Stacey Jackson, the embattled former director of a city-financed program aimed at easing blight, bought four blighted properties herself through another city program two years ago but has done little or nothing to get them back into commerce.
Just last month, a company controlled by Jackson and her sister sold one of the four properties, an empty double lot at 1925-31 Sixth St., to a charity group that has been praised by City Hall and others for building new homes for first-time buyers in Central City.
The charity, Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative, paid Jackson's company $20,000 for the land, three times what Jackson paid for it in 2006. As it happens, Jericho Road had been trying to get control of the land back then, but lost out to Jackson.
In fact, Jericho Road thought it had the property in 2006, having been awarded it by City Hall under a program designed to give nonprofit groups land adjudicated to the city because of unpaid taxes. But as the Jericho Road was trying to clear title to the Sixth Street property, the group learned the land was unavailable because Jackson had already staked a claim on it with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, according to Brad Powers, Jericho Road's executive director.
This is... very bad. What we're seeing now is that this is about more than just a good idea like the NOAH remediation program being wasted by incompetence and petty thievery. This is a tangible manifestation of the long held fear that this entire recovery effort would be an exercise in Disaster Capitalism; An insulting shell game where the mechanisms designed to bring relief to the abused become investment opportunities for the well- connected. Throughout these post-flood years Mayor Nagin has spoken to us of "economic buffets" and "exploding pies". I think we're starting to get a glimpse inside of some of the chaffing dishes.
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