I've got property on the brain.

Michael's post about the funding follies surrounding the raising of his house got me thinking about it. To raise or not to raise? To "stay historic" or acknowledge the fact that one cannot rely on folks such as the Army Corps to keep the water out of your home if you leave it at the height at which it currently sits?

E summons some righteous, and rightful, outrage at the plans for a strip mall (obtained from Karen)...to be put on a swath of land on which a mall and a tire and car repair shop are currently silently rotting. Nobody rushed in to clear out those spots and make them viable retail or residential property shortly after the storm, and the businesses that are still in the surrounding areas are just barely holding on by their fingernails. A massive mall just got demolished further up the street from where the proposed mall is to be...so why put in a new one?

The folks at Audubon Place, the only gated community in New Orleans, want to isolate themselves even further from reality than they already are. Let's contest those property assessments, O people of privilege! Save that money from going to the city in which you reside! More on all of this, and some hefty, heated discussion in the comments, from Oyster.

And, finally, in the category of more property left to rot, I give you Ray's commentary and photos on the horrific state of the SUNO facilities. Why? Why is this happening? Who has decided that these buildings are so low on the totem pole that they can't even be gutted, only fitted with an ineffective ventilation system and left to sit?

Questions, questions...and nary an answer in sight.

Maybe these folks might have a solution to the rotting property woes. From what I saw yesterday (and Dangerblond as well), large groups of people will come if food is involved, music is a-playin', and everything is organized properly. Today a playground, tomorrow....SUNO!

Except...well...we've been short on the competent organization thing.

Ugh.