...from the yellow blog.
Me talk purty one day...but til then read this:
But wait. According to this same article, two thirds of the estimated $16 million in revenue generated from the HoZone taxes will go directly to NOTMC and NOCVB for marketing purposes. Furthermore, HoZone proponents have already claimed that the entire HoZone scheme is based on the recommendations of a consultant's report which we've now seen is basically a strategy for selling the Quarter as a puke pad for frat boys.
This isn't about "maintaining infrastructure improvements" that are already scheduled and funded regardless of whether the HoZone happens. It's about funding the hoteliers' marketing campaign and also granting them an inappropriate quasi-governmental role over the New Orleans neighborhoods their businesses already exploit.
Me talk purty one day...but til then read this:
But wait. According to this same article, two thirds of the estimated $16 million in revenue generated from the HoZone taxes will go directly to NOTMC and NOCVB for marketing purposes. Furthermore, HoZone proponents have already claimed that the entire HoZone scheme is based on the recommendations of a consultant's report which we've now seen is basically a strategy for selling the Quarter as a puke pad for frat boys.
This isn't about "maintaining infrastructure improvements" that are already scheduled and funded regardless of whether the HoZone happens. It's about funding the hoteliers' marketing campaign and also granting them an inappropriate quasi-governmental role over the New Orleans neighborhoods their businesses already exploit.
5 comments:
Indianapolis lost money hosting the Super Bowl - http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/super-bowl-cost-indianapolis-more-than-planned-051512
And, if this is really about cleaning up before the big game why not a one time effort that sunsets. This zone will continue in perpetuity.
Here ya geaux Zombie
http://www.crt.state.la.us/downloads/BCGMasterPlan/BCGMASTERPLAN_Part1.pdf
http://www.crt.state.la.us/downloads/BCGMasterPlan/BCGMASTERPLAN_Part2.pdf
http://www.crt.state.la.us/downloads/BCGMasterPlan/BCGMASTERPLAN_Part3.pdf
Thanks but I already linked it in the previous post.
This reminds me of the special zones that have been created around recent iterations of the Olympic Games.
Critics have pointed out that big sporting events such as the Olympics have been used as an excuse to advance a certain kind of civic and political agenda.
Cities such as Atlanta, Vancouver, and Athens, in countries we think of as democracies, and cities such as Beijing, China, located in a country we think of as totally undemocratic, have faced the same kind of pressure to surrender neighborhood control and local democracy.
Surveillance of and control of what kind of activities can take place in civic space, and perhaps even redefining what city space itself means, seem to be more central than economic concerns in the case of the Olympic "zones."
Who knows if the same will be true in New Orleans?
Democracy Now did a series on the civic changes connected to Olympics, which is in their online archives, & some journalists (Matt Taibbi, maybe?) have written about this. They will be older stories, running around the same time as the sporting events.
The people who became activists about this issue met with a lot of resistance.
A former Olympian who wrote about her concerns about the social engineering being done under the aegis of the Olympics was stopped and questioned at Heathrow airport about her writing... even though she was traveling to the Games in an official capacity to fully support the young medal hopefuls in her sport, her critic's hat left at home.
I tend to be a wide-eyed fan during big sporting events, and the stories I mention above made me feel uncomfortable, because I didn't want to think about the issues being raised.
I stuck my head right back into the sand, but the coverage of this Ho Zone has made me pull it out for a second, just to pass on the potential conceptual link.
That's interesting. I remember reading about some of what's gone on in Rio and thinking, God I hope NOLA never gets an Olympic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/world/americas/authorities-take-control-of-rios-largest-slum.html
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