Jones: "we will be dealing with expropriation lawsuits for years"

Well, there you have it.

Yet another benefit of pushing a hospitals into a heavily populated historic district.

The Lens tweeted last night's Special Committee on Hurricane Recovery held in City Council Chambers.  The state's Office of Facilities and Planning Control presented on the UMC - Jerry Jones flanked by Jim McNamara of BioDistrict New Orleans and Fred Cerise of LSU.

There were some other great quotes.  Like "there have been several business plans."

Kudos to City Council Member Kristin Gisleson Palmer for bringing a bit of skepticism to the table - the Times-Picayune certainly didn't.

Nobody has asked who the "community leaders" were that the Times-Pic referred to...a trio of UMC cheerleaders, including former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, saying they were from "Dryades Street Public Policy Group."  What is this group?  I'm not sure.  A simple Google search reveals this:

Palmer brought up a policy letter from the NEWCITY partnership that questioned multiple aspects of the UMC design and site prep situation - and proposed improvements.  Jones said he never received the letter from the large coalition of community groups.  Palmer then read from an email showing that Jones and other top state officials had in fact been sent the letter.

Overall, Jones' presentation was yet another manifestation of the state's attempt to bluff its way forward.  Act bully, talk big, and everyone else will follow.

It's unfortunate that the project hasn't been built at this point, the delay in returning healthcare is an embarrassment.  But every delay, every hurdle can ultimately be traced back to the horrible site selection for both VA and UMC  - and the refusal to go back into Charity.  All of it.

And there are still positives to be extracted from this blunder.

More on Senator Vitter's Criticisms - and the "study"

Both yesterday's Times-Picayune article and the evening AP article on Senator Vitter's critique of the proposed UMC Hospital introduce an interesting new twist into the controversy.  It's the claim from the state and UMC that there's a study underway that might result in the project being scaled back:

"Jindal's Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater said Monday the HUD-backed financing is one of several options the state is pursuing. He said the board appointed to oversee the new medical center's development is awaiting a study that could scale back the project."

That's news to me.  As of the Thursday UMC Board Meeting, there was no discussion of a study on scaling back the project.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was not a peep about moving in such a direction.

Instead, Jerry Jones from the state insisted repeatedly and very overtly that the state was in no way going to build a smaller hospital complex.  I can't tell you how clear he made that point.  I remember because I was skeptical of the claim every time it was made.

If the project is going to be scaled back, it should be put in the existing Charity Hospital shell as Vitter rightly suggests.

And there's also the nagging problem of the expropriations involved in acquiring the proposed UMC site.  If the state hasn't really needed all of the 37-acres in the site...then the taking of many properties was arguably not in furtherance of a public purpose.

At any rate, these concerns and developments are all the more reason to show up at the City Planning Commission hearing today at 1:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers.  Show up and speak against the state's premature attempt to revoke all the streets in the UMC Footprint.

Here's a solid new editorial at The Lens explaining why the street revocation would be unwise.

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).

State of Louisiana Threatens Remaining VA Footprint Residents

While it's couched in concerned language and talk of outreach and support, the State Division of Administration's release today serves a darker underlying purpose as an unspoken warning shot across the bows of remaining residents and especially the 12 properties that it has not yet acquired or expropriated in the VA Footprint.

The real message: we're coming, we're going to make it impossible for you to persist even if you still own your property.

No matter how much outreach the state does or what it provides upon request later on, the bottom line is still very clear.  People are still living lawfully in the VA Footprint and the state is going in to disrupt basic, essential services.  An unelected state agency is more concerned with completing a development project for a federal agency than it is about the state's citizens.

State of Louisiana

Division of Administration

Office of the Commissioner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2010

Contact: Michael DiResto, 225-342-7158

State to begin utilities infrastructure removal for VA hospital site preparation

BATON ROUGE – The state Office of Facility Planning today began outreach efforts to the remaining residents in the new VA Hospital footprint in the Mid-City area of New Orleans, informing them in advance that removal of utilities infrastructure will begin next week and that all utilities – which includes electricity, gas, water, sewerage, and phone service – will be disconnected by Friday, October 28.

After that date, any residents in the footprint of the VA Hospital will be provided access to temporary utilities service, which will be provided upon request. While the state has acquired 182, or 94 percent, of the 194 properties in the hospital footprint boundaries between Tulane to Canal and Galvez to Rocheblave, state officials anticipate that the utilities disconnection may impact about half a dozen properties.

“We are committed to fulfilling our agreement with the Veterans Administration to provide them the hospital site by November 30, which entails removal of all utilities infrastructure, clearing all properties, and having the land prepared for construction by that time,” said Jerry Jones, Assistant Commissioner of Administration.

Jones said that removal of all utilities infrastructure in the area is expected to take up to six weeks.

“At the same time, I want to make sure we fully inform everyone, so we are going door to door in the hospital footprint to tell people about our plans to disconnect utilities. We are particularly focused on people who still have legal rights to be in the footprint area. We are doing everything we can to help them with relocation and housing assistance. We have also made arrangements to provide temporary utilities services should some people decide to remain in the area beyond October 28th.”

ADDED: For the record, I do recognize that this press release may help with the effort of getting notice out to residents, even if I do disagree deeply with the timeline and approach.  My comments may seem rather bitter, but I would encourage you to step into the shoes of one of the residents: how would you like it if this happened to you and your home?  That's always been a touchstone for me in this entire affair.   

Many proponents of the hospitals project like to portray anyone who questions its advance as an obstructionist.  That's an unfair framing of the issue.  The abysmal site selection created the need for people to be obstructionists just to ensure that their rights and the rights of others weren't violated.