HUD Cheif forsees a "WHITER" New Orleans
 

like this is a suprprise? :1orglaugh



HUD chief foresees a 'whiter' Big Easy
By Brian DeBose
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 30, 2005

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...4710-8545r.htm


A Bush Cabinet officer predicted this week that New Orleans likely will never again be a majority black city, and several black officials are outraged.

Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, quickly took issue.

"Anybody who can make that kind of projection with some degree of certainty or accuracy must have a crystal ball that I can't see or maybe they are more prophetic than any of us can imagine," he said.

Other members of the caucus said the comments by Mr. Jackson, who is black, could be misconstrued as a goal, particularly considering his position of responsibility in the administration.

"I would beg and hope that the secretary, if that is what he is saying, would re-evaluate the situation," said Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat.

Mr. Jackson, whose remarks were reported by the Houston Chronicle, said New Orleans might reach a population of 375,000 people sometime late next year with a black population of about 40 percent at the highest, down from 67 percent before Hurricane Katrina sent a storm surge that overwhelmed New Orleans levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

The population of New Orleans before Katrina was a little less than 500,000, surrounded by large, predominantly white suburbs. The largely black Ninth Ward and the predominantly white middle-class Lakeview section near Lake Pontchartrain were overwhelmed by floodwaters.

Mr. Jackson, a former developer and longtime government housing official, said the history of urban reconstruction projects shows that most blacks will not return and others who want to might not have the means or opportunity. His agency will play a critical role in the city's redevelopment through various grant programs, including those for damaged or destroyed properties.

In the storm's aftermath, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, charged that relocating evacuees across the country was "racist" and designed to move black people, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, out of Louisiana. The state elected its first Republican senator, David Vitter, in nearly a century in 2004.

Both the preacher and the congresswoman suggested that the residents be housed at the closed England Air Force Base at Alexandria, La., to keep them closer to home.

Rep. Bobby L. Rush, Illinois Democrat, said Alphonso Jackson's remarks and the prospects of real-estate speculators and developers in New Orleans are "foreboding."

"Gentrification is a demon that is looming on the landscape, and we have to be aware of it and vigilant. ... Right now, I don't know if the resistance to it is strong enough," Mr. Rush said.

He said a history of forced removal of blacks from their homes and property cannot be ignored as the reconstruction moves forward.

Two weeks after Katrina, the Congressional Black Caucus issued an eight-point action plan that calls for residents to get the first right of return to the area, that New Orleans residents get first choice of construction jobs and rebuilding contracts and that voting rights be protected.

Many evacuees from the Ninth Ward will likely never be able to return, Mr. Jackson said. He told Mayor C. Ray Nagin that it would be a mistake to rebuild that part of town, the lowest-lying section and prone to flooding.

Mr. Davis said that despite history, he does not think New Orleans will see black migration similar to black migration from Mississippi after the 1927 flood that inundated hundreds of thousands of acres in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Many black farmers and field hands fled to Chicago, Detroit and other cities for a better life in the Midwest.

"New Orleans is not a plantation, not a farm, and I think there will be many efforts to make sure there will be affordable housing and construction job training for residents to rebuild and have the option to return home," he said

interesting...

good for New Orleans :thumbsup

but bad for cities where negroes will be relocated :Oh crap

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

No.. that's what happened to the Native American and still is. Now the slaves are being dispersed to make way for nice beach condos and an increase in real estate values.... what's new?? This is the US after all!

I don't know if this is new, but 'white flight' has been displacing white people in the US for ages. Blacks move in, whites move out, this is well documented, so what you are saying is pretty far from the truth. That and the fact that the Mexicans are taking the South-West back. But hey, it is the US afterall, so I am not suprised you are so misinformed :1orglaugh

I'm curious if they will prove buses to bring the people back, the same way they took them out. Obviously not on such a large scale so quickly because it won't be rebuilt in the span of a week.

One way to delay/prevent the poorer population from going back would be make them find their own way back. They would be less likely to go.

It might actually be a good thing preventing them from going back. Forcing them to move on might actually jump start something.

Or maybe I'm just a racist fuck who doesn't see the big picture. Who knows...

it'll never happen. they'll rebuild too many apartment complexes for whiteys liking

racist..

I think it's easy to dismiss it as racism because it is an off-color statement. I wouldn't go so far as to say he's a racist, just perhaps a bonehead who's mouth and brain don't work together too well.

I wouldn't let poor people move back whether they're black or white. Why in the fuck would I rebuild that shit with "low income housing" and give the poor people first crack at living back there? That's idiotic.

The homeless wont be going back i can tell you that

my town has given housing to ALL of them that came here for 18 months

Why go back when you got it better here :/

its prob because. all of the people who left wont have money to come back, so new "white" money will move in to develop the areas that were destroyed that used to be low income areas. if they dont build those levees to 20ft+ they might as well not spend money. hurricanes are not going away anytime soon. every year the temperature in the gulf of mexico rises. this powers the storms harder and faster than colder water. the hurricanes are going to get worse.

exactly. :thumbsup

its about money, not race -

I think that the government will do its best to stop them from comming back.

it's pretty obvious if you ask me ... housing is booming there