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

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

Report and Analysis of Protest Against Kurt Weigle and the DDD

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.

Hands Off Iberville!!--Novemeber 14 action

“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

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

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

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

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

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,