Letters From Our Readers

Open Letter Concerning Lower Mid-City Street Closures

The following is an open letter to be signed and presented at a news conference on Wednesday, March 10 at 12 noon, Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street. Please circulate among others who want to sign on.
Contact: Derrick Morrison, denbenphu@gmail.com


OPEN LETTER to the NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL concerning the LOWER MID-CITY neighborhood and the REV AVERY C. ALEXANDER CHARITY HOSPITAL

As of March 01, 2010, the minutes of the Feb 23 meeting of the City Planning Commission are now available to the public. That meeting, billed as a public hearing, saw the Commissioners vote to support the plan of Mayor Ray Nagin to rip up the streets of the Lower Mid City neighborhood. Only one Commissioner was in opposition.

According to the minutes, 7 people spoke in support of the Mayor’s plan, 3 persons for ‘information only’, and 20 people spoke in opposition to the plan. But, 15 people who signed up to speak were denied the right to be heard. 15 people were denied the right to speak at a public hearing to a body of public officials. At a 2 minute time limit, this would have only added 1/2 hour to the meeting. Did the Commissioners have some place to go?

At an organized public hearing, the job of public officials is to listen to the people. These are citizens of the metro area who have taken precious time out of their busy schedules to attend a government hearing. The citizens are making sacrifices.

The public hearing becomes a mockery, a sham, when citizens are denied their right to speak their mind to a body of public officials.

The people were denied a fair and democratic hearing before the City Planning Commission.

We want a fair and democratic hearing before the New Orleans City Council. We want a public hearing before the City Council that allows the maximum participation of the citizens. People’s homes and properties are at stake here. The Mayor wants to begin the process of demolishing close to 200 homes and businesses. We think any public hearing on this plan should deny no one the right to speak.

We think the City Council should strongly consider holding its hearing on the Mayor’s plan in the evening. Many people who wanted to participate in the 1:30p CPC hearing couldn’t because they work during the day. The City Council should take this fact into account. FOR A FAIR AND DEMOCRATIC CITY COUNCIL HEARING.