Why We are Protesting the New Orleans Times Picayune

The failure of  the Times Picayune to seriously address the ongoing criminal investigation of  HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson provides cover for what may well be the illegal awarding of so-called redevelopment contracts tied to the demolition of  public housing in New Orleans. We will protest the lack of coverage at 4pm, Thursday, February 28, at the Times Picayune Building, 3800 Howard Ave., New Orleans, La.  

Jackson is now under a federal grand jury investigation linking him to bid rigging concerning the so called redevelopment contracts for  the St. Bernard Housing Development and the C.J. Peete Development.  The investigation of  these allegations of  corruption against  Jackson are commanding the attention of the media and press throughout the country…except for New Orleans.

From the National Journal:

Investigators are exploring whether Jackson, despite that testimony, had actually lined up a contract at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans, or HANO, for a golfing buddy and social friend from Hilton Head Island, S.C. The friend, William Hairston, was paid more than $485,000 for working at HANO during an 18-month period, according to figures provided by HUD and a former HANO official. The work was not competitively bid.

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At the same time, the secretary still has financial ties to one housing developer. According to Jackson's financial disclosure reports, an Atlanta-based development company, Columbia Residential, owes him $250,000 to $500,000. Before joining HUD, his spokesman said, Jackson was a "partner/consultant" for the developer.

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Columbia Residential recently was part of a team that won a $127 million competitive contract from HANO to redevelop the St. Bernard public housing project, which has been shuttered since Katrina. In his written responses, HUD spokesman Brown said that Jackson was not part of the selection team and played no "role in the selection of any team members." The four-member selection panel included Scott Keller, who was until recently Jackson's deputy chief of staff and who is often described within HUD as Jackson's "right-hand man." But in an interview, Keller said that because of the press of other HUD business he did not participate in, or influence, the selection of the Columbia Residential team. Keller left HUD in August to become a private consultant.

Alphonso Jackson's wife is now being looked at by investigators. Again, from the National Journal:

Jackson's problems may be growing. It turns out that his wife, Marcia, a consultant in Washington, had financial ties to at least two companies that did business at HANO. In one case, a St. Louis company won a $2.4 million architecture-engineering contract in 2003 for a housing development under HANO's control; the second company was a subcontractor on that job. In another instance, the St. Louis firm was part of a team selected to redevelop a major public housing project for the New Orleans agency. In each case, Jackson's allies played important roles in choosing the firm.

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There is no indication that Mrs. Jackson is a target of the federal inquiry. Nonetheless, investigators recently began asking questions about two minority-owned companies that have worked on HANO projects and that have also used Mrs. Jackson as a consultant, according to a person familiar with the probe. The companies are Kennedy Associates, a St. Louis architectural and engineering concern, and MetroplexCore, a Houston environmental and industrial services company once known as Metroplex Industries. Both firms are run by men who have had ties to the HUD secretary.

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Meanwhile, Kennedy Associates has been a big winner in New Orleans. The company was selected by HANO as the architect to design the Guste low-rise development in November 2003. Last year, Kennedy Associates, operating under the name KAI Design & Build, was part of a team led by another St. Louis firm, McCormack Baron Salazar, chosen to redevelop the C.J. Peete public housing project.

Although the criminal investigation of Alphonso Jackson is ongoing, the Times Picayune in New Orleans reported once on the investigation that I could find, an article dating back to October, 2007.

A columnist, Lolis Eli, recenlty wrote two columns, Something Fishy in Rush to Demolish
Houing's Crime Going White Collar on the subject, but he is not an investigative reporter, and cannot shoulder that job for a community newspaper.

There is also the blackmail. Alphonso Jackson sent a letter to Mayor Nagin in December, 2007, after the city's Housing Conservation Committee deadlocked on whether to allow the demolition of the New Deal era Lafitte Housing Development. Jackson made it clear to Nagin: if you don't demolish Lafitte, the city will lose the $137 million to redevelop Lafitte, and the over 800 residents of that development will lose their housing vouchers.

Threatening Katrina victims with homelessness is the style of Alphonso Jackson, despite the ongoing criminal investigation of his contracts to redevelop public housing in New Orleans. The city leaders and the Times Picayune look the other way when it comes to corruption that favors the demolition of public housing.

The December 20th editorial endorsing the demolition of public housing by the Times Picayune says it all:

This disaster drastically changed the landscape in New Orleans. There are fewer residents, fewer schools, fewer businesses. As much progress as individuals have made in rebuilding their homes and lives in the past 28 months, recovery is going to be a long process.

There are fewer residents, largely because of the lack of affordable housing to return to since Katrina. Oh, and the homeless population here has tripled, upwards of 12,000 now, and a homeless encampment under the overpass at Canal and Claiborne that is a source of contention for city leaders.

The Times Picayune has never tied the homeless issue to the closing, and now demolition of public housing, over 4500 units of affordable housing. We will, tomorrow, 4pm, Times Picayune, 3800 Howard Ave., in New Orleans.

Darwin BondGraham, a student of California University, who has spent time here working with us on the Right to Return Movment, wrote this piece on the role of the Times Picayune in the demolition of public housing:

Leading up to the Council’s vote, New Orleans’ only daily newspaper, the Times Picayune, stepped up what can only be described as a propaganda campaign against public housing. The paper’s effort to stoke negative public opinion comes in response to multiple victories by residents and activists to delay demolition of the complexes and to force a vote by the City Council to determine the fate of the more than 5000 apartments.

Published on the 15th of December, the paper’s most blatant piece of anti-public housing material was entitled “Demolition Protests Ignore Some Realities.” Three staff writers penned the editorializing piece. It ran on the paper’s front page and was prominently featured on the newspaper’s nola.com website. Under the guise of “news” and reporting the facts, the Times Picayune claimed that the position taken by residents and their allies against demolition are “demonstrably false.”

“The public housing residents who support the demolitions struggle to be heard, while well-organized protesters - including many who are not displaced public housing residents - have achieved a degree of success in portraying the demolitions as oppressive. Bulldozers are coming to knock down public housing, they say, in a city in desperate need of housing for the poor.”

Adopting the tone of investigative journalism the reporters simply re-state talking points given to them by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Nothing in the article reflects any genuine research on the part of the Times-Picayune. The three reporters repeatedly copy misleading press statements made by HUD. It appears that the Picayune’s editors have not even attempted to fact check the figures, policies and on the ground realities handed to them by the government.