Finally, someone with some sense....

This was found in the editorial and opinions section of the Saturday paper....you know Saturday, the day of the week with the lowest circulation.

Oh well about the timing...I am still pleased with this one.

It's called a measuring tape

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Lisa Mazique says she had no idea that the 19th-century Greek Revival house she plopped down on Clio Street was, by law, too large for her lot. And she says she had no idea that she didn't have the proper permits for the move.

But those arguments aren't acceptable.

Ms. Mazique is no run-of-the-mill would-be home renovator; she is the director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. That is the quasi-city agency charged with expropriating blighted houses and turning them over to buyers who are willing to refurbish them.

The expropriation process is a maze of regulatory red tape, and Ms. Mazique has been its manager for some time. She of all people should know that there are rules and regulations to follow in moving a historic building or renovating a bedraggled old house. Plus, anyone with a tape measure could have figured out that her massive two-story house wouldn't fit properly in its new location. "I didn't know" doesn't wash.

The fact that the city's Safety and Permits office erred in issuing a permit to move the house without requiring the corresponding foundation permit for the new location is worrisome as well. If the agency had done its job, it would have been apparent that Ms. Mazique's house would crowd the Clio lot. Now its bureaucratic sloppiness is causing grief for her neighbors.

The most aggrieved neighbor is Sean Clark, who has worked hard to refurbish his Clio Street home. Now, Ms. Mazique's ramshackle house is perched precariously close to his tidy home while she tries to get renovations under way. Ms. Mazique says that will happen soon, but more than 18 months have gone by with no resolution.

Meanwhile, Mr. Clark is unable to convert to a traditional mortgage, as he had hoped to do. Nor can he get insurance for his lovingly renovated house.

Whether Ms. Mazique blithely made this move without thinking of the requirements and consequences or just decided to go ahead without the proper permits and seek forgiveness later, she has done Mr. Clark a great disservice. This is an awful way for the head of a public agency to conduct business.

My Letter to the Editor

This was my completely ignored respnose to the first article.

Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Dear Editors,

I am writing in response to the piece that Gordon Russell published in the Picayune yesterday titled “Get your house in order, city blight-fighter told”.

I find it commendable that the Picayune has finally decided to share this story with the public. I am however concerned that there was some vital information that was overshadowed by Mr.Russell’s concern for the mentioned parties. The aim of this letter is to help the Time Picayune reveal the truth within this story.

I implore you at the Times to investigate the history of the 1731 Clio property at the Safety and Permits office. You will surely find that Ms. Mizique has failed several inspections and a few of them were “over-ridden” by Chief Dwyer, in order for her to lay foundation.

One truth that was somehow denatured in this article is the actual role of Felicity Street Redevelopment. When this house was first placed, so inappropriately in its current place, citizens asked the neighborhood organization for their support in correcting this action at the BZA meeting. Felicity Street refused support. In fact, one employee of Felicity Street attended the meeting on her own accord. Louise Martin, head of Felicity Street Redevelopment was concerned that her employee’s presence would imply that the organization was concerned about this issue, and stated that she did not support her employee’s decision to attend the BZA meeting. She was very verbose with her refusal to assist the neighborhood in fighting this atrocity. Felicity Street Redevelopment and Louise Martin, knew about the plans to move and place this house at least one month in advance. I find it strange that Mr. Gordon’s article described what seemed like sincere concern on the part of Felicity Street Redevelopment since they obviously avoided acknowledging this problem for a very long time.

esson well learned” attitude displayed by Ms. Mizique. This statement was clearly intended to mislead the public. Liza Mizique works in the N.O.R.A. office, in fact, isn’t she the director? It is not remotely plausible that she did was unaware of the appropriate permits required to carry out the act of moving and placing a house. Ms. Mizique has employed a strategy based on the opinion that it is better to repeatedly ask forgiveness than permission. Lisa Mizique is notorious for unethical behavior. There are at least two central city residents who have had legal run-ins with Lisa in the past and it has been said to me by more than one person that she has abused this position since the Morial administration.

Clearly Kennon Davis of Brown’s Dairy has nothing to gain from Liza’s position. Right? Successful and intelligent business men like Mr. Davis are in the habit of giving away valuable property that people have offered good money for….Right? It may behoove Mr. Russell to inquire further into Mr. Davis’ motives. I realize that Mr. Russell went out of his way to explain the ethical foundation of this transaction, but I find the explanation does not quite envelope all of the elements of the deal.

If the property does actually endure some kind of renovations, it will be profitable. The profit contributions that result from this project will fall into someone’s pockets. It is unfortunate that the director of N.O.R.A. is far more focused on using her position to advance herself personally, than using her personal contacts to advance the community that she has been chosen to serve. Is this ethical?

I must admit that Gordon Rusell’s article was quite intriguing and raised many questions. For instance, exactly who has ordered Ms. Mizique to get her house in order? Is it possible? This house is neither safe nor permissible, how is she expected to get a permit? How will she do this without causing further injury to the residents at 1729 Clio St.? Will she be forced to purchase the property on the Baronne side of the house since the house is currently on it? What if they do not want to sell? Who will insure the safety of the neighbors? Is Ms. Mizique an incompetent city official or a crooked one? Will she be allowed to maintain her position after she has grossly abused it? Why has the zoning commission been so gracious with her? Currently her variances are expired and she hasn’t made any progress. Will she be given more variances? Will public opinion have any influence in that probability, or will this outcome be strictly based on her connections? Is everyone allowed to fail an inspection and have it “overridden” or is this a privilege reserved for city employees? What does Ray Nagin think? What do your readers think? Since this article was printed I have received many phone calls, have you?

There is so much more I could say about this situation, but the point of any of it would be this: this situation is obviously wrong. I certainly hope to hear more about this story in future issues. I hope that the Times Picayune staff is committed to delivering the truth to the community.

Sincerely,
J.M.Gibson

Concerned Citizen

###

Jacquelyn Gibson
1729 Clio St.
New Orleans LA, 70113
460-1667
nolajacqui@yahoo.com

The First News Article

This is the alarmingly condescending piece of trash article that took Gordon Russell more than 1 year to write. Does he think this story is acceptable? Does he honestly take his readers for fools?

Get your house in order, city blight-fighter told
Her rundown home yet to be renovated
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
By Gordon Russell
Staff writer
The house in the 1700 block of Clio Street is in many ways like thousands of other dilapidated structures in New Orleans.

It dates to the 19th century. At 4,000 square feet, it's big and rambling, with two porches and multiple galleries, a classic example of the Greek Revival style.

What sets the Central City house apart is that it's owned by Lisa Mazique, director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the quasi city agency charged with seizing and selling blighted housing. And although the building isn't legally blighted, according to the city's definitions, it would certainly meet that description in the eyes of most any passer-by.

The redevelopment authority requires those who buy rundown properties from its inventory to renovate them within nine months, but Mazique's property has been sitting in its current state for twice that long.
In part, the delays are be due to circumstances outside her control. Mazique has had to negotiate a maze of bureaucracy and regulation that has delayed her renovation plans.

But critics, some of whom have tangled with Mazique over past neighborhood issues, said the problems are of her own making. Mostly, they stem from a single mistake: She moved the house from a nearby location to a lot that was not legally large enough to hold it, an error some say a city official should not have made.
No one is more aggrieved by the situation than next-door neighbor Sean Clark, who moved into a forlorn structure seven years ago and turned it into a home. The proximity of Mazique's building, along with its apparent precariousness, has thrown a wrench into Clark's plan to take out a traditional mortgage on his place.

But first, he must obtain homeowners insurance. And no right-thinking insurer would take on the liability, given the circumstances, said Joanne Hilton, Clark's aunt, who holds the current mortgage on the property but would like to shed that responsibility. "It's a fire waiting to happen," Hilton said.

Mazique understands the criticism, but said she has been trying to lead by example. Things just haven't gone as smoothly as she hoped.

"I saw this as an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is with respect to redevelopment," she said. "I regret more than anyone the time it has taken to get the appropriate approvals and permits."

Neighbor eyed lot

When Clark bought his house seven years ago, 1731 Clio was an empty lot. The neighborhood was iffy, but Clark, a drummer, decided to take the plunge. Lacking a full-time job, he couldn't get a traditional mortgage, so his aunt offered to underwrite the deal by taking out a second loan on her own home.
The idea was that he would pay a third party the amount of the note each month, building up his credit rating and eventually helping him qualify for a mortgage. Meanwhile, as a further cost saving, the property would be uninsured. After a few years, he'd get a normal mortgage, which would require him to get insurance, and Hilton would be freed from responsibility.

Things went according to plan for about five years. Clark paid the note on time, and he renovated his home. Meanwhile, he said, he was taking care of the lot next door, hoping eventually to claim title to it. Clark said in a letter to the city that he contacted the redevelopment authority in hopes that the lot would be declared blighted, allowing the agency to seize it and sell it to him. But that process, which Mazique's agency does not control, never occurred, perhaps in part because Clark was maintaining the lot.
What Clark didn't know was that Brown's Dairy had secured an option to purchase the lot. The company wanted to expand its parking area, and two houses on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard were in the way, including the one that Mazique eventually moved to 1731 Clio.
Demolition was not an option because the house had been nominated for landmark status. Mazique and Kennon Davis, general manager of the dairy, both serve on the board of the nonprofit Central City Economic Opportunity Corp., and Davis mentioned to her that he had a house he'd give away to anyone who would move it.

Mazique, who lives nearby, was interested but had no place to put the house. Davis let her take over the dairy's option for the lot on Clio Street, and the deal was done.
Davis had to move another house that stood in the way of the parking lot expansion. So he paid for the cost of taking down the power lines and other impediments to moving a house. In the end, Davis said, he paid about two-thirds of the cost of moving the two houses, and Mazique paid for one-third.
Some of Mazique's critics have questioned whether it was appropriate for a public official to accept a such a valuable gift -- one worth thousands of dollars, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars -- from a private company.
But experts in Louisiana ethics law said such gifts are forbidden only when the person or company giving the gift is regulated by or has other contact with the agency that the public official works for.
There's no evidence that Brown's Dairy has ever had any dealings with the redevelopment authority, although both the dairy and the authority have been active in the Central City neighborhood. That mutual interest led to the gift, Davis said.

"Lisa's position in the city has got nothing to do with me donating her the house," Davis said. "Her position doesn't do me any good, necessarily."
Actions criticized

Moving a house requires two city permits: one to move the house, and one to set it down. Mazique didn't have the second permit. And had she applied for it, presumably it would have been denied because of the lot's small size.

Mazique said she was not aware of the need for the second permit. And a city official familiar with the process said the problem was "really a mistake on Safety and Permits' part." The first permit shouldn't have been granted without the second one, the employee said.

Immediately after the move, workers began pouring a foundation. From his vantage point next door, Clark could see immediately that the house was too big for the lot and complained to City Hall. The law requires a 3-foot side setback; Mazique's house is flush with the property line. Safety inspectors ordered Mazique to stop work until she secured a variance from the Board of Zoning Adjustments.

That wasn't easy. Word had gotten around about Mazique's blunder, and some board members, as well as audience members, chastised her for being a city official and not knowing, or at least not following, the rules.
Board member Errol George made an unsuccessful motion to deny Mazique's request for a variance. Instead, the board approved the variance in April 2004. George is still irked.

"I think moving that house in that condition to that location showed a flagrant disregard for the public interest, especially the neighborhood residents that were directly affected," George said. "And I think it's unconscionable that the property hasn't yet been rehabilitated."

Unstable condition

When the redevelopment authority sells a blighted property to a private buyer, it requires that the blight be eradicated, whether by renovation or demolition, within nine months.
Mazique has owned the Clio Street property for about 20 months, although she has been hamstrung for some of that time by permitting problems.

In December, leaders of the Felicity Street Redevelopment Project, a neighborhood group, decided they had had enough and hired a structural engineer to look at the building. The engineer found that the house, still on the cribbing towers erected at the time of the move, had shifted.
"I believe that this condition is very unstable and could result in further movement and collapse of the house," wrote the engineer, Ashton Avegno Jr., in a letter that the Felicity Street group forwarded to City Hall.

The house has not fallen, but if it were to do so it could hit the Felicity Street group's headquarters, a stone's throw in the opposite direction from Clark's house.
That would have done nothing to smooth relations between Mazique and the Felicity group. They have tangled in the past. In particular, the Felicity group has been upset that Mazique declared off-limits certain properties in the neighborhood that the group had targeted for purchase through the redevelopment authority.

The properties in question were held for authority's "land-banking" program, through which groups of properties are marketed in bulk to groups that build clusters of low- and moderate-income housing.
Mazique's placement of a dilapidated house near Felicity Street's headquarters has only soured the relationship further.
"
It's awful, and a moral outrage, that the woman in charge of the agency that is charged with eradicating blight has allowed a piece of property that she controls to remain in the condition that it's in," said Owen Kendrick, director of the group.

Getting her footing

For her part, Mazique said she takes responsibility for the errors and said she believes she has cleared all of the remaining hurdles. She got the variance more than a year ago, and more recently has applied for and received permits. Last month, concrete footings were poured and piers were set, and Mazique hopes to lower the house soon and begin repairs.
"It's been a very intricate process, and we have complied with every step," she said.
She said she didn't want to predict when the house would be renovated, but said it would be "within a reasonable amount of time."

"We're going to start immediately on making the improvements," she said. "I'm looking forward to the rehabilitation process."

Once things get going, Mazique said she hopes the criticism will die down and everybody will be happy with the result. Meanwhile, she said, she has gained new perspective into what renovators face.
"I do think it's going to be a good project, and the neighborhood will be very pleased," Mazique said. "While there have been a host of unforeseen delays, this has been an eye-opening experience. It's been a lesson well-learned."
. . . . . . .
Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3347.