[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: New Orleans (LA) "diverted $40M away from old Navy base"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Exclusive: City diverted $40M away from old Navy base
The Landrieu Administration diverted at least $40 million in federal grants from the Navy base redevelopment to other projects.

by David Hammer
WWL TV-4 News (New Orleans, LA)
August 7, 2018

NEW ORLEANS -- In the years after Hurricane Katrina, the Navy base at the junction of the Mississippi River and the Industrial Canal was being shut down. The city of New Orleans saw an opportunity to use its large, sturdy buildings and strategic location to establish a state-of-the-art regional disaster response center there.

But five years after the Navy transferred the property to the city in good condition -- using a special no-cost transfer that wasn’t done for any other base closure in the country -- the proud old Naval Support Activity center is an embarrassing eyesore, littered with graffiti, broken glass and rotting office furniture, and overrun by vagrants.

A WWL-TV investigation has found that the recently departed administration of Mayor Mitch Landrieu diverted at least $40 million in federal grants from Navy base redevelopment to other projects. And there is no prospect of getting any new federal aid as Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s team seeks to renegotiate terms with a development team that has been itching to start since the city selected it in 2012.


…

For the entire story, see
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/investigations/david-hammer/exclusive-city-diverted-40m-away-from-old-navy-base/289-581367635

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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