Housing problems abound in NO : Lone Star Times

Housing problems abound in NO

by Owen Courrèges · 11/02/2005 1:50 pm

Well, FEMA is again catching flak — now for not putting up temporary housing quickly enough in New Orleans. However, this story sounds a tad fishy:

The housing problems, made worse by what some claim is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s slow response to install temporary trailers, have blocked many New Orleans residents from returning to jobs in businesses that are struggling to come back, local officials and business owners say.

“I’ve been trying to start up and run under the worst circumstances,” said Elizabeth Turnbull, owner of Turnbull Bakeries Inc., a commercial bakery that before the storm had 80 people making Melba toast and fresh bread crumbs for customers around the country.

Many of her employees lived in the Irish Channel neighborhood in Uptown, where their homes were flooded. Today, they are scattered from Atlanta to Houston to Dallas.

Problem? The Irish Channel did not flood. It boarders the river, and is several feet above sea level. This doesn’t mean that New Orleans doesn’t have housing problems, but it does show that the media isn’t vetting what they’re being told. That’s disturbing by itself.

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Comments

6 Responses to “Housing problems abound in NO”

Songbird on November 2nd, 2005 at 2:45 pm

What, you mean President Bush missed a neighborhood? Send in the apaches!

By the way, saying a story in the Houston Comical sounds fishy is being a bit redundant, isn’t it?
MissFish on November 2nd, 2005 at 3:21 pm

I know the trailer thing is held up in places. There’s supposed to be wild opposition to it from “caretaker” groups who obviously know better than the victims of Katrina what’s good for them. And in their opinion it ain’t “trailer ghettos.” Hmmmm, seems to me new trailers can’t be ghettos right away can they? Something has to HAPPEN to a new trailer community to make it a ghetto.

Another problem is the company transporting the trailers. My DH is supposed to be working on the tracking system so they can get shipped and accounted for, and something, I don’t know what, is holding up the contracts or the provider.

At any rate, basically the administration is damned for not providing housing, and damned for the kind of housing they can provide.
squawkbox on November 2nd, 2005 at 4:37 pm

Scowl from SOWL in 1977 fouls levee upgrades for New Orleans
It has come to my attention that President Bush has received the blame because the levees were never upgraded over the past million years or so. So could someone please explain this to me.

Activists Blocked New Orleans Levee Plan
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

A massive levee system, approved by President Lyndon Johnson and supported by the Army Corps of Engineers during the Carter administration, would have held back the flood waters from Hurricane Katrina and saved the city of New Orleans, scientists and engineers have concluded. The proposed levee system was abandoned after environmental activist groups sued to stop construction of the project.

SNIP

Save Our Wetlands (SOWL) led the opposition to the levee project. The activist group, which still raises significant money in pursuit of an extremist agenda, proudly proclaims on its Web site its role in scuttling the needed levees: “While politicians talk, SOWL sues! SOWL has been involved in countless lawsuits involving Lake Ponchartrain on every subject,” including “New Orleans Mosquito Control Drainage schemes in wetlands of New Orleans East” and “Corps of Engineers Hurricane Barrier Project” (http://www.saveourwetlands.org/history.html).

Just wondering where the cry of condemnation that should directed at them is.
Rorschach on November 2nd, 2005 at 4:38 pm

Of course it smells fishy, The Comical is fishwrap!
SC on November 2nd, 2005 at 4:44 pm

Dang, I wanted to say that.
StacyE on November 3rd, 2005 at 8:42 am

What it really means is the author got a quote from the first person he/she talked to and couched it the way he wanted it to be understood. He probably had the title to the story nailed down before he had the quote.

Bad journalism. This whole trend is why newspaper sales are expected to continue to plummet next year.