Thursday, June 07, 2007

Stuck On Stupid

What is wrong with this picture? In an area which took two-to-four feet of water HANO, HUD and the developer have built slab-on-grade homes.

Worse, an earlier Picayune story pointed out that units constructed before 8-29 were razed and started over together with additional post-Federal Flood units. Slab-on-grade in a flooded neighborhood almost in sight of the Industrial Canal and a stones throw from the neck of "the funnel" connected to the MRGO and the Intracoastal Watwerway.

Dumb.

I won't even address the question of who will want to buy or rent the mixed-income units in a neighborhood isolated by the Industrial Canal railroad tracks and the interstate. Perhaps it will become an idyllic little corner of the city away from the hustle and bustle. Perhaps.

I think Tim of Tim's Nameless Blog sums it up well in today's post on the demolition of Cabrini Church in the Vista Park neighborhood of Gentilly.

"...throughout the neighborhood are slab-on-grade, ranch-style, suburban American homes...pretty much all of them below the 100- year Base Flood Elevation...the owners...think it appropriate to fix 'em up [with] no effort to elevate or flood proof their homes.

Cabrini Church, on the other hand, was a landmark, a genuine statement of architecture as it was practiced in the 1960's. Its owners decided it was not worthy of renovation, and they labored tirelessly with government agencies to clear the way for demolition.

It seems to me the church should be spared and the houses demolished and replaced--not the other way around.
Some days I wonder if we aren't as stupid as our neighbors to the north think we are.


Comments:
I'm sorry, Mark. I read Tim's post and couldn't help but think of you. It sucks.
 
I said in the weeks after the storm that if we rebuilt NOLA homes the same cheap way they were built post WWII, I would move away.

I'm gettin' shaky.

Why can't we do things right? Why can't we be a model?
 
You are the one "stuck on stupid" when it comes to this church. Man, I know your Dad designed the thing, but give it up, dude. There is no equivalence between keeping that white elephant and knocking down slab houses. What strikes me as consistent in your position on both the church and the slab houses in Vista is that you're very ready to spend other people's money. Just who was going to pay to keep that church open, with its myriad problems from a leaky roof to outrageous AC bills to doors that were so dangerous they amputated fingers. And just who was going to pay to take those houses and put them on stilts in Vista? Especially since that area NEVER flooded except when the federal levees failed. Now, your point about those places hard by the Industrial Canal is completely valid, but where is the equivalence with ripping down a sturcture marginally important to arhitecture as a whole (although very important to you personally) that was all form and no function? There is none, except in your tortured mind.

Look, you weren't that bright when you were a reporter for the St. Bernard Guide. Yeah, I used to read that crap. But you've generally shown yourself on this blog to be intelligent, articulate and persuasive. On the subject of Cabrini church, however, you still sound like that none-too-swift guy writing for the second-best weekly in a three-weekly market.
 
Anon., thanks for your kind words on my past career. You've outed me, and I'll have to take those New Orleans Press Club and Jefferson Parish Medical Society awards down off the shelf and stash them somewhere.

I didn't bring up Cabrini, your neighbor (presuming you live in Vista Park) Tim did. I was only interested in his remarks about people foolishing renovating on grade.
 
You link approvingly to a blog that carries water not only for your slab-houses post but also for your cause celebre on Cabrini and you expect that allows you to maintain the fiction that only "neighbor Tim" made the connection to Cabrini. Please. That's like writing an op-ed that quotes from another pundit to buttress your argument and then trying to disavow the points the quoted writer made.

By the way, N.O. Press Club? Jefferson Parish Medical Society? They give out those awards like candy at Halloween, like beads at Bacchus, like hickeys at the Mount Carmel senior prom.

Even Jua Nyla Hutcheson has N.O. Press Club awards!

That you think this means something just proves you must've sucked down too many unfiltered Camels while listening to Louis Munster fight with Sonny Knoblauch back Da Parish.
 
Anon,
I realize your diatribe is directed to Mark but I can't help but point out that
YOU ARE TOO MUCH OF A PUSSY TO SIGN YOUR NAME!

Therefore, your comments are worthless.

Go bully someone else, ANONYMOUS.
 
Dear Charlotte/TM:

You are absolutely right. I am a pussy. And, of course, I'm a bully, too. I'm a floor wax AND a desert topping. A pterodactyl and a brooch, too.

Thanks for your contribution.

How many Press Club plaques do you have? Given the quality of what you've had to say, I'm sure it's many more than mark has.

Yours in Christ,

Big Worthless Pussy
 
We are indeed stuck on stupid. As a matter of fact, many houses in Vista Park flooded in 1995, in a heavy rainfall, no hurricanes in sight, with the levees firmly in place. Plain and simple, learn from your mistakes or get used to misery.

Mark, thanks for coming back to New Orleans in our time of need.

Peace,

Tim
 
the blog was interesting, along with the content was properly organized.
 
There is no equivalence between keeping that white elephant and knocking down slab houses. What strikes me as consistent in your position on both the church and the slab houses in Vista is that you're very ready to spend other people's money.
 
I really do not know what should i say about it. A lot of well wishes for you.
 
Vista is that you're very ready to spend other people's money.
 
I did not get the actual point of this post...This is something confusing for me.
 
Just who was going to pay to keep that church open, HCG Blue Drops, the Faster and Natural way to lose weight...
 
Very strong thought . I appreciate it .
 
NOLA homes the same cheap way they were built post WWII, I would move away.
 
Worse, an earlier Picayune story pointed out that units constructed before 8-29 were razed and started over together with additional post-Federal Flood units.
 
Worse, an earlier Picayune story pointed out that units constructed before 8-29 were razed and started over together with additional post-Federal Flood units.
 
On the first view, the picture seems to be photoshoped
 
Thanks for sharing these informations with us sir. Your title is not so inspiring but the article is really nice.
 
It was very good to read the experience about the New Orleans.
 
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