Forced Out

Students at Priestly Charter School will have to switch locations - from their classic 1879 school building in the LSU Footprint - in the middle of the school year:

The Orleans Parish School Board told Priestley school officials earlier this week that the school will move into a group of modular buildings at 4300 Almonaster Ave. over the Christmas holidays. Though the time limit may be extended, Priestley may use these modulars for up to three years, Priestley board President Dennis McSeveney said.

It warms the heart.

“My hope is that we can stay in this facility for at least three years while we continue our quest for a permanent site, preferably in a more historic, architecturally significant area of the city that can serve as a ‘laboratory’ for our students,” McSeveney said.

Auf Wiedersehen: The Last Night at Deutsches Haus

"We're leaving if they take our house."

A story in today's Times-Picayune highlights the sad absurdity that passes for reality in The Footprint:

Louisiana Recovery Authority data shows that Road Home paid owners of 41 properties at least $3.2 million and perhaps more than $3.4 million to rebuild in the neighborhood bounded by Tulane Avenue, South Rocheblave Street, Canal Street and South Claiborne Avenue.

Those properties are among the 432 residential, commercial and vacant parcels the state is in the process of expropriating to make way for the hospitals. The state plans to build the 424-bed successor to Charity Hospital between Galvez Street and Claiborne Avenue. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs plans a 200-bed facility across Galvez. It's unknown at this point how much the buyouts will cost.

Homeowners suffered the devastation of Katrina and were intrepid enough to return and rebuild with state and federal assistance...only to have the city, state, and federal governments turn around a few years later and force them out of their homes, spending more government dollars to acquire the same properties. 

I can understand how someone faced with that prospect would feel betrayed enough to leave the city for good, as Bobbi Rogers, a resident, expressed in the quote at the top of this post.