HUD Secretary: Only the best residents should be allowed to return (NOLA)

[funkybutt]

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_04_24.html#134346

WASHINGTON — U.S. Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson shed little light Monday on the future of public housing in hurricane-battered New Orleans, but said that “only the best residents” of the former St. Thomas housing complex should be allowed into the new mixed-income development that replaced it.

-snip-

“Some of the people shouldn’t return,” Jackson said. “The (public housing) developments were gang-ridden by some of the most notorious gangs in this country. People hid and took care of those persons because they took care of them. Only the best residents should return. Those who paid rent on time, those who held a job and those who worked.”

-snip-

“I’m a little disturbed that even today they want to bring a racial component into the hurricane. This isn’t about racism, this is about people suffering,” said Jackson, pointing to the large number of Vietnamese fishers along the Gulf Coast whose livelihoods were ruined by the storm. “It’s important (to remember) that everybody suffered in this disaster, not just black people. It bothers me tremendously when I see the so-called leadership in the black community, the liberal community zeroing in (on) how much more difficult it was for African-Americans than it was for white Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans.”

on edit: (NOLA)

[aquart]

1. I don't recall "zeroing in." Did you "zero in"?

[saltpoint]

2. If that's the context of this guy's remarks, he's a total mess.

Has anyone suggested that hurricanes only target black citizens?

Has any Democrat suggested that hurricanes only target black citizens?

How do you tell by sight if someone is a drug-ridden gang member, or whatever it is he's concerned about? Might there be drug dealers or gang members in the upper classes as well, and if so, should they come back to New Orleans?

And who decides who the "good people" are anyway?

I hope not this guy.

[DBoon]

9. the hero that commandeered the bus and saved people's lives

turned out to be a drug addict with a criminal record.

It is not up to you to decide who is a decent citizen and who isn't.

[saltpoint]

11. DBoon, you skidded off the road there.

I was quoting Mr. Jackson, not advancing my opinion.

If you review Jackson's quoted passage, you'll see where I'm drawing the gang reference from.

[DBoon]

13. I meant the "rhetorical" you - the original author

I never meant the actual O. C..

I think I have stopped that skid, thank you

I meant that even the most worthless seeming person can be a hero.

[saltpoint]

14. Okeydoke. I think we're on the same page anyway. I think of

the view that Jesus took in the story about the adulteress. I'm not Christian, but the story packs a punch, and I love it.

"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone," he admonishes the crowd, who of course has gathered with rocks in their hands.

I'd like to see Jackson say, "We'll find a way to get you back to your home town. You belong here, no matter what, and it's the government's role to help you re-establish yourself."

[saltpoint]

12. More to the point, my post suggested that it is not up to Mr. Jackson

to decide who is a decent citizen and who is not.

[henslee]

21. Heres that cool pic of our hero....

[S_B_Jackson]

22. Ray Nagin's said much the same thing

when he began visting Houston in January & February. In interviews with the Houston Chronicle's editorial board, he was quite open with the fact that there was an element that he wanted to see not return to NOLA and was only too happy to let Texas' penal system take care of.

NOLA will not be what it once was when everything is said and done.

[dysfunctional press]

31. and once everything is said and done-

rising ocean levels caused by global warming will still reclaim the area.

[Delphinus]

41. I know.

It doesn't make sense to even try to rebuild New Orleans WITHOUT taking Global Climate Change into consideration.

[dysfunctional press]

48. try telling that to the natives...

to them- it's just "build a higher levee" and "the u.s. couldn't survive without our ports"...but they refuse to even consider the effects on their ports and city as a whole that global warming is going to have- probably in some of their lifetimes.
the truth is- the u.s. is going to HAVE to learn to live without, or move those ports (and jazz clubs) in th forseeable future anyway- so why dump a shitload of taxpayer money down a sinkhole just to put the "warm & fuzzy" feeling back into someone's personal sense of sentimentality?

i just don't get it, how so many people just can't "get it".

[saltpoint]

33. I heard some of those comments by Nagin. I can't imagine that's

going to help him much in the run-off against Landrieu.

[Bridget Burke]

34. I only heard of comments from NOLA City Council members...

Feb. 22, 2006, 7:22AM
New Orleans says it won't give free ride; 3 City Council members' words to poor trouble Houston officials, some evacuees

By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

New Orleans doesn't want its poorest residents back — unless they agree to work.

That was the message from three New Orleans City Council members who said government programs have "pampered" the city's residents for too long.

The news that some New Orleans City Council members weren't keen on the city's poorest returning home added another layer of discomfort in Houston, where local residents and elected officials alike have stretched to meet the needs of thousands of Louisiana residents in the months after Hurricane Katrina.

Chief among the complaints: Houston didn't discriminate when New Orleanians — from the poorest to the richest — filled this city's homes, hotels, motels and shelters. And Houston didn't flinch when nearly 100,000 evacuees needed subsidized housing for up to a year. So why, asked one Houston city councilman, are only the educated, healthy and employable welcome back in New Orleans?

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3676263.html

Nagin did quite well with the African-Americans.

[Ecumenist]

3. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Actually, going by that measuring stick, none of the bush bunch, family, friends or associates, should ever step foot into NOLA.

[acmavm]

4. Ummmmm, could late rent payments be a sign of poverty? Could

it be that this guy needs his ass kicked up between his earlobes for just being such an arrogant judgemental piece of shit?

[Gormy Cuss]

47. Not in public housing.

Rent is set based on income and can be adjusted frequently. Most public housing tenants are just as responsible as an other tenants about paying the rent. There are a few tenants who don't pay because of an unexpected expense but when the rent isn't paid for months at a time there is usually some other dysfunction going on, like illness or addiction, or in the case of squatters, illegal activity. The housing authority of New Orleans (HANO) had a significant number of 'unofficial' tenants in these developments.

HANO is right to try to clear out the trouble-making squatters, but Jackson is an ass for phrasing it the way he did because it feeds into the middle class notion that most public housing tenants are scofflaws AND it ignores the fact that all the displaced tenants, rent paying or no, need some place to live.

Jackson is also an ass for trying to downplay the racial aspect too.

[caligirl]

5. Doing a heck of a job Jackson!

[kainah]

6. but I thought

Laura Bush was supposed to be cleaning up the gang problem in the country. Remember? George announced that initiative in his 2004 (?) State of the Union.

[NorthernSun]

7. Slow genecide

These guys must set around every night under NAZI flags and a Hitler statue drinking Prescott's koolaid.

[Old and In the Way]

8. So where do these undesirables go?

Do we just assume they will lead a nomadic life?

[funkybutt]

10. They've already gone...

and FEMA knows exactly where they are.

On Edit:

“I think they are getting ready to demolish public housing,” said Laura Tuggle, an attorney with New Orleans Legal Assistance. “One of the hardest parts of redevelopment is having to relocate residents of public housing. That job was done for them.”

[Gman]

15. I've been saying all along--NOLA is one big right wing social experiment

It started hours before Katrina hit.

[Kailassa]

24. Not hours before, years before.

Letting the levees age without proper upkeep, despite studies showing exactly what would happen WHEN, not IF, the large hurricane hit.

[AlienGirl]

38. I think you're spot-on with that

[InkAddict]

16. He's makin' a list; checkin' it twice

Gonna find out who's naughty and nice! Yes, Virginia there is an Alphonso?????

Haughty arrogant prick!

[Up2Late]

17. Where does Bush find these people? Is there a racist re-education...

...center that the ReThugs use for those who want jobs working for Bush?

[KeepItReal]

18. Nah, its just being a Black GOP'er = Big Fish in Little Pond

If I changed my (D) to an (R)... That will turn heads and get a Brotha noticed quicker than winning a lotto.

Plus some of these fools see no real benefit from being a Democrat, nor owe any allegiance (in their messed up heads) to the Party that helped bring them the rights they freely diss by serving Bush & Co.

[saigon68]

19. Just read Harry Belafonte's critique of Colin

[KeepItReal]

20. Powell was my role model in '89...said so in my Army scholarship interview

I just saw what he had achieved in the Army and thought that was something admirable.

I hated the way he turned out...or should I say ultimately sold out. This dude really had a shot at running the whole show. What a waste.

[justice1]

25. I remember saying "He should be President". nt

[saigon68]

30. He tried to play the game

With some very serious bad men, like Baker and Cheney, and got burned up in the resulting sparks from the fire.

He did or does have some morality.

Unfortunately the other ""leading" players have none

[BoneDaddy]

23. If we are not letting gangsters

occupy the projects, should Bush occupy the White House?

[elehhhhna]

26. My heart broke for the poor asian & white people at the Convention center

NOT! DIDN'T SEE ANY!

[JPZenger]

27. Explanation

I am not trying to make excuses for his comments, but I would like to try to explain them.

In the early 1990s, housing authorities were required to give preference to the very poorest persons and the persons most threatened with homelessness. These were persons with no legal earned income. The feeling was that this made public housing unmanageable. Then the Feds told housing authorities that they could give preference to the "working poor" with the idea that these people were most deserving of Federal assistance.

It is common for housing authorities to refuse to rent to persons with criminal records, and they can evict people who are charged with drug offenses. I knew a county prosecutor who said they had a policy of not letting people out on probation or parole if they said they were going to live in a public housing project.

[AzDar]

28. Where do they find this seemingly endless supply of IDIOTS?

According to this proud graduate of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey,'only the best should return. Those who paid rent on time, held a job, and those who worked'. So, if one were, say, DISABLED, and couldn't meet Secretary Mengele's criteria, then they are not worthy of returning to their homes?
WTF?

[MountainLaurel]

29. Let me guess how they're defining "best"

By income levels?

:puke:

[jwirr]

32. While this sounds bad, we should remember that Bill Clinton

and his HUD secretary enforced a similar plan. I lived in a high rise in a small rural town and even there if you were a trouble maker you were out. It was their attempt to stop dealers/gangs from controlling the buildings. The real problem is the words "people who have a job" because many residents of this type of housing are the disabled and elderly.

However, I do not trust anyone in this repug run recovery to be fair and truthful. Residents will probably have to sign a loyalty oath to the repugs to get in.

[Bridget Burke]

35. I can see kicking out "troublemakers"

Although agree that those who can't work need a break.

But this guy wants to keep people out because they MIGHT be troublemakers.

[jwirr]

49. Pre-emptive? They seem to be hooked on that theory.

[melissinha]

36. Its not this black and white

Granted, I am for all the residents of NOLA to return to their homes.... I think that poverty and drugs stem from the ultimate failure of government and society to care for the poor....

But my boyfriend told me he was once mugged and rendered unconscious in New Orleans when he lived there... these problems were real. But that doesn't mean that can't be dealt with realistically, which doesn't seem to be on Nagin's agenda.

I also remember my boyfriend commenting on the people seeking refuge in the Austin Convention Center where he volunteered to do tech support, he said "This is New Orleans, these people are the heart of New Orleans" and they weren't even there, yep most of them were black but there were some people who weren't some white some Vietnamese... THey need to be returned and they need to helped and the community needs to be restored, not to the crime ridden place it was, but to its true potential and spirit....

Don't you love how these people like to judge people, but they never make any attempt to really rehabilitate and make things better... Thats the way of the new GOP.

[Jose Diablo]

37. To paraphrase Jackson:

'The hurricane was a blessing in disguise, it forced all those dirty nasty poor people to move. When we rebuild, we should make sure that only those people that are blessed by God, that is, people like us are allowed to return. You see, we are the good people, and the others? They are evil for God has said it, thats why he sent the hurricane to punish the evil among us, the poor. For this is the ultimate sin in America, to be poor'.

I'd say this is what is Alphonso is really saying.

:eyes:

[everythingsxen]

39. Arbeit macht frei!

[daleo]

40. It's not enough to hold a job - you have to work too.

"Only the best residents should return. Those who paid rent on time, those who held a job and those who worked.”

Bush would be in trouble.

[KamaAina]

42. This is the guy who said N.O. "will never be as poor or as black as it was

astonishing to hear that bilge even from a Bushie, especially one who is himself African American. Alas, this asshat will have considerable sway over the rebuilding effort, at least until 1/20/09 or the day the articles of impeachment take effect, whichever comes first.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

43. The NeoCons will now tell us who the "best people" are. Great.

[zann725]

44. Like 'reality' shows,lots of NO'ers are going to be voted off the 'Island'

'cause they simply don't fit the "demographic"/profile they once were part of.

That'd be like if WE got the choice (by some 'unseen' vote) which reps "could" return to D.C....simply because suddenly we don't like their demographic profile.

Guess that's why our forefathers called it "NEW" Orleans...anticipating today.

[AlienGirl]

46. The Culture of Cruelty in action

[KamaAina]

45. Actually N.O. would be an ideal place for scattered-site housing

that is, take the money they'd use to rebuild "the bricks" and instead use it to rehab shotgun houses all over town, and move returning public housing residents into them. That way, instead of the onerous burden on society that Jackson and his ilk apparently believe them to be, public housing residents could be a vital force in repopulating neighborhoods all across the city. One wonders which of the various neighborhood associations (the OP is deeply involved with hers) might embrace this concept.

[madmark]

50. I assume the "best" people is code for not including the black underclass

that videotaped at the Superdome.