The Vultures Swoop in ....
What will happen to New Orleans? I don't know, but it will never be the same.
I lived there. I hated it. I hated the weather and the people. But I understand that I didn't understand the people either .. I was an outsider. What I do understand, is that now the land grabbing vultures of the "developer" class are swooping down on New Orleans, not to claim the houses and property of the gentry in the Garden District, but of the poor underclass in places like mid-city and the ninth ward.
The proposal of the developers, supported by the Mayor of NO is an open invitation for all the poor to get the hell out ... and don't let the doorknob hit you .... go someplace else. Springfield, Missouri is fine with me. You blacks will be welcome there.
NO population has dropped from about a half million to about 150,000. But this is not the entire story. The entire NO area is about 2 million. If NO fails to be a viable city, or a gentrified city, then every other part fails, Metarie, Kenner, the West Bank, Slidell, Mandeville, Covington ... all of it. And so too fails the culture of the only real attraction of NO, the poor sourthern black culture, exemplified by jazz in the quarter, the Zulu Parade and the Cajun cuisine. Dispersal means death.
If there was ever an invitation of an area to fail it is to turn it over to real estate developers, associated with government with the power to grab land for their own reasons.
The outlook for NO is bleak.
I lived there. I hated it. I hated the weather and the people. But I understand that I didn't understand the people either .. I was an outsider. What I do understand, is that now the land grabbing vultures of the "developer" class are swooping down on New Orleans, not to claim the houses and property of the gentry in the Garden District, but of the poor underclass in places like mid-city and the ninth ward.
The proposal of the developers, supported by the Mayor of NO is an open invitation for all the poor to get the hell out ... and don't let the doorknob hit you .... go someplace else. Springfield, Missouri is fine with me. You blacks will be welcome there.
NO population has dropped from about a half million to about 150,000. But this is not the entire story. The entire NO area is about 2 million. If NO fails to be a viable city, or a gentrified city, then every other part fails, Metarie, Kenner, the West Bank, Slidell, Mandeville, Covington ... all of it. And so too fails the culture of the only real attraction of NO, the poor sourthern black culture, exemplified by jazz in the quarter, the Zulu Parade and the Cajun cuisine. Dispersal means death.
If there was ever an invitation of an area to fail it is to turn it over to real estate developers, associated with government with the power to grab land for their own reasons.
The outlook for NO is bleak.
posted by John Stone at 4:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home