Justice continues to be elusive for Gordon Plaza residents
4th September 2018 · 0 Comments
By Meghan Holmes
Contributing Writer
For more than twenty years, residents of Gordon Plaza have been asking the city of New Orleans to relocate them. In the 1990s, they learned (following EPA testing) that their homes sat on top of cancer causing chemicals, lingering from the area’s use as a city-owned agricultural landfill.
On August 8, the 54 remaining households in the neighborhood reached out to Mayor Latoya Cantrell, requesting a meeting and asking the mayor to tour Gordon Plaza, where several city-owned buildings and lots have been left blighted since Katrina.
“I grew up there as a child,” said Joshua Allen, vice-president of Residents of Gordon Plaza, Inc. “The EPA came out 22 years ago and said there are 150 toxic chemicals, and that 50 can cause cancer. Since then, we have lost so many people in our community. I have throat cancer, and I’m 33 years old. We want the city to be held accountable, and the mayor owes us that. It wasn’t her administration that did this, but her administration can make it right.”
Following EPA testing in 1994, Gordon Plaza and the surrounding area was declared a federal superfund site, meaning that chemicals present posed threats to human health. Superfund sites go on a national priorities list for remediation, and the EPA chose a topsoil remediation method to clean the Gordon Plaza site, replacing the top several feet of toxic topsoil with new dirt. The cost was more than $42 million.
“They could have moved us out for a lot less than that,” Shannon Rainey, president of Residents of Gordon Plaza, Inc., said at a press conference on August 23 at City Hall. “We are asking the mayor to open her doors to us this morning, because she hasn’t responded to our requests for a meeting. We want to ask her why the city is allowing 12 feet tall grass around our homes and blighted buildings to stand on property they own. We want to ask her to relocate us, which she supported during her campaign. We want to be safe and healthy like people Uptown, like people in other parts of the city.”
In response to a request for comment on the press conference, Michael Tidwell, Mayor Cantrell’s communications director, said, “due to pending litigation, the Mayor’s office is unable to make specific comment at this time. Mayor Cantrell has heard from the residents, and will fully explore the possibilities in working toward a positive resolution.”
The city of New Orleans closed their agricultural landfill in the mid 1960s, and began building affordable low-income housing on the site around six years later, first with the Press Park housing development. The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) paid Drexel Development Corporation to construct the development of 237 townhouses. The homes were marketed as “new, affordable townhouses for striving Black families,” according to a 2012 article on the neighborhood published by The Lens.
Gordon Plaza was constructed next – affordable single-family homes across the street from Press Park. No remediation of the former landfill was attempted before construction of either development, and in the early 1980s, the city also built a school, Moton Elementary, on the former landfill site. Around this time, residents began reporting problems with the land surrounding their homes.
“I bought my house in 1988 and I thought I was fulfilling the American dream, but that dream became a nightmare,” said Jesse Perkins, Gordon Plaza resident. “I was told I live on a toxic waste dump, and I watched the city agree to a cleanup that didn’t work and then I saw nothing happen after we won a legal judgement against them…I nearly gave up, but I am still standing in solidarity with the other residents and I continue to seek justice.”
Residents sued the city after the EPA gave the site superfund status and children at Moton Elementary tested positive for lead.
Sludge and debris from the landfill was appearing in their yards, which came as a surprise given they were never told they lived on top of a former dump. They won the initial lawsuit, but the case is still in the courts. Some residents received a payout after that judgement, others have received nothing. Without a buyout, the remaining residents cannot afford to leave. Their homes have little to no value on a toxic waste site.
“Nobody will respond, or come out and see what is going on,” said neighborhood resident Marilyn Amar. “I’ve been here since 1990, raising my children to believe in civil rights and our political system, but we pay taxes and we get ignored. We need to be relocated today. This morning. Their so-called cleanup was completely washed away by Hurricane Katrina and people are suffering.”
Environmental scientist Wilma Subra worked as a community advisor for Gordon Plaza and tested the site after the storm, finding a sediment sludge containing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, as well as high levels of dioxins. A 2013 FEMA report confirmed toxic chemicals in the area, surveying the Press Park site and finding that toxins persisted under homes and driveways.
“These toxins are still there, and people are still getting sick,” Amar said.
Residents acknowledge that Mayor Cantrell’s administration didn’t cause their problems, but they depend on her now to assuage them.
“We need to speak with the mayor. We know this fell in her lap, and that several administrations passed, but we need her to understand our plight and hope that she will help us out. She has the power to fully fund our relocation,” Amar said.
The residents of Gordon Plaza have organized a public tour on September 8 at 10 a.m. to raise awareness. They hope Mayor Cantrell and other city leaders will attend.
“Everyone can come see firsthand how we are living,” Rainey said.
This article originally published in the August 27, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
