What's Next For New Orleans Demolition Sites?

"In a city pummeled by government incompetence, the department's intransigence has become surreal. HUD was stopped days later because it had failed to seek required approval from the City Council, and Judge Herbert Cade of Orleans Parish Civil District Court halted most of the demolition until the council agrees to let them proceed."

"HUD has threatened to withdraw hundreds of millions of housing reconstruction dollars and thousands of rent vouchers if the council doesn't approve its plan in a meeting on Dec. 20."

"Losing the vouchers would mean that poor people entitled to live in public housing -- and no party to the controversy -- would be thrown into the street. Does the council have a choice?"

"Proponents of demolition have framed the controversy as obstructionist aesthetic elitists versus the voiceless displaced. Actually, it's about a more important issue: What kind of neighborhood will these vast tracts become?"