Nobody actually lives here

It turns out that when all you build is nice things for rich people, then only rich people will be able to use the nice things.

Now, the city is attracting attention from a new sector of the hospitality industry: timeshares, or at least a new version of the half-century-old business model.

A handful of recently restored apartment buildings and hotels that are now listed for sale could likely go this route, according to some hospitality leaders — a shift that’s partly driven by a recent zoning law change that allows timeshares in areas of the Central Business District where they previously faced permitting hurdles.

One property on Elk Place already changed hands — a move that will displace scores of residents at a time when many neighborhoods are feeling squeezed by rising housing costs and the influx of short-term rentals.

“We all had a sense of place and continuity, and ... to purge us for this purpose, for timeshares, just broke any sense of community,” said Peter Scharf, 73, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment at 144 Elk Place for about three years before moving out in April.

Several of the downtown properties this article names were renovated post-Katrina using public money in the form of historic and new market tax credits.  (The "incentives" LaToya is always so proud to talk about being able to offer developers.) The zoning changes that will allow them all to become timesharse had to be approved through city council. 

When your elected persons make these decisions with your money, ostensibly on your behalf, they use facile justifications based in tricke-down "suppy and demand" dogma. The language they use emphasizes putting "property back into commerce" rather than meeting the housing needs of a stressed population.  They are as clueless as they are corrupt. And unless they and their whole outmoded way of thinking are replaced, they are going to keep selling you out until there is nothing left in this city for you and nobody can actually live here.