The Ice Age on Video

Extreme Cruelty Part II

So, here are a number of videos well worth your watching that illuminate what I've written in my previous post entitled, "The Ice Age". Watch the videos in order and you'll be well-educated.

Save Public Housing in New Orleans

This led to the protest we heard about but here is mostly raw footage:

New Orleans City Council Shuts Down Public Housing Debate


Two of them you see in the above video then appear in an interview with Amy Goodman:

Tasered Citizens Debate on Democracy Now


Tasered Citizens Debate on Democracy Now Part 2


What is the cause of all this, you ask? Well, I discovered a villain we can put our finger on. Apparently, from the first video, we see California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, touring the public housing and being astounded at how well those structures held up. She later introduces a bill that sweeps past the House and is blocked by one man in the Senate:

"The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act guarantees the redevelopment of the New Orleans public housing projects into mixed income communities and the return of thousands of working class families to the city, supporters say.

Despite overwhelming support, the bill was killed in committee by Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie."

This rep is deeply concerned about the cycle of poverty but apparently not too concerned about his party's cyclical penchant for hypocrisy. You see, he ran on a pro-marriage, pro-family ticket, all self-righteous and stuff and, well, you know what happened. His name was found on a madam's phone line for solicitation of sexual services from a prostitute. <> And from the Louisiana Speaks Newsletter:

"The biggest obstacle is Sen. David Vitter," said James Perry, president of the Louisiana Housing Alliance, a coalition of nonprofit groups that has been lobbying for passage of the measure. "He sees the bill as a win for Sen. [Mary] Landrieu should it be passed, and he doesn't want to allow her that win . . . . But political experts say the senatorial flap is not unexpected, given Louisiana's rough-and-tumble politics and Vitter and Landrieu's chilly relationship. Landrieu is up for re-election next year and has emerged as the GOP's top target among incumbent senators, in part because of the state's rightward shift in recent elections."

Ah. So Pittsburgh is not the only City where politicians toy with the quality of Black peoples' lives for their own political benefit.

"Asked whether he was trying to deny Landrieu the ability to take home victory in a re-election year, Vitter responded, "My motivation is we shouldn't rebuild the same housing that was there. We're trying to express clearly what our reservations are."

No one was asking to rebuild but to renovate what was still standing and livable while there is still a tremendous housing shortage and a crisis.

When asked about his specific objections, [Vitter's] aides point to an opinion piece last month in the New Orleans Times-Picayune in which he laid out general opposition, saying it would halt a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plan to raze four housing complexes.

Uh, yeah, because there's a housing shortage following government neglect (not listening to the Army Corp of Engineers), a natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina) and more government neglect (Hurricane Bush after the levees broke).

Even Barack Obama weighed in, by writing a letter to George Bush asking to stop the demolition. We're all supportive of public housing reform and mixed income housing but, as logic would dictate:

"No public housing should be demolished until HUD can point to an equivalent number of replacement units in the near vicinity," Obama said.

But, irony of all ironies, racism and classism comes with a price---the working poor can't find any place to live affordably, so the working poor can't work properly. Therefore, the middle and upperclass residents and tourists in New Orleans have no one to serve them. Ahhh, justice!:

"The shortage of affordable workforce housing really is straining our economic recovery," said Barbara Johnson, chief operating officer for Greater New Orleans Inc. "It's a combination of housing and worker shortage. One is related to the other. You have employers that are not able to fill contracts, work orders, take on new contracts."

All of a sudden, razing public housing has a double edged sword, eh? The whole idea of the lazy, good-for-nothing, crime-ridden population that actually made up what we call 'the working poor' are shown their worth via their absence:

"When you go to the hospital, who's going to take care of you? When you go to the dry cleaners, who's going to greet you?" said Jan Robert, executive director of the St. Tammany Healthcare Alliance, who has struggled with labor shortages. "All we talk about is entry-level workers -- where we get them, where we find them and how we find them housing."

So, it appears that what public housing advocates should do is sue the City and State and, in between time, engage in continuous Days of Absence.

Thank you, Ted Shine!

The Ice Age

I'll never forget the day I heard esteemed Black scholar, Cornel West, refer to this era as "the ice age" because, he said, America was in an era of indifference. Indeed.

Extreme Cruelty
Yesterday, in New Orleans, protesters tried to stop the city council from voting for demolition of four large project complexes that presently have 4500 livable units. Instead, they are opting for the tax credit profiteering of the HUD office and are replacing the communities with 'mixed income housing' to the tune of 744 units. No plan for temporary housing, no plan for allowing people who lived there to come back (it's called "the right of return"). Let's take a moment and think on this for a moment . . .

Yes, the police used pepperspray against the people trying to pile into City Council chambers but, hey, they had to, right? But why should City Council be comfortable only having to look out at the 300 available seats? They should feel the dis-ease of overcrowding, if nothing more than to understand the unimaginably dismissive posture they've adopted. It can all be summed up in this quote:

HUD wants to demolish the buildings, most of them damaged by Hurricane Katrina, so developers can take advantage of tax credits and build new mixed-income neighborhoods.

The council's approval of the demolition is required under the city's charter.

HUD says the redevelopment, in the works before Katrina hit, will mark an end to the city's failed public housing experiment that lumped the poor into crime-ridden complexes and marooned them outside the life of the rest of the city.

Aw, HUD. Who knew the federal government cared so much about public housing? Yep, now is the perfect time to talk about its failed experiment (as if any of us would disagree). Hours later, the demolition was unanimously approved, whereas before there were council members hedging, their conscience tearing at their souls.

I guess seeing people protest and violence break out was enough to want them all gone, eh? See pictures of the demolition as citizens are protesting. It really can't get anymore cruel than shrinking housing at the time when it's so desperately needed and so scarce. All they asked is for temporary housing until there can be 1:1 placement. And to be able to come home.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we here in Pittsburgh's Historic Hill District cannot let a rich, white, corporation with a billionaire owner, host itself in our neighborhood, take up all of our parking spots and not give much of anything back in terms of proper reinvestment to a poor, Black, working-class community. Even if you don't believe, we believe. We have a dream and, yes, it does take money.

We won't repeat the defeat from 50 years ago, when "Hurricane Civic Arena" displaced thousands of residents and never replaced the housing the way they said they would---and then engaged in benign neglect after residents got mad at the broken promises and engaged in riots during the 1960's. It's cause and effect, folks.

And I could not be more proud of the people of New Orleans for protesting, even passionately so. Indeed, it shows me that global warming is a real and welcomed effort.

Extreme, Visionary Kindness
"He Had a Dream" But at least this is real. When I entered graduate school, we read a book on teaching with a statement I've never forgotten---"students will float to the mark you set". To tell a group of third graders that they will be going to college is phenomenal and wonderful because the prison industrial complex is determined by third grade reading scores. Yes. So, either you will believe and assist in these kids' education---or many of them will be going to prison. Plain and simple. I'm not surprised this column is from Marc Fisher from The Washington Post. I'm thinking maybe the PG posted it because it involves the word "Promise", as in "Pittsburgh Promise". We'll see.

In the meantime, at least the University of Pittsburgh brought back the "Upward Bound" program, which helps high school students prepare for college. With an initial grant from the U.S. Department of Education of approximately $485,000 for its first year, it will serve 112 students who will be the first in their generation to attend college. If the program meets their objectives, it will be funded for an additional three years. Good. It actually works.