Really?

James P. McNamara, who heads the Greater New Orleans Biosciences Economic Development District had a message for the project's critics.


"It ends the debate. We now know where the hospital is going to be located," he proclaimed. "It's done. It's finished."

It does?  We do?  It is?  Since when?


I think the debate now continues even more robustly than before.  

As I stated earlier today, the federal arbitration win by the State of Louisiana can be read as a victory for LSU and locating the "joint" medical centers in Lower Mid-City.  It's somewhat more feasible because of the influx of cash, although not anywhere nearly fully feasible.  But at the same time it begs the question even more loudly: why not just take the windfall and, in conjunction with other funds "in the pot," get going on revitalizing Charity itself?  Under that approach, work could begin tomorrow.

There's a way forward that doesn't require the use of nearly as much expropriation as the current plan will require.  And LSU and various parties seem hellbent on avoiding that path.