It's a policy that has been followed in many other cities with great success. The urban projects of the last century turned out to be a huge failure - with crime and isolation breeding still more crime and isolation. Urban planners have realized this, and are looking to fix the problems.
That means that some of those who live in housing that was unaffected by Hurricane Katrina will be displaced, and housing stocks will temporarily decline as the projects are demolished to make way for new and improved housing.
The Times Picayune has more. HUD had been working with NOLA to shut down the old housing projects because they were crime ridden, and build new mixed income low rise and townhome style homes - just as has been done in other big cities around the country.
The riots today outside the City Council started because there simply weren't enough spaces for people to get in - 300 people could get in, and there were several thousand who wanted to disrupt things.
Protesters had planned to disrupt the City Council meeting, where members were expected to approve demolishing dozens of buildings—a move that would open racial and class divisions.
The council chambers seat less than 300. Once capacity was reached, people who were not permitted into chambers marched and chanted. Eventually violence broke out.
The City Council vote is a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists.
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.
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