[StBernard] submission to Wesley - my letter to TP - mixed housing

[Westley Annis]

Hey y'all
I don't know if my letter to editor at TP will be published as I have not yet received the usual verification phone call but here it is below. (Also I thought Craig Taffaro's columun in  the 9/16 St Bernard News was excellent and you might want to check it out). Living in Buccanner South, I will have a development almost at the entrance and exit to my area. How much do you think my rebuilt home will be worth??
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I had to wait and cool down a few days before I wrote. 

  

My opposition, and those of many St Bernard residents’, to the controversial four low-mixed income apartments complexes totaling almost 300 apartments is simply not about race.  It is about the distaste for greedy out of town developers as well as local investors.  Does anyone think these developers really care about their prospective tenants or is it more about the guaranteed government incentives? 

  

Some may remember residents of New Orleans East, with a majority black population, also fought a similar battle in their area.  Fortunately, they won and hopefully will preserve their neighborhood.  Was that race? No, it was -- and is -- a concern to all of us of every color and ethnicity who have gambled to rebuild our homes after Katrina.  Most, including myself, have exhausted every penny and taken on substantial debt to return home. 

  

Please don’t try to camouflage the real issue.  This is once again about the almighty dollar.  We have a glut of both rental units and available homes in our parish.  

  

If you disagree, and it is certainly everyone’s prerogative and thankfully our right to do so openly in this country, I am compelled to ask – would you honestly welcome the same invasion by profit takers in your neighborhood? 

 

Deborah Lambert Rosenberger