The Sound and the Fury

Ms. Judith rails against LSU and in support of reopening Charity.

Last evening, Jacobs Engineering held a session at City Hall on adaptive reuse of the existing Charity Hospital building, as well as a number of outbuildings nearby.  A crowd of just about 30 people showed up for the event.


While three areas of potential reuse were on the table, the night's focus turned to something else, the elephant in the room: a desire by the majority of those present to reuse Charity Hospital...as Charity Hospital.  And it was very clearly a passionate desire on the part of some residents, let me tell you.  The vigor of a few pro-Charity speakers crossed the line into unhelpful territory.  At times, the session turned into an awkward confrontation between representatives of LSU, who were on hand, and the concerned residents.

The presentations by a number of speakers, such as Ms. Cecile Tebo and Mr. Robert Demarais Sullivan, however, were especially eloquent. 

Mr. Mike Rouchelle's remarks won the prize in the concise category.  His analogy hit the nail on the head.  Noting LSU's strength in football, he compared rebuilding a medical care facility in Charity to starting from the 50 yard-line instead of from a team's own 20 yard-line, which is what is happening in the Lower Mid-City with the push to build in the LSU Footprint.