News Roundup

Group Urges LSU, VA to Reconsider Mid-City Site

New Orleans CityBusiness
From Staff Reports
November 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Today’s decision by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Louisiana State University to use a 70-acre Mid-City site to build two new hospitals is “a serious error,” the National Trust for Historic Preservation said.

The VA and LSU announced today they will build two hospitals in an area bounded by Tulane Avenue, Canal Street, Claiborne Avenue and South Rocheblave Street.

But “there are better alternatives available” the National Trust said in a press release today.

“The National Trust for Historic Preservation strongly urged the VA to work with the incoming Obama Administration to explore the alternative sites that would restore needed health care facilities faster and at less cost, while preserving much more of the historic Mid-City neighborhood. At the same time, the National Trust for Historic Preservation noted that the VA’s decision is based on the desire to co-locate with an LSU medical facility - whose projected $1.2 billion funding is far from assured.”

Some, including the National Trust, wanted LSU to use Charity Hospital rather than tear down homes and buildings in the 70 acres. Charity has been closed since being damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

“In selecting these sites, the VA and LSU have made a serious error,” said Richard Moe, president of Washington, D.C.-based National Trust. “They chose the alternatives that will not only be the most time-consuming, costly and complex to implement, but will needlessly destroy a historic neighborhood where residents are struggling to rebuild their community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“The VA and LSU had other options, yet they chose the most difficult and destructive route to delivering health care to the region’s veterans and a medical teaching facility to the community. We strongly urge the VA and LSU to reconsider and take another look at other less harmful alternatives on the table.”

Moe said his organization placed Charity and the adjacent Mid-City neighborhood on its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places this year “due to the threat these decisions pose to this historic neighborhood.

“We believe that homeowners who have returned to New Orleans post-Katrina to rebuild their homes and their community should not lose their homes when other viable alternatives would be faster and more cost-effective in accomplishing the VA’s and LSU’s goals.”

The sites chosen by the VA and LSU would demolish 15 square blocks within the Mid-City National Register Historic District, including about 165 historic structures, most of them homes, said Walter Gallas, director of the National Trust’s New Orleans Field Office.

“This is a lose-lose situation all around,” Gallas said.

The National Trust, working with the Foundation for Historical Louisiana and neighborhood groups, is pushing for alternative sites.

One alternative calls for the VA to build on the site currently proposed for the new LSU hospital with LSU occupying a renovated, rehabbed Charity as the new Academic Medical Center.

Another alternative would co-locate the new VA and LSU hospitals on the site currently slated for a new LSU hospital.

A third alternative is the commercial site containing the vacant Lindy Boggs Medical Center. “No homes or other historic buildings occupy this site, it has fewer parcels of land to assemble and the land would be available immediately from a willing seller,” the National Trust said in its press release.

Elected officials, meanwhile, praised the LSU and VA news.

“Today’s announcement brings Louisiana veterans one step closer to receiving the quality health care services they deserve,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie. “Our brave military veterans have served our nation with honor and it is important that they have access to quality health care without having to travel to other states to get the help they need.”