Right...but not in Lower Mid-City

"Signposts in a Strange Land" features a number of New Orleans writers discussing the city in the wake of Katrina.  While they make some excellent points, the destruction of Lower Mid-City stands out as a key - and strangely unmentioned - exception to a number of the broad positive themes:

Joseph J. DeSalvo: New Orleans still has its architectural heritage while cities like Houston and Dallas have destroyed theirs in the name of modernization and progress. What those those cities have now is a complete lack of charming visual symbols of their history. They have only uninteresting concrete monuments to making money.

Sure, but even large swaths of a National Register Historic District here in New Orleans are being razed as we speak.

It has been the strength of these neighborhoods and the resilience of their people that have fueled a remarkable recovery in the wake of the worst man-made disaster in American history, Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans endured a terrible ordeal as a result of Katrina. Most cities would not have been able to cope as New Orleanians have coped because they do not possess the backbone of strong neighborhoods, each with its unique cultural identity and each with a special pride of neighborhood that creates strong bonds between the residents.

Great - but when the New Orleans City Council passes an ordinance that bars a neighborhood from even making repairs to homes as it struggles to recover from Katrina...it's difficult for organic recovery to take hold.  Government, in Lower Mid-City, created a self-fulfilling prophecy of neighborhood failure to serve its purposes.

Good News

Kudos to Mayor Mitch Landrieu, whose office released the following press release late today:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 23, 2010

Contact:

Ryan Berni

504-658-4992 (office)

504-621-9504 (cell)

STATEMENT BY MAYOR LANDRIEU ON VA FOOTPRINT DEMOLITIONS

Mayor Mitch Landrieu released the following statement on the demolition of properties in the VA footprint: 

“Today, I have demanded that the state halt demolitions of historic properties in the VA footprint. They have agreed to temporarily halt demolitions of properties identified as historic by the State Historic Preservation Office.

“We have been, for some time, working on a process to move and bring back into commerce many of the homes in the neighborhood. It is possible to move these homes expeditiously and keep the VA hospital project on track.

“It is a huge undertaking and one that we are committed to getting done with the help of the state, its contractors, non-profit groups and other partners.”

###

It's good to see that the state, now that eight historic homes have been destroyed, has agreed to temporarily halt demolitions of properties in the VA Footprint identified as historic by the SHPO.

I'm curious, though, to see what that means.  One list of houses put out earlier by SHPO contained only single-story houses (those eligible for possible moving) - not all houses that were deemed structures contributing to the Mid-City National Register Historic District (a much larger list than the 40 or so on the SHPO list).  I trust that Landrieu is referring to the latter, more expansive list.

While I'd rather see the neighborhood left in place, I would prefer to see as many houses moved to other locations in Mid-City in the end if there is absolutely no way to avoid having the VA medical complex built in its inappropriate location.  This move by the Mayor, working in tandem with his 45-day review of the LSU site design, gives me hope that the city will end up with something at least marginally better than what would have otherwise emerged from the Nagin-era plans.

A Different Angle

At Wally Fest, I had a chance to meet a number of people who work for The Phoenix of New Orleans, or PNOLA, a rebuilding organization that channels volunteers and resources to low income homeowners in New Orleans.

Based on Broad Street just blocks from the VA footprint, the organization focused specifically on rebuilding Lower Mid-City since Hurricane Katrina.

It was interesting to hear about Lower Mid-City from a different perspective.  As individuals who had invested a great deal in bringing the neighborhood back after the storm, they had built up an intimate knowledge of the people and structures that comprise The Footprint.

I also learned that the building and repair moratorium for area, instituted in December 2007, did in fact expire at some point.  I noticed that a building, an old store of some sort, directly across from Outer Banks Bar at the intersection of Palmyra and S. Tonti had very recently been spruced up and painted a bright salmon pink.  It's not clear to me whether the owner is looking to use the building, or if he or she is merely taking advantage of the lack of moratorium to obtain a higher buyout price from the state when it comes down to expropriation.  Here's a Google Streetview look at the building . 

As a side note, it's interesting to peruse the Streetview images inside the footprint, as they all come from a time closer to Katrina where damage is much more extensive than one would see today.

Since I mentioned the state buyout, though, I should note...several properties in the VA footprint have been successfully purchased by the state in the past month.  I hope to do a more extensive post focusing on those purchases and what they mean soon.

The Paradox of the Moratorium

One of the notions in play in the debate over the VA/LSU Hospitals is the nature of the footprint for the two hospitals.  It's easy to dismiss the Lower Mid-City neighborhood that would be eliminated as hopelessly "blighted," unsighly, and beyond saving.

While there are a number of structures in the footprint in sore need of repair, it's worth looking at why some of them are still in a sad way over four years after Katrina.  In short, the City Council of New Orleans prevented the area from ever getting better, even if individuals sought to make it happen, as outlined in this piece from August 2008:

"People think this is a run-down area that is not recovering, but we have homeowners who want to renovate," says resident Bobbi Rogers. "They can't because there is a city moratorium on issuing building or demolition permits until a final decision is made." (New Orleans City Council Resolution 22944, dated December 6, 2007, prohibits the issuance of most demolition, building, renovation, or repair permits within the LSU-VA footprint for a period of one year or until the implementation of permanent land use measures.)

The idea of a government body barring a property owner from making lawful repairs to his or her home, rental property, or business for one year is disconcerting.  The 2007 footprint moratorium trapped the neighborhood in downtrodden state, creating the self-fulfilling prophecy of a neighborhood that could not be saved from its own decay.

It's unclear to me whether the moratorium, having passed its "one year" benchmark, technically remains in force given the perpetual uncertainty as to what could be conceived as "the implementation of permanent land use measures," i.e., finalization of hospital plans and the commencement of eminent domain and demolition processes.  Some properties within the footprint do appear to have been spruced up since December 2008, from what I can tell, but it's unclear whether cosmetic changes fall outside the moratorium's mandate.  It's something I plan to look into, and if you have any information as to the status of the moratorium - is it still being enforced by city permitting agencies? - please pass it along.

Here's the text of the ordinance - which ultimately passed unanimously on December 20, 2007, not on December 6, 2007 (the date it was originally intended to be addressed by the City Council):

CAL. NO. 26,814 - BY: COUNCILMEMBER HEAD (BY REQUEST) - An Ordinance to establish a temporary moratorium, to be entitled the Regional Medical District Redevelopment Moratorium, on the issuance of any building permits for construction, renovations, repairs, or for demolition of buildings in the area bounded by the west side of S. Claiborne Avenue between Tulane Avenue and Canal Street, the south side of Canal Street between S. Claiborne Avenue and S. Rocheblave Street, the east side of S. Rocheblave Street between Canal Street and Tulane Avenue, and the north side of Tulane Avenue between S. Rocheblave Street and S. Claiborne Avenue, excluding Square 556; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. This moratorium shall not apply to permits needed for stabilization of properties that have been determined to be in danger of collapse and to projects previously approved by City Council ordinance or resolution of the Board of Zoning Adjustments. This ordinance shall supersede the provisions of Section 26-3 thru 26-7 of the Code of the City of New Orleans temporarily reassigning demolition review of properties within the above reference boundaries from the Housing Conservation District Review Committee (HCDRC) to the City Council, in compliance with the review and waiver standards set forth herein.

Note that the record above, from the Council ordinance website, does not appear to mention a date.  Even if the moratorium has been lifted at this point, it nonetheless stands as yet another unfortunate step in the hospitals saga - a regrettable and unnecessary burden on the residents of Lower Mid-City.