberville! No to Privatization! No to land grabs!

2010-06-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

Tell the Iberville Advisory Committee:

Hands of Iberville! No to Privatization! No to land grabs!

Reopen and repair all the public housing apartments at Iberville NOW!
Stop the Demolition by neglect strategy.

Expand don’t destroy Public Housing and other Public Services.
Public Works Now!

The Iberville Advisory Committee (IAC), a sham outfit set up by HANO and developers, will be holding a “community hearing” to “gather input” on “short and long term improvement to the Iberville” on Thursday, June 24. Their real agenda is to justify Iberville’s destruction as a public housing development. We must use this hearing to expose IAC’s real agenda and present a genuine peoples plan to defend and expand Iberville and public housing.

The chair of the IAC is Henry Charlot, an operative of the Downtown Development District (DDD). The DDD, and Charlot’s boss, Executive direct Kurt Weigle, have long sought 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 medical district up to more than just retail and residential possibilities.” Weigle told Edwards 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 investments around them.”

HANO’s appointment of a Weigle subordinate the IAC chair is a slap in the face of residents and non-residents alike who genuinely want Iberville to continue to be a source of affordable housing for low-income, working class New Orleanians.

Let your voice heard and demand that the hundreds of empty but badly needed public housing apartments at Iberville be repaired and reopened NOW!

Iberville Advisory Committee Community Meeting
Thursday, June 24
6 PM
St Jude Hall, 410 Basin St.

For more information contact C3/Hands Off Iberville, at 504-520-9521

Protecting homes and communities--Protest BP Oil Spill

2010-06-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

COME TO N.O. HALLIBURTON TO PROTEST THE PERPETRATORS AND MISMANAGERS OF THE BP OIL SPILL.

More than fifty days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, Halliburton in New Orleans finds itself allowed to engage in business as usual in the major American city closest to the oil spill. The Halliburton office on Canal Street in the CBD has not, so far, been the scene of even a token attempt to put the spotlight on the pivotal role that this company has played in helping manufacture the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Halliburton was entrusted with the task of ensuring that the BOP of the Deepwater Horizon rig was sealed. Now faulty sealing of the Deepwater Horizon’s BOP is widely assumed to have been a major contributing factor to April 20th explosion that unleashed the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And this is exactly the type of work that allows Halliburton to profit enormously from oil industry activity in the Gulf.

Staging a very public protest at the site of the Halliburton office in the CBD sends the message to Halliburton, BP and the government that people in New Orleans are willing to directly confront, albeit peacefully, the worst corporate predators in our midsts. That we are pulling the welcome mat away from the corporate and political predators whose wretched handling of the crisis is resulting in ever greater encroachments on our welfare and the welfare of our neighbors. We are no longer willing to allow our righteous and healthy indignation to be funneled exclusively into dead-end corporate and government staged “public meetings” that are designed to imbue us with a feeling of powerlessness.

SO WE PROTEST!

4:30PM FRIDAY
JUNE 18, 2019
601 CANAL STREET
Bring signs, chants, friends and, most importantly, yourself.

Unity Based on a Common Interests and Principles

2010-01-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

(Below is a post by Chicago Public Housing activist William JR Fleming regarding the debate on who should be included in the New Orleans Public Housing delegation that will meet with HUD on January 20, 2010 on the future of Public Housing. Following that is a response from C3/Hands Off Iberville member Jay Arena).

Hello All,
I am praying for all of us this just what the powers to be is counting on FOR US TO BE DIVIDED! As a resident of Cabrini Green in Chicago and all public housing in the world(my extended family) it hurts me to see what is happening in New Orleans my second home and where a lot of my family still resides. I am confident enough that Carol Steele and Cheryl Johnson can handle the Chicago representation so with that being said I am willing to give up my seat at the table if it would bring resolve to this crisis! WE ARE ALL WE GOT! WE SHOULD FIND COMMONALITY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR HOUSING! We cannot continue to have in-fighting I plea with My New Orleans Family Today is a New Day and Year lets Move Together on the Promise tomorrow brings and not live on the mistakes of yesterday.

Catherine I'm not singling you out but please see what is happening and understand your POWER in this situation to bring resolve!Which reminds me of MLK Jr. Quote

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Peace Love Respect and Unity

WILLIE J.R.FLEMING

(Jay Arena's response)

Principled Unity is What We Need--Based on Defending and Expanding Public Housing

Yes, JR, we need unity in the Public Housing Movement, but unity based on common interests and principles. We need unity based on the principle, on the common agreement, that we are for defending and expanding PUBLIC HOUSING—where housing is based on NEED, not profit. Unity not based on these principles does not make us stronger, but rather weaker.

The New Orleans Public Housing movement demands that Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper represent us at the January 20th meeting with HUD because they support our interests, our demands, to defend and expand Public Housing. The issue is not some childish concern that they been left out of a trip to Washington DC.

Cynthia Wiggins, in contrast, has another agenda. She—and other resident mangers-- has a material, an economic interest, in turning over public housing to private resident management. Wiggins is very clear about this. She does not want to defend the Iberville Public Housing development, for example. As she said, “The public housing that we knew is no more”. Instead, her interest is working with developers to “redevelop” public housing and ideally have them run by private resident managers like herself. And she wants to have as much power as possible, as any landlord would, over residents. As Wiggins told the Gambit weekly, she wants her and other resident managers to have the right to evict people that can’t find work—and this when we have the highest unemployment since the 1930s.

Wiggins has been clear that she will be representing not residents, but the class interests of the National Association of Resident Management Corporations, of which she belongs, at the January 20th meeting. Wiggins concern is how public housing can be “reformed” so she and her fellow mangers can make more money. Indeed, in a December 16th email , Wiggins placed as her number one concern to be addressed at the January 20th meeting at HUD was to overturn:

“* the $1m [$$1 milion] limit placed on resident own business during [doing] business with a PHA and the lack thereof”.

I have included as an attachment a slew of for-profit, and ‘non-profit’ businesses that Wiggins controls. Therefore her concerns about the money-making of her businesses—which she wants addressed at the January 20 meeting-- makes sense from her class position. But her interests and concerns are different from those of the Public Housing movement. WE need to be clear about that. If we gloss over those different economic interests in the name of some false unity, then we become weaker.

Therefore, JR, if you want to show solidarity with your friends and comrades in the New Orleans public housing movement DONT Give up your seat. Go to Washington and speak up for DEFENDING and EXPANDING Public Housing. To show solidarity demand that Catherine Bishop REMOVE Cynthia Wiggins as part of the New Orleans delegation-which was a conflict to begin with since Wiggins was a part of the selection committee, and picked herself! Instead of Wiggins, demand that Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper, along with Stephanie Mingo, be our representatives.

C3/Hands Off Iberville

Kawana Jasper Speaks

2010-01-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

(Below is the letter Public Housing Activist Kawana Jasper sent to HUD, dated January 14, 2010, explaining why she should be a part of the New Orleans delegation at the upcoming meeting with HUD . She also questions the credentials of those that have been chosen, including Cynthia Wiggins).

Hi, Mrs. Henqriuez, my name is Kawana Jasper im a public housing resident in New Orleans, La. I'm very interested in attending the meeting in Washington D.C., on January 20, 2010 on "The Preservation of Public Housing". I have fought tirelessly on the grounds in New Orleans for the rights of residents of public housing to be able to return to public housing post Katrina. Residents of public housing who have fought hard for preservations of public housing would not be able to get the opportunity to be apart of this meeting because of poor selection from the steering committee. I have earn a seat at this meeting unlike some people who have not defended public housing in New Orleans. I was displace from public housing due to the demolition of the "Big 4 Developments" that were torn down. I can bring to this meeting important issues that public housing residents are facing in New Orleans. I am supported by local and national organizations to be a part of this meeting.

CEO Cynthia Wiggins Responds, and Exposes Her Real Interests

2010-01-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

(Below is the Response of Cynthia Wiggins, CEO of the Guste Resident Management Corporation to our earlier demand that she be removed as part of the New Orleans Public Housing Delegation that will meet with HUD on January 20, 2010 in Washington, D.C. She does a great job in confirming what we have said--she is concerned about her class interessts as a landlord, rather than the interests of Public Housing residents, and those that want to expand and defend Public Housing.)

Jay in response to your attempt to misepresent what is factual let me advise you that Cynthia Wiggins has no affiliation with thirteen corporations. I'm not the only Cynthia Wiggins in La let along the country. However I'll let you determine which ones I am affiliated with.

Who ever we is for a point of information the Guste Homes RMC is a non profit corporations developed for the sole purpose of managing public housing in accordance with federal regulation developed under the leadership of former Sec. Jack Kemp. To date there is 350 public housing properties managed by RESIDENTS organized under the direction of Jack Kemp. All of us are doing very well and all of us have financial interest if not we would not be able to employ residents, create economic and or business opportunity for residents nor would we be able to create healthy enviroments for the families that live in public housing. I promote resident management and not private management. You figure out the difference!

The voice of the public housing movement is the families that live in public housing who is crying out for decent safe and sanitary housing, which the families in Iberville and all the others have not seen for decades. What is criminal here is that the families that live in Iberville is subjected to inhumane living conditions i.e raw sewage, rodents, detoraiting apartments, crime, poor management. The Citywide TenantAssociation and Guste Homes have always demanded that HUD and HANO redeveloped the complexes through redevelopment. Families living in public housing deserve to live in decent housing and the conditions Iberville famlies are currently living in Jay is criminal. You would not know that because you live in New York and I'm certain the grant funds you receive help in your financial assistance to maintain you and your wonderful living enviroment.

Everything changes and public housing is changing. The lack of federal assistance has changed therefore our families must ensure they are able to care for their families for its there personal responsibility. When there children can't eat who's going to provide for them. When there is no real afforable housing who's going to assist them. Katrina was the wake up call for our families. You talk about demand it was Citywide Tenant Association that demanded that public housing in New Orleans be reopen. HUD had proposed to close all of them down even Guste. It was Constance Haynes and her residents that return back homes after a call from me to get back home or Fscher would be close down that backed HUD and HANO off Fischer. It was through our RESIDENT MANAGEMENT arrangement that BW Cooper and Guste Homes was reopen.

As a reminder Jay Guste Homes finance Survivor Village under Endesha and provided needed space and supplies. Also since you want to appear you can quote individuals, quote my comments at the City Council meeting.

The Public Housing Movement Chooses Kawana Jasper and Sam Jackson

2010-01-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

To: Catherine Bishop, National Housing Law Project, Organizer of January 20, 2010 key meeting with the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD on the fate of Public Housing

The New Orleans Public Housing Movement Wants Our Voices Represented

YES TO KAWANA JASPER AND SAM JACKSON
NO TO SELLOUTS CYNTHIA WIGGINS AND CONSTANCE HAYNES

(Supporters: Call/email Catherine Bishop at (510) 251-9400 cbishop@nhlp.org
in support of our demands; Also contact NOLAC housing lawyer Laura Tuggle, who is on the local organizing committee, to stop her support of Wiggins and Haynes-- latuggle@nolac.org)

Demand: We demand that two True Defenders of New Orleans Public Housing, Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper, represent the New Orleans Public Housing movement at the meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2010. We OPPOSE the inclusion of Cynthia Wiggins and Constance Haynes in the delegation. Wiggins and Haynes both SUPPORTED the criminal destruction of Public Housing in Post-Katrina New Orleans, and Wiggins, under the guise of “Resident management” has a financial interest in the further privatization of public housing through the so-called ‘project basing’ plan HUD will float at the Jan. 20 meeting.

Ms. Bishop, as you have stated in a recent email “we at NHLP would have the final say as to who would attend and take full responsibility for which tenants are attending this meeting.” Therefore we are demanding that you listen to the voices of the Public Housing movement in New Orleans, and include those that will convey our positions, and not those UNREPRESENTATIVE voices that have worked to destroy Public Housing.

Who Are Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper?

Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper have been at the forefront of the Public Housing movement. They have worked tirelessly, even going to jail, for their commitment to defend Public Housing in post-Katrina New Orleans. The Public Housing movement is confident they will bring the MOVEMENTS message to the January 20th meeting, which are the following: We do not want to lose even one more unit of Public Housing. We reject the plan cooked up by recently appointed HUD staffer Barbara Sard to privatize public housing through her “project basing” scheme.

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2009/HUDNo.09-140

We want a commitment that ALL the 800+ units at the Iberville Public Housing development remain as Public Housing, where people pay 30% of their income for rent and utilities. We want the currently empty units to be immediately repaired and made available to the thousands of people now on the waiting list in city, where the homeless population has doubled since hurricane Katrina. We demand real enforcement of HUD’s section 3 rules that gives preference to local low wage workers on any HUD funded construction—a rule currently being flagrantly violated.

Furthermore we demand not only the defense of the Public Housing we have, but we call for a massive expansion. The expansion of Public Housing should be part of a larger Public Works initiative, with direct government employment, that would rebuild our public sector, from schools, to housing, to hospitals, with workers being paid prevailing wage.

Who is Cynthia Wiggins?

In contrast to Jackson and Jasper, Cynthia Wiggins is a supporter of the destruction of Public Housing. Ms Wiggins never once provided support for the movement to defend public housing in post-Katrina New Orleans. Rather she and her organization--the City Wide tenants Association, whose terms have all expired--spoke out in support of demolishing Public Housing, including at the infamous December 20, 2007 New Orleans city council meeting. At this infamous meeting, N.O. cops, on orders from the city council, beat, tasered and arrested people for daring to attend the meeting and register their objections to the internationally recognized crime of demolishing public housing in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Ms. Wiggins, and the National Association of Resident Management Corporations, of which she has been president, is a long time defender of privatizing public housing. Wiggins and other managers make money by turning over management to their corporations, and they want more of it. As can be seen below from records obtained from the Louisiana Secretary of State office, Wiggins has set up a series of for-profit and ‘non-profit’ corporations as part of her business operation managing public housing. We demand that she come clean on how much profit she has made from her entire corporate portfolio.

Therefore, considering how well she has done from privatization, it is no wonder that Wiggins paid homage to former HUD secretary Jack Kemp after his death last year, which was posted on the blog of the right wing Heritage Foundation. Kemp helped create the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing, out of which the monster known as HOPE VI was birthed. This program, as we all know, has driven literally millions of poor people, especially people of color, from their homes and neighborhoods through demolition and gentrification. While this caused great harm to rank and file residents, this program has helped create more profitable opportunities for ‘resident management corporations’ such as the ones Wiggins heads.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/08/tributes-to-jack-kemp-a-man-above-men/

Seeing how Wiggins has made out very well financially from privatizing public housing, it is no wonder she wants to finish off what is left. In October 2009 interview with the Gambit newspaper, Wiggins stated. "The public housing that we knew is no more…There's a shifting that's taking place and it's from the perspective of personal responsibility. The government is getting out of all of this subsidizing, so at some point in time, if we don't do something to force people back into the workforce, what's going to happen is you're going to have folks who are homeless."
http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A63286

Clearly, Wiggins is on board with eliminating public housing, and yet she has been selected to represent the interests New Orleans Public Housing residents in Washington at this critical meeting! NO WAY.

NO TO WIGGINS! NO TO THE PROFITEERS OF PRIVATIZATION!

C3/Hands off Iberville
**************************************************
Below is a listing of the corporate affiliations of resident council member Cynthia Wiggins as provided by the Louisiana Secretary of State. She has thirteen corporate affiliations. This information is a matter of public record.

Director of "Guste Homes Lowrise Economic Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of "Metro-New Orleans Community Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Vice-President of "New Orleans Public Works, Inc." This is an inactive non-profit corporation.
Director of "Guste Homes Management Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of "Optimistic Healthcare, Inc." This is an inactive business corporation.
President of "Housing Authority of New Orleans Residents Loan Corporation." This is an inactive non-profit.
Member of "Clip'n'Clean," This is an inactive business corporation.
Vice President of "The Guste Low-Rise Resident Council." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of the "Guste Low-Rise Resident Council." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Moms Against Violence." This is an inactive non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Metro-New Orleans Community Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Guste Homes Resident Management Corporation." This is an active corporation.

Total Results: 16
Name
Affiliation
City
Detail
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “GUSTE HOMES LOWRISE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “METRO-NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Vice-President of “NEW ORLEANS WORKS, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “GUSTE HOMES RESIDENT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “DEAR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “OPTIMISTIC HOME HEALTH CARE, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
President of “HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT LOAN CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Member of “CLIP - N - CLEAN L.L.C.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Vice-President of “THE GUSTE LOW-RISE RESIDENT COUNCIL”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “THE GUSTE LOW-RISE RESIDENT COUNCIL”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “MOMS AGAINST VIOLENCE, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “METRO-NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “GUSTE HOMES RESIDENT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]

Can HANO Director Gilmore be taken on his word?

2010-01-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

(Below is an email from journalist Katy Reckdahl responding to my earlier post about her article on New Orelans Public Housing. Following the email is my response to HANO director Gilmore's assurances regarding the fate of the Iberville Development).

From: kreckdahl@timespicayune.com [mailto:kreckdahl@timespicayune.com]
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 5:37 PM
Subject: RE: Open Letter to Katy Reckdahl, Laura Tuggle and Tracie Washington

Jay:

Just FYI. Mr. Gilmore said at the last HANO meeting that he has been told nothing about the Iberville being demolished and that he thinks to do so would be a mistake. One of the residents that I think is still on your People's Committee, Sharon Jasper, was at that meeting and hugged Gilmore at the end of it.

Katy,

Thanks for responding.

I, as much as anyone, would like to take Mr. Gilmore--of Gilmore Kean LLC, whose company is making money from the privatization of HANO management, Mr Gilmore of the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing (1989-1992) infamy, from which emerged the HOPE VI public housing demolition scheme, the Mr Gilmore that was appointed by the Obama administration which completed the demolition of the Lafitte development--on his word.

Yet, the reassuring WORDS allegedly uttered by Mr. Gilmore guaranteeing the continued existence of Iberville as a Public Housing development are contradicted the by the continuing ACTIONS of the agency he heads:

1. HANO/HUD's closure of vacated apartments continues at Iberville.

2. HANO/HUD continues to prioritize the distribution of section 8 vouchers to existing residents at Iberville, while there is a huge waiting list of families with no housing assistance. When Iberville residents take the section 8 voucher HANO contractors then place metal plates on these apartments and do not reopen them to any of thousands of families now on the waiting list for a public housing apartment.

3. Henry Charlot Jr, from the Downtown development district continues as head of the HANO appointed Iberville advisory committee, despite the DDD's long stated aim of destroying Iberville as PUBLIC HOUSING. The IAC continues to hold only closed doors meetings prohibiting members of the public from attending.

4. The stimulus money has been used mainly to place 'crime cameras' at Iberville, rather than make repairs.

5. HUD's recently appointed HANO advisory board is filled with players that have supported demolition and privatization of public Housing. They range from representatives of the Greater new Orleans Foundations, to the office of Mayor Nagin. Maybe the most objectionable is the ostensible tenant representative, Cynthia Wiggins, who has made a tidy sum providing support for the demolition of public housing and driving public housing resident from their homes. Wiggins , in her latest move, has joined hands with the notorious racist, poor-people hater, Stacey Head, in calling for the eviction of public housing residents that cannot find job--at a time when workers, especially Black Workers, are now facing Depression era levels of unemployment (see Gambit, October 19, 2009, 'work and Home')

Until these and other glaring contradictions are addressed, Mr Gilmore's reassurances will be greeted with healthy and warranted skepticism.

Investigating these contradictions, I believe, would be the basis of an excellent investigative piece. If only we could get it by the censors at the Times Picayune, who have been cheerleaders of public housing demolition, and, in effect, class and racial cleansing.

HANO advisory board members are:
John Alford, principal at Langston Hughes Academy; Rev. D.R. Berryhill, Sr. of First Zion Baptist Church; Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Tulane University School of Medicine's vice-dean of community affairs and health policy; Martin Gutierrez, who heads up neighborhood and community services at Catholic Charities; Nick Harris, who directs the Dillard University Community Development Corp.; Michael Hecht, president of Greater New Orleans, Inc.; Ellen Lee, senior vice president of programs at the Greater New Orleans Foundation; Maggie Merrill, director of policy for the city of New Orleans; U.S. Congressman Joseph Cao's deputy chief of staff Rosalind Peychaud, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's regional manager, LaVerne Saulny; Laura Tuggle, who heads up housing law at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services; Tracie Washington, managing director of the Louisiana Justice Institute; and Cynthia Wiggins, head of the Guste Home Resident Management Corporation.

Jay Arena
Hands off Iberville

Open Letter to Katy Reckdahl, Laura Tuggle and Tracie Washington

2009-12-28T00:32:00.000-08:00

The Community Has Already “Weighed-In” on Public Housing:
Hands Off Iberville!

Open Letter to Katy Reckdahl, Laura Tuggle and Tracie Washington

Jay Arena
C3/Hands Off Iberville

Katy Reckdahl’s December 26, 2009 article on New Orleans’ public housing elaborates extensively on the Iberville development and the fact that there is now a ‘citizen committee’ that is commissioned with ‘weigh[ing] the complex's future’. Yet, while providing some useful information, Reckdahl leaves out two important points in regard to the committee and the ‘weighing’ of Iberville’s future. This omitted--censored?--information is critical for assessing what is really happening at Iberville and developing an effective fight back against the class and racial cleansing agenda of the real estate sharks and their government and non-profit accomplices.

We, who ‘weigh-in’ on the side of the people’s needs when making our decisions, rather than the profit needs of capitalists, must be armed with the ‘missing facts’ elaborated below as we enter a critical stage in the defense of Iberville, which is part of a broader fight back against the ruling class’ intensifying, global austerity agenda.

The Peoples Committee

The first omission in Reckdahls’ article is that in addition to the so-called ‘citizens committee’ she speaks of, there is also a ‘Peoples Committee’, C3/Hands Off Iberville, made-up of public and non-public housing residents, that has met and spoken out for years in defense of public housing. This committee has rendered its decision: maintain all the apartments at Iberville as Public Housing, in which people pay according to their income. Furthermore, the 300 now empty, and badly needed, apartments at Iberville must be fixed-up immediately, instead of remaining closed as part of a conscious strategy by HUD/HANO and developers to ‘demolish by neglect’.

Unmasking the Iberville Advisory Committee

The second omission is that Reckdahl fails to note that the so-called Iberville Advisory Committee, which the author refers to as the ‘citizens committee’, has a serious legitimacy problem. This committee, handpicked by top HANO lawyer Wayne Woods, specifically excluded Hands Off Iberville, and is headed by an operative of the Downtown Development District, Henry Charlot, Jr. Mr. Charlot and the DDD’s executive director Kurt Weigle, have long made it clear that they want the Iberville destroyed as public housing and the community members removed.

In addition, this ‘committee’ includes Lillie Walker-Woodfork, a public housing resident, who spoke-out at the infamous New Orleans city council meeting on December 20, 2007. While opponents of demolition where beaten, tear gassed, and arrested, Walker-Woodfork declared her support for the Bush and Nagin administrations criminal--and internationally condemned--plans to demolish some 5,000 viable public housing apartments. Walker-Woodfork is part of a long line of resident ‘leaders’, such as Donna Johnigan and businesswomen Cynthia Wiggins, that have collaborated with and/or effectively fronted for real estate developers in their racial and class cleansing efforts. Instead of denouncing the eviction of their neighbors these hacks, after or in expectation of future compensation, become collaborators. For a few coins, or sometimes serious cash (as in Wiggins’s case), they eagerly join the corporate gangbangers in, figuratively and literally, throwing women and children into the streets.

To include the DDD on the Iberville Advisory Committee, as well as other dubious ‘stakeholders’, is to invite the proverbial fox into the process. If Mr. Gilmore, from ‘Gilmore Kean LLC’, the new HANO administrator, is serious about change and transparency, he must begin by removing Charlot and listen to the peoples demand: maintain all the apartments at Iberville as Public Housing.

A Message to Housing Advocates Tracie Washington and Laura Tuggle

C3/Hands Off Iberville calls on the members of the Iberville Advisory Committee, including attorney Laura Tuggle, to denounce the role of the DDD and demand their expulsion from the committee, At minimum, the committee must open deliberations, which currently continue to be backroom affairs that bar any public oversight.

We also urge Tracie Washington and Laura Tuggle, both members of the Obama administration appointed local HANO advisory board, to publically state their support of the demand made by C3/Hands Off Iberville, May Day New Orleans and other community and labor groups. These grass roots organizations call for defending all the apartments at Iberville as public housing, as well as enforcement (which is currently being ignored) of section 3 rules that give preference for local, low income workers for HUD-funded construction projects.

As part of this defense of Iberville, it is incumbent upon Ms. Washington and Tuggle to denounce the criminal demolition by neglect strategy. Under this cynical and criminal policy, HANO/HUD encourages existing Iberville residents to take section 8 vouchers. When they vacate, their apartments are sealed shut and not offered to the thousands of families on the public housing waiting list that desperately need housing.

Public Works and Housing NOW!

Finally, we call on the advisory board to hold a public hearing where people can speak-out and explain the urgent need, in the face of skyrocketing rents and record levels of homelessness, for defending all the public housing we have, and for a massive public works program to rebuild our public sector, from housing to hospitals to schools.

Article by Katy Reckdahl
Katy Reckdahl, Times Picayune, Dec 26, 2009
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/12/islands_of_poverty_linger_when.html
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/new_hano_chief_david_gilmore_k.html

Letter to Editor--Times Picayune, sent 12/27/09

2009-12-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

To the editor:

In Katy Reckdahl’s December 26, 2009 article on public housing she states that at the Iberville development ‘more than 300 of the 852 apartments are mothballed while a citizen committee weighs the complex's future’. Yet, she leaves out two important points in regard to the committee and Iberville’s future.

First, in addition to the 'citizens committee', there is also ‘peoples committee’, C3/Hands Off Iberville, made up of public and non-public housing residents, that has met and spoken out for years in defense of public housing. This committee has rendered its decision: maintain all the apartments at Iberville as Public Housing, in which people pay according to their income. Furthermore, the 300 now empty, and badly needed, apartments must be fixed up immediately, instead of remaining closed as part of a conscious ‘demolition by neglect’ strategy.

Second, the so-called Iberville Advisory Committee that Ms. Reckdahl refers to her in her article as the ‘citizens committee’ has a serious legitimacy crisis This committee, handpicked by top HANO lawyer Wayne Woods, specifically excluded Hands Off Iberville, and is headed by an operative of the Downtown Development District, Henry Charlot, Jr. Mr. Charlot and the DDD’s executive director Kurt Weigle, have a long made it clear that they want the Iberville destroyed as public housing and the community members removed.

To include the DDD on the Iberville Advisory Committee is to invite the proverbial fox into the process. If Mr. Gilmore, the new HANO administrator, is serious about change and transparency, he must begin by removing Charlot, disbanding the illegitimate ‘Iberville Advisory Committee’ and listen to the peoples demand: maintain all the apartments at Iberville as Public Housing.

Jay Arena

Dear Supporters of New Orleans Public Housing and a National Public Works Program,

2009-12-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters of New Orleans Public Housing and a National Public Works Program,

Thanks to all the folks from the Southern Sociological Society meeting (April 2009), the Association for Humanist Sociology gathering (November 2009), and others that have shown their support for public housing and the larger right of return movement in New Orleans. This message addresses three more ways that you can show solidarity—encouraging your students to engage in ‘movement voluntarism’ when coming to New Orleans, participating in an emergency calling campaign to defend the Iberville public housing development that many of you visited, and organizing a rally for public works in your community.

Movement Not Self-Help Voluntarism

1. I shared with many of you the critique that C3/Hands Off Iberville and other social movement organizations have with the student volunteers that have descended upon the city post-Katrina. This intervention, to a great degree, has abetted and legitimated the neoliberal agenda, rather than provided foot soldiers to challenge it. Enclosed is an article that C3 activist Mike Howells and I wrote outlining our critique of the dominant ‘self-help’ voluntarism model and advocating for a ‘movement voluntarism’ alternative.

We would like to get this article circulated as widely as possible, particularly among those organizing student delegations on your campuses. If you or anyone else would like to know more about how student delegations could assist local social movement struggles while in the city, they can contact me at this email or by phone—504-520-9521. In addition, I will be leading a delegation to New Orleans the week of April 29 (Easter week), and I would be glad to collaborate with any other colleges sending students at that time.
Volunteerism Will Not Rebuild the Gulf Coast--
Building A Political Movement Can

A Message To Student, Faith-Based and
Other New Orleans/Gulf Coast Volunteers
http://www.counterpunch.org/howells07302009.html

2. We have received word that the Obama administration’s Dept of Housing and Urban Development is about to do a ‘study’ of the Iberville development. We are concerned that the ‘findings’ will be used to justify the closure of the development. Enclosed below is a letter that C3 is circulating urging our supporters to contact HUD and Congress to demand that they repair not demolish Iberville. Please take a few minutes to make these calls.

3. Finally, on December 19 there will be actions in New Orleans and Newark, New Jersey demanding a national public works plan, at union wages, open to immigrant and native workers. Organizers, which envision the December 19 mobilization as the first action in an ongoing effort, see this campaign as a powerful way to connect the struggle to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf with the urgent employment and infrastructural needs across the country. I can be contacted for more information on how your community can join this growing campaign.

To The Families In Iberville And Their Supporter:
WE SUPPORT THE REPAIR AND REOPENING OF ALL OF IBERVILLE!

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a federal agency that is legally entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the nation’s poor have access to affordable and decent housing, should be taking steps to protect and enhance the Iberville Development, and, at the very least, to refrain from threatening the neighborhood’s very existence. Iberville is an integral part of the community. It is an oasis of affordable housing in a city whose inhabitants endure a rental burden that is heavier than anywhere else in the country. HUD is doing a terrible disservice to residents by circulating rumors and threats that Iberville should or might be demolished like the Big Four developments.

The people of New Orleans cannot afford to lose Iberville. Why? The need for the affordable housing that Iberville provides is greater than ever. We are in the midst of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. And New Orleans is facing the twin scourges of rising unemployment and spiraling rents. The official unemployment in the city has jumped from 4.4% in September 2007 to 8.1% in September 2009. Rising rents are largely fueled by, 1.) the failure of the U.S. government to keep the cost of rents down in federally subsidized low income housing; 2.) the refusal of the Road Home to adequately fund the rebuilding of rental housing; and 3.) the post-Katrina demolition of 5,000 local public housing apartments. And in the midst of all this 11,000 New Orleanians find themselves homeless. We call for an independent investigation on the failure of state and federal authorities to make a good faith effort to adequately replenish the rental housing stock of post-storm New Orleans.

Another powerful argument in defense of Iberville is that the privatization of public housing in post-Katrina New Orleans is clearly a magnet for corruption. Since HUD announced its plan to demolish the city’s Big Four housing developments five high ranking HANO employees have been indicted on charges related to post-Katrina corruption. The architect of the plan to demolish the Big Four, former HUD Secretary Alphonse Jackson, is the target of a grand jury investigation targeting, among other things, his handling of the “redevelopment” of the Big Four. That a high ranking HUD official under the leadership of Secretary Shaun Donovan recently said she would like Iberville demolished indicates the presence of an insensitivity to the needs of low income residents on par with that of Jackson’s HUD. That sort of insensitivity suggests a willingness to sacrifice human need in order to satisfy human greed.

We call on federal, state and local authorities to:

*Repair And Reopen All Iberville Apartments*

*Fund And Reopen The Iberville Community Center*

*Rehire All Laid Off HANO Maintenance Workers*

Voice your support for Iberville to the officials below:

Housing Authority of New Orleans N.O. 504-670-3300
Department of HUD/Fred Tombar D.C. 202-402-6022

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao N.O. 504-483-2325
Washington D.C. 202-225-6636
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu N.O. 504-589-2427
Washington D.C. 202-224-5824

Report and Analysis of Protest Against Kurt Weigle and the DDD

2009-11-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 14, about 80 people protested at the Iberville Development and the home of Kurt Weigle, the chief of the Downtown Development District (DDD). The protesters rallied for the repair and reopening of the more than 200 now closed apartments at the Iberville Housing Development, the removal of the DDD's Henry Charlot from the Iberville Advisory Council, and the prompt establishment of a public works program--direct government employment without contractors-- that pays prevailing wage for all who need it, be it immigrant or native workers.

The action began 4 PM at the Iberville Public Housing Development on Basin Street. Here residents and other local supporters of public housing joined forces with dozens of solidarity supporters who were in town for the annual meeting of the Association for Humanist Sociology (AHS). Many of the AHS attendees are involved in similar struggles, from Connecticut to California, in their own communities and therefore the action was an important way of building a national solidarity network and movement in defense of public services. Public housing residents and non-resident supporters of public housing addressed the rally. The speakers emphasized the human stake involved in the defense of public housing. These speakers included Eloise Williams of Survive, Iberville residents Cary Reynolds and Cody Marshall, and Jay Arena of C3/Hands Off Iberville. After these speakers finished Cary led the protesters on a tour of the development. The contingent stopped at the Iberville Court to listen to Mike, a resident, give insights concerning the ongoing battle to defend the neighborhood.

Following the tour protesters travelled to the uptown residence of Kurt Weigle, located at 4516 Perreir Street, in a leafy and comfortable uptown neighborhood, where the protest reconvened in the public space just in front of the DDD director’s home. About seventy people were part of this action. While Weigle refused to leave his bunker despite repeated requests, protesters conveyed their message, chanting loudly against gentrification, ethnic cleansing, the DDD and for public housing. Some protesters held signs denouncing Weigle and company for attacking public housing and Charity hospital. Sam Jackson of MayDay New Orleans, George Mahdi of MERGE, Alex Glustrom of the Tulane Branch of the Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital and Mike Howells for C3/Hands Off Iberville spoke to the rally in front of Weigle's home. Speakers noted that while Weigle is lobbying for the purge of the residents of Iberville from their homes nobody is conspiring to drive him out of his home. Howells in particular emphasized that if Weigle wants to drive people out of their own homes, then the public housing movement had the right, indeed the responsibility, to go to his home to show our opposition and make him see and feel the pain he is inflicting. He should not be able to rest comfortably in his home as he works to drive families from their own dwellings in his drive for profits.

The protest actions on Saturday highlighted that the struggle to defend public housing is still very much a part of the fight back to defend public services in New Orleans. These actions also send the message to the real estate sharks that Iberville will not be easy pickens.

The event was also a milestone since it represented the first time--beyond speaking out at their board meetings--that the Downtown Development District, and its leading operatives, had been targeted publically for their central role in pushing gentrification, privatization and ethnic cleansing. That is, a leading contingent of the local anti-racist, working class movement for the first time organized a demonstration against the DDD, a key agency for managing and promoting the affairs and interests of the New Orleans’ real estate, tourist and banking capitalists.
Weigle and the DDD do not like to be placed under public scrutiny. They prefer to work in the shadows, to fly under the radar, as they push their corporate agenda, with two prime goals being the destruction of Iberville and ethnic cleansing one side, and the permanent closure of Charity Hospital and the steamrolling of a mid-city neighborhood through the construction of the LSU hospital, on the other. Thus, Weigle and company are able to work full time on these and other attacks on working class people and communities in our city, but with little or no public scrutiny. This was the intention when the DDD was set up in the mid-1970s by the state legislature and at the behest of real estate and banking interests, such as Joseph Canizaro. Instead of going through the city council, which with all its problems provides some level of public input and scrutiny over ‘redevelopment’ schemes, the capitalists were able to do an end –run around these bourgeois democratic institutions. With the DDD’s creation they had their own agency, funded through a special taxing district, where their chief lieutenants, like Weigle, could push their agenda full time, unfettered by the constraints of “quaint” forms of local democracy, like elected city councils. Therefore, rather than all tax dollars from corporate businesses in the downtown business district going into a central fund where we could decide if they would be spent on housing, education or health care, for example, the capitalists have arranged for these tax dollars to be routed to a fund to destroy what we have left of Public education , housing and welfare!

The DDD action, beyond defending Iberville, was an important step in challenging a key anti-democratic foundation of capitalist rule in this city. Sadly, some organizations provided various excuses for why they could not confront the DDD. If we are to advance the movement for justice in New Orleans and across the country, we will have to quit hiding behind excuses and begin challenging the DDD and their various incarnations.

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

2009-11-16T05:36:00.000-08:00

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

Letter to the Iberville Advisory Committee

2009-11-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

November 9, 2009
Ms. Laura Tuggle and Ms. Lillie Walker-Woodfork
Members of the Iberville Advisory Committee

Dear Ms. Tuggle and Ms. Walker-Woodfork,

C3/Hands Off Iberville wrote to both of you in August of 2009 presenting our concerns about the so-called ‘Iberville Advisory Committee’, whose members were handpicked by the Housing Authority of New Orleans' top lawyer, Wayne Woods. In our earlier communications, we expressed outrage at the committee appointing an operative from the Downtown Development Distract--an agency which has a long, clearly articulated agenda of demolishing Iberville--as the chair! We demanded that the committee expel the DDD representative, but you have refused to even discuss this issue, let alone take any action.

Second, we asked that all meetings of the ‘Iberville Advisory Committee’ follow the state sunshine laws and open deliberations to the public. Yet, here again, we have had no response, as your outfit, led by Henry Charlot of the DDD, continue to meet behind closed doors. Why the need for secrecy? What are you hiding?

Third, we have received no response in regard to our inquiry about whether HANO is placing new residents in vacated apartments. Are they being filled, or purposely being left empty? We know that city councilwomen Stacy Head has openly advocated for not allowing apartments to be filled by families that had previously been living in other public housing developments, which she helped demolish. Does the committee, including Henry Charlot of the DDD, share this same cruel and inhumane position as Ms. Head?

Ongoing developments lead us to believe that HANO, with support of developers, is pursing the ‘St. Thomas strategy’ to facilitate demolition. That is, the strategy, as was done at the former St Thomas development, is to remove as many current residents as possible from Iberville before they try to demolish. We see this clearly in the ‘vouchering out' plan HANO is pursing, with section 8 vouchers being issued to current Iberville residents. We see this plan expressed in the continued illegal and immoral use of one-strike provisions to throw families out of their apartments. A recent egregious case is that of Laura Smith who HANO evicted for something her son was accused of doing off the grounds of Iberville. Furthermore her son was not even living with her! Yet, HANO went ahead and evicted Ms Smith. These are some of the cruel, gangster-like tactics being employed by HANO to depopulate the development. What is the committee doing in the face of these injustices?

The Iberville Advisory Committee, by their silence, is complicit in this demolition strategy. But we at Hands Off Iberville, and others in the community, refuse to remain silent We will be rallying on November 14, at 4 Pm at the Iberville development to demand the following:

1. Kurt Weigle remove his outfit from the IAC. 2. All the units at Iberville remain as Public Housing. 3. The Federal government immediately implement a massive, national Public Works plan to rebuild and expand Public Housing and the Public Sector.

We invite you and other members of the Iberville Advisory Committee to attend this event and finally address the community’s concerns.

Jay Arena
for hands Off Iberville

Hands Off Iberville!!--Novemeber 14 action

2009-10-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

“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.”
Downtown Development District head Kurt Weigle on the ‘benefits’ of demolishing the
Iberville Public Housing development

Tell Kurt Weigle and the
Downtown Development District:

HANDS OFF IBERVILLE!!!!

Downtown Development District (DDD) representative Henry Charlot must resign as a member and chair of the Iberville Advisory Committee. Unbelievably, the Housing Authority of New Orleans’ top lawyer, Wayne Woods, appointed a representative of the DDD to the Iberville Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC is commissioned with developing a plan for the future of the development. Yet, the DDD, and its director Kurt Weigle, have long made clear they want to eliminate Iberville as a Public Housing development. Not only is Henry Charlot, the DDD representative, on the IAC, but he is the chair!! Nevertheless, Wayne Woods rejected C3/Hands Off Iberville’s participation since “we have an agenda”. Yes we do: To defend Iberville as Public Housing. Join us as we fight for this people’s agenda, by demanding that 1. Kurt Weigle remove his outfit from the IAC. 2. All the units at Iberville remain as Public Housing. 3. The Federal government immediately implement a massive, national Public Works plan to rebuild and expand Public Housing and the Public Sector.

Saturday, November 14
4 PM--Gather at corner of Basin and St. Louis Streets
4:30 PM--Caravan to Kurt Weigle’s House, 4516 Perrier St.

Sponsors: C3/Hands Off Iberville; MayDay New Orleans. For more info call 504-587-0080 or 504-520-9521

Upcoming Actions

2009-10-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Upcoming Actions In The Quest For More Affordable Housing & Living Wage Jobs

Below is a list of upcoming actions that should be of interest to everyone who is ready to stand for the working class in New Orleans and elsewhere. You are encouraged to set aside time to participate in these actions that really can help make a better New Orleans and a better world. Remember silence only perpetuates on obviously unacceptable status quo. Workers of the World Unite.

Thurs. October 22nd: C3/Hands Off Iberville Weekly Meeting. Do you support challenging the presence of supporters of the demolition of the Iberville Development on the Iberville Advisory Committee? If yes, then come. Do you support the increasingly powerful grass roots movement that is ratcheting up the pressure on HUD funded contractors to hire hundreds more low income New Orleanians in accordance with municipal and federal law. If yes, then come. The meeting will convene 7pm in St. Jude’s Basin Hall at 410 Basin Street.

Thurs. October 29th: C3/Hands Off Iberville Weekly Meeting. The meeting will convene 7pm in St. Jude’s Basin Hall.

Thurs. October 30th: United Nations Townhall Meeting On Adequate Housing. U.N. Special Rapporteur on Housing Raquel Rolnik wants to hear from New Orleanians about their housing situation. The Townhall will convene 6:30p.m. in St. Bernard Community Church at 3938 St. Bernard St. Bernard Avenue.

Thurs. November 5th:Potluck Dinner and Townhall Meeting: Winning The Fight For A National Public Works Program In This Time Of Economic Crisis. This meeting will convene 7pm in St. Jude’s Basin Hall at 410 Basin Street. Speakers will give brief presentations concerning why we need a national public works program and what we can do to make it a reality. The presentations will be followed by a question and answer session. People are encouraged to contribute to the potluck though this is not a requirement for being able to attend the meeting.

For additional information call Mike at 587-0080

Charlot, Weigle and the DDD--quit evading the issues

2009-10-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

This was sent by emial on August 28, 2009 to Henry Charlot of the Downtown Development District

Mr. Charlot:

You, and others from the so-called ‘Iberville Advisory Committee’ (IAC), have still not answered the community’s questions presented in the last communiqué. Please come clean and address them. Quit making excuses about not answering them. Of course you can find time to do PR, damage control for DDD head Kurt Weigle, but can’t find the time to answer the vital questions the community has. We already know where the DDD stands with regard to Iberville. The stance is made clear by the outfits statement of purpose, placed on every email from Weigle and others:“The DDD drives the development of Downtown New Orleans and is a catalyst for a prosperous, stimulating and innovative heart of the Crescent City” . A ‘prosperous stimulating environment’, in the heart of the city, means driving Iberville and the poor from it. That is, and continues to be the DDD’s policy, and Weigle and others have made that perfectly clear in statements made in public venues, and, especially, in private, back door meetings. No amount of PR work can change that.

Thus, again , stop with the PR work for Weigle, and answer the questions. Here they are again to refresh your memory:

· HANO and HUD, as part of their strategy of reducing the number of residents at Iberville, and thus facilitating demolition, have been awarding section 8 certificates to current Iberville residents. Yet, we have not heard if they are placing new families in the these vacated apartments

We would like to know one, what is HANO’s official policy with regard to these vacated apartments, an issue which the Committee has inquired about.

· Second, we want to know what is the position of the committee with regard to this crucial issue? If there is not unanimity on filling vacant apartments, we would like to know what members of the committee support keeping them empty.

· Third, we want to know when you are going to step down as head of the IAC and as a member? As you ha explained in your last email, the IAC has plenty of people that have worked with the community that could lead it, rather than those from the DDD who specialize in driving out the poor.

· Fourth, we want made public all the communications that Kurt Weigle and other DDD operatives have had with national, state and local officials and entities, developers, such as Michael Valentino, and other parties with regard to Iberville and any plans for its redevelopment.

Jay Arena for C3/Hands Off Iberville

C3/Hands Off Iberville demands transparency from the IAC--8/19/09

2009-10-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Henry Charlot, Jr.
Director of Economic Development and Member of the Steering Committee of the Iberville Advisory Committee
Downtown Development District,
210 St . Charles Ave, Suite 3912
New Orleans, La.
August 19, 2009

Dear Mr. Charlot,

On behalf of C3/Hands Off Iberville, I am asking you, as an official member of the HANO-appointed “Iberville Advisory Committee”—indeed, of its influential steering committee--to please let C3/Hands Off Iberville and the rest of the community know when this secretive group will begin holding open meetings. We are very concerned that this group, empowered to create a plan for the future of Iberville, includes, frankly, you, the Economic Development Director of the Downtown Development District. We know what you, and the CEO of the Downtown Development District, Kurt Weigle, mean by “economic development” when it comes to Iberville—its destruction as public housing, and mass removal—ethnic and class cleansing—of the bulk of its residents. You and Mr. Weigle have long made it clear that Iberville, from your perspective, is a “drag” on “development”, and that the “renaissance” of Canal Street that you and your corporate and city hall backers envision requires its removal.

We are especially concerned that HANO legal counsel Wayne Woods, who was well aware of you and your outfits long history of opposition to Iberville, nonetheless appointed you to the Iberville Advisory Committee. At the same time Woods refused to appoint a representative from C3/Hands Off Iberville to the Committee since, we, quote, “have an agenda”! It seems the real issue is not that C3/Hands Off Iberville has an agenda, but that Wayne Woods has the same agenda as you, the destruction of the Iberville.

Although we reject the legitimacy of this fraudulent outfit, we do want to keep an eye on its nefarious activities. Thus, again, I am asking that you and the Iberville Advisory Committee come out of the closet and begin showing some transparency by holding open meetings.

Jay Arena
For C3/Hands off Iberville

I can be contacted at 504-520-9521 to inform us about when the committee will hold a open meeting.

Letter to the Iberville Advisory Committee

2009-10-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sent on August 25, 2009

Dear Ms. Tuggle and Ms. Walker-Woodfork,

The head of the Iberville Advisory Committee, Henry Charlot Jr., does not seem to respond to questions from the community, which is par for the course for operatives from the Downtown Development District. Thus, Ms Tuggle and Ms. Walker-Woodfork, because of this intransigence, I am directing these questions from C3/Hands Off Iberville to both of you.

HANO and HUD, as part of their strategy of reducing the number of residents at Iberville, and thus facilitating demolition, have been awarding section 8 certificates to current Iberville residents. Yet, we have not heard if they are placing new families in the these vacated apartments

We would like to know one, what is HANO’s official policy with regard to these vacated apartments, an issue which the Committee has inquired about.

Second, we want to know what is the position of the committee with regard to this crucial issue? If there is not unanimity on filling vacant apartments, we would like to know what members of the committee support keeping them empty.

We await your response.

Jay Arena for C3/Hands Off Iberville

C3/Hands Off Iberville Demands that the Foxes Quit Guarding the Chicken House

2009-10-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

C3/Hands Off Iberville calls on Henry Charlot Jr. to immediately resign as both the chair, and as a member, of the Iberville Advisory Committee. Indeed, no-one from the Downtown Development District (DDD) should be part of any committee assigned with developing a plan for Iberville.

Mr. Charlot rejects this position, and says that C3/Hands Off Iberville should have, quote, “an open mind” with regard to DDD’s intentions. Well, our monitoring of what’s been “on the mind” of Mr. Charlot’s boss, Kurt Weigle, the head of the DDD, when it comes to Iberville confirms our weariness. 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.” He told Edwards 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, who has a bachelors degree in “Violent Urban Crime”, was enthused about how much [white?] people would 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.”

Mr. Charlot, we know what the agenda of the DDD is--Urban Violence, just what your boss at the DDD studied and is an expert in. You, Weigle and the wealthy racist interests you represent want the removal of the Iberville community —a very brutal, violent act, in whatever form it takes. Your group, and maximum leader, have been explicit about this agenda. You have worked tirelessly over the years, including forming alliances with hotel developer Michael Valentino, architect Ray Manning, and sell-out tenant leader Kim Paul as part of the so-called ‘Iberville Rebirth Coalition.’ Now, with the help of HANO’s Wayne Woods and Diane Johnson, you are working on another scheme. We say end the charade and get your Hands Off Iberville! Furthermore, you have no business dealing with Iberville since it is not even within DDDs jurisdiction, which only covers the area between Claiborne Avenue, Iberville Street, the Mississippi River and the Pontchartrain Expressway.

While demanding Charlot’s and the DDD’s immediate expulsion from the Iberville Advisory Committee, we are also very concerned by the actions of the rest of the members. It is very disconcerting that the other member of the committee would allow Charlot and the DDD to head the initiative. We call on the rest of the committee to reverse course, and expel Charlot and the DDD. Furthermore, we call on other pro-working class, anti-racist forces to also join us in supporting our demands against the DDD. In addition, we call on you to support our demands for defending ALL the public housing units at Iberville through a massive repair and investment plan, and one that guarantees jobs for all residents and all those that need jobs, through a massive public works program and enforcement of section 3 of the 1968 Housing Act and other affirmative action programs.

Send your endorsement of these demands to jarenanynola@gmail.com. You are also invited to attend C3/Hands Off Iberville’s weekly Thursday meeting, 7 PM at 410 Basin St.
For more information call 504-520-9521 or 504-587-0080,