The Fruits of Fascism - New Orleans Reduced to White Playland

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The definition of fascism includes the wedding of government and corporate interests to serve the needs of the wealth who control the corporations. Here’s the undeniable proof. New Orleans was a conglomerate of rich and poor, black and white, with red and blue politics. Then Katrina struck. The federal government’s inefficiencies are now seen in a new light. The net result of the catastrophe is displayed in the following article. The poor have been removed permanently. The policies of rebuilding (sic) resulted in an environment where there’s no room for the poor to return. Low cost housing is being destroyed and high income replacements are assuring that New Orleans will end up a theme part for upper income whites. It’s so bad that the UN has objected.

All the while, the political process goes merrily along with no one pointing out this very public set of events that gives the reward for Bush-Cheney neglect to their wealthy contributor class and the corporations that they control. Mission accomplished!

Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0803/S00126.htm

Half of New Orleans's Poor Permanently Displaced

By Bill Quigley

Government reports confirm that half of the working poor, elderly and disabled who lived in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina have not returned. Because of critical shortages in low-cost housing, few now expect tens of thousands of poor and working people to ever be able to return home.

• Medicaid medical assistance recipients -.134,000 to 72,000
• The Social Security Administration - 38,000 to 19,000 recipients.
• Public school enrollment – 66,000 to 32,000
• Families on food stamps in New Orleans – 47,000 to 23,000
• Public transit usage numbers are down 75 percent since Katrina.

The black population of New Orleans has plummeted by 57 percent, while white population fell 36 percent, according to census data. Areas that are fully recovering are more affluent and predominately white. New Orleans, which was 67 percent black before Katrina, is estimated to be no higher than 58 percent black now.

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Stop Evicting Katrina Survivors

In the most blatant sign of government action to reduce the numbers of poor people in New Orleans, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is demolishing thousands of intact public housing apartments. HUD is spending nearly $1 billion with questionable developers to end up with much less affordable housing. Right after Katrina, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson predicted New Orleans was "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." He then worked to make that prediction true.

United Nations officials recently called for an immediate halt to the demolition of public housing in New Orleans, saying demolition is a violation of human rights and will force predominately black residents into homelessness.

The rebuilding has gone as many planned. Right after Katrina, one wealthy businessman told The Wall Street Journal, "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically."

The political implications of a dramatic reduction in poor and working - mostly African-American - people in New Orleans are straightforward. The reduction directly helps Republicans, who have fought for years to reduce the impact of the overwhelmingly Democratic New Orleans on statewide politics in Louisiana.

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Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans. He can be reached at [e-mail] Interested persons can contact Hope House through Don Everard at [e-mail].

Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0803/S00126.htm

P.S.

But here’s the sequel. They can build their fascist fantasy land on the bayou but there will be a price. Here’s what happens to New Orleans when we hit just a 1 meter rise in sea level, now more likely than ever by 2100 - but happening in increments all the way. What do you do when mother nature comes down on you?

New Orleans in red