Well, this has gotten a lot of news lately. Being a Quarterite, I figure I should weigh in.
First off, I don't really care for the VCC. I'm going to talk about a "bitch" in the VCC.
Katrina knocked over a brick wall at the back of our property. It divided 2 lots. The other property burned during Katrina and was left abandoned for a few months. One of the residents had a son in the construction biz and rebuilt the wall in short order (otherwise, the wall wouldn't have been rebuilt in months). The owners are a nice doctor and his bitch of a wife. She insisted we tear down our wall, "because it wasn't up to VCC standards." VCC standards are notorious for being insanely difficult to comply with. My favorite story was a guy who repainted his home. White paint was peeling all over the place. Once he was finished, the VCC told him they didn't like the shade of white, so he had to spend $20,000 to get it repainted. Anyway, 2 walls later and on the anniversary of Katrina (plus or minus a week, I can't remember exactly), we finally got a wall in place. Oh yeah, and this whole time, they were rebuilding their carriage house using cinder blocks. Would have loved to sent some of photos in to her friends on the VCC. Nobody wanted to piss them off more than we already had, so I've just got them stored on my hard drive.
Anyway, as problematic as the VCC are, they're the lesser of two evils. The other alternative would be to let developers take over and let it turn into this:
Disney's version of the Quarter. Except with developers, it would be 30 story condo's in the faux-Louisiana Vernacular style. The VCC is a necessary evil.
Second comment I have is, though I've never met Ms. White, the prevailing opinion seems to be she's an insufferable human being who had it coming. Our politicians get off way too easy, so if a few people slip their toe over the line, I'm not going to mind.
Thirdly, Nagin wants to hold someone accountable for a slip of the tongue? HOLY SHIT! STOP THE PRESSES! Well, if you want someone canned, then let's start with your worthless hide. I've heard (and I'm not 100% on this, so if I'm wrong, I'll retract it) that Dr. Lupin rode out the storm in the city. He even went in and provided whatever medical care he could to the poor in the Superdome and Convention Center. That's right, he was helping people while Nagin was sprawled on the floor of the Hyatt in a fetal position sucking on one thumb with his other thumb firmly implanted up his ass.
Fourth, people need to go beyond what Nagin says. People need to look into what he's trying to do. He wants Lupin replaced with a crony to line his pockets. This may come as a surprise to some, but there's a ton of abandoned property in the Quarter. Very few people are willing to go to the trouble of restoring it because of the VCC's micromanagement. I'm sure Nagin and his cronies have some sort of scheme to get some land, install a lackey who watches their back while they make a fortune off some of the most valuable land in the city. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hotel or something really gaudy (like a 30 story monument to Hizzoner's greatness) in the works. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Fifth, hey, there are some really tiny apartments in the Quarter. When I first graduated, I had a place that was $600 a month with utilities. Great deal, right? Well, it was a converted slave quarter and was one (very small) room. It had a shower stall that was so narrow, I could only stand one way, otherwise my shoulders would get stuck. If they were to have one ginormous bin for a whole complex, that might work.
Some people are shocked that this has become a big deal. I'm not. And now you know why.
UPDATE- Read this article about the special tax district for the Quarter. Seems the Quarterites were reluctant to pay up, so they wanted to control the money... Nagin didn't like that.
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