FEMA Trailer Park Fails to Survive Storm From Residents (Seems it

[rodeodance]

goes from bad to worse in New Orleans)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/us/nationalspecial/05trailers.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

April 5, 2006
FEMA Trailer Park Fails to Survive Storm From Residents
By ADAM NOSSITER

NEW ORLEANS, April 4 — A mayoral election is less than three weeks away, and the sympathy of elected officials for the irritations of voters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is boundless.

As a result, there will be no trailer park in Lakewood Estates, a collection of solid, spacious homes behind a high locked gate in the Algiers section.

Last weekend, angry residents of the neighborhood took to the street to protest a trailer park being built on their doorstep by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 34 single women and their children who were left homeless by the hurricane. FEMA, their signs proclaimed, was "raping" their neighborhood.

Construction was already well along — some 20-odd trailers are already in place on the dusty lot — but fortunately for the residents of Lakewood Estates, campaign season is also well along.

[rodeodance]

1. more: Not in my neighborhood is the rally call (mainly displaced Blacks)

.....Seven months after the hurricane, fights over where to house its displaced victims continue. Up and down Louisiana, but particularly around New Orleans, residents and local officials have taken action against the incursion of displaced city residents — overwhelmingly black — who are portrayed as bearers of crime and bad living habits, and as destroyers of property values.

Some of the most virulent opposition has occurred in the victims' own backyard. Last December Mr. Nagin backed away from a list of proposed city sites after expressions of outrage. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was forced to intervene here late last year, when officials could not agree on where to put the trailers.

And by the end of last year, 32 of Louisiana's 64 parishes had banned these trailer sites. Only eight had approved them unconditionally.

If these flare-ups are less frequent than before, FEMA says the need for temporary housing is nonetheless as great as ever. In New Orleans, where the agency has set up nearly 10,000 trailers, 109 sites await Mr. Nagin's approval, the agency says. He has already approved more than 100 such sites, some 17 of which are occupied. FEMA says about 12,000 requests for trailers are pending in the city, with new ones coming in all the time.

[salin]

5. "portrayed as destroyers of property values"...no, Katrina did that.

such ugliness in hearts on such open display.

[saigon68]

14. These residents don't want Negroes there.

Citing the same reasons as many quaint 1950's history books

As in "Hey son this water fountain is for Whites" --YOURS is OVER THERE.

[MADem]

2. Whatsoever you do to the least of thy brothers, eh???

Or sisters, as the case may be...

Security cameras watch the entrance of Lakewood Estates, and a sign proclaims "24-hour camera surveillance in progress." The collection of trailers sits on a two-acre plot on one side of a low wall, a humble contrast to the substantial, well-landscaped dwellings on the other side.

"If you look at this facility, it looks like Guantánamo," said the protest leader, Edward D. Markle. He was still furious at FEMA, though the site appears dead, for now. "It's bad," Mr. Markle said. "You've got a thousand locations that are better. I won't be able to take a bath without them seeing me."

He suggested that a much larger plot of land, across the road and away from the homes, would have made a far more suitable location.

"It's not an issue of we don't want them in our backyard," Mr. Markle said. "We invite them in our backyard. We just don't want them in our bathrooms and bedrooms."

They need to get their shit together...before the NEXT hurricane hits....

[darkmaestro019]

6. Ah, I see. Near your house=in your bathroom.

By that logic I live in Canada and my hard drive is in my refrigerator. People will do mental GYMNASTICS to avoid saying they don't want the n-words around their lily white little suburbs.

[WePurrsevere]

7. But if someone w/ big $$ built a fancy house there it would be ok. I bet

they wouldn't mind them in their "bathrooms and bedrooms" then.

Pfft! May karma bite them in their bigoted un"christian" backsides. :grr:

[salin]

3. "Let them eat cak... um..er.. no... don't even let 'em have crumbs"

ugh. Can't let other hurricane survivors even have a place to live... Jeez, if they put the same energy into making sure that other areas were being rebuilt, maybe there wouldn't be a need for TEMPORARY housing in trailers. Or maybe had the trailers been put in the gated folks and the trailered folks could work together for more permanent housing to be rebuilt around the city - as the trailer residents would want to move to permanent solutions - and the gated folks would want the trailers to be there only temporarily.

[ClintonTyree]

4. It seems the rich in New Orleans don't have a problem..........

with FEMA trailers if it's THEY who need them. All around the Audubon Blvd. area FEMA trailers are everywhere. Mostly is the front yards of the rich folks who so desperately need them because of water damage to their homes. :eyes: They just don't want "those others" to be afforded the same courtesy.

The gentrification of New Orleans is well under way. The rich are seeing to it that New Orleans is NOT rebuilt with all people in mind, just "their kind". :grr:

[rodeodance]

8. Poverty Center:--many are more welcomed across USA than in N. O.

.."I think it's appalling and I think it's yet another example of 'not in my backyard,' " said William P. Quigley, director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University and a litigant on behalf of hurricane victims, speaking of the Algiers site. "The people of New Orleans have been made more welcome across the U.S. than they have been in their own hometown."

The sudden loss of the Algiers site is a sharp blow, Mr. Madden said. "This was going to be a location where we were going to be able to place 34 displaced families, at a time when placing families is important," he said.

"The fact is, we have been working on this site since the mayor approved it," Mr. Madden said. "For this decision to be made at this juncture jeopardizes our effort to provide housing to displaced citizens in the aftermath of Katrina."

Security cameras watch the entrance of Lakewood Estates, and a sign proclaims "24-hour camera surveillance in progress." The collection of trailers sits on a two-acre plot on one side of a low wall, a humble contrast to the substantial, well-landscaped dwellings on the other side. .....

[magellan]

9. Good God

Shame on these people, and shame on any official who caves in to their bigotry!!

[rodeodance]

10. seems like the WALL between the have's/have nots was not big enough?

.....Security cameras watch the entrance of Lakewood Estates, and a sign proclaims "24-hour camera surveillance in progress." The collection of trailers sits on a two-acre plot on one side of a low wall, a humble contrast to the substantial, well-landscaped dwellings on the other side. .....
"Glory Days"

[nashville_brook]

11. first, they refuse to let survivors CROSS THE BRIDGES TO LEAVE

the devastated areas. guess they were too poor, too black -- to walk thru their lovely suburbs.

now, they deny housing to single mothers and their children. trailers too ugly to be in view of fine suburban housing.

JESUS H CHRIST when is this going to end. are there no adults left to lay down some rules down there?

"look people -- your city was destroyed. you are going to have to put up with some crap for a while. thank your stars your mcmansions weren't blown away like the massive piles of shit they are."

[notadmblnd]

12. What? are the rich bitches worried about their men stepping out at night

Their neighborhood is behind the fence. One wouldn't think they had any property rights beyond that.

[wordpix]

13. Don'tcha love those rich NIMBYs?