Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Battered Katrina victims battered again by FEMA, landlords
What does Bushco disaster management do when people's homes are damaged?
According to Bloomberg News's Josh Hamilton, Evict them.
That's what's happening in New Orleans to thousands and thousands of people.
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Marr spent 11 months patrolling Baghdad in the gun turret of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He returned home to Kenner, Louisiana, just in time to face eviction from his mobile home park. ...Many landlords are seeking to reclaim and renovate units abandoned by tenants who fled the storm....Other owners are reaping a rent windfall from the shortage or clearing out trailer parks to lease land to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which needs spots to temporarily house the displaced....A moratorium that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco imposed on evictions expired Oct. 25. The next day, constables in the New Orleans area were serving record numbers of notices telling tenants to leave. While renters get their day in court, most lose because state and local laws allow eviction without cause for those on month-to-month leases or if the landlord can claim the dwelling is destroyed, tenant advocates say. ``Early evidence suggests that 10,000 evictions will be filed in November,'' says Mark Moreau, co-executive director of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services....
Why do we know about this? Thanks to a blog.
Oh, sure. A journalist-- notably not from what's generally thought of as major US media-- reported the story.
But who got it from there to my eyes?
Probably not your local paper. Almost certainly not TV news. Definitely not Nancy Grace or Bill O'Reilly or the rest of the jackals of cable talk.
Gulf Coast Reconstruction Project picked it up from Bloomberg. From Gulf Coast Reconstruction to Atrios. From Atrios to Mercury Rising. From Mercury Rising to you.
This is what community solidarity looks like.
This is what the corporate media hates about blogs.
Thank you, Josh Hamilton. Thank you Bloomberg News. Thank you Gulf Coast Reconstruction. Thank you Atrios.
And %$#& all the media outlets that trash blogs for doing what they ought to be doing.
More blogs about politics.
