More about the project teardowns

The housing project teardowns in New Orleans remain in limbo for now because of a lawsuit. Here's the T-P story. Some excerpts:

The Housing Authority of New Orleans said this week in court papers that the lawsuit threatens the estimated $681 million redevelopment of what it calls the "Big Four": C.J. Peete in Central City; Lafitte in Treme; St. Bernard in the 7th Ward; and B.W. Cooper, which sits between Earhart and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards.

Filed in June, the lawsuit has yet to draw any conclusive rulings from U.S. District Court. ...

For now, the vast low-rise complexes remain a frozen landscape of failed housing for the poor, with thousands of homes shuttered, fenced-off and lying in wait for redevelopment.

Except for a portion of the apartments at Cooper, the four complexes marked for redevelopment have been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast 15 months ago. HUD has tagged each for demolition, yet has not formally approved any such plans....

Passing mention of Desire, the torn-down and supposed-to-be-rebuilt complex I wrote about in LfNO:

Before Katrina, HANO had embarked on a $700 million redevelopment plan for five of its 10 traditional housing sites. Private developers worked on the "new" Desire complex in the Ninth Ward and the River Garden neighborhood that replaced the former St. Thomas complex in the Lower Garden District, while HANO was developing new units at Fischer, Florida and Guste.

Since the storm, only Fischer and Guste in Central City are still on the redevelopment track by HANO.