Demolitons and Resistance Begin At B.W. Cooper
by Michael Steinberg Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007 at 8:26 PM
blackrainpress@hotmail.com

Demolition and resistance began this afternoon at the B.W. Cooper Public Housing Project in Midcity. As of 5:30 p.m. there were a reported 200 protestors still at the site, where work had stopped for the day. Tomorrow people will gather at 11 a.m. at City Hall and then at 11:30 a.m. march to the HUD office in the federal building at 500 Poydras to demand the demolitons stop.

Demolition work began on 14 buildings at the B.W. Cooper Public Housing Complex at Erato and Martin Luther King in Midcity this afternoon. Public housing residents and their supporters in the Coaltion To Stop Demolition quickly began to gather to block the demoliton, and remained after dark.

One source said that police had escorted demolition crews onto the grounds. By night the crews had stopped their demolition work and left.

At nightfall there was a heavy police presence at and around the housing complex, part of which is still occupied by tenants. Several people who were assisting the protesters said the police had cordoned off the area around the protesters. Another supporter said that there were about 200 protesters at the site, and that there had been no arrests thus far.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) issued a statement claiming that the demolition work had been scheduled before Hurricane Katrina struck the city. HANO, which has been controlled by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2002, got approval for the demolition of B.W. Cooper and another public housing complex, C.J. Peete, only last Monday. The city housing committe that approved those demolition applications denied one for a third public housing complex, Lafitte.

Today the Times-Picayne reported that on Tuesday work crews at Lafitte had started removing heavy metal coverings over doors and windows in preparation for demolition. HANO/HUD had put the coverings on to keep residents who had to evacuate from their homes there because of Katrina from returning to their apartments. HANO/HUD said there had been a misunderstanding and that the steel would go back over the doors and windows.

In a Times-Picayune report yesterday, HANO spokesperson David Jackson said there would be "a lengthy process" of removing building materials like plaster "before the cranes and bulldozers roll in" at the public housing complexes slated for demoliton. Evidently 48 hours is a lengthy time for HANO--when is serves its purposes.

Tomorrow people will gather in front of City Hall at 11 a.m. , and then at 11:30 march to HUD's office in the federal building at 500 Poydras Street to demand a stop to the demolitons.

For updates and more info, go to defendneworleanspublichousing.org

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/12/11574.php

Protest Bring Demolition Activity At B.W. Cooper To A Halt
by mike howells Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 at 2:07 AM
howellnow@bellsouth.net 04-587-0080 1031 Barracks St. #2 NOLA, 70116

Supporters of public housing staged a protest that brought HUD demolition activity at the B.W. Cooper development to halt Tuesday Afternoon.

Protesters Bring Demolition To A Halt At B.W. Cooper.

By Mike Howells

Direct action by supporters of public housing brought HUD authorized demolition to a halt at the B.W. Cooper Housing Development in New Orleans today. Tuesday afternoon a picket of dozens of public housing supporters prevented a truck from carrying a huge demolition crane into the new section of the development.
Neighbors of the B.W. Cooper area alerted housing activists late Tuesday morning that demolition equipment was being brought into the development. And, in fact, demolition did begin on one of the dozens of public housing apartment buildings that make up B.W. Cooper. However, soon after protesters formed an anti-demolition picket line in front of an entrance to the new section of the development demolition activity ground to a halt.

Sam Jackson, a resident of B.W. Cooper and a long time housing activist, thanked everyone who participated in the anti-demolition action. He also urged supporters of public housing to come back on Wednesday to help step up the fight against demolition. Cooper contains about 1,300 apartments designed to provide housing for poor, working class people.

The need for the reopening of all these apartment units could not be greater given the dire shortage of affordable housing that exists in post-Katrina New Orleans. Unfortunately, HUD authorities issued the go ahead for the demolition of more than 4,600 public housing apartments last October. Most housing activists in New Orleans believe that the demolition of local public housing is part of a broader effort by economic and political elites to block the return of the 150,000 African-American Katrina Survivors who are still in exile.

If you are interested in participating in the struggle to defend New Orleans public housing feel free to contact the Coalition to Stop Demolition at action@peopleshurricane.org or call the author at 504-587-0080

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/12/11576.php

Public Housing Residents, Supporters Tell Mayor Nagin, HUD: “Bring Our People Home Now!”
by Evan Casper-Futterman Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007 at 5:35 PM
evan.casperfutterman@gmail.com (email address validated)

Residents and supporters gathered outside the St. Bernard Housing Development today for a potluck and demonstration that was positive and energetic before police arrived in force to clear the street. Three arrests were reported.

http://neworleans.media.indypgh.org/uploads/2007/12/stop_demos_wkids.jpg

New Orleans—December 15, 2007

At high noon today, as supporters set up tents on the neutral ground outside the St. Bernard Housing Development, more than one hundred residents, housing advocates, and supporters marched jubilantly up St. Bernard avenue with the clear message of “no demolitions” and “right of return for all,” Housing authority and New Orleans police officers stood in front of the fenced off homes, anticipating a push to enter the development.

The protest remained peaceful and positive through the afternoon, until 1:30pm local time, when police motorcycles and squad cars came blazing through the street demanding that people clear the street. Officers were seen shoving and pushing media and protesters until the streets were clear and the protest was confined to the sidewalk and neutral ground. At least three arrests were made on the scene, though it was not immediately clear what the charges were. Former public housing residents and supporters followed the arrestees to Orleans Parish Prison, where demonstrations continued for hours until 4pm.

[For photos, please visit http://www.nobulldozers.org]

Before the police arrived at St. Bernard, the participants had marched peacefully and even joyously, arriving at an impromptu “survivor’s village” of tents set up for the day’s events. Signs and banners were hung on the fences declaring “housing is a human right,” “shame on you mayor Nagin,” and “stop holding us down!” The targets of the demonstration were mostly local once again, after a civil court judge ruled that the city council must explicitly approve the demolitions of any public housing in New Orleans. National targets were still evident, however, with large posters still calling out HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Louisiana Senator David Vitter for their alleged financial ties to developers and obstruction of crucial housing legislation in the Senate (SB 1668), respectively.

The event at the St. Bernard development today is the capstone on a week of activities in New Orleans and around the country to raise awareness of the imminent demolitions of thousands of public housing apartments at a time when the city of New Orleans faces a housing crisis that has been called the most dire since the civil war. Police activity and arrests have been a concern for all of the events, though only a few arrests have been made.

On Monday, December 10th, international human rights day, around one hundred people gathered outside of city hall to demand that an obscure city committee, known as the Housing Conservation District Review Committee, not approve the demolition of the three developments on its docket for that morning: the CJ Peete, BW Cooper, and the Lafitte. The presence in the room that morning led to a 3-3 tie vote, delaying the demolition of the Lafitte, but not the other two.

On Wednesday, the coalition of protesters manifested at the BW Cooper development and temporarily delayed the demolition crews, which had begun that morning.

On Thursday, December 13, a similar size crowd marched from City Hall to the Federal building and the HUD offices, where a confrontation with security personnel led to a temporary shutdown of the main entrance for over half an hour.

On Friday morning, as a lawsuit filed in civil court here resulted in the demolition issue being explicitly sent back to the city council, four young protesters, with the support of former public housing residents, blockaded the entrance to the local housing authority offices with a “home for the holidays” theme—they were arrested after several hours and released early Saturday morning.

Another group of residents and supporters also gathered Friday evening with local faith leaders outside the Lafitte development that evening for a candlelight vigil to increase awareness of the homelessness crisis that will only be made worse if public housing developments are demolished in the near future.

Though one of the largest manifestations of the week, and also one of the most contentious, the gathering at St. Bernard was not expected to be the last large gathering for the immediate future. Nationally, Senators Reid and Pelosi wrote a letter to President Bush asking for a 60-day moratorium on the demolition of the developments. As the permits for demolition are handed over to the judgment of the white-majority City Council, crowds will likely gather in the chambers as they did last week, when residents and supporters took over the chamber and attorney Bill Quigley was arrested.

[For more information, photos, and updates, please go to: http://www.nobulldozers.org]

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/12/11620.php