FTB10: outputting 10.3.12

So, there are a few examples of how redevelopment issues are being addressed around NO with the "PitchNOLA 2012" Lots of Progress and Idea Village "Water Challenge" initiatives going on around town.  These have ties to similar "public input" redevelopment projects such as 2012's "Love Your Block"  and 2011's Urban Innovation Challenge. What are the motives and people behind these initiatives, what the process is to make changes thru them, who guides these processes?  At the bottom of the PitchNOLA site there is a pdf by Jericho Road and Tulane City Center that describes potential plans for abandoned lots around town.

This Wednesday we will discuss these and other ways that participatory urban environment sculpting takes place.... how this is done outside of these formalized processes.  This will be merged with the Saturday "do stuff" meetup idea and start the process of building something, beginning the 2nd phase of class more focused around materials + methods of building. Relevant reading not online = stay up on the news/what your neighbors are yelling about/what you pass by every day but don't think about.

FTB09: connecting the dots 9.19.12

OK, so the group has been going for a solid number of weeks.  I'm stoked that folks have had interest, and new faces keep coming.  For this week's class, lets reapproach past readings and notes (all linked in previous posts, duh), and draw lines between them.  The past weekend's events concerning the fight for housing in Haiti were inspiring, so we will also be touching on what was said by Reynelle Sanon, Bill Quigley, STAND With Dignity, Other Worlds, and Survivors' Village in comparing the struggles in Haiti and New Orleans. 

Remember back in the first meet-ups when we talked about the often-overlapping roles of CREATORS, CONTROLLERS, and USERS of the built environment?
And how we have looked at who is concerned with certain issues, and why? 
In retrospect, what did we miss during earlier discussions, now that we have delved deeper?
What questions do you now have about past subjects?
What has been highlighted and hammered home?
If you missed a class, maybe this is a chance to catch up on those readings and we can see the subject in a new light. Maybe you can pick the subjects that seemed most relevant to you and bring something new in to add... take it wherever you want, but lets take a step back and try to digest some of what we've chewed upon. 

Liberian land disputes (FTB06) --> dissected by Norwegian Refugee Council --> funded in part by StatOil (in areas of investment interest) [CONTROLLERS of how environment is perceived]--> NGOs as a tool for expansion of national interest / envelopment--> NGOs representing privatization of governmental services --> tenant purchase/Hope VI/Choice Neighborhoods and the path to privatization of public housing [transfer of CONTROL] --> New Orleans public housing struggle [USERS seeking CONTROL] --> STAND With Dignity + Section 3/local hiring [USERS becoming CREATORS]--> and so on...

FTB08: Haiti reconstruction 9.12.12

This Friday, Sept 14, come hear Reyneld Sanon (Haitian housing rights activist) and New Orleans lawyer/professor Bill Quigley speak on housing rights and reconstruction after Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake:

We've been discussing much about types of displacement, their causes, and how they are addressed.  This week we will focus on Haiti's reconstruction, with a presentation by a friend who recently worked with Haitian organization ITECA (link goes to secondhand description) in Gressier (near Leogane, the epicenter of the quake).

note the lack of website for ITECA: it is important to note what we find in mass media with regard to who is conducting rebuilding efforts in Haiti, as many of  the efforts by Haitians maintain little-to-no web-presence, compounding the assumption that international organizations are saving the day as Haitians remain incapable.  This ties in to Haiti's history as a county with little self-determination, while much of the international community's efforts have been criticized as "photo-op philanthropy" with little on-the-ground results for Haitians and much money wasted on infrastructure and over-pay of international workers.


While around 500,000 Haitians remain internally displaced with little infrastructure, the Under Tents campaign (website down at time of posting) is fighting for a comprehensive housing plan, demanding

1. an end to the forced eviction of Internally Displaced Persons' (IDP) camps
2. designation of land for permanent housing
3. a centralized government institution to coordinate and implement a social housing plan
4. allocation of funding to carry out these goals

a few case studies in a sea of stories:
Haiti's rebuilding has many faces, as housing, public infrastructure, and private businesses all faced destruction in urban areas such as Port-au-Prince and Jacmel as well as in rural areas that have received much less media attention.  Haitian groups, individuals (local and international), NGOs of various sizes, and international governments have all played roles, with large-scale non-Haitian organizations such USAID and the UN maintaining powerful voices throughout. Haiti Grassroots Watch tells the story of Champs de Mars camp residents.

Some NGO's work as apolitical contractors to rebuild certain areas or structures: Architecture for Humanity is working in Villa Rosa, Port-Au-Prince as well as with several other projects, as part of a larger-scale approach to rebuild in a way aimed at sensitivity to local needs and realities.

Some projects are created by foreign groups for economic development:  Caracol industrial park, a US-backed development project that sadly seems to point towards exploitation of Haitian laborers for the benefit of international markets. 

from "Too Soon for Carnival: Sweeping Haiti's 400,000 Poor Back Under the Rug"

some relevant documents from past classes to check back over:
-see end of previous post re:President Martelly's 16/6 plan for relocating IDP camps

-"Confusions’ and Palava: The Logic of Land Encroachment in Lofa County" - describes the clash of customary use-valued land tenure systems and title-based market-valued land tenure systems in Liberia.  Land titling in Haiti has often been informal, and titling records were also lost in the earthquake in many cases.  Many people left in Internally Displaced Persons' camps are those who did not have formal title to the land they were living on.

cadastre: ca·das·tre also ca·das·ter (k -d s t r). n. A public record, survey, or map 
of the value, extent, and ownership of land as a basis of taxation.