New Orleans Delays Demolition of Houses
Judge to Rule on Activists' Challenge

From News Services
Saturday, January 7, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 6 -- The city agreed Friday to wait two more weeks before beginning the wholesale demolition of thousands of storm-damaged houses while a federal judge decides whether to hear a challenge from community activists.

The city reserved the right to clear away perhaps 100 smashed homes that were pushed by the floodwaters into the streets.

The city says as many as 5,500 houses and businesses on the east bank of the Mississippi River may need to be razed because hurricane damage has made them unsafe. Mayor C. Ray Nagin has asserted that the city can demolish houses without the owners' consent if the structures pose an imminent danger to the public. But community activists filed a lawsuit last month disputing that authority.

Opponents of the demolition also worry that some residents have not had an opportunity to gather their belongings from their damaged homes, and that the demolitions would destroy black neighborhoods, marking the beginning of what some see as an effort to push out the city's black population.

A federal judge is to hold a hearing Jan. 19 on the city's request to move the case from state court to federal court. If the judge agrees to take the case, he will then decide whether to allow demolitions.

Meanwhile, a major bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was torn apart by Katrina was fully reopened to traffic. Katrina's storm surge ripped giant sections of the five-mile concrete Interstate 10 bridge and tossed some pieces into the lake.

The first Carnival season since the hurricane officially began, despite objections from people who say it is too soon to throw a Mardi Gras party in the battered city.

Nagin said the decision to proceed with an abbreviated parade schedule for Mardi Gras, which culminates on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 28, would send a message that the city was unified in its determination to rebuild.

Economics played a part in the decision to celebrate Mardi Gras. Katrina brought to a halt the lucrative New Orleans tourism and convention industry, which funds about one-third of the city's budget. In normal years, Mardi Gras draws hundreds of thousands of visitors during the weeks before Fat Tuesday and pumps an estimated $1 billion into the local economy.

The city expects to have 25,000 hotel rooms available by February, said Sandra Shilstone, president of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. There were about 35,000 rooms before Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

At least 20 companies are offering to pay $2 million each to help cover the police and cleanup costs for next month's parades and parties, according to MediaBuys LLC, the firm hired to search for underwriters. The city, which laid off half its employees after the storm, plans to select four main sponsors.