<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br><br>
Please forward, call and COME!<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Emergency Action!!!
City of New Orleans is bulldozing people’s homes in the 9<sup>th</sup>
Ward in New Orleans!<br>
<br>
Friday, January 6, 2006 at 1:00pm<br>
Federal Building<br>
450 Golden Gate Ave.<br>
San Francisco<br>
<br>
Contacts: <br>
Kali Aaron Williams, Malcolm X Grassroots Organization: (510)
593-3956<br>
Lisa Milos, Bay to Gulf People’s Pipeline: (415) 260-2565<br>
CC Campbell-Rock, Hurricane Evacuees Council of the Bay Area: (925)
339-6435<br>
<br>
Press Release<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
The people of San Francisco call on our government representatives to
vehemently oppose and denounce this action by the City of New
Orleans.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Social Justice and Peace organizations throughout the Bay Area denounce
the destruction of the homes in this predominantly African American
neighborhood in New Orleans.<br>
<br>
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 remain stranded in the four corners of this country
without the resources to return to defend their homes and
belongings.<br>
<br>
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 7<sup>th.</sup> <br>
<br>
As if these and countless other documented cases of human rights
violations perpetrated against the people of 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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
For more information about Common Ground:
<a href="http://www.commongroundrelief.org/">
www.commongroundrelief.org</a>.<br>
Phone: </font>(504) 218-6613 <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>For more information about
Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund:
<a href="http://www.communitylaborunited.net/">
www.communitylaborunited.net</a>. </font>Phone: (888) 310-7473 <br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>