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Bulldozers may start demolishing flood-damaged houses in New Orleans as soon as this month, but the city won't be razing as many as it planned to in December.This is a most promising development.
Preservationists are taking a closer look at a list of red-tagged buildings in New Orleans that the city says are in immediate danger of collapse.
Last month, the city's historic landmarks commission asked the National Trust's New Orleans Field Office and the Preservation Resource Center to inspect the 1,957 houses on a list that was made public last month after a lawsuit settlement. Most of the damaged houses are located in the Ninth Ward.
In the last three weeks, volunteers—architectural historians and other qualified inspectors—have identified about 100 that they say should not be demolished. The city's list of "red-rated" buildings was 5,500, and the recently published list was the "worst of the worst," says Walter Gallas, director of the New Orleans Field Office.
"We looked at properties that were in National Register and local historic districts that were in this initial list," Gallas says. "We started from this list of 5,500, but that number has been whittled down."
The Trust plans to act as a consultant with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Section 106 review process, which is required before a federal agency can raze a National Register-listed historic resource.
"When requests for demolition come down, the Trust and Preservation Resource Center will be consulted," Gallas says. "It's just one part of the work we're doing."
To settle a lawsuit, the city agreed on Jan. 17 to notify owners of houses it wants to demolish in 30 days—in a letter, in an ad in the Times-Picayune, and on the newspaper's Web site. Homeowners will also be able to challenge the city's assessment. The lawsuit was filed over 120 Ninth Ward houses that were obstructing sidewalks and roads.
The city last month began notifying homeowners of impending demolitions, so according to the agreement, it can demolish those structures this month.
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frozen smoke
Brookings Findings
Days Since Katrina Made Landfall: 156
Now over five months since Katrina made landfall, New Orleans is home to over 130,000 people, including a much larger than expected population of college students. But, the city lacks enough essential services to support all of these returning residents, and the area continues to hemorrhage workers. What key trends were available this month for the states suggest little progress in both Louisiana and Mississippi.
[...]
The slow pace of recovery on fundamentals strongly suggests that the city and state will be unable to restore essential services on their own, and require direct federal assistance to do so. Meanwhile, the well being of the nearly 750,000 households that remain displaced by Katrina is essentially not known. With New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi still facing massive economic and infrastructural challenges, it is likely that many of these households will need federal assistance for many months to come.
Why wireless Internet in Louisiana and New Orleans? Why is it so important for the citizens around the state?
Bayoubuzz asked the Chief Technology Officer, Greg Meffert to explain the needs of New Orleans and why it is so important to the State of Louisiana. Currently, the City of New Orleans is backing legislation that is on the Governor’s call to allow cities build or deploy wireless Internet systems for its citizens.
As we discovered during the very last hurricane season, there was a complete and total communications breakdown in areas throughout Louisiana. Each parish would be allowed to opt-in as to whether it wants to make wireless Internet available to its citizens.