Sunday, November 21, 2010

Times-Picayune Focuses on VA Footprint

Two piece appeared in the Sunday paper.  One centers on Outer Banks Bar and includes a great night photo of the lonely bar standing its ground in the rain (along the lines of photos you've seen here).

Another, by Bill Barrow, details the current state of VA Footprint land acquisition and house moving prospects in the LSU Footprint.  Importantly, Barrow's piece pins down the details of the basic outline of events I presented to you here a few days ago: essentially, the state asked to use funds to move houses on the LSU Footprint, and the City initially said no, only giving in "after several weeks of requests."

Other factoids:

- Builders of Hope hopes to move at least 81 homes off the VA Footprint by Dec. 1

 - The City of New Orleans will not meet its November 30 deadline for clearing the VA Hospital site to turn over to the VA because the state has not acquired all 194 properties.  Originally, I believe the arrangement between the City and the VA called for steep penalties for any delay beyond that date.  I'm interested to see what the means in light of the fact that there's been no replacement, seemingly, for the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement between the City and the State related to site preparation.

- Jerry Jones with the State of Louisiana "praised the Builders of Hope program and said he hopes to replicate it."  That's good news for the LSU Footprint.  I think that Builders of Hope, based on their performance in the VA Footprint, could extract over 30 properties from the LSU Footprint (not all full properties in each case, but usable portions of some larger homes as well).

 - From the Outer Banks piece, we learn that as of October 25, the date of the state's most recent acquisition report, 30 parcels in the VA Footprint were still in the hands of their owners (which seems high to me - and has likely changed as least a bit - although that timeline falls squarely within the CDC computer conveyance crisis).

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