"Carrying signs that rebuked FEMA for 'raping' their neighborhood, about 100 Algiers residents Saturday protested a temporary 35-unit trailer park that would house women and children displaced by Hurricane Katrina at the edge of a gated community in Park Timbers.
Calling the site illegal and illogical, residents of racially mixed neighborhoods along Lennox Boulevard said Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have refused to consider their suggestion to shutter the site and erect a new one on a larger tract across Tullis Drive.
'This is not an issue of, you don't want them in your backyard,' said lawyer Ed Markle, a Lakewood Estates resident whose house overlooks the trailer park. 'We don't want them in our lap.'"
Comments
Privileged trumps need
I have never been so frustrated with homeowners. I can never verbalize how exactly I feel. All I know is that this mentality is what handicaps low-income housing and smart growth. This type of racism, property or house racists, is acceptable hiding behind the possibility of hurting someones real estate value.
The safest place for families that need to be housed in a trailer would be where the least amount of damage happened. Never mind safety, lets concentrate on logic. Why not put people in an area where the infrastructure doesn't need to be repaired before it will be able to support the displaced families.
Adam Marquart
a.marquart design, llc
http://amd-llc.com