Letters From Our Readers
Please note: Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Urban Conservancy. If you have a letter, or wish to respond, please contact us.
City Council Lawsuit
In the recently published lawsuit our City Council has filed against the citizens of New Orleans is an interesting fact. Gone is any mention of low-income housing, the Council now calls the St. Thomas Redevelopment an “economic development project.”
The apartments will compete with local and neighborhood apartments, many of them empty. The mega-store by the Council’s own admission will take sales from our existing businesses, closing many of them. The City will lose sales-tax revenue. And the project is being built largely with our tax dollars! This is apparently our Council’s idea of “economic development.”
The project is contrary to the goals of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and at odds with any sensible idea of how to diversify and strengthen the City’s economy. Economic Development? Some will benefit from the project but certainly not the citizens nor the economy of our City.
—John F. Wettermark
Dec 18 2002