Homebuyers get Hospitality Zoned

All well in keeping with the priorities.

Storm relief intended for home buyers is redirected to Superdome

The Superdome money comes from about $75 million that was earmarked for soft-second mortgages, loans that are given to first-time homeowners that can be forgiven if the resident stays in the house for a set amount of time.

"If it comes down to sending money to the Superdome or putting people back into their homes, that's an easy call to me," said Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans.

The exact use of the money was contested during the meeting. Peterson and Murray said they'd seen documents saying the money would be used for operations, but Forbes maintained that the money would go to paying off the cost of repairs to the building that was not covered by FEMA.

Which leads us to wonder if these specific "repairs not covered by FEMA" might have been paid for by this fund.

Crews spent the weekend sketching and painting a Mercedes-Benz logo on top of the Superdome roof. A spokesman for the Superdome said Sunday there will be a Mercedes logo painted on the center of the top of the roof, along with "Mercedes-Benz Superdome" printed on both the east and west sides of the dome.

Update: Cedric Richmond has asked to have this stopped.

Also, somewhat related, we find this from The Lens

A legal notice in Monday’s Times-Picayune announced that the public is welcome to peruse and offer comments on a draft year-end report that explains how the city spent tens of millions in federal money in 2011. At issue is a regular annual report from the city’s Office of Community Development, called a Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, which goes by the unfortunate acronym of CAPER.

“The document is available for public review,” the notice reads.

But rather than being given access to the lengthy report, a Lens reporter who went to the office left empty handed and later was told to route the request through Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s communications office.

Landrieu spokesman Ryan Berni has not responded to a request to provide the report – or to explain why the public report wasn’t immediately available to a member of the public who asked to see it.

It’s unclear whether people not identifying themselves as a reporter would get the report or the runaround.

So I suppose, if anyone wants to make a field trip down to Poydras Street and ask to see the CAPER report, this is your cue. Who knows, maybe they gave all the money to the Superdome.