What do you think of the $80 billion NOLA FEDERAL Buyout?

A Big Government Fix-It Plan for New Orleans

By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: January 5, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. - Into the void of the post-Katrina policy landscape, littered with half-ruined proposals, crumbling prescriptions and washed-out initiatives, an obscure and very conservative congressman has stepped in with the ultimate big government solution.



Steve Helber/Associated Press
Representative Richard H. Baker, a conservative Republican from Louisiana, has proposed rebuilding homes in New Orleans through an $80 billion federal buyout.




HOW TO HELP A partial list of relief organizations and other information on the Web.

YOUR STORY Share your experiences via e-mail or in this forum. Representative Richard H. Baker, a Republican from suburban Baton Rouge who derides Democrats for not being sufficiently free-market, is the unlikely champion of a housing recovery plan that would make the federal government the biggest landowner in New Orleans - for a while, at least. Mr. Baker's proposed Louisiana Recovery Corporation would spend as much as $80 billion to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers.

Desperate for a big-scale fix to the region's huge real estate problem, Louisiana officials and business leaders of all stripes - black and white, Republican and Democrat - have embraced this little-known congressman and his grandiose plan, calling its passage crucial. While the White House has yet to sign on, there are already signs that some Congressional leaders are interested in pursuing it; Mr. Baker said administration officials had not rejected it outright.

The passage of the bill has become increasingly important to Louisiana because the state lost out to the greater political power of Mississippi last month when Congress passed a $29 billion aid package for the Gulf states region. The package gave Mississippi about five times as much per household in housing aid as Louisiana received - a testimony to the clout of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Senator Thad Cochran, chairman of the Appropriations Committee<snip>


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/national/nationalspecial/05buyout.html

This will make the Federal Gov the largest land owner in history. Imminent Domain? They covered this on C-SPAN this morning with call ins.

Disney-meets-Stepford.. Ruined properties bought on the cheap from desperate owners....bulldozed..."cleaned up" lightly, and poof! condos and hotels for the "visitors"..

The workers of the city will have to commute from their crackerbox apartments built on the edges.

turn around and sell it back to the people for G-d only knows how much....hundreds of thousands of $$$$$. If not, MILLIONS. I see their vision as a Gambling haven, ala FL. There's no way in hell the POOR people will be able to "buy" their way back in.

They want NEW people..

the prices of the "new" homes will exclude the "undesirables"..

his constituents are openly racist, and so is he

that said, much of the land in question has little value, and if a lot in the 9th ward wasn't worth anything on aug. 27, i fail to see why it's worth "millions" to developers on jan. 5

developers want to build on the high ground, not the low ground, i'll tell you a secret, that's why the poor people were living there in the first place

sure, i would love to see developers come in and the feds pay people billions of dollars for properties they once couldn't sell out of a paper bag, and the people finally have the $$$ to buy somewhere safe and decent, but it ain't gonna happen, not really, it's a fairy tale

the valuable land is going to be the high ground, which stayed dry

not the freakin' swamp land

i'll believe in the $80 billion buy-out when the feds actually give the people the money for their properties

certainly some areas should be fully bought out and returned to wetland, new orleans east being the prime example, but it ain't gonna happen

could you imagine the taxpayer in omaha or peoria when he hears the feds are spending BILLIONS to turn neighborhoods in new orleans east back into swampland, ha, don't think so

as far as the fantasy that poor people will live on the outskirts of new orleans and commute to work, that REALLY raises a chuckle, to rent in my modest neighborhood has just doubled, my next door neighbor is paying $1,500 a month for RENT, i don't know many poor people who make that kind of money, poor people by definition don't have $$$

homeowners should be fairly compensated for property in areas where people should not be living in the first place, such as many parts of new orleans east, but i'm skeptical of this entire proposal, i think it is there just to create disharmony and bad feeling

if you really think baker is planning to put billions of dollars into the hands of displaced black homeowners, well, okay, but i'm going to have to take a wait and see on that one

this is the dude who brought us the statement: we couldn't clean up the projects, so god did

for those who had rented prior to the storm.

I don't want NOLA to be turned into a gentrified Disneyworld. :(

Edited on Sat Sep-17-05 03:29 PM by SoCalDem

(under new management)


So much to see..so much to do.. Your family will remember the trip for years ...



Toxicland...(exciting display..ride in your own hazmat-mobile)

Petro-Village...(an amazing amalgamation of pipes and intricate maze of oil tanks)

Pirates of the French Quarter..(must be "this tall" to enter) Don't forget to buy a signed 8x10 of Mike Brown...aka Brownbeard...it's a heckova picture and well worth $50

The USS FEMA (fun for the kiddies....must bring own provisions)

Georgie's Fishin' Hole..EVERYBODY catches a fish..no poles necessary..just scoop one up (they're specially trained to float and to be very still for the kiddies)..then run on down to the Fry Shack, and they'll cook it right up for you.. (sponsored by Mobil/Chevron)

Dubya Gump's Wild Shrimp Ride..(fun for young and old..just don't eat the shellfish)

W's Dumbo Gumbo House...featuring glow in the dark oysters, oiled pelican, Texaco Tea, and the house specialty.."all the better to see you" 3-eyed snapper..

Carpetbagger Cafe....featuring a fabulous $10 mini-burger..(freedom fries are only $5 extra) Bottled Iridescent Bayou Water only $4.50..(don't ask for the recipe..it's a secret)

Bab's Oatmeal Hut...Everyone always said she looked like the Quaker Oats guy..Grab up a bowl of steaming hot cajun oatmeal...then Make a RUN for the porta potties..

Beads R Us....Authentic BK beads (before Katrina)..Buy 'em by the handful, or string 'em together for your own souvenir..(Keep away from children..a choking and poison hazard)

Sign up for the GrayLine Tour of "Old N'Awlins"..Respirator and protective clothing included..... Includes a side trip to the Nature preserve (waders included also)..Camera not necessary ...the animals are still "evacuated").. Picture postcards of the former wildlife are available in the gift shoppe at the end of the tour.


And for the finale...don't miss the moonlight cruise across lake Ponchartrain at dusk.....But..be sure to Pick a speedy boat.. the trick is to make it to the other side before the boat disintegrates.. Don't quite make it?? Don't worry..Just grab on to one of the many simulated roofs in the lake, and hang on until the USS FEMA comes to get you..

His family lives in St. Tammany Parish. His sister still doesn't have her roof and walls fixed. At least they have a home that wasn't flooded.

This is all so sad and we DUers saw it coming. :(

turn into reality.. I was shocked when I heard that they really were having tours.. :(

However, if giving the tours can make a NOLA person some money then I suppose it might be OK. I wouldn't take one. :(

New Orleans will be rebuilt into New Orlando, sans black people. It'll be a tourist town, completely stripped of its citizenry.

Oh, and it will go solid Red, having lost its major urban population (not an accident).

It has too many facets that would clearly make it more easy to abuse or steal from the system.

A direct grant and lending program to those directly affected has already been shown to be equally cost effective. (I think that was Rand, and although i don't agree with their philosophy, they do have some good financial thinkers). IIRC, the number was $75 - $80 billion to completely rebuild, including infrastructure, but i think, not including redesiging the levees. (The assumption i think was that the gov't was going to do that anyway.)

So, this seems like a grandstanding play that will actually dilute ownership of the working poor and small business owners and make it simpler for large developers to swoop in during the medium term, and make a giant land grab.
The Professor

GOOD idea?:scared: That's not good. If this gets bi-partisan support, the poor people of NOLA are screwed.

Barney is a big picture thinker with a good heart. He honestly believes the function of gov't is to make the general populace have a better life. So, the idea is intrinsically appealing to a guy like him.

The complications with this plan lie in the details and i doubt Barney has seen the detail yet. He would probably only support it with modifications to eliminate the "land grab" aspects of it.
The Professor

those who can least afford it.

As I understand it, they are taking this land from distressed HOMEOWNERS at damaged goods prices. So th homeowners get to pay gentrified rates if they want to return to their own Neighborhoods??

Puhleeeze.

This is lazy, thoughtless and sadly, I fear inevitable. Congratualtions, Pukkkes,--you've managed to make another Blue area Red by strangling it in the bathtub--as it were.

if you remember the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s, it wasn't quite on the same scale, but it was quite a crisis, there were 50,000 boarded-up homes owned by gov't entities in the new orleans area

most were owned by the federal gov't under the resolution trust corporation (rtc) which came into being to sell the foreclosed properties

far from causing the prices to rise, real estate prices utterly collapsed, i live in one of the best zip codes in the state and probably if you include mississippi and alabama as well, and far from having to pay an inflated price, i received a bargain price because the feds had so many properties to sell at that time

i also received the right to make a minimal down payment and to receive all sorts of other benefits, such as the gov't paid my closing costs, the gov't put a new roof on, the gov't paid for a $1,000 (it would now be $2,000) termite treatment and contract

when the gov't owns a lot of property it has to sell or face a pissed-off taxpayer, then the prices are not going to be inflated, they're going to be deflated

i know i got a bargain and i wouldn't stand in the way of something like this that would allow for many other individuals and families to get a bargain and a fresh start on life

if you have a total loss on yr home, and you get back 60 percent of your equity, and now the feds are desperate to sell lots because they have so damn many...the practical effect is that people will get deals

not deals good enough to interest a developer, the developers want uptown, french quarter, the tourist areas

but deals that could help families

i'm just skeptical that baker's plan is what it seems, i don't see this dude putting good green cash in black people's pockets

if i'm wrong abt the dude, i will be the first to shake his hand and apologize

prices--that might help, altho I can see a lot of problems with the original inhabitants having the credit rating and downpayments and so on to move back to their own turf. It's just such tragedy, all around. I'd hate to see anyone profit off it and leave the soul of New Orleans in the lurch.

It's funny how the Reich uses the hackneyed line about "you know how to spend your money better than government does" when arguing for tax reductions for the wealthy, and then uses the impoverished and dislocated as an excuse for yet another trickle-down scam on the public dime. Where's the "trickle up" that's proven to work better?

They need a large influx of capital, to create jobs, re-build homes, give loans to small businesses and individuals, and jumpstart the economy along the coast, but not the Republican plan where the money and the property will end up in the pockets of those that least need it, in my humble opinion.

I even posted about how this would turn into a rich developers landgrab and *poof* you have 400k condos etc where all the 'trash' use to live.

Many on this board saw it coming.