The "New South" (New Orleans, Metairie: sale, rental market, limousine)

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

Have you ever been to NO?

I have been to New Orleans. The last time I was there was 1998. I would say parts of it feels like the Old South. As for racism,it is there. In fact, there were "vigilante" shootings in Algiers Point, where Blacks were being shot at, some were killed, just for being in Algiers Point. It didn't matter whether or not they were looters or persons from the Lower 9th Ward looking for higher ground. People in Houston and points further away didn't do that. Only in the Algiers Point district of New Orleans. This happened a few days after Katrina blasted through the place. After the wake of Katrina, St. Bernard Parish passed a law prohibiting anyone from renting property to anyone who wasn't a blood relative. They were found out and sued, but it begs this question: Why would anyone pass such a law?

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I have been to New Orleans. The last time I was there was 1998. I would say parts of it feels like the Old South. As for racism,it is there. In fact, there were "vigilante" shootings in Algiers Point, where Blacks were being shot at, some were killed, just for being in Algiers Point. It didn't matter whether or not they were looters or persons from the Lower 9th Ward looking for higher ground. People in Houston and points further away didn't do that. Only in the Algiers Point district of New Orleans. This happened a few days after Katrina blasted through the place. After the wake of Katrina, St. Bernard Parish passed a law prohibiting anyone from renting property to anyone who wasn't a blood relative. They were found out and sued, but it begs this question: Why would anyone pass such a law?

Of course, racism is everywhere and Katrina did a good job of exposing every flaw this region has. The reason for the law in St. Bernard is more than likely intended to keep out "unwanted elements". St. Bernard isn't the first place to do this though. If I'm not mistaken, that law was also overturned. You don't have to ask that, you know why.

I will say that when it comes to race relations and structure, New Orleans is probably the most well-intergrated city in the south.

I was replying to the comment that there are places in NO that white people can't go. It's kind of hard in city that is for a large part layed out like a checkerboard when it comes to demographis. If a white person can walk into an area and become an instant target, that means anyone else of any color who appears to have something of interest will more than likely become an instant target as well.

[Prytania]

1998 isn't 2009. You aren't here now...

Why would they? (pass such a law) to limit the number of renters as high populations of renters keep property values down (black or white). And many of the renters would have thought to be Section 8 or other low income properties...and I don't blame da Parish. I would not want to own property next to a lot of rental properties.
It's not a race issue, its a class issue.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Prytania

1998 isn't 2009. You aren't here now...

Why would they? (pass such a law) to limit the number of renters as high populations of renters keep property values down (black or white). And many of the renters would have thought to be Section 8 or other low income properties...and I don't blame da Parish. I would not want to own property next to a lot of rental properties.
It's not a race issue, its a class issue.

Making it illegal to rent property to anyone who isn't a blood relative? This is why I say it was a race issue. Places like Chalmette already had a tiny Black population to begin with. After Katrina went through there, alot of people got their stuff jacked up and alot of people left. No one knew who would come back, but if there are no Blacks in a place, which was the case during September 2005 for St Bernard Parish, well, no one has to say "No Blacks Allowed" or even put up laws explicitly saying it. It will just happen by design.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

Of course, racism is everywhere and Katrina did a good job of exposing every flaw this region has. The reason for the law in St. Bernard is more than likely intended to keep out "unwanted elements". St. Bernard isn't the first place to do this though. If I'm not mistaken, that law was also overturned. You don't have to ask that, you know why.

I will say that when it comes to race relations and structure, New Orleans is probably the most well-intergrated city in the south.

I was replying to the comment that there are places in NO that white people can't go. It's kind of hard in city that is for a large part layed out like a checkerboard when it comes to demographis. If a white person can walk into an area and become an instant target, that means anyone else of any color who appears to have something of interest will more than likely become an instant target as well.

I knew you were responding to another post. I was just adding the Algiers Point piece. It seems like that shooting is like New Orleans dirty little secret.

I look at it this way: New Orleans is the murder capital of America, so anyone can get murdered there.

I have a hard time seeing New Orleans as being the most integrated place in the South. I read about history and in some was New Orleans is kind of confusing. You have alot of people who are mixed racially, especially Creoles. On another note, there was also a case with a few krewes cancelling their parades rather than letting Blacks join.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I knew you were responding to another post. I was just adding the Algiers Point piece. It seems like that shooting is like New Orleans dirty little secret.

I look at it this way: New Orleans is the murder capital of America, so anyone can get murdered there.

I have a hard time seeing New Orleans as being the most integrated place in the South. I read about history and in some was New Orleans is kind of confusing. You have alot of people who are mixed racially, especially Creoles. On another note, there was also a case with a few krewes cancelling their parades rather than letting Blacks join.

We have our racial issues, but in what other southern city do blacks, whites, and everybody else live dead smack on top of each other. Everybody is mixed in like gumbo. Although that gumbo has settled a lot over time it's still mixed. As far as history goes you have take into account all of the different countries and governors who took turns ruling Louisiana. At one point New Orleans was the best place to be for people of color. The race issue doesn't begin getting serious until the United States becomes involved.

[Justplainjoe]

Yes. However, It was BEFORE Katrina. I experienced blatant racism twice and subtle racism on a few occasions. I will not describe them here. Suffice it to say that I have traveled to over 25 countries and quite a few states. I have friends from all walks of life and we have traveled together (usually one or two of us at a time). BTW, I also witnessed blatant outright racism towards African American friends too. It was an embarrasing episode, one that again I care not to describe. Suffice it to say there is racism whether subtle or outright EVERYWHERE in the world. No one group holds the market on it nor is one group the only victim. It is awful in ALL it's forms and destroys everything in it's path.

[Justplainjoe]

Oh, please do not think I was denigrating NO, if it came off that way, it was completely unintended. Racism exists everywhere and most places are a mix of both of good and bad.

[Blue_Bayoula]

Originally Posted by oscottscotto

Well, I can say that rural northern Mississippi is a whole 'nother planet ... much less a unique area of the country. Beautiful countryside, but yeah. I don't see anything like that happening in many other areas of the south though - or at least not in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, southern/central Mississippi, or Georgia (I'm not familiar enough with Tennessee or South Carolina to make any statements about them).

Something similar happened to me and two other white women when we were driving through. Basically, we were told that we weren't welcome, not sure why though.

I think of that area and "Deliverance" (the movie) comes to mind. Plus, there's The South and there's New Orleans; they're not the same thing.

[Drouzin]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

After the wake of Katrina, St. Bernard Parish passed a law prohibiting anyone from renting property to anyone who wasn't a blood relative. They were found out and sued, but it begs this question: Why would anyone pass such a law?

Actually the law did not prohibit anyone from renting property to anyone who wasn't a blood relative. The law specifically prohibited residential home owners from fixing up their homes and turning them into rental property. Because the prevailing fear was that developers would buy up cheap property and turn the entire parish into rental property as opposed to the established home owner format. It was figured that if the property could only be rented to a member of the family it would limit developers interest in taking advantage of a disaster situation and encourage citizens to remain and rebuild instead. Any rental property that exsisted pre-K was not affected by the law and was to be open to anyone wanting to rent out that property.

While the intent of the law was good and reasonable, it brought up race issues because of the predominately white homeowner status of the parish, not to mention the ire of homeowners who were limited as to what they could do with their own property. In the end the law was bunked and instead there is a limit on the number of former owned residences to be turned into rental property. Out of town develpers were instead forced to buy and sell the property they were snatching up for pennies on the dollar rather than rent them out as absentee landlords.

Despite all this brewhaha over rental property, (you would think that there are people dying to get into the parish with all this fuss), the St. Bernard rental market is dead and those who own rental property cannot find tennants and are putting their properties up for sale at unbelieveably low prices. Open up the St. Bernard News and there are tons of available units for rent, including low rent section 8.