public housing at Brave New Films

New Orleans: A Man-Made Disaster

2008-07-26T02:37:18Z

Katrina was called the worst natural disaster in America in 100 years. . . but the hundreds who died here were not killed by the storm - they were left for days to drown as flood waters rose around them.

And today, the storm isn't what's keeping most of the city's former residents from returning home.

A richer, whiter New Orleans is being built in which the city's poor and black majority have no place.
While the city moves ahead with its plans to destroy public housing, scattered former residents fight a desperate battle for their right to return home.

The outcome will have far reaching consequences. New Orleans is the front line of a national struggle to save public housing and to end the privatization of government services. New Orleans is the model that, if successful, will be reproduced across the country.

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Sudhir Venkatesh on "Gang Leader for a Day"

2008-06-08T03:29:59Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author Sudhir Venkatesh discusses the background for his book, "Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets."

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Sudhir Venkatesh became Gang Leader for a Day. First introduced in Freakonomics, here is the full story of Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociology grad student who infiltrated one of Chicago's most notorious gangs, studying a crack-dealing gang from the insider. Subtitled A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, Venkatesh's book describes how he managed to gain entree into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment.

Initially looking for people within a notorious housing project to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty, Venkatesh never imagined that as a result of that graduate assignment he would befriend a gang leader and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there. His report is a brazen, page-turning, and fundamentally honest view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in what is tantamount to an urban war zone. And it's also the story of a complicated friendship between Sudhir and JT - two young and ambitious men a universe apart - Cody's Books

Sudhir Venkatesh's research is rooted in ethnographic investigation of urban neighborhoods in the United States (New York, Chicago) and Paris, France. His most recent book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Harvard University Press, 2006), an ethnographic study of illegal economies in Chicago, received the C. Wright Mills Award (2007) and a Best Book Award from Slate.com (2006). His first book, American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (2000), explored the social organization, moral universe, and history of a Chicago housing development, The Robert Taylor Homes.

His forthcoming book, Gang Leader for a Day, is a reported memoir (Penguin Press, 2008). He is also the co-editor of Youth, Globalization and the Law (Stanford University Press 2006) and Director of the Youth and Globalization Collaborative Research Network at the Social Science Research Council. He is currently completing a long-term project on sex work in New York and Chicago with the economist Steven Levitt.

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Sudhir Venkatesh - A Slice of Gang Life

2008-06-08T09:33:59Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author Sudhir Venkatesh reads an excerpt from his book, "Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets."

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New Orleans Perfect Gentlemen Secondline 1.6.07

2008-06-10T15:31:59Z

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New Orlean City Council Shuts Down Public Housing Debate

2008-07-26T02:37:19Z

The New Orleans City Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Under the plan, the city's four largest public housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income housing. Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting with pepper spray and tasers. Many were arrested.

Footage by Luisa Dantas and Michael Boedigheimer of JoLu Productions, Robbie of Turning Tide, Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films, Broderick Webb, and Mavis Yorks.

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The Battle Over New Orleans Public Housing

2008-07-26T02:37:19Z

Since Hurricane Katrina emptied New Orleans of its residents, a battle has been waged over the future of the city.

The struggle over what the "New" New Orleans will look like and who will return to live here largely depends on the future of the city's public housing developments - and this week is a crucial showdown in that fight.

The City began demolitions last Wednesday which, if completed, will destroy 4500 units of public housing, making way for "mixed income" neighborhoods with only 800 units of public housing - an 82% reduction in size.

41 000 affordable rental units were destroyed by hurricane katrina and the city is facing an acute housing shortage. Rents have almost doubled since before the storm - but HUD - the Federal Housing Authority - is pressing ahead with the demolition.

50% of families who want to, but are unable to return to New Orleans make less than $20,000 a year. . . watching the demolition of part of their Housing Development from across the street, residents believe that the city does not want them back

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New Orleans Police Attack Peaceful March at St. Bernard

2008-07-26T02:37:19Z

Residents of the St. Bernard Housing Development served food and danced to the music of the Hot 8 Brass Band in a 'Party With a Purpose' to protest the planned demolition of 4,600 units of public housing in New Orleans.

New Orleans police attacked the peaceful, festive event without provocation and dragged away a journalist and two protesters.

Footage from Jacqueline Soohen and Richard Rowley of Big Noise Films, Michael Boedigheimer and Luisa Doucas of JoLu Productions, and the Yes Men.

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Save Public Housing in New Orleans

2008-06-13T21:31:25Z

Courtesy of Activists from Stop the Demolition Coalition:

It is two years since Hurricane Katrina left much of New Orleans in ruins, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Today, thousands remain displaced, and FEMA is evicting those who are still living in trailers. The homeless population of New Orleans has more than doubled since the storm, and now in December 2007, HUD is planning to demolish thousands more units of affordable housing in New Orleans--the public housing developments which survived the storm relatively undamaged, and remain structurally sound. Demolition without one-for-one replacement will result in a loss of 82% of the affordable housing stock in the city of New Orleans, which will further exacerbate already acutely inflated rental prices, and will disproportionately affect working class women of color.

Stopping HUD's demolition plans in New Orleans here and now not only will be a victory for a more just and equitable New Orleans, it will send a message to HUD that they cannot continue to displace working class people in cities across the United States in the name of "progress" and "poverty alleviation." The residents want to come home, and New Orleans desperately needs to preserve the affordable housing that it already has in order to continue to struggle to rebuild itself after Katrina.

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Join New Orleans Residents Dec. 10 as they fight for public housing

2008-07-26T02:25:03Z

Tuesday before Thanksgiving a group of activists gathered in Metairie, Louisiana to hand deliver over 122,000 signatures in support of Senate Bill 1668, the Gulf Coast Recovery Bill, to Senator David Vitter's office. Senator Vitter has and continues to be a major roadblock to the passage of this bill which has built in legislation for public housing in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. Moveon.org, Brave New Foundation and Color of Change collected these signatures over the past couple of months to help urge our US Senators to vote passage of this bill. Many of these same activists have also been working to block the demolition of the public housing units in New Orleans-- over 4,000 housing units will be demolished to make way for the development of mixed income housing of which only 700 units will be for low income residents.

Special Delivery

2008-03-22T21:54:44Z

Senators Chris Dodd and Mary Landrieu, presented S. 1668 into committee in 2005 to assist in providing affordable housing to those affected by the 2005 hurricanes. The bill supports working poor families, helps families living in public housing, makes up funding shortfalls in Louisiana’s Road Home Program, and increases oversight and monitoring of federal recovery funds for all impacted Gulf Coast states to ensure full transparency and accountability. It is truly a progressive bill. In the summer of 2007 Brave New Films produced the short video When the Saints and asked you, our audience to sign a petition in support of S. 1668. Today that petition was delivered. Three television stations, the local newspaper, a minister, residents of public housing, and other advocates – 50 people in all were present to document the delivery of the petitions to Vitter’s staff – urging him to sign the bill that would let them come home.

blog.nola.com

Two years after Katrina and thousands are still without homes

2008-06-12T15:35:52Z

Tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still there are tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt.

To share some of these people’s stories, we have put together a short film, "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Hurricane Katrina: The fight for housing in New Orleans (part 3 of 3)

2008-06-17T21:30:44Z

"This Is My Home" is a documentary about the fight for public housing in New Orleans. Most of the city's public housing withstood the hurricane with little or no damage, yet thousands of families are still shut out of their homes and remain displaced across the country. "This Is My Home" is a tribute to the perseverance of the displaced residents of New Orleans, and it is a call to action for the public, politicians, and all justice-minded people to support their right to return home.

This is part 3. Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here.

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Hurricane Katrina: The fight for housing in New Orleans (part 2 of 3)

2008-06-17T21:30:43Z

This is part 2. Part 1 is here, part 3 is here.

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Hurricane Katrina: The fight for housing in New Orleans (1 of 3)

2008-06-17T21:30:42Z

This is Part 1. Part 2 is here, and part 3 is here.

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