You laugh now, but if New Orleans neighborhoods continue to arm themselves via private security special taxing districts, it's really only a matter of time before the inevitable hostilities erupt. All that firepower isn't just going to sit idle forever, right?
What if, for example,Lakeview decided one day to annex adjacent and relatively tiny Lakewood? (See map) Or maybe some minor but passionate disagreement over something like say a baby name could cause partisans in Milenburg to load into their Wackenhut SUVs, turn on their yellow flashing lights, invade Uptown, and lay siege to the Brees residence until the spelling of Bowen is officially changed to Beauxen. Practically anything could set off this powder keg.
Just this afternoon we learned that the city was awarded $2 million from some sort of joint HUD DOT EPA grant to study the feasibility of demolishing the Claiborne Expressway. This could be the very flashpoint we're talking about here.
Leave aside the question of whether or not 2 million dollars could have been better spent on infrastructure projects more urgent than this fashionable hipster's cause for the moment and focus on the potential fallout from this study. If intra-neighborhood hostilities erupt over post-Expressway traffic engineering, will sections capable of mustering their own security forces hold the muscle to impose their will on those who have not prepared their own deterrent?
What happens if the study concludes, yes let's tear it down and go back with the original Riverfront Expressway plan it replaced back in the 60s? Will the French Quarter be prepared to defend itself this time around? Having rejected the creation of their own security district, they'd be practically defenseless. Sure the Guardian Angels are still hanging out down there but they've got to be outgunned and out-manned by districts that have chosen to fully fund the troops in these dangerous times. Can anyone afford to have this kind of rent-a-cop gap on their hands?
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