They did not actually mean to do that

Hey remember when the big threat to public safety, symbol of systemic inequality, and destabilizer of the city budget was localized entirely within this one block of the city? Those were the days, huh. 
Anyway it's still there.  And, probably, it will be for... some amount of time.  There's a lot to sort out.

The developer of the mangled Hard Rock Hotel construction project in downtown New Orleans is asking an Orleans Parish judge to stop the city from enforcing a deadline next week for it to “commence” demolition work at the collapse site.

Potentially at stake, beyond the timing of the long-delayed demolition of a hotel project that partially collapsed more than six months ago, is about $5 million.

That’s how much the city wants to bill 1031 Canal Development LLC for emergency response, payroll for city employees and the estimated cost to repair Rampart Street, into which a crane from the failed construction remains speared. That’s about a quarter of what the city claims the developer owes in abatement.

That same $5 million figure is also what a city hearing officer last month ordered 1031 Canal Development to pony up in a bond that would cover penalties should work on the demolition not begin by April 29, court records show. The developer claims it doesn’t have the money.

It's hard to parse but I think this says the dispute is really more about the deadline than it is about the sum or even about the spurring of any action, for that matter.  It's hard to "commence demolition" when there is still no agreement on the method or a contractor in place to do whatever that work ends up being.

The developers don't agree with the demolition company the city has selected. Probably because they think they can get a better price. But the reason they supply in their legal filing is more interesting.

The relationship was already strained between 1031 Canal and Griffin, which performed the October explosion of two cranes that were dangling precariously off the collapsed job site.

“After raising the price for the crane demolition at the last minute from $1.25 million to $5 million, Griffin failed to fully demolish the cranes," the developer said, a public admission that the crane demo was far from perfect despite statements from city officials that it all went as planned. "One crane remains speared into Rampart Street, and the other remains hanging over Canal Street."

Recall that prior to the crane demolitions, city officials told us the plan was for them to fold in on themselves as though one were closing an umbrella.  A few days later, after the explosions left one crane embedded nose down in the center of Rampart Street and the other dangling precariously over Canal, they told us "both cranes behaved as expected."  That seemed wrong at the time. But no one really challenged them on that point until now.