How does he define "best resident"? Those who paid rent on time, those who held a job and those who worked. Well isn't that special. That makes a good chunk of the nation a "bad" resident at one time or another. As Susan points out:
By those lights, tens of thousands of Michigan workers went in one day from some of the state's "best residents" to "undesirables," not based on their own behavior, but on the ruthless realities spawned by globalization. Our value as citizens and residents under this categorization is based solely on the economics of big business, as corporations do their periodic employee bloodletting to bolster the bottom line.I don't particularly agree with her characterization of business - after all they have a duty to shareholders - but I agree with her basic premise. Sometimes being out of work or not able to pay rent isn't your fault.
I'll be nasty and wish that Alfonso gets to experience that some day.
Ok, as an unabashed liberal, let me stick up for the idea originally floated by New Orleans City Councilman at large Thomas Oliver: only people who are coming back to work should be welcomed into public housing.
There is no shortage of employment in NOLA right now, but there is a shortage of housing. Linking the two isn't such a bone headed idea.
And we have to find some way to break a cycle of dependency that goes back to slavery and Reconstruction, which contributes to some level of semi-professional idleness. Yeah, I'm a white guy and should probably get flamed (in person, not just online) for suggesting this, but it's a pretty clear cultural fact.
If we don't figure out how to reverse what we (as white southerners) have done for the last couple of hundred years to suppress inititative and inculcate dependency in black southerners, then there will be no way out for places like New Orleans with a large lumpenproletariat class.
Yelling at each other ain't going to help. Actually, the HUD secretary's and Thomas' remarks probably didn't help, except to start the argument. Now we need to turn it into a discussion.
Most residents of public housing wouldn't be affected by this anyway, thanks to neo-liberal welfare reform. Most were working, at very low wage jobs that made the New Orleans tourist and convention economy go.
Frankly, we need people in New Orleans who are coming there to work--together--to rebuild the city. To suggest that anyone else is less than welcome is inside the pale in my view. Hell, we know how to take it easy, and not kill ourselves in the heat. But there needs to be a commitment to work and to work together.
Posted by: Mark | April 26, 2006 6:12 AM | Permalink to Comment