Dozers In The 9th Ward

[ans]

Friday, January 6, 2006 at 1:00pm

Federal Building

450 Golden Gate Ave.

San Francisco



Emergency Action in SF Federal Building Friday 1pm-

Stop Bulldozing 9th Ward in New Orleans!





Please forward, call and COME!



Emergency Action!!! City of New Orleans is bulldozing

people’s homes in the 9th Ward in New Orleans!





Contacts:

Kali Aaron Williams, Malcolm X Grassroots

Organization: (510) 593-3956

Lisa Milos, Bay to Gulf People’s Pipeline: (415)

260-2565

CC Campbell-Rock, Hurricane Evacuees Council of the

Bay Area: (925) 339-6435



Press Release



The city of New Orleans is attempting to destroy the

homes of residents in the Lower 9th Ward. This is in

spite of a temporary moratorium won by social justice

groups against the city which blocks attempts to

bulldoze the homes of Lower 9th Ward residents. The

moratorium, which ends on January 6th, 2006, is being

circumvented by the city through the unconstitutional

use of eminent domain. Local residents are working

alongside Common Ground Collective, and the People’s

Hurricane Relief Fund, a network of grass-roots

organizations working for the rights of displaced and

neglected victims of Hurricane Katrina, and are

protesting the action and calling on citizens

everywhere to get involved.



The people of San Francisco call on ou! r government

representatives to vehemently oppose and denounce this

action by the City of New Orleans.



This action by the City of New Orleans sets a

dangerous precedent for all low income communities of

color across the country, especially for cities and

regions that are prone to natural disasters, such as

the San Francisco Bay Area.



Homeowners of the historically Black, working-class

Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood have not been notified

or consulted about the plans for their neighborhood,

and the city has indicated it has no intention of

contacting owners before demolition. “No one is asking

the residents anything about reconstruction. We’re

being thrown to the side,” said Vera McFadden, a Lower

Ninth Ward tenant.



Common Ground and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund

are currently fighting to have City, State, and

Federal Government extend the same courtesy and aid to

Ninth Ward residents that has been provided to

property owners in the predominantly white St.

Bernard's Parish. The residents of St.Bernard Parish

(which is less than two miles away and damaged just as

badly) are being afforded FEMA trailers and the

freedom to decide what happens to their private

property while the private properties of the

predominantly black Lower 9th residents are being

illegally bulldozed.



Social Justice and Peace organizations throughout the

Bay Area denounce the destruction of the homes in this

predominantly African American neighborhood in New

Orleans.



As if it weren’t enough that the local, state and

federal governments abdicated their responsability of

adequately funding and securing the levee system to

prevent such a disaster in the first place, hundreds

of thousands of evacuees re! main stranded in the four

corners of this country without the resources to

return to defend their homes and belongings.



As if it weren’t enough that the local, state and

federal governments did not put into practice any

semblance of a coordinated evacuation plan for the

thousands of residents who had no independent means to

evacuate prior to the disaster, thousands of evacuees

will begin facing evictions from their hotels by

February 7th.



As if these and countless other documented cases of

human rights violations perpetrated against the people

o! f New Orleans during and after the flooding, the

City of New Orleans is using eminent domain to violate

the civil and property rights of predominantly African

American and low income residents.



The only way that low income communities of color

throughout the Bay Area will feel secure that we will

not share the same fate in the event of a disaster is

if our elected representatives publically denounce

these actions by the City of New Orleans, publically

support the civil and property rights of the people of

the Lower Ninth Ward and do everything within their

power to stop this dangerous precedent from taking

place.



For more information about Common Ground:

www.commongroundrelief.org.

Phone: (504) 218-6613

For more information about Peoples Hurricane Relief

Fund: www.communitylaborunited.net. Phone:

(88 310-7473