Friday, February 11, 2011
Statements on today's moving of the S.W. Green Mansion
Here are a few takes on today's moves. If you have any others, please send them along or put them in the comments:
"I'm absolutely thrilled...it's such a spectacular vision...but it's bittersweet, because I still feel horrible that so many people lost their homes."
- Architect Kenneth Bryant, the prime mover in the effort to recognize and save the S.W. Green Mansion
"The National Trust for Historic Preservation is pleased to see the S.W. Green Mansion being moved today. Saving this important part of New Orleans' African American heritage is a positive development, and the National Trust is glad to have been part of the process that led to the recognition of this overlooked historic building. It is encouraging to know that future generations will be able to learn about S.W. Green's accomplishments and the societal hurdles he faced because the home he built is an integral part of his story. We applaud the fact that the S.W. Green Mansion is being saved, and we trust that the structure will be adequately secured as it awaits the final move to its destination lots across the street from the staging site."
- National Trust for Historic Preservation
"I do not recall the Smith W. Green House being mentioned at any time during the 106 review. Neither do I recall any member of the SHPO ever speaking at any of the 106 meetings.
Had it not been for concerned and engaged citizens and writers who called attention to this magnificent structure, the Smith W. Green house would have been bulldozed without comment just like its neighbors. It is ONLY because of citizen engagement that the SHPO was put in a position where the historic merits of the structure could no longer be conveniently ignored or filtered through contractors."
- Anonymous, a long time observer of the LSU/VA hospitals project
"I'm absolutely thrilled...it's such a spectacular vision...but it's bittersweet, because I still feel horrible that so many people lost their homes."
- Architect Kenneth Bryant, the prime mover in the effort to recognize and save the S.W. Green Mansion
"The National Trust for Historic Preservation is pleased to see the S.W. Green Mansion being moved today. Saving this important part of New Orleans' African American heritage is a positive development, and the National Trust is glad to have been part of the process that led to the recognition of this overlooked historic building. It is encouraging to know that future generations will be able to learn about S.W. Green's accomplishments and the societal hurdles he faced because the home he built is an integral part of his story. We applaud the fact that the S.W. Green Mansion is being saved, and we trust that the structure will be adequately secured as it awaits the final move to its destination lots across the street from the staging site."
- National Trust for Historic Preservation
"I do not recall the Smith W. Green House being mentioned at any time during the 106 review. Neither do I recall any member of the SHPO ever speaking at any of the 106 meetings.
Had it not been for concerned and engaged citizens and writers who called attention to this magnificent structure, the Smith W. Green house would have been bulldozed without comment just like its neighbors. It is ONLY because of citizen engagement that the SHPO was put in a position where the historic merits of the structure could no longer be conveniently ignored or filtered through contractors."
- Anonymous, a long time observer of the LSU/VA hospitals project
S.W. Green Mansion Gets Underway
The first few inches of movement were rather exciting for those of us gathered to watch. Today is a good day.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
One Last Look (or Three)
A friend sent along this view of the levitating S.W. Green house from a different angle.
Here are two parting shots from tonight:
Rising
The S.W. Green Mansion stood about 5 feet off the ground this afternoon in the VA Hospital Footprint.
The house is slated to move across the site tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Peripheral People, Reprised
WWLTV takes a look at complaints about vibrations damaging historic homes just outside the VA Hospital Footprint. The Committee to Reopen Charity organized the press conference with affected residents.
The work on Cleveland Avenue, underway since November of 2010, is in furtherance of the VA Hospital project, but the residents haven't had basic courtesies extended to them for their inconveniences for months.
The other aspect to note about the story. Yes, the city or contractor may have videotaped the houses prior to the start of the work on Cleveland Avenue outside the Footprint. But residents, at the most recent VA neighborhood meeting, noted that damage from vibrations was occurring even earlier - when heavy construction and demolition work was underway on the VA Footprint alone.
The work on Cleveland Avenue, underway since November of 2010, is in furtherance of the VA Hospital project, but the residents haven't had basic courtesies extended to them for their inconveniences for months.
The other aspect to note about the story. Yes, the city or contractor may have videotaped the houses prior to the start of the work on Cleveland Avenue outside the Footprint. But residents, at the most recent VA neighborhood meeting, noted that damage from vibrations was occurring even earlier - when heavy construction and demolition work was underway on the VA Footprint alone.
Going Up
The S.W. Green Mansion was built in the 1920s to the order of Smith Wendell Green, a prominent New Orleans African American social and business leader.
Today, the mansion rose slowly off its piers as 24 jacks operated simultaneously to bear the load.
The house will actually move away from its present site this Friday. From what I understand, Orleans Shoring is conducting the elevation, Builders of Hope is overseeing the overall move in conjunction with the State Historic Preservation Office, and the VA is footing the bill. The existing owner, Mr. Paul Sylvester, is apparently "moving with the house" and is slated to retain ownership of the building in its final destination just outside the VA Hospital Footprint. Any corrections, please note them in the comments.
Below, if you zoom in, you can see the line where the house has broken away from its foundational piers:
It Could Happen Here - The East Baltimore Example
After displacing 600 people, razing a neighborhood, and sitting in limbo for ten years, "The New East Baltimore," a biotech park in Maryland, has failed. Questions swirling around the proposed development have now led to investigative hearings.
The many parallels to the LSU/VA hospital complex - and the 1,500-acre BioDistrict New Orleans that engulfs the complex - are troubling.
Here's some audio on the big failure.
Here's the massive investigative reporting series by The Daily Record. Here's a good place to start.
The many parallels to the LSU/VA hospital complex - and the 1,500-acre BioDistrict New Orleans that engulfs the complex - are troubling.
Here's some audio on the big failure.
Here's the massive investigative reporting series by The Daily Record. Here's a good place to start.
Moving Prep Picks up on S.W. Green Mansion
[Click to enlarge]
Yesterday, work began in earnest on the effort to prepare the S.W. Green mansion for moving - after some preliminary steps last week.
The move is scheduled for Friday of this week. The house will be moved to a staging site at the corner of the VA Footprint until its ultimate destination lots - at Banks and S. Rocheblave, are fully prepared to receive the building.
Take the BioDistrict Survey
Here.
Let BioDistrict officials and planners know what you think about the consolidated scheme for the 1,500-acre district that encompasses the bulk of what's left of the Mid-City National Register Historic District.
Let BioDistrict officials and planners know what you think about the consolidated scheme for the 1,500-acre district that encompasses the bulk of what's left of the Mid-City National Register Historic District.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Displacement - from the other end
I've been talking about displacement from Inside the Footprint, but lately, I've been privy to a different perspective. In my own neighborhood of St. Roch, I've witnessed the trials of one LSU Footprint business that is attempting to relocate.
Cesar's Collision Center, still on S. Roman Street (where the sign was being removed today as seen above) is looking to move to a currently vacant building in St. Roch. Among other hassles, the owner has faced criticism from some community members based on the record of earlier tenants. He's retained an attorney, he's invited people to his current shop to show them how he operates his facility, and he's attended community meetings. City zoning issues have been in the mix.
The process has confirmed for me that the cost of being displaced is not only the cost of hiring some moving trucks - it's an involved and oftentimes difficult process. And it's unfortunate that numerous small business have been put through that ordeal.
State Continues Site Preparation in UMC Footprint
I'm not quite sure what to make of what I saw going on in the UMC Footprint this afternoon. It's either brazen and purposeful disregard for HUD rules as I understand them, or it's just plain old stupidity. At any rate, the State of Louisiana continue to jeopardize funding necessary for the completion of the proposed UMC hospital by continuing with site preparation despite a warning from its own consultant.
Multiple lots were being cleared by heavy equipment down in the block bounded by Claiborne, Cleveland, S. Derbigny, and Palmyra.
If HUD, for some reason, has approved this type of activity, I welcome anyone from the state or the UMC Board to contact me with proof. But until that time, I will continue to call out what appears to be reckless activity based on public statements made at the last UMC Board meeting and reported in the Times-Picayune.
Monday, February 7, 2011
You heard it here first
But last evening, FOX8 did a great piece on the final family left in the VA Hospital Footprint:
"It's worse than Katrina to have your house paid for, totally restored and to have someone come and just take it from you,” said Deborah Brown Cassine.
Deborah has consistently made an articulate, thoughtful argument about her situation. It's worth a read.
She appears in court facing eviction tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Civil District Court at Loyola and Poydras.
"It's worse than Katrina to have your house paid for, totally restored and to have someone come and just take it from you,” said Deborah Brown Cassine.
Deborah has consistently made an articulate, thoughtful argument about her situation. It's worth a read.
She appears in court facing eviction tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Civil District Court at Loyola and Poydras.
Quiet
There was very little going on today in the VA and LSU Footprints.
Crews were working with various equipment along S. Galvez.
The S.W. Green mansion, as seen above, was still standing out in the dirt. Last week, some light activity got underway on the house - a lower back portion was apparently separated from the building, and at one point, I saw a worker shoveling something off a lower back portion of roof.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Moved Houses - In the Interim
On a rather gray day recently, I checked in on two houses. One, the house above that used to be at approximately Banks and S. Galvez, had its foundation and piers put in recently on S. Derbigny Street in Hoffman Triangle.
The other, Gayle Ruth's old house from S. Tonti, also had concrete block foundational work underway as well on Fourth Street in Central City.
Rehabilitating the moved houses is certainly a process, something that will take time before the full fruits are visible.
In the mean time, Karen recently snapped shots of most, if not all, of the VA moved houses in their interim condition (on another gray day) in this album.
Leave a Comment
On the HUD official blog - regarding the Secretary's visit to New Orleans to "christen" the Lafitte housing project.
Make sure the Secretary is aware of the harm that HUD has facilitated in Lower Mid-City.
ADDED: If you want to reply to some of HUD's New Orleans-related assertions, you can do so here.
Make sure the Secretary is aware of the harm that HUD has facilitated in Lower Mid-City.
ADDED: If you want to reply to some of HUD's New Orleans-related assertions, you can do so here.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Keeping tabs on the BioDistrict
Both the VA and LSU Footprints fall within a much, much larger overall development footprint - a legislatively defined district known as BioDistrict New Orleans (also known to some as GNOBEDD).
While I've touched on the BioDistrict tangentially, it hasn't been the overarching focus of this blog. Still, since the first of the year, a number of developments related to the district have been underway.
SaveCharityHospital.com put up a post today that summarizes a number of the developments and the concerns, devoting attention and time to the matters that Inside the Footprint - and the mainstream media - haven't been covering in the depth that they deserve. Even if you don't agree with all of the SaveCharityHospital.com stances, the post is quite informative.
While I've touched on the BioDistrict tangentially, it hasn't been the overarching focus of this blog. Still, since the first of the year, a number of developments related to the district have been underway.
SaveCharityHospital.com put up a post today that summarizes a number of the developments and the concerns, devoting attention and time to the matters that Inside the Footprint - and the mainstream media - haven't been covering in the depth that they deserve. Even if you don't agree with all of the SaveCharityHospital.com stances, the post is quite informative.
Zoom Out
Window out. As of yesterday afternoon.
By late this morning, the front windows had been boarded. That's good. Houses like this 3-bay shotgun that remain in the LSU Footprint now stand a chance of being moved.
An Open Note to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as he visits New Orleans today
Dear Secretary Donovan,
As you visit New Orleans today, I hope you'll take a moment away from your time mingling with the BioDistrict staff to visit Lower Mid-City. There, you'll see the true urban devastation that HUD has wrought in a National Register Historic District, in a dense, mixed neighborhood that was rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Along with other government entities, HUD helped to finance the project.
I also hope you'll finally address the extensive HUD administrative complaint about the agency's involvement in the LSU/VA project. It was filed by local attorney Mary Howell months ago, and, for all intents and purposes, it has effectively been negated by sheer inaction.
I hope, too, that your visit includes a tour of the over 20 structures demolished in the site of the proposed UMC Hospital despite inadequate financing, especially that one that was demolished after the UMC Board's own consultant provided it and the state's project officials with notice that additional site preparation moves would jeopardize HUD mortgage insurance. Take a look at the incredibly poor UMC design, which does not make any effort to design around historic buildings like the beautiful McDonogh No. 11 School, which shows that the footprint for the proposed hospital is excessive.
You said in August of 2010, writing about the Gulf Coast recovery, that "the Obama Administration is committed to doing things differently in the Gulf." Differently than what? HUD's involvement in the LSU/VA Hospital affair has shown the Obama Administration to be no different than the misguided "urban renewal" advocates of the 1950s and 1960s. Displacing over 500 residents by supporting a project that did not require the destruction of 67 acres of land is the antithesis of sound housing policy. Helping major institutional tenants vacate the historic downtown to do just that is the antithesis of good urban policy. HUD's support of this hospitals project is without a doubt a stain upon its reputation.
Photo courtesy of Sandra Stokes.
Go and see the HUD-funded moonscape in Lower Mid-City. And ask to see the BioDistrict's "consolidated scheme" map which envisions the pocket historic neighborhood across Tulane Avenue along Gravier Street getting destroyed in much the same way. Ask the BioDistrict why it needs 1,500 acres of historic cityscape.
HUD and the Obama Administration should be doing things differently. But unfortunately, that very clearly hasn't been the case.
As you visit New Orleans today, I hope you'll take a moment away from your time mingling with the BioDistrict staff to visit Lower Mid-City. There, you'll see the true urban devastation that HUD has wrought in a National Register Historic District, in a dense, mixed neighborhood that was rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Along with other government entities, HUD helped to finance the project.
I also hope you'll finally address the extensive HUD administrative complaint about the agency's involvement in the LSU/VA project. It was filed by local attorney Mary Howell months ago, and, for all intents and purposes, it has effectively been negated by sheer inaction.
I hope, too, that your visit includes a tour of the over 20 structures demolished in the site of the proposed UMC Hospital despite inadequate financing, especially that one that was demolished after the UMC Board's own consultant provided it and the state's project officials with notice that additional site preparation moves would jeopardize HUD mortgage insurance. Take a look at the incredibly poor UMC design, which does not make any effort to design around historic buildings like the beautiful McDonogh No. 11 School, which shows that the footprint for the proposed hospital is excessive.
You said in August of 2010, writing about the Gulf Coast recovery, that "the Obama Administration is committed to doing things differently in the Gulf." Differently than what? HUD's involvement in the LSU/VA Hospital affair has shown the Obama Administration to be no different than the misguided "urban renewal" advocates of the 1950s and 1960s. Displacing over 500 residents by supporting a project that did not require the destruction of 67 acres of land is the antithesis of sound housing policy. Helping major institutional tenants vacate the historic downtown to do just that is the antithesis of good urban policy. HUD's support of this hospitals project is without a doubt a stain upon its reputation.
Photo courtesy of Sandra Stokes.
Go and see the HUD-funded moonscape in Lower Mid-City. And ask to see the BioDistrict's "consolidated scheme" map which envisions the pocket historic neighborhood across Tulane Avenue along Gravier Street getting destroyed in much the same way. Ask the BioDistrict why it needs 1,500 acres of historic cityscape.
HUD and the Obama Administration should be doing things differently. But unfortunately, that very clearly hasn't been the case.
Two Types of Urban Change
As Jane Jacobs laid out, symbolically, for Roberta Gratz (ht/Michelle K):
Her descriptions speak to me because I've seen those two divergent types of change in a city. And I know from experience that I don't like the destructive "erosion" type.
"There are two kinds of change and you can symbolize them on the land. There's the kind of change in which the topsoil is being built up, and it's being made more fertile and is good husbandry of the land. The land is changing when you do that, but it is positive change. There's a kind of change that's just as definitively change--that's erosion. Gullies are being dug in the land, and the topsoil is being carried away and it's being made infertile. The fact that it's changed doesn't mean that it's progress. It's ruin. But people were, for a long time, brainwashed into the idea that every sort of change in a city was progress. 'Well, yes, it's bad, but that's progress.' No, that's erosion."
Her descriptions speak to me because I've seen those two divergent types of change in a city. And I know from experience that I don't like the destructive "erosion" type.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Correction: "Still In Limbo"
The Deborah Brown-Cassine family, with its two small children, is "the last man standing" in the VA Footprint.
I observed yesterday, after doing my due diligence beyond what I even mentioned on the blog, that nobody remained living in the VA Footprint. But I heard back today from Deborah, who noted that her family on Cleveland Avenue is in fact still "in limbo."
Although she hoped to move out yesterday, she is waiting for the money necessary to move, and while she has retained counsel, she has not heard from the state in some time.
Demolitions and site preparation began in the VA Footprint back in May of 2010. When you add in the date of the first public discussion of the new "preferred site" for the VA above S. Galvez back in 2007, Deborah and her family have been in limbo for almost four years - after returning in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The continued presence of residents inside the footprint as it's been razed has been one of the most surreal aspects of the place and the process. It's hard to believe that it actually happened.
I observed yesterday, after doing my due diligence beyond what I even mentioned on the blog, that nobody remained living in the VA Footprint. But I heard back today from Deborah, who noted that her family on Cleveland Avenue is in fact still "in limbo."
Although she hoped to move out yesterday, she is waiting for the money necessary to move, and while she has retained counsel, she has not heard from the state in some time.
Demolitions and site preparation began in the VA Footprint back in May of 2010. When you add in the date of the first public discussion of the new "preferred site" for the VA above S. Galvez back in 2007, Deborah and her family have been in limbo for almost four years - after returning in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The continued presence of residents inside the footprint as it's been razed has been one of the most surreal aspects of the place and the process. It's hard to believe that it actually happened.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Last People in the VA Footprint
Yesterday, Monday, it was quite apparent to me. There was seemingly nobody left in the VA Footprint. The metal railing had been broken down at the purple house on Cleveland.
As night fell, it was pretty much confirmed.
Karen Gadbois, roaming the city over the weekend, caught the Brown-Cassine household moving out.
Those two households were it. Total, anachronistic, urban-renewal-style displacement is complete. 30 acres of dense, historic, urban fabric have been depopulated, wiped out as of the end of January 2011. Hundreds of people have been forced out of their homes by the federal, state, and city levels of government. I will not hesitate to say that the things I have witnessed and experienced in this affair have left me deeply disgusted with the incompetence, indifference, hypocrisy, and contempt of my government.
The last yellow lights of home...
...have gone out.
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