Farewell

Loyal readers, I am approaching the end of my time here. On Tuesday, I fly home. Most of the planning unit is shutting down, there will only be a handful of local hires left.

I am eager to be home. It is hard to be away, almost five months now. It was hard to have a normal life on the road, even when I had an apartment. Part of the problem was working 60 hours a week. Beyond that, there were no daily rituals. There were no favorite diners, coffee shops or even mailmen. There was no opportunity to personalize my apartment, no family photos, no favorite pictures on the wall. Part of the problem was working all the time. I was so often exhausted after work that all I wanted to do is sleep. Many evenings I would go walking through neighborhoods, but that is it. It will be nice to back among friends and neighbors.

I wish I could leave here claiming great achievements. I wish I could say I did my part to help save Jefferson Davis. The truth is, all I can say is I tried. What we did more than anything is peddle hope. Our end product http://www.louisianaspeaks-parishplans.org/indparishhomepage.cfm?EntID=13 is marginally useful. It is poorly written and contrived.

Selling optimism counts for something. Hope is essential for survival. Without it, there would be nothing, people would move away. At the same time, hope is only useful if it carries you over until healing can begin. I am afraid that the process we led the Parish though gave them hope, but distracted them from other activities that might have helped them hearing.

For a doctor to offer hope to a cancer patient helps them survive. For a snake oil salesman to distract people from getting real assistance makes them worse. I don't know which we did.

Moment of Truth

The moment of truth is coming soon for Jefferson Davis County.

Up until now people have been wildly optomistic about how many people will return. Some politicians claim the population will up to 50 percent of prestorm levels in a few months. For that matter, even the current population is a big question mark. I think it hovers around 7000. The government claims upwards of 15,000. Many former residents make optomistic statements about planning to return.

The moment of truth is coming soon, in the next couple of months. The State (with federal money) is offering up to $150,000 to help people whose houses were flooded. Residents must either chose to 1) renovate their house 2) knock down and rebuild their house or 3) move.

This will either be the savor for the county or the death knell.

I am worried that 90 percent of home owners will choose to move. You can't have a county with 6,000 people - if this happens, there will be no county. What's worse, if it becomes clear that most people are moving, residents that want to stay will move. What after all, do you do if you are the only person who wants to remain on the block.

Imagine that, a county of 66,000 where post disaster, the population settles at 6000. Perhaps the whole government will cease to exist and be merged with the neighboring county.

The reason I am worried is the lack of progress of progress, which will push more people to move. There are a couple of areas that has not been much progress. Almost no houses have been rebuilt. Debris is still everywhere. Phone and electricity and water are not available for large areas of the community. Most importantly, there has been almost no progress in deciding which parts of the community will be rebuilt and which will be bought out and turned to greenspace. Who wants to try to rebuild a life amid such uncertainty?

The state is finilizing the housing buyout/ repair program now, and they should soon announce the deadlines for signing up.

Then, the future will start to become clear.

News

The home page for internet explorer on our government computers is set to an internal FEMA webpage. There is a steady stream of news articles, none of which I have ever read. Here are some recent samples:

There are the informational one
"Yamhill County Designated For Public Assistance"

The propoganda
"FEMA Remains Committed to Recovery for Those Affected by Hurricane Rita"

And the just perplexing
"Recertification, What Does It All Mean?"

Scope Five

Design charrette for business corridor redevelopment and development of a 28-acre site across from the church that would include a new church, chapel, and senior housing complex (independent, assisted, and nursing home – find right term).

Development of the existing site as a trailer site for 99 travel trailers is currently underway (check status/progress/costs/etc). FEMA will install infrastructure that will be permanent and reusable for the permanent development of the site.

Surveys, design fees, construction budgets, master plan, phasing plan

Existing wetlands – assessments, impact studies? What is involved with ACE?

Indirect job development: healthcare workers

This project should include all the components from the project? Is there an existing association of business owner to champion the planning component?

New Orleans East is home to over 8,000 Vietnamese Americans living in a tightly knit community since 1975. Hurricane Katrina has severely damaged homes and neighborhoods, but the community is determined to return and rebuild. Much of the recovery work has been done; now the community is looking towards long-term planning and redevelopment. The Community Rebuilding Workshop marks the beginning of these efforts.

24 businesses have sprung back to life, including restaurants, grocery stores and even a dentist office

Scope Four

This project, while worthwhile, will not really help New Orleans recover. Again these are supposed to be projects that are essential for the city to recover.


This is a program designed to provide for the demolition and salvage of historic buildings deemed structurally unsound, immovable, etc. that have been slated for removal. The program would provide an opportunity to save valuable historic building components such as windows and doors, ridge tiles, wood flooring, etc. as well as distinct decorative elements such as brackets, moldings, baseboards, etc. In conjunction with existing non-profit salvage and resale programs at New Orleans Habitat for Humanity’s Project ReStore and the Green Project as well as Delgado Community College, this program would provide for a variety of opportunities to help maintain the distinct character of New Orleans historic architecture by providing authentic and re-useable materials to the construction market.

Another important component of this program is the link to the Delgado Community College current degree offering for Architectural/Design Construction Technology and the proposed Workforce Development Program. One component of the salvage operation would include photographic and illustrative documentation of building components, similar to the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program administered by the National Park Service and housed at the Library of Congress. This documentation portion of the program would be offered as part of the curriculum for this degree, and allow the college to build a database of drawings and photographs that would aid in the reproduction of the limited supply of authentic elements. This database would be available to architects, historians, homeowners, construction trades, etc. as a reference tool for building projects that incorporate historic elements. The proposed Workforce Development program includes construction trades that would benefit from the documentation efforts, which would provide patterns and models for reproduction of components. These trades would also have the opportunity for on the job training in careful demolition and salvage operations, as well as to learn about historic construction techniques and methods important in the New Orleans area restoration efforts.

Scope Three

This one is so limited in nature it is not a real project. Mind you, the project does not call for writing new building codes, it calls for reserving a space so building codes can be written at some point. At least it is not a newspaper article!

The New Orleans downtown Development District is requesting an amendment to the pending legislation, which would provide for changes to the State Uniform Construction Code. The current legislation does not allow for the challenges, which relate to the redevelopment of older historic and non-historic buildings. A uniform building code that does not consider this would likely slow the pace of reinvestment because it could make the redevelopment cost prohibitive. Likewise, predictability of cost is important. Although current provisions of the IBC do allow for code variances, it is determined on a case-by-case basis. This does not allow for predictability across different code an inspector that is so important to developers and financiers of redevelopment projects in older cities such as New Orleans and those in other parts of the State. This approach has worked successfully in New Jersey, resulting in an accelerated pace of redevelopment and the winning national awards for innovation in government.


The DDD would like an amendment “to hold a place” for a specific code section which would be titled a “Rehabilitation Sub Code.” By holding a place for a a section to be added later, the specific code provisions will be developed in the future by experts including code officials, fire officials, architects, people with disabilities, government representatives and other professionals as envisioned in the planned legislation for the groups to be represented on The Louisiana State Uniform Code Council.

The DDD has determined that this type of specific rehab sub code was necessary even before the recent hurricanes. The fact that many of the older buildings in downtown fared very will during the storm supports the logic of the approach requested in the amendment. A specific rehab sub code would allow the DDD and the city of New Orleans to address the problems associated with the redevelopment of upper floors of Canal St, other historic areas, and non-historic older buildings as well; all while allowing for the specific input of code and building safety professionals.

Scope Two

Same thing with this one. Not a scope at all. Just something someone saw in the Newspaper.

Catholic Charities plans to develop 4,000 homes

Many housing units were ruined in storm

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

By Greg Thomas

Real estate writer

Catholic Charities plans to build 4,000 rental homes and apartments in an attempt to address the area's shortage of affordable housing, according to Jim Kelly, executive director.

The new units, when combined with the housing Catholic Charities already operates in the city, would make the social outreach arm of the Archdiocese of New Orleans one of the larger landlords in the city limits. Catholic Charities has 2,700 rental units already in place in the metro area, although 2,000 of those require Katrina-related repairs. It plans to do business -- nonprofit business -- as Providence Community Housing.

The new units will take shape in several different projects:

-- The creation of 2,000 units in mixed-income communities, setting aside about 500 units for the disabled or elderly.

-- The construction of 1,000 modular homes.

-- The construction of 1,000 apartment units.

Kelly would not reveal the locations of the projects. He did say that church property, in many instances, would be used to accommodate the new housing.

To develop the 2,000-unit mixed-income projects, Catholic Charities may seek Department of Housing and Urban Development HOPE VI funds.

To help pay for the rest of the projects, Kelly said, his agency hopes to snag a portion of the $65 million in low-income housing tax credits that will be made available in Louisiana this year. This year's Gulf Opportunity Zone Act increased the volume of tax credits available in the state from $8.5 million a year ago. The program also sets aside $65 million in tax credits for the state in 2007 and 2008.

Applications for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program must be turned in by April 17 to the Louisiana Housing Finance Authority. Each project will be graded by board members on a point scale, with the projects with the highest points winning the credits.

Local real estate broker Larry Schedler said the archdiocese, because of its non-profit status and good reputation, will be a strong applicant.

Kelly said he is desperate to make sure low-income residents are given a chance to return to New Orleans.

He said the rebuilding of New Orleans "has got to give all of the people the opportunity to come home."

Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of New Orleans have long had a commitment to meeting community housing needs.

Before Katrina hit, Christopher Homes, the arm of the archdiocese that concentrates on providing low-income housing, ran about 2,700 units, most in complexes and some in scattered sites, according to executive director Dennis Adams.

About 1,200 of those units were damaged in the storm and are not in use, Adams said.

Last week, Catholic Charities, JPMorgan Chase and Fannie Mae teamed up to build five new homes in the Treme area.

Chase financed the five homes at zero down payment and zero interest for households that qualified for assistance, said Chase spokesman Chris Spencer. Spencer said that Chase worldwide has loaned $3 billion for economic development in low- and moderate-income areas.

John Kallenborn, president of New Orleans JPMorgan Chase Bank, said he's just ended a term on the board of Catholic Charities and has the utmost respect for the group's development efforts.

"It's fun for us to be involved in these first five homes and we're excited to ride with the archdiocese the whole way," Kallenborn said.

New Orleans Scope One

Here is one of the scopes I was given. I will notice it is not a project at all, it is just a newspaper article.


Daron Davis lives in a trailer in the parking lot behind Drago’s Seafood Restaurant in Metairie.

It’s miles away from his flooded South Roman Street home in New Orleans and hours from Alexandria, where he evacuated during the storm.

The trailer doesn’t look like much outside. It’s one of nine taking up about 20 parking spaces in the Fat City section of Metairie, across the street from Crazy Johnnie’s Steakhouse, the nightclub Toxic and a church.

But it’s convenient for Davis, who began working as a maintenance man at Drago’s two months ago. He took the job because housing was part of the deal.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” said the New Orleans native, who is saving up to buy a home. “It’s a blessing.”

Davis is one of the lucky ones. So many other hospitality workers still need a place to live that business owners are working on a plan to house service workers in trailers on the West Bank.

About four months ago, Warren Reuther, president of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Board, proposed a “Hospitality Village” be placed on 23 acres off Mardi Gras Boulevard in Algiers to house hospitality workers.

He and a group of private investors bought the land for an undisclosed amount. They have been working out housing specifics ever since.

“Are we going to do it? Yes,” Reuther said. “Is it going to be a hospitality village? Yes. But we’re not sure if we’re going to use modular homes or trailers. We have to decide what route we’re going to take that would be best for our workers. We want to do it but we want to make sure we do the right thing.”

Reuther said the decision should be made this week.

Leo Skinner, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA would lease the pads for the trailers to the private investors if they need trailers. It will cost FEMA between $700 and $800 per month for each pad, which includes all utilities. It would be in lieu of each family receiving rental assistance, Skinner said.

“While the trailers would be used for hospitality workers, I want to underline that to live there, you must be FEMA-eligible. They can’t just bring anyone onto that site,” Skinner said. “We understand in order to help get people back to the city and support the economy, there is a need for housing. However, if we don’t fill it with (hospitality) workers, we will fill it with other eligible applicants. We’d like a no-vacancy policy.”

More than enough hospitality workers need a place to live, industry officials say.

“We’ll be able to fill that with hospitality people,” said Tom Weatherly, vice president of communications and research for the Louisiana Restaurant Association. “I feel certain that between the restaurants and hotels downtown, there are more than 350 families eligible. People are eager to come back to the city but they need to have a place to stay.”

Business owners are eager for Reuther, the investors and FEMA to raise the Hospitality Village.

“We need to do whatever we can to bring the working back,” said Tommy Cvitanovich, Drago’s owner. “There are not enough trailers in the city right now and there’s nowhere near enough employees in the city. My people are working 60 hours per week and we’re not open for Saturday lunch and still close an hour early every day.”•

Sample Scope from Jefferson Davis

Here is a sample from Jefferson Davis County to give you an idea of what they are supposed to look like.

Builders' and Renovators' Row

The Builders’ and Renovators’ Row project will showcase model homes from different builders and modular home manufacturers in a manner that allows residents to compare actual homes and innovative construction techniques when they are selecting their new home. The homes on Builders’ and Renovators’ Row will be constructed in accordance with the state’s The Road Home Housing Program, including meeting the State Uniform Construction Code and Advisory Base Floor Elevations (ABFE) or FIRM base flood elevations when released. The project will be developed as a public/private venture in three neighborhood locations in the parish. These three locations will showcase up to 20 different home styles. The homes showcased will include a wide range of prices and sizes. After three to five years, the homes will be sold at market rate and Builders’ Row will be converted to normal neighborhoods.

This project helps to achieve the parish vision, to reconstruct the community in a stronger, safer manner by providing a highly visible, low cost way to attract high quality builders of hurricane-resistant homes to a parish that lost 99% of its housing stock. In St. Bernard Parish, rebuilding housing is critical for recovery.

Hurricane Katrina damaged every home in the parish. Before the storms there were 25,000 homes in the parish. After the storms 24,500 had major damage or were totaled (HUD, Feb. 2006, Current Housing Unit Damage Estimates). Many of these homes are not repairable. Other homes will not be repaired because they are in neighborhoods that have had repetitive flood damage and/or are located in the lowest lying areas of the parish. These areas may be converted to green space.

Builders’ and Renovators’ Row addresses many of the hurdles involved in rebuilding St. Bernard. One of the challenges facing the parish (and the entire metro area) is the increased cost of building materials and construction costs post- Katrina. Many of the homes found on Builders and Renovators’ Row will be built with modular construction, meaning many components will come pre-assembled from the factory. This type of housing is strong and durable, can incorporate design elements consistent with community standards, and have a lower per square foot construction cost than typical home construction. This provides a benefit to low and moderate income households in the parish that would otherwise not be able to find housing solutions that meet their budgets. This project also addresses the issue of how to rebuild so as to mitigate risk from future hurricanes; all homes will demonstrate hurricane-resistant design and construction methods. By showcasing innovative and inexpensive architecture on Builder’s and Renovators’ Row, the parish will be making a first step toward rebuilding in ways that are stronger and smarter.

Builders Row will be a highly visible sign of recovery in St. Bernard parish. Once a site is identified, the public/private partnership will enable homes to be constructed in less than one year. The project is also locally driven; St. Bernard builders have already expressed great interest in championing this project. The Housing subcommittee of the St. Bernard Citizens Recovery Committee fully supports this project. This project is in accordance with a land use plan developed by Duany-Plater-Zyberg (DPZ) through a series of public charrettes. Builders’ Row has the potential to be the first newly constructed residential block in post-Katrina St. Bernard.

This project has five phases.

I. Develop Procedures

Define criteria for acceptable homes and qualifications for builders

* Ability of homes to withstand hurricanes and floods
* Energy efficiency and green construction methods
* Cost and value of homes
* Size of homes
* Aesthetics
* History of builder’s work
* References

Estimated Time: 2 weeks

Estimated Cost: $0

II. Identify and Secure Sites

* Identify the parcels of land Builders’ Row will occupy
* Obtain necessary permits and government approvals
* Acquire the parcels

Estimated Time: 4 weeks

Estimated Cost:

Land acquisition: $250,000 (this cost absorbed by the builders)

Staff: $15,000

The cost of purchasing the land will be absorbed by builders, who will recoup the cost when they sell the homes at market price. If the parish chooses to accept the risk of purchasing the land prior to identifying builders, the draft version of The Road Home has allocated money to local governments for land assembly operations.

This project is more complex than a simple speculative development, and the parish government will be responsible for a significant amount of oversight. Fifteen thousand is budgeted for staff overhead.

III. Recruit Builders

* Contact builders and solicit design proposals
* Select qualified builders and designs

Estimated Time: 4 weeks

Estimated Cost: $10,000 (parish staff overhead)

IV. Construct Homes

* Homes would be constructed by the builders
* Infrastructure costs would be absorbed by the builders

Estimated Time: 1 to 6 months depending upon type of construction

Estimated Costs: $0

IV. Management

* Tours for the public would be given by the builders
* Minimal oversight by the parish

Estimated Time: 1 to 2 years

Estimated Cost: $0

V. Conversion to Neighborhoods

* Houses would be sold at market rates
* Homes would be an asset to the parish for years to come

Estimated Total Time: 4 to 8 months

Estimated Total Costs: $25,000

New Orleans - read this one before reading Scope entries

The New Orleans team has been beset by problems from the time they started in December. I don't blame the team members.

The politics of New Orleans are so complicated that it is hard to know where to start. Whatever you do, whoever you meet with, you are offending someone. The Mayor has his commission, City council has their process, the planning department has another group. (and FEMA is determined not to get involved in anything controversial or political). Then, the city is having an election and noone wants to decide anything until after the vote. Finally, everyone is still in shock and not ready to decide anything.

Add to this about 20 FEMA employees (most of whom have never been to the city before) and tell them they are supposed to write a recovery plan. The city is not bought in, everyone has other priorities, and noone has time to meet with the FEMA people.

Then try to appreciate the size. It is a city that once had half a million people. There are hundreds of nonprofits, thousands of companies, it is immense. Outreach is a nationwide effort.

Finally, understand that the FEMA employees got no support. The game plan changed constinantly. The entire team was laid off one day and hired back the next day. Directions from above constantly change.

And the 20 people are supposed to write a comprehensive recovery plan - it is not realistic!

But still, when I saw the housing team's projects a few days ago, I was shocked. Five months worth of work (and one week before the deadline) and they had nothing. The recovery projects they identified were crap. It gives you some idea of how ineffective this process has been.

The next couple entries are the project scopes (they are supposed to describe the most important projects for New Orleans to recover). I pasted them word for word from what I was given.

Builders Row

For the past week, we were banned from meeting with people or groups in the parish so we could concentrate on writing up projects. Today we were finally freed to work with the parish again.

We met with the housing subcommittee today. They have decided to work on creating a Builders Row, where people can compare different models of homes. There would be many different builders all at the same location and people can compare and contrast. The theory is that it will be easier for people to agree to leave their homes if they can see what they can afford. It is a good, easy first project.

Today was the moment of truth, when Evan and I took a back seat and let the community members lead the meeting. I have to say, I was impressed! The typical way meetings work is that they spend about 3/4 of the time talking about politics in the parish, the state of recovery, rehashing old material, and despairing the lack of progress, celebrating the potential good they can do, and otherwise just not concentrating on the task at hand. Well, this meeting was no difference, but in the final 1/4 of the time, they made real progress.

They are busy trying to find a location and recruit builders. They are running the meeting, taking minutes and making plans all on their own!

It was nice to see.

Confrontation

From the past couple of entries, Krista comes across sounding bad, and I do think her conduct was unprofessional, but she is not a bad co-worker. The stress clearly gets to her and she snaps, but the rest of the time she is pleasant to work with.

So, as I alluded to yesterday, Krista got pissy because I did not make some changes to a plan yesterday and complained about me to both colleagues and my boss. The reality is that I did not do the changes she wanted because she forgot to send an email to me!

In any case,

I went to Krista today to clear the air and put her on notice about bad mouthing me.

In a very nice voice, I said I wanted to check in. I heard that maybe she wasn't happy with my work or my attitude.

She said, no, it's all ok, there was just a miscommunication.

(i.e. she messed up by not copying me on an email and then jumped to the wrong conclusion)

I said, ok is that it, I just wanted to be sure there were not any other issues.

We talked about a few minor things. I had been resistant to make some edits and I explained it was not about her, rather it was because I did not think it was in the best interest in the parish. Then all was good and she thanked me for taking the time to come in.

Then I said, in the future I would prefer if she had an issue with me, that she talk to me. If she doesn't like my response then she should go to the boss and complain, and that I would prefer if she did not talk to colleague's about my work.

She said, I only talked to Evan because she I wanted some clarification if changes had been made to the website.

(which was a half truth and I called her on it)

I said, it's fine to talk about me if you are just trying to clarify something, but I had understood you had expressed frustration with my work.

While not acknowledging that she was unprofessional, she backed down and said my point was fair and she heard it.

It was a very good conversation and I am happy with how I approached. I cleared the air and also very gently called her on her inappropriate behavior.

Staff meetings

(To fully understand this entry, you need to remember an early entry where I talked about this stupid organizational chart that the bosses worked on for weeks. The chart is the joke of the office, in large part because its development meant the Biloxi team did not have a Team Lead for 10 days of their four week extension. None of us paid any attention to what it said, at least so I thought.)

There are two senior staff meetings every day, 8:30 am and 5:00 pm. The 8:30 is especially important because it provides an opporuntity to highlight all the accomplishments in our work and changes to the plan that happened while we slept.

One team member, Krista, has been attending the daily senior staff meeting at 5:00 pm everyday. Even the Team Lead does not like attending the meeting, because it is lots of talk and not much essential information. Krista is not a senior staff. There are ten people working on Jeff Davis issues, and she is not the team lead or the deputy team lead. Maybe you could call her the third in command out of ten. The team lead told her she did not need to attend the senior staff meeting, but she responded, "It is expected that someone at my place in the organizational chart would attend the senior staff meetings."

It is amazing how much the dynamic has changed when they replaced most of the team.

Not in trouble

Don't read too much in to the past couple blog entries. They give the impression that I don't fit in or that my work is not valued. Neither of these are true, they are two isolated stories, not representative of the entire workplace environment.

Bad line, bad!

Some of the big edits that the bosses have made to my writing has been to tone down the damage section. I wrote the section trying to get across the urgency of the situation. (For instance, 99.99% of houses were damaged. Today, eight months after the hurricane, two percent of the houses have been made habitable,).

I say things like, “
Some low income home owners who do not qualify for The Road Home Program (a State bailout) will not be able to afford necessary repairs, forcing them to move or live in dangerous conditions. Houses in poor condition will also reduce the property values of entire neighborhoods. Furthermore, there will likely be displacement as many former low and moderate income residents whose homes were totaled will not be able to afford new houses due to the high cost of new construction.”

And it is too controversial.

The biggest mistake I made was this line:
“Without housing there are no people and without people is no Parish.”
I thought it was eloquent and made the point that (aside from flood protection) housing is the most important issue in the Parish.

I was told this line was condescending to the reader and a slap in the face to our work. I am missing something because I don’t understand why that is such a bad line. I had to ask Evan, a colleague, and he said he thinks that it implies we may not succeed. That our attitude should be, the Parish is coming back, and it is just a matter of finding the right mix of projects to help it along.

In any case, the line was replaced with the following: Housing is essential for health of the Parish.

Let the Heads (and Eyes) Roll

I almost got fired twice today. The first time I was asking for it.

The past couple of days I have grown increasingly concerned because we are changing Jeff Davis recovery plan in ways that will make FEMA look better, but will hurt the county. (I will try to explain some more context about what we were doing in another entry). Krista, a sub-boss, told me to do some more edits on the plan and it was the last straw. I explained to the team lead that would make this round of edits, but that would be it for me. I was not interested in continuing to work for FEMA if it meant I would have to continue to change the plan in a way that I thought was not good for the county. He tried to explain that I was hired as a contractor for FEMA and my job was to make FEMA look good. I explained that if my job meant I was not helping the county, it was time to end my employment. I would work on other things, but not editing the plan, and if he needed to fire me, that was ok. He said there would be no firings, and in any case he did not have the authority to fire me.* (I did not point out that the person with that authority was right down the hall). We talked around the issue for a while and decided to see what happened after that round of edits.

So I did the edits and sent them to Evan, a colleague, to get his opinion. He liked them so I asked him to forward them to Krista, the person who had asked me to make the edits in the first place. He did so, copying me. I went to get some water and while I was gone Krista came in and said Evan or I should post the projects on the web. Evan had not been involved (his only role had been as an extra pair of eyes) so he passed the information on to me, telling me, “Krista said you should put the projects up on the web.” (it is a web based plan, no paper copy).

I posted the projects. Krista came in and asked, “Did you post the projects?” I said yes and shortly after I headed home.

Little did I know that really Krista had made some edits to the project and included them in a reply to Evan’s email. Krista forgot to copy me on the email so I had no idea she wanted edits. When she discovered that I had posted the unedited version she interpreted it as a direct affront to her and had a major hissy fit (or so Evan reports to me).

Evan looked over her email and realized that she forgot to copy me and went to her office to explain the misunderstanding. He discovered her in the middle of writing an email to the boss explaining how rude I was behaving.

So, in the end I almost got my wish, but so far have been spared.

* It is an odd thing at FEMA that bosses don’t have the authority to fire the people they supervise, but it is true.

Dinner

I had dinner with a colleague yesterday. He came over to the house where I am housesitting and made a feast. He is from Afghanistan, so he made a mountain of food the names of which I can not pronounce. There was a yogurt/sourcream/noodle soup, a spinach and lamb dish and a browned rice with chicken and vegetables (browned with burned sugar). (Normally I do not eat meat, but I made an exception) It was fabulous!

Haider, my colleague that was cooking, says that he feels most comfortable in the kitchen and it has been five months since he has been able to cook. Indeed, he is very serious about the kitchen (there is an Afghani expression: the kitchen makes the meal, the cook gets the credit), and he insisted on coming over to look over the place before agreeing to cook. What he found on his visit would determine what dishes he could make.

He was not very happy with the pot and pan selection. There was nothing big enough, we would have to limit the number of people. Then he decided that he would have to buy some more pots for the meal to be a success. He headed out but a few minutes later I discovered the stash of canning pots and other huge dishes. He came rushing back and declared while not perfect, the dishes would do. Still, we would have to limit the number to six.

We invited two additional colleagues, whose company I also really enjoy, so there was a total of four of us, a comfortable number considering the limited kitchen facilities.

We sat out in the back yard, a small brick patio surrounded by flowers and ate and talked. After the sun set, we broke out candles and continued to eat. Eventually the candles burned low, we turned into plump round content balls of Afghani food and retired for the night.

(As a side note, we had easily enough food for 20. We barely made a dent in the vast quantities and I have been eating it as left over for days!)

coming home soon

I am expect to come home on or around May 1st. We have essentially finished the Jefferson Davis County projects and are helping out with the New Orleans projects now. Everything is supposed to be wrapped up on Friday, Saturday we return our equipment, Sunday we are supposed to go home.

I am going to the Jazz Fest, http://www.nojazzfest.com/
instead of traveling straight home.

The AMAZING lineup includes:
Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
Ani Difranco
Jimmy Buffet
Dave Mathews Band
Elvis Costello
Dr. John
Bruce Springstein

TV

I have been house sitting for week or so. There is no clock in my bedroom, so I just turn on the TV if I don't have my watch handy. There is satellite TV so I have 300 channels of crap and 3 channels of movies to choose from (plus it tells me time). I had left the TV on one of the movie stations, I think HBO. When I went to bed, a little before midnight, it was some standard hollywood movie. When I turned the TV in the morning to check the time, I discoverd a porno movie. Am I missing something? It was 6:50 am. Who watches pornos at 6 am? Doesn't it make more sense to put pornos on late at night?

Baseball

A member of the Citizens Recovery Committee owns the local AAA team (that will give you some idea that the CRC is not representative of the community). Walter was nice enough to give us two dozen tickets to a recent game against the Albuquerque Isotypes.

I like minor league baseball. It is very family frienly, with kids everywhere. There is even a playground adjacent to the stadium so kids can go play if they get bored. You also get to sit close enough that you feel connected.

Baseball, of course, is not that exciting, by its nature. Minor League even more so. In fact the most exciting thing that happened was a conversation I overheard when I went to the bathroom. From the stall came the stern southern drawl speaking in fatherly tones.

I'm not pulling down your pants, you pull down your own pants.
Well, why did you say you wanted to go potty if you won't pull down your pants.
Now sit down on the toilet, you can't poop unless you sit down.
You have to sit down to poop!
Well why did you say you had to go potty?
Ok, then pull up your pants and lets go.
If you're not going to poop, we are going to go.

I assume there was a child in there who was whispering answers but I can not be sure.

Destination Biloxi

My friend and I were the other day, and it is amazing that Biloxi is not the prime destination for recent college grads in this country. It has so much to offer: beautiful architecture, cheap rent, liberal politics, amazing music, phenomenal food, tons of local stores, billions of cafes and vibrant neighborhoods. It should compete with San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Boston as hip destinations, but it does not.

The only thing it lacks is jobs. Part of the reason high tech and high skill companies do not come here is because the work force is not good. Low labor force participation, low education, bad schools all are drains and mean companies do not even consider Biloxi. It is a catch 21, if there were high tech jobs, college students would come. Without college students, there are no good jobs.

The Mail Must Get Through

When I write blog entries like this, where I am forced to think about how bad things are in the county, I get upset. I feel like all the work I have done identifying projects is irrelevant. I am not even sure what could have been done that would be better, but I see my projects listed on the state's website and I think, why bother?
In any case...

People are surprised when I tell them that there is no mail delivery in the County. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow goes the jingle... To live or work in the county, it is obvious that there is no mail delivery. The disconnect is the that unless you are here, you can understand the overwhelming scale of the disaster and the glacial pace of the cleanup. People assume that because it has been eight months, things must be getting back to normal. They are not.

On August 28, 2005, there were 25,000 occupied houses in Jefferson Davis County. 99.99 percent of those sustained significant damage. Ninety nine percent of the houses still sit empty today. If you want to be generous, maybe you could say that two percent are occupied, but honestly, that would be a stretch. Of the 24,500 houses that sit empty, at least half have not been gutted. They stand, or lean, with broken windows, busted doors blocked by rotting sofas and collapsed ceilings and mold everywhere. Several streets are impassable because the houses have slid off their foundations and now reside in the middle of the road. Lawns are dead, trees are knocked over and cars rest on fences, resembling modern lean-tos. Of the 66,000 people that once lived in St. Bernard, 10,000 have returned, maybe. The families that have returned live in trailers provided by FEMA that are eight feet wide and 24 feet long. The trailers are either in peoples yards or in trailer parks. The parks are located in parking lots off of major roads, surrounded by chain link fences. The rows and rows of identical trailers have about four feet of space on either side, and there are no trees to offer shade from the Mississippi sun. There are no addresses in the lots, even if the post office wanted to deliver mail.

So to be clear, even if the post office wanted to deliver the mail, all their trucks were destroyed in the storm, the sorting facility was underwater and is unusable, there are no employees, many roads and sidewalks of the Parish are not clear, the houses are too hazardous to approach, the mailboxes have been washed away, the street signs are missing, the street lights are out, and no one is home.

Coon Asses

I find crumpled notes stuffed in my bag with words like Coon Ass, big dog, and oyster shells written on them. The story is, I can not write entries for my blog while at work so I am forced to write notes to myself and try to decode them. Some times, I have no idea what I was thinking. Luckily, this time I remember.

There is a big FEMA trailer lot on the government center complex. Is is supposed to be for emergency personnel, doctors, judges, government officials, and the like.

The trailer right by the entry is home to the the biggest coon ass (aka bubba)I have ever seen. The guy is 250 pounds, always sweaty and full of tattoos. He has lost most of his hair up top, but has long greasy locks down the back that go to his shoulder. He has a devil dog that he ties up on his trailers porch that goes postal, barking and throwing himself against his leash in a fit of deafening blind rage, every time I walk by. Mr. Coon Ass has thrown all his oyster shells, some with rotting oyster meat still attached, under his porch, attracting flies and emitting a putrid odor so unpleasant one expects to see a cartoon like animation of swirling dark stinkyness rising from it. I am not sure what essential job he does, but I see him at home at all hours of the day.

Is it any wonder the state is questioning the purchase and distribution of trailers to "emergency personnel.

You got to love the County!

Improving Lives - Redux

I want to add a few additional points to my entry about the hurricane improving lives.

In Southern Louisiana, place matters. It matters like no where else in America. Perhaps to Yankees, this does not make sense. But, the point here is if you are going to say something was good or bad for someone else, you need to understand what they care about.

For instance, all the fuss about between Catholics and Protestants see strange. How can they fight wars? They all believe in Christ, don't they? Not being a Christian it does not make sense. But I recognize and accept that it matters to people what church they go to. You can not take a Catholic and force them to move to a Protestant church and tell them their life is better. It is the same with living in New Orleans. To Yankees, Gentilly might seem the same as the Marigny, which may seem the same as any historic neighborhood anywhere. For people from here, for people who's families have been in the same neighborhood for generations and generations, it does matter.

That is the point. If someone's heart wants to return to a place, and they can not go, it is not the role of outsiders to tell them their life is better in the new city. Maybe in Communist Russia, but not in a modern liberal democracy.

Office Divide

There is a clear division in the office. Two co-workers, both originally part of the planning cell in the capital, are one unit, the other seven of us are the other. The Baton Rouge people are part of the cool kid click and do not do things with us non cool kids. They will turn down lunch invitations and always choose to drive with eachother.

Things came to a head over a recurring pain in the ass issue, The Recovery Value Tool. In theory, this is a checklist that we are supposed to go though to rate projects if they are important for recovery. The county volunteers that we work with feel, and with good reason, that the recovery value tool has been to remove projects that they think are important from the final plan with no consulation. They are also mad because the recovery value criteria were developed at the last minute in a black box and do not work well. Some projects that the feel are essential to recovery get very low ratings.

The cool kids were collegues with the people who developed the recovery value tool and like it. The rest of us saw how it was applied in the field and do not like it.

So, in a staff meeting we were discussing this issue (even though it honestly does not matter for our work) and the cool kids and not-cool kids got into an argument. Esentially the cool kids were defending the tool, saying people should just use it and don't worry about it because we have to use it. The non-cool kids were saying, we the tool sucks and we hate having to use it. The irony is that both points of view are correct.

This issue is actually a pretty good example of the different world views that developed between the planning cell and the people in the field. The people in the central office were under costant political pressure to meet every shifting goals and often felt that the field office was not responsive to the rules that were being sent from above.

In the field, we were much more interested in doing what we believed was the interest of the county and were not understanding of the political disucssions that were happening above us.

In any case, there is only a few weeks left so I suspect the cool kids and the not cool kids will never learn to see eye to eye.

Improving Lives

This essay came out with a fair amount of punch, but it is not really directed at the sub-boss. It is more directed at all those arrogant people out there who presume to know what is best for others....

A few days ago, the sub-boss of the Biloxi team said that he understands that many people died in the hurricanes, but at the same time many people are better off. It is a similar sentiment to the First Lady, and a position that I find obnoxious. It is shocking and upsetting to me that someone who works in this city could say that.

The sub-boss and others who make this argument believe that because poor people will make an extra $2 an hour their lives will be better. People without much money are not complex humans, rather they are “poor”, a disease so horrible that a partial cure in the form of a hurricane is a god-send.

I wonder if the boss would accept $500 in exchange for destroying all his photographs of his parents, grandparents, children and of himself? Would he would accept $1000 to destroy his wedding album, his grandmother’s locket or his child’s baby book? How much would he accept to destroy every thing of sentimental value, every possession, every detail of his past? He would never accept it, not even for a million dollars. No one would. No money, no future opportunity, nothing, can make up for the losses sustained during Katrina.

I challenge the sub-boss or the First Lady to to find one person that says, " While the hurricane was rough, my life is better now. All things considered I am glad it happened," - and if they do, I will find 10,000 that swear the opposite. How can someone work amid the molding remains of 300,000 lives and think people are better off. Has he never been out of the office? Does he not talk with anyone from the public.

If you take nothing else away from this blog, take this: never let anyone get away with saying that the hurricanes were a good thing. If a blowhard wants to sell their history, their memories and a piece of their soul in exchange for a few thousand dollars a year, than god bless their cold little heart. But if they presume to tell others what is best for them, to lecture those who have lost everything that it is not really that bad, to explain all the hidden benefits of losing your life, then perhaps their soul is not even worth the pennies they would sell it for.

Batman Three

I saw Batman Three today and in a rare change, he does not work for the County. It was Val Kilmer, who neither I nor my colleague recognized, but luckily my friend from school was visiting and pointed him out. He is staying at the hotel I am staying at, www.soniathouse.com, probably because it is the nicest hotel in the world. They are filming a movie, Deja Vu, in the city and there has been a steady stream of movie stars that have come to town. It is one sign that at least a few parts of this great city are coming back to life.

Bosses

While not common, there are a handful of Disaster Junkies who are on our team. Disaster Junkies go from one disaster scene to another to tell the locals how to save their cities. They have an attitude that pisses off all the locals.

The new division lead, Bob, is a bit of a disaster junkie. He told a co-worker, Steven, that he saved Sarajevo, which is the same arrogant attitude that he brings to this job.

I have not interacted with him at all so I don’t have strong opinions, but most of my friends dislike him so I am inclined to dislike him.

A different colleague, Joaquin, (a ‘local hire’ who heard the “I saved Sarajevo story” second hand) was talking to Bob. He mentioned that he had been living in Bosnia for five years. Looking to needle him, Joaquin said, “I hear Sarajevo is in bad shape, that it is not coming back.” But Bob, either slicker or naturally obnoxious, responded, “Yeah, it is like Biloxi, it will never be the same.”


I should also say a quick sentence about my boss. The last I wrote was how he only found out that he would be the team lead the night before he started. He has done a good job so far. He is supportive and a strategic thinker. The reality is that he spends most of his time protecting us from the upper bosses, like Bob, but I will go into that more in a later entry.

Housing

So, a collegue and I decided to rent an apartment. There was an add on Craig's List for a three bedroom three level penthouse apartment with wrap around views of the Mississippi. It rents for $4200 a month. The only problem is that it is on the West Bank of the Mississippi, too far out of the way.

The good news is that our housing reimbursement rates are based on staying at a hotel and that the rates are insanely high because it is hard to find a hotel room because of the disaster. Currently, the maximum we can spend per day is $300. On a monthly basis that is $9000 per person!!!

So, my colleague and I joked that I could rent the penthouse and he could rent a two-bedroom place close to work. We both would have a bedroom in both. Depending on how he or I felt, we would sleep at the apartment of our choosing: the penthouse away from the city ot the in-town apartment, a short hop from work. All paid for by the government. After work, we might go and relax at the in-town place. Later that night or on the weekend, we could go to the penthouse.

But, the penthouse was not that nice, so we are still looking.

Another idea we had was to go to someone that had a nice apartment and offer them a couple of thousand dollars on top of their rent to move out and let us have their apartment.

Oh, the luxury of a fat government housing voucher!

For another perspective:
http://icedcoffeeandabagel.blogspot.com/2006/04/dropping-rents.html

Jabba the Hutt

Jabba the Hutt works for the Parish. He even has Princess Leia by his side. Jabba is maybe 50 years old, fat (but not as fat as Boss Hogg), has greasy hair, and barely speaks. If you ask him a question he croaks back in a deep gutteral monotone, "nnyeah" or, "no".

He is the director of community development, probably the most important position in a post disaster setting. Jabba is utterly unispiring. We went there to talk with him about some projects, like Builders Row, where home builders can demonstrate the various models of homes people can buy, which is very important as people consider if they will leave their homes. Also, about creating a one stop housing information center, where people can go to get all the forms they need.

Jabba's assistant, Princess Leia, was all excited about the projects. But she warned us, Jabba likes to be very hands on. He likes to look over all the papers himself and she did not think he would be too keen on a sattelite office where forms are given out without his approval. Sure enough, when we approached Jabba he croaked, "Who genna pey fur dit?" We explained that there might be funding if the department was interested in taking a lead on the project, but Jabba croaked, "We doo busy here," for them to put any work in to the proposal.

And so died the proposals.

All we can hope for is that real life turns out like the movies.

Vacation

They finally approved my form to go home for Easter, one day before I was scheduled to leave. It had to be signed by my boss, his boss and the section chief.

I turned it in a while ago and my boss signed it and took it to his boss, but his boss rejected it because I had written that I wanted to go home for a religious holiday. For some reason, they wanted me to write that I wanted to go home for personal reasons. Saying I wanted to go home for a religious holiday was too explicitly religious.

So I made the change and my boss's boss signed off on it. Then, my boss took it to the section chief and he rejected it because it said I wanted to take off for personal reasons, and he did not think that was a legitimate reason. This set off a meeting with my boss, his boss and the section chief where they discussed the merits of leave for religious holidays versus personal time. They agreed to leave it as time off for personal reasons because the form was already printed. But then, the section chief noticed that I said I was leaving tomorrow morning, and had not filled out a specific time. So, my boss brought the form back to me to fill in the exact time I was leaving in the morning, and the exact time I was returning on Saturday.

With all the requisite signatures finally in place at 7pm, I am free to fax it off to the HR person for final approval before heading out at 9:15 am tomorrow.

I have to say, my boss may have been honored at first when they asked him to be team lead. Little did he know that he would spend his days shuttling back and forth between offices getting permission for people to go home for the weekend.

The people you meet

Sorry for not writing in a while. I have not been feeling articulate lately.

I want to write about two people I met recently. The first was a lady, Ann, I met walking one night with a colleague. We were on the street behind her and she heard our footsteps and turned around. “Oh, good, it’s you,” she said, slightly inebriated.

“Why is it good that it is me?” I asked.

“Because when you hear footsteps, you never know who it is. I get worried,” she explained.

“How do you know you should not be scared of me,” I asked.

Because there are two of, she explained. Criminals work alone.

So we talked with her as we walked. She is vintage New Orleans. She loves the city and would not live any where else. But, she is afraid to walk home at night.

I offered to walk her to her door, which she accepted, and then invited me and my colleague in to the courtyard of her apartment complex. I have to say I was a little weirded out by it, but we accepted. It was a great space with nice old trees and a beautiful pool. We talked for a little longer and then left. Who knows what would have happened if my colleague was not there.

The other lady I met was equally archetypal, this time of the developers that hang out in the shadows in Jefferson Davis County, waiting for opportunities to swoop in. Another good example of the type is the alien from Hollywood that I wrote about some months ago, who had a dog named Chica Bonita. She has long since dropped the ruse that she is working for a nonprofit and now admits she is a developer, looking to sell houses.

In any case, this new lady was dressed not unlike a prostitute, long heels, tons of make up, plunging next line. More suspicious than that, she identified herself as a consultant. I asked who her clients were and she avoided the questions. (A resident who is on the Citizens Recovery Committee had mentioned that she often does jobs like arranging permits that developers need).

The resident introduced her saying she wanted to help with some of the recovery projects we are trying to get started. I had agreed to talk to her because I thought she was going to volunteer. She spent the entire 20 minutes of our conversation pumping me and a colleague for information. (It would have lasted longer, but I exited as soon as I gracefully could.) Pumping us for information would make sense if we had any insider information, but we know nothing besides what we read in the paper so we had nothing to offer.

Still, she did not seem to know the basics of any land use issues. For instance, you need flood insurance to get a mortgage in a flood plain, and the only place to get flood insurance is the Federal Government. How could she be a consultant for developers and not know that? In any case, she told us she is flying off to see the number two person at HUD in Washington, DC tomorrow. The real question is if she knows who that person is or what HUD stands for.

The Foundation

The largest land owner in the County is the Meraux Foundation. Passed down from a rich businessman, the Foundation owns hundreds if not thousands of acres. This land is KEY when it comes to redevelopment, in part because it is the safest, driest, highest land there is; but also because it is the only undeveloped land in the County. If we are going to convince people to move to safer ground, we need to have the Meraux Foundation on board as a partner.

The choice us simple, either we tell people, we need you to move from your homes so we can convert your neighborhood to greenspace. Good luck finding a new place.

Or we say, we need you to move from your homes so we can convert your neighborhood to greenspace AND there is an amazing, new, safer neighborhood for you to move to.

The old team lead had been so afraid of getting involved in politics that he forbid us from meeting with the foundation. Times have changed. The new team lead and I met with the foundation yesterday.

It was a love fest. They are totally on board. They understand the importance of their land and want to do what is best for the county. We have an amazing partner to work with. It is very exciting and means there is some hope for the county.

Tidbits

A bunch of short random entries:

We were told to get all our meetings with the public done this week because there might be a new rule next week that we are not allowed to meet with the public.

The New Orleans team is on a four week extension. They were supposed to finish up all their work at the end of March, now they have till the end of April. Unfortunatly, for the past 7 days they have been without a leader. The head bosses removed the Team Lead, but, have been unable to agree about who should be the new team lead. Hence, everything is on hold, even though they are on a very tight time frame.

In a normal disaster, there is roughly one state rep for every FEMA public assistance person. Here, there is one state rep for every 50 FEMA public assistance person. (Public assistance provides money to local governments to rebuild damaged facilities).

Jefferson Davis County put out a request for bids for debris removal and signed a contract with the debris removal company that had one of the most expensive proposals. What does the County care, FEMA pays 100 percent of debris removal costs, at least in this disaster. Well, FEMA balked at the excessive charges. The county and the trash removal company, suspecting this would happen, wrote the contract to say, our rates will be x, but if FEMA refuses to pay the whole thing, we will not charge the county. Rather fishy.

Debris piles take so long to get picked up that you see people sprinkling bleach on them. In normal times, you water plants. Here and now, you bleach the debris.

Middle school

I have written some about the new office environment, which is great. We are no longer embargoed from talking with government and other stakeholders. This is so refreshing, and it makes work so much better.

However, the social dynamic at the office is worse than before. In the old team, people either hung out with one or two other people, or invited everyone to do something. It was a very pleasant office dynamic, no social jockeying, no office politics, no gossip, just pleasant.

As you may remember, most of the St. Bernard and New Orleans teams were sent home and replaced by new members from other teams. Just two people from the original 20 St. Bernard team members were left. We were told that they cherry picked the best team members from all the teams to make the new St. Bernard. The truth is that most of the new team members were from the capital (central planning office) and they were just members of a social clique. One member who was chosen to stay was our liaison and she was universally disliked by every team member she worked with.

In any case, the new St. Bernard team is made up almost entirely of people from the mothership office from the capital. The new dynamic is cliquey and exclusive. For instance, three quarters of the team will go out to dinner. If someone that is not a member of the cool-kid club asked a member what they were doing, they would say something like, “I have plans, I am going out,” but would not invite the non cool-kid club member. If we have to drive somewhere, the cool kids only go with each other. Same for going out to lunch.

Choosing people to stay because they are a member of a social clique is a disservice to the work we are trying to do here and an insult to all the highly qualified team members that were sent home.

Doing the Limbo

This is a slightly technical entry, but it explains one of the most pressing issues in the county right now. The thought process behind this essay was a bit of a eurika moment for me. In fact, what I say here is a little speculative. No one else has made this argument.

Almost no redevelopment has happened in the county so far. Many people have gutted their homes (or more accurately many volunteers have gutted people’s homes), but very few have started re-wiring, hanging drywall or replacing damaged doors and windows. It is a weird limbo state. One of the main reasons people have not done anything is that vital information has not been released by the Federal Government. Meanwhile, the county continues to mold and molder.

Background paragraph:
The only way to get flood insurance in this country is to sign up with a program run and subsidized by the federal government (called the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)). To participate in federal flood insurance your house needs to be elevated high enough that it will not get wet in a (100 year) flood. The government might say, “In this area, all houses must be two feet off the ground, but in this other area, they must be three feet off the ground and in this third area they don’t need to be raised at all.”

Well, in Jefferson Davis County and the other hard hit counties, including Biloxi, the government has not issued the maps that tell you how high you have to raise your house. They were due in November, then December, then March, and now who knows.

The Feds say the maps are hard to produce, the levees make everything difficult. They have had 7 months to work on it, and I long ago concluded that it was not a technical question. I and everyone else assumed that it had something to do with politics, but what? For a long time, I concluded that the maps showed that all the houses needed to be raised very high, and the feds did not want to announce them. Still, that explanation did not make sense.

The answer is that the level of flooding is tied to the strengths of the levees. The Army Corps of Engineers believes that unless more money is spent, the levees will fail again in the next 100 years. If the levees fail, houses will need to be raised 10 or 20 feet off the ground to stay dry. This would be the death knell of a community and would unleash a political fire storm. Can you imagine an urban community with houses on stilts 20 feet high? You can’t.

So rather than saying the levees will fail, the government says nothing. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that it will cost almost $10 billion to fix the levees and they will not certify them as adequate until that money is likely to be spent.

Jefferson Davis is caught in limbo. No one wants to do anything because they don’t know the new rules. If someone starts to fix their house and Congress and the President will not commit the $10 billion, oh well, the home owner loses their investment. We have this community of 67,000 people (and many more outside the county) who want to get on with their lives, either rebuild their homes or start over somewhere new, but they have been in limbo for seven months, waiting for the feds to make a decision. It is not right and hard to watch.

At least, I feel like I understand the issue now.

Words

Two new words have entered the vocabulary of the otherwise monosyllabic parish.
Expopriate and mitigate.

They refer to forcing to people to sell land as expropriating their land to the government as expropriation. ( Interestingly, a council member asked at his neighborhood meeting about expropriation. Four to one, people said it was ok to expopropriate houses for the greater good.)

The other word is mitigate. It comes from a federal program, the hazard mitigation grant program, which is a way of buying people out if they want to leave their homes and they live in dangerous areas. So, people will say things like we are going to mitigate this land, when they mean buy it and put it into greenspace.

Neighborhood meetings

When Duany was here, he suggested that a large part of the Parish be off limits to development. Rather than telling people that they had to move from their homes, he said, “Give them a great, new, safe alternative, and they will want to move.” He suggested holding neighborhood meetings and each neighborhood would decide if they wanted to rebuild as before, consolidate in part of the neighborhood, or move to an all new area.

I wanted to offer to help plan the meetings, but first I had to go to the state capital and then I went back home, and by the time I got back the Parish had started making plans. So, they decided to leave it to each Council Member to hold meetings with the constituents, all without any staff support.

(This is a classic example of how planning has failed here. Planners should have been involved in the discussions and they are not. The Community Development department is overwhelmed and completely focused on permits, inspections and processing other forms.)

Two council members held their meetings today. They did an admirable job. One of them, Mark, surprised me. A few months ago, he was fanatical that the entire Parish must be redeveloped. Every square inch. In fact, he almost got in a fist fight with a judge who argued that It was not possible to rebuild everywhere. Over time, he has listened and learned and now sees that it would not be in the Parish’s long term interest. You can not have a neighborhood that is 70 percent empty lots.

In any case, he and a second council member, who I really like, held their meetings. The problem is, it is a complicated meeting to run and they are politicians, not neighborhood planners. A couple of things are going on. One, the different council members are saying different things. One is saying, no one will be forced to leave their homes. The other is saying people might be forced to leave their homes for the great good. The other problem is that the neighborhoods are not moving closer to decisions about what to do. They are just talking about background issues.

I am not too worried, it is the first in a series of many meetings. I hope in time, they move forward and move towards decisions. In any case, it will be interesting to watch. It is democracy and planning in action. (Only, the planners are missing).