1925 Cleveland Avenue, shown above after salvage was underway, was demolished on Friday in the LSU Footprint.
The man who lived in the house, who owned a dog, as I recall. "Ooh, he did NOT want to leave," a neighbor noted from across the street, looking on as a crew worked to pull out an ornate metal fencepost.
She said she's leaving the city since she has to move. She's moving to the country.
This morning, around the corner, the beautiful shotgun at 218 S. Prieur was demolished.
Its demolition demonstrates concretely that the State of Lousiana, and the Division of Facilities and Planning in particular, really have no intention of participating in a house moving effort, despite what Jerry Jones has said on multiple occasions. It also illustrates an inability of the City of New Orleans to extract positives from the situation.
A private party recently reached out to offer to take eight houses off the site. When I mentioned this to someone on site, I was told that it would likely not be possible because there are "time issues." Time issues? The only time issues are those self-imposed by the state and its contractors because they have to continue demolishing buildings to make the complete razing of the site seem inevitable before anyone can stop them with the pile of nagging concerns that exist - like inadequate financing to build the proposed hospital.
Over a dozen buildings, many of them contributing historic properties, have been demolished in the LSU Footprint to date.
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