Demolitions Begin in New Orleans

It was demolished on Monday, part of the first group of houses taken down by the city after months of delays prompted by protests and court filings.

Activists had sued in December to stop the bulldozing out of fear homeowners wouldn’t be notified or have a chance to pick through their belongings. City officials agreed in January to a notification process, saying they wanted to quickly tear down only homes that posed an imminent threat to safety.

Quiet start to a noisy job
Amid little fanfare, the bulldozers cranked up. Save for a few observers from groups protecting the rights of absent homeowners, it was a quiet start to a noisy job.

In all, the city has marked 123 homes for this first phase of demolition, all but a half dozen of them in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward. The city says all of the homes slated for removal are in public rights of way, either in the middle of a street or on sidewalks.

For all the talk and complaints over the slow pace of debris removal and rebuilding, lawsuits have been filed to stop demolition in New Orleans so that people could have more time to get into unsafe structures before they are demolished and cleared.

These are structures that could have been demolished weeks ago had the suits not been filed. And the demolition process is complicated by the fact that the companies involved in the demolition have to learn on the fly to deal with hazardous conditions and materials, which must be treated carefully.

The Times Picayune has more on the first 120 houses to be demolished. They are among those that pose the greatest hazards and risks.

UPDATE:
Slate has an interesting piece on reconstruction, rebuilding, and decay of urban areas.