[promoted by BooMan]
RAW STORY reported this through The Washington Times. I guess if the lawn jockey says it, it’s straight from his bosses’ lips:
Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of “500,000 people for a long time,” and “it’s not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.”
Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, quickly took issue.
“Anybody who can make that kind of projection with some degree of certainty or accuracy must have a crystal ball that I can’t see or maybe they are more prophetic than any of us can imagine,” he said.
Other members of the caucus said the comments by Mr. Jackson, who is black, could be misconstrued as a goal, particularly considering his position of responsibility in the administration.
Hell, they are COUNTING ON THAT GOAL.
And Nagin won’t have to worry about being turned out of office for his part in the Katrina debacle if he plays his cards right.
Furthermore, Jackson (no relation to Jesse) is a former housing developer with ties to the industry. He cannot be blind to the windfall to speculators and developers because of Katrina. No doubt, as a black Republican, he and Nagin are in cahoots.
Some of you might remember one of my diaries, one taken from a Salon article on DailyKos that showed the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Representative Maxine Waters trying to get evacuees to safety closer to home, preferably to nearby England Air Force Base in Alexandria. But that didn’t happen. Now,
Rep. Bobby L. Rush, Illinois Democrat, said Alphonso Jackson’s remarks and the prospects of real-estate speculators and developers in New Orleans are “foreboding.”
“Gentrification is a demon that is looming on the landscape, and we have to be aware of it and vigilant. … Right now, I don’t know if the resistance to it is strong enough,” Mr. Rush said.
He said a history of forced removal of blacks from their homes and property cannot be ignored as the reconstruction moves forward.
Two weeks after Katrina, the Congressional Black Caucus issued an eight-point action plan that calls for residents to get the first right of return to the area, that New Orleans residents get first choice of construction jobs and rebuilding contracts and that voting rights be protected.
Many evacuees from the Ninth Ward will likely never be able to return, Mr. Jackson said. He told Mayor C. Ray Nagin that it would be a mistake to rebuild that part of town, the lowest-lying section and prone to flooding.
Not with earthenwork, concrete and metal levees, you mean. Why not create a series of levees whereby people can live in relative safety as do the Dutch? But I guess, that is too expensive for black people who have traditionally voted Democrat.
