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11/03/2005 Archived Entry: "Why are they making New Orleans into a ghost town"

On CounterPunch.com, Bill Quigley asks a fascinating question: Why are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town? Quigley writes, "Fully armed National Guard troops refuse to allow over ten thousand people to even physically visit their property in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. Despite the fact that people cannot come back, tens of thousands of people face eviction from their homes. A local judge told me that their court expects to process a thousand evictions a day for weeks. Renters still in shelters or temporary homes across the country will never see the court notice taped to the door of their home. Because they will not show up for the eviction hearing that they do not know about, their possessions will be tossed out in the street..."

In short, they force people out their homes, keep them away from their homes at gunpoint and, then, post the legally-required notices on front doors that renters cannot access. But, hey, it's legal. Meanwhile, according to The Advocate "eviction restrictions by Gov. Kathleen Blanco are lifted statewide, which will speed the return of abandoned apartment buildings into commerce."

Alternet captures the human impact of these evictions by presenting Giselle Smith, "a single mom with three children" who returned to a damaged but intact house that she meticulously cleaned up and restored. Her problem? She rents. "The very day that the governor lifted the moratorium on evictions, her landlord presented her with an eviction notice. The reason? Failure to pay September's rent. The Smiths, like everyone else in the city, had been forced to evacuate, and her home had no electricity or water or sewage. She also had to pay rent in Houston for September, and didn't have money to pay rent in two places. Ms. Smith is determined to fight the eviction, and local lawyers have come to her aid. But the real reason for the eviction notice is that houses that didn't flood are at a premium and her landlord, like many others, is eager to cash in. Ms. Smith's neighbors down the block were paying $800 rent until they came home to find their rent jacked up to $1,300. By end of the week her long-time neighbors, a black family, had packed up and a white family took their place."

The last sentence contains a sentiment that I'm seeing in print more and more; it is often accompanied by the word "gentrification" . The sentiment: authorities in New Orleans/Louisiana are allowing or even encouraging the displacement of poor blacks in order to clear away and renovate areas like the Ninth Ward -- the poorest and hardest-hit section of the city. This conspiracy theory is bolstered by a remark made by Representative Richard Baker, R-L.A.: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." Critics are comparing the situation in the Ninth Ward with the gentrification of the Bowry in New York City.