Quote:
Originally Posted by rcp11889
There's an article today about the Iberville redevelopment starting soon. I think demolition is supposed to begin soon. What do y'all think about this? Will it revitalize this area or stay the same?
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Here's how I see things:
Pros:
1. Something desparately is needed to be done. The area is a barren desert for development, because no one wants to invest next to this project.
2. Restoring the streetgrid, as this plan will do, is a great idea to make the neighborhood feel more transparent and safe, as well as useful for automobile traffic.
3. The new projects model New Orleans is using for the last few years look infinitely better than the old model of identical brick buildings, and are much easier to see people investing to be cloesby.
Cons:
1. While people may invest closer-by, I think more private ownership and less government-ownership would still be a better model in this case.
2. That area is prime real estate, the possibilities would be endless if some or all of the land were sold to developers.
3. There are much more effective ways of helping the poor with housing. Why spend half a billion rebuilding this? Most cities just use vouchers nowadays and got out of the business of owning housing stock, because it inevitabely becomes too expensive to maintain, so it becomes rundown.
4. While it may look pretty for 5 years, I know New Orleans city government too well and don't see this remaining as maintained as they dream.
So overall, I'm against this project. Not that I don't want to see the poor helped or anything like that, I just don't see it as good urban planning - though it is better than what's there now.
