..... disaster is the recovery. We have a federal government that sent down the money but said to a city that you can’t use those pools of money together from FEMA and HUD [and other federal sources]. You can’t use money from two of three different agencies; that’s called stacking. But if you have two or three different revenue streams, why can’t you use it?

I went to Washington to ask why can’t individuals use different subsidies together to become whole? The feds said, "We didn’t restrict it. The state has the right to determine how it’s used." State’s rights, you’ve heard of that? The state is run by the most inefficient, subpar, right-wing conservatives. Bobby Jindal, along with the consultants, has sent down a restriction and prohibition of using different pools of money together. The state is hostile to the city. That’s the mentality that has restricted the money.


SELF-DETERMINATION

Pontchartrain Park is a total of 550 homes at a cost of $115 million. It’s a public/private partnership. We put together our own redevelopment corporation -- Pontchartrain Park CDC -- with the assistance of trained real estate professionals and our legal team, and we’ve put together own development company run by past and present residents of Pontchartrian Park, like myself. As the president of this company, we are developing geothermal and solar-powered homes so people can reap the benefits of the new alternative energy economy. The homes will have LEED certification from silver all the way to platinum.

The profit for the homes is with the Pontchartrain Park CDC, whose sole mission is to maintain and bring assets to this historic, affluent African-American community. 
What Pontchartrain Park is to New Orleans, Baldwin Hills is to Los Angeles and Sweet Auburn is to Atlanta. We are once again exercising our right of self-determination, and in a matter of months, we’ll be opening our first home. We’re going to take that endowment we built and provide assisted at-home living for our seniors so they can live out their years in a home that they love.


NEW ADMINISTRATION, NEW TRIUMPHS

The White House coordinator for Gulf Coast Recovery came to Pontchartrain Park last week. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-California) came down to have a congressional field hearing about the Road Home program, another program that was using HUD money to help people get back into their property. She had hearings on the bureaucracy, and she’s been very helpful with our initiative in Pontchartrain Park.

This administration is changing things. There is now $32 million for Southern University. FEMA had disputed that money, and that dispute was ended by Janet Napolitano at a time when Bobby Jindal wanted to close that university. His efforts to close it have been stopped. Money has been approved and released by this administration in these few short months. The Obama administration has stepped in to untie that money so that we can recover. What was hampered by the Bush administration is now being accelerated by the Obama administration, so finally someone has heard our call and is stepping up to the plate in government. The silver lining in the dark cloud is that people of goodwill in all creeds, races and colors have stepped up to the plate in the absence of our government.

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To aid in ongoing Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, Pierce recommends The United Way. For more information on Pontchartrain Park, email ppcdc@srpdevelopment.com or visit www.PontchartrainPark.org. 

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