City Government Razing the Private Homes of New Orleans. Concerned About Eminent Domain? You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.
An imminent health threat, the home that Alta Reinhardt Pierce built 76 years ago by Karen Gadbois.
If you thought Eminent Domain was bad, just wait until you hear about the Imminent Health Threat ordinance of the city of New Orleans. FEMA gave the city money to demolish thousands of homes and the city can’t wait to spend it.
If you live in New Orleans, your home may be next.
The City that Hates Houses
Here’s the experience of teacher and homewoner Kelly Voight formerly of Gentilly.
My house at 5537 Franklin Avenue was demolished without proper notification to me or the mortgage company. Out of 4 notification channels, the city only followed 2 of their 4 channels.
We had been waiting for the city to issue us a renovation permit for almost 18 months. I had called and traveled to the 5th floor of City Hall. I had taken pictures and filled out all correct forms for my permit. As of the day that they knocked my house down, the permit was still “pending.”
My house was a 1945 Gentilly bungalow with double parlor, original floors, the Gentilly tile, and deco molding. It was in no danger of falling down. My contractor drove by, called, and asked why there were bulldozers on the property the morning they tore it down. Before he could reach us, the house was gone.
I was a teacher who only taught at-risk children in New Orleans Public Schools. My husband was a criminal defense attorney. We never made a lot of money in the city, but we felt that we gave to the city whatever we had.
The city gave back to us by perpetrating this horrific crime. That house was a jewel. The 1970’s house next door to my house was zoned for section 8 housing. It has no windows and little chance for renovation. Yet my house is the one that is down.
I cannot return to the city now. I feel such pure fury when I think of my house being torn down. City bulldozers trespassed on my property and tore down my lovely Gentilly bungalow. New Orleans has nothing to do with America anymore. New Orleans is dead to me, and I will not lift a finger to help or give back to it again.
This is what the city calls progress.
Madness, Smackdown, Madness, Adjournment
Here’s how Monday’s Housing Conservation District Review Committee meeting went. They had an agenda of 130 properties that city wants to demolish under the new Imminent Health Threat ordinance. The meeting was overflowing the small room in which the meetings are usually held.
It stated at the the wrong time and stopped. It restated at the right time in a new larger room to accommodate the attendees.
Council At-Large Jackie Clarkson arrived, watched, and then spoke and asked that the committee explain it’s processes before city council on January 24th, 2008.
It was co-chaired by someone who was not on the committee. Permits were brought up that were not on the agenda and dropped. Decisions were made with no documentation of the determination. There was no one form the city to represent the Imminent Health Threat list. No minutes were kept.
They went through 17 properties one at a time. They posited a mass determination but rejected it. The meeting adjourned early deferring over a hundred permits.
The New New Orleans is a Vacant Lot
For those of you who don’t know, it is hard for you to imagine how bad it is. At times I get people staying that this is what you should expect of government, but it’s hard to expect this of anyone who draws a salary. It is amazing to watch the New Orleans city government in operation.
Operation is probably not the right word. The city is razing the private homes of people who are still struggling to return to New Orleans. The city is moving forward with city initiated demolitions of private homes, through something called the Imminent Health Threat ordinance.
Imminent Health Threat sounds very scary, and because of this the city is able to say that they are demolishing mean old houses in the name of safety. If you don’t look at the viable historic housing they are destroying, then it may seem that the city has our best interests at heart.
What is very hard for a New Orleanian to understand how the city can initiate demolitions itself. The city government of New Orleans does not seem to understand the time it takes to rebuild a flooded home. Many people commute from Baton Rouge or Houston to work on their homes. There are still 75,000 people waiting for their Road Home grants.
When you look at the city contracts, you’ll see that FEMA has millions of dollars allocated to demolish homes in New Orleans. Not to gut home and board them up, no. Only to demolish. If all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.
There are those that see this as fabulous new industry. In a strange perversion of the shibboleth of market forces there will be those who ask, how dare people stand in the way of the profits and jobs produced by this federal benefit?
No one is standing in the way of demolitions. There are many slab-on-grade postwar houses that faired poorly in the flood that followed Katrina. There are plenty of these homes that had water up to their eves. They are located in neighborhoods where the UNOP district plans call for neighbors to relocate to different lots within the neighborhood and build new homes.
There are thousands of homes that need to be demolished that would mate nicely with the federal funds to demolish those homes, if only the city could learn how to properly call a meeting and maintain a spreadsheet.
Pump Up the Volume
On Monday I attended a meeting of the Housing Conservation District Review Committee. The HCDRC reviews building permits in a historic area of New Orleans defined by by the Jefferson and St. Bernard Parish lines, the river, and a northern boundary marked by a line along Metairie Rd, City Park Ave, Wisner Blvd, I-610, and Florida Ave. Also the two National Register Districts outside that area, South Lakeview and Gentilly Terrace, are also under the HCDRC purview.
The HCDRC reviews permits. The agenda for the HCDRC included the demolition of 130 houses that are on the Imminent Health Threat list that the city wanted to demolish.
Each permit must be reviewed and voted upon one at a time. Prior to Katrina, the HCDRC did not deal with with 130 permits in a day.
Why does this meeting matter? Because it is the only place where the public can weigh in on the demolitions. In many cases, it is the only place where the owners can weigh in on the demolition of their own property. There were people there appealing the demolition of properties that they owned.
For example, a man was explaining why his property had not been gutted. Why? Because it was plaster on lathe and had only received a foot of water. The plaster did not have to come down. He dried it out and sprayed for mold. The inspection was a peek in a window. When the inspector saw walls, the house was slated for demolition by the city.
He now has two weeks to bring his mold remediation certificate to the city. If he can get the city to recognize it. There’s no real notion anywhere of how this list is kept, how you get on it, or how you get off it.
All the More Reason to Sue the City
Conducting a public meeting is a simple matter. Post notice with a time, place and agenda. Start on time.
The meeting room was overflowing when I arrived. There were 17 people there to address 17 of 130 properties.
This list is published in the Times-Picayune in print. It is not available on the Internet. It is not available in an electronic format through the city website. If you are commuting from Houston or Baton Rouge on the weekend, you’d better make sure to read a week of Times-Picayunes looking for your house, or else you may find that your house was demolished by “accident”.
An owner can work their way through the maze of city hall, but they are sent from one department to another. They can be assured that their house is off the list, only to see it appear in the Times-Picayune with the next publishing of the list.
I arrived early, I thought, but the meeting had already started. The Times-Picayune reported it as starting at 10:00 am, but the committee decided to get an early start. That is, until the city attorney came in and stopped the meeting.
This isn’t a costume party or a tailgate picnic, you see, it is a public meeting where demolition permits requested by the city to demolish private homes will be awarded. Starting it early is illegal and all the more reason to sue the city.
In Their Infinite Wisdom
The next step was a move to a larger room on another floor. The proceedings got underway. It went on for hours.
A typical hearing is a person asking to have the city demolition denied, or else asking to have a demolition approved. Then there is public comment, a motion is made to permit demolition, deny demolition, or defer until a later meeting. There is a second. There is a vote. Any tie is broken by the chair.
How are these demolitions determined? There are seven criteria.
- Condition of structure.
- Architectural significance of structure.
- Historical significance of structure.
- Urban Design significance of structure as it relates to: a) pedestrian perception and movement. b) height, area and bulk of the structure and how it relates to the street scene, traffic, and other buildings in the vicinity.
- Neighborhood context of subject structure, including the condition and architectural, historical and urban design significance of other structures in the vicinity of the subject structure.
- Proposed length of time the site is anticipated to remain undeveloped.
- Proposed plan for redevelopment, and it’s relationship to principle 4.
Those are some impressive criteria. How are these criteria applied to the Imminent Health Threat properties? How do we as the public scrutinize these decisions? Are there documents? No. Are there surveys? No.
There are photographs that FEMA which are months old. One property’s determination was based on photographs taken in July of 2007. Otherwise, there is nothing to available at the meeting or available to the public. This is why Karen Gadbois and Sarah Elise Lewis photograph the houses for Squandered Heritage. They arrive at the meeting, sometimes with the only record of the current state of the house.
There is no record of the meeting. No minutes are kept. There is no public access to the evidence used to make a determination. The only way to obtain them is through a public records request under the Louisiana public records law.
When a public records request by the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization was fulfilled on one home, they found that the only photograph in city’s record was a shot of the roof of the house from the I-10 overpass. There was a list of criteria which were almost all marked as 100% damaged, including 100% of floor coverings damaged, even though the house was two stories and the second story could not have flooded. Unfortunately, the house was demolished, so there’s no way to check the percentages now.
With this evidence, the house was determined to be an Imminent Health Threat.
How are determinations made? When asked we where told that there were processes. Did these processes produce any reports? No, we were told that the determination drew upon wisdom of the committee.
Not a trace left for oversight, not once the house becomes a lot.
Smackdown
Jackie Clarkson was present for a two hours, before she asked to speak to the committee. She asked the committee to appear before city council to explain its operations.
Mark your calendars for January 24th, 2008. More on this later.
No Method to the Madness
Here the highlights from the HCDRC meeting form Monday morning and afternoon.
- Nelson Savoie is a man who does I don’t know what, but he likes officiate. When the tiny room that seats 16 or so people overflowed, he told Michelle Kimball of the Preservation Resource Center that everyone could go home and she could represent her poeple. That we where her people was a surprise to all of us. He was curtly reminded of the Louisiana public meeting laws by any number of us. No idea what’s going on, this one.
- Nelson Savoie and Johnny Odom simultaneously co-chairing the meeting. Officious Nelson responds to some chatter in the room by threating to have people removed, at which point Nelson is cowed by someone in the audience asking why he’s sitting on the committee when he is not a member.
- Hilary Carrere and Johnny Odom telling the audience, repeatedly, that many “processes” have already occurred by the time the HCDRC meeting is held.
- Jenel Hazzlet’s request for documentation of the many “processes”, and the slack-jawed non-response from Mr. Carrere and Mr. Odom.
- Johnny Odom taking a moment to read a letter into the record, until he was reminded that there was no court reporter, audio recorder or secretary to create a record into which the letter could be read.
- You’d think that if you were the one who to demolish 130 structures that didn’t belong to you, you’d show up to a meeting like this one. Not our city government. The young man sitting at the table for the entire meeting, who had said he was “a representative of the City Attorney’s office” was in fact not an attorney, not from the City Attorney’s office, but was, in fact, an employee of DRC, a demolition contractor.
Improvisational Government
No City Attorney, false start, no documentation, no minutes, permits raised that were not on the agenda, a date with Jackie Clarkson at city council to explain their operation, plus the presence of a camcorder and it began to sink in. The HCDRC would not be able to wing it anymore.
Stand-in committee member Wes Taylor of Environmental Enforcement realized that the whole process is so broken and precarious that he motioned to defer all of the remaining agenda items (all of the Imminent Heath Threat list demolitions for which no applicant or owner was present) until the next meeting.
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The city’s not the only massively dysfunctional bureaucracy at work. The Recovery School District didn’t even show up in support of the demolition of Lockett Elementary, while people who want it save did show. That earned it a third straight deferral, which is supposedly a de facto denial.
We need a moratorium on demolitions right now.
[...] This was decided by the Housing Conservation District Review Committee at a meeting that took place on the last day of the year, December 31st. Alan was there and provides a comprehensive account of just how dysfunctional the meeting revealed HCDRC to be. The indefatigable Matt McBride has also been circulating an analysis of what’s wrong with HCDRC. If you really want to get your blood boiling, read this letter from a homeowner who was subject to an erroneous demolition. [...]
Don’t know if it’s the same DRC.
Offhand, I’d say that it would take at least two of three factors to produce something like this.
1) Bureaucratic bumbling and indifference.
2) Corruption.
3) Unfathomable stupidity compounded by unbelievable arrogance.
On the last point, you have at least three colossal egos belong to major demolition proponents. Nagin, Blakely and Couhig all seem eager to bulldoze anything outside of a few rich or historic areas. Don’t know how much sway Couhig still has through his NORA position.
I met Savoie once, when he ran for City Council in 2002. He seemed like a jerk, but I couldn’t say why. I really don’t trust unclassified city employees from the Morial administration who managed to keep a position with Nagin.
Ok, you’ve succeeded in getting my blood boiling. Despite everything that I have witnessed in the last few years, it still amazes me that this committee can be this stupid and dysfunctional. Don’t they know that those people who are back in the area are watching the city and state officials? I guess I’ll be writing to our City Council regarding my opinion on this subject. I’m glad Jackie Clarkson was there. I only wish it hadn’t taken her two hours to stop the meeting.
completely outrageous. sue.
Laura
Jackie wasn’t there to stop the meeting. She can’t. The meeting has the force of law, even run the way it’s run.
Jackie watched for two hours, then she spoke to the committee and told them to appear before city council.
Then the meeting continued for another three hours. They were the only ones who could stop themselves.
We are very fortunate that Jackie is taking this up as an issue. You should write your council person and send Jackie a letter of support. Thank you for reading.
This government needs a complete house cleaning. At what point to we begin to question the effectiveness of City Charter itself in possessing even basic rule-making capabilities?
[...] in the Air Jump to Comments Ray Nagin and all his friends and cronies are completely evil and are making me think twice about moving back to New [...]
bayoustjohndavid
I agree with you 100 percent on those three Demolition people: Rob Couhig, Nagin, and Blakely. Rob does not have the highest position at NORA, I think he might be like 3rd or 4th in command at NORA. Couhig is officially the secretary of NORA and I don’t know what the heck he does. We all know Nagin gave him that job because of Couhig’s support for Nagin at the last minute. If we had Mitch Landrieu for mayor then none of this would be happening right now. I mean NORA has even publicly admitted that it does not understand the own process so why do know why there are all these useless positions at NORA.. I am terrified of what will happen to all these Road Home properties that NORA will inherit, I mean if you read their draft about what they plan to do they do not even say that they will save all SALVEGALBLE historic properties they will only save historic properties the call “salvageable†where it is “economically feasible†for them to do so. Gosh it’s all such BS
It’s horrible to tear down perfectly good houses that people are trying to get back into. The system is flawed to say the least. However… this coin has 2 sides.
There are many houses that do pose an imminent health threat that are taking too long to be taken care of. The one I live next to is a prime example. Its roof is collapsed. Pieces of the house fall off onto my property. It has never been gutted and is covered in mold inside. Until approximately 3 months ago it was open and a haven for rodents. Until that time, the grass had only been cut by members of my household in the front yard. In the back yard, the grass was 6 feet high.
I have complained, but it still stands. I know that the owner has no plans for the property and has abandoned it. Since we question anyone who arrives at the property, we know that it has been scheduled for demolition for almost a year. Approximately 8 months ago, we were told the property would be coming down within 30 days. Finally, this past week, Cox and Entergy removed their wiring from the home because it is scheduled for demolition. How much longer will it take?
This law was originally written to protect people like me and my family. Yet, it is not working for us either because we definitely live next to a building that is an imminent health threat.