Mary Howell and the Fight to Save Charity Hospital and Lower Midcity

Inside the Footprint, a local blog, has been documenting the struggle to save Charity Hospital and prevent the demolition of Lower Midcity for the past two years. As a closing note to the years of struggle, the blog has posted a series of profiles of some of the activists involved. Among those profiled (along with stunning photos) are Brad Ott, Jacques Morial, and several others. Below is an excerpt of one of the profiles, civil rights attorney Mary Howell.
Mary Howell, whose law office stands just a block outside the VA Footprint, was the chief figure who led to my involvement in the LSU/VA issue, drawing me into the broader effort several months after I began this blog.

Mary, who came to know the residents of the VA Footprint especially well after the storm, gave up a great deal of her time, effort, and more to stand up against the "bullying" that was so deeply interwoven into the push to destroy the VA Footprint neighborhood. She was also the prime mover on the effort to save the VA houses from demolition. Regardless of how the effort turned out due to other actors, it cannot be denied that 79 structures were ultimately relocated, avoiding total demolition and marking a sudden, major change in events in the hospitals saga. Mary was also a major presence at many of the VA neighborhood meetings, a relentless advocate for the residents being negatively affected by the project.

BV: What, originally, got you involved in the Charity Hospital/LSU/VA fight?

MH: I went to a neighborhood meeting, and I walked into that meeting. It was held in this sort of gutted out building in the neighborhood. And I looked around the room. And it was filled with predominantly African American, working people, but it was a really diverse group of people. Homeowners, people who struggled to come back, people who struggled to rebuild their homes, people who had formed a really deep community and fellowship - actually unlike anything that existed before the storm. The storm really brought this neighborhood together in a powerful, transformative way.

As I was listening to what was being said about what was getting ready to happen here...I realized they were all going to be annihilated. And that people just really didn't understand what was about to happen. The bulldozers were literally coming through. All these promises were being made about "what a nice process this is going to be" and "how fairly everyone was going to be treated" and I looked around. Many of the people in the room were older - there was a mix of people, including several newcomers - but I looked around at the longtimers who had been here and really struggled hard to come back. A number of them were tired, they were elderly. And I thought, "Oh my god." This is like the kiss of death. They're not just losing their homes, their losing their neighborhood, their community, their safety net, their network - everything.

I've often said, if I could have just sneaked out of there - and pretended that I hadn't seen this, hadn't realized what was happening here - it would have been a relief. Because I went down a major rabbit hole for about three years. I was rebuilding and trying to come back at the same time.

It was awful, what happened here. It was as ugly...a bullying kind of power maneuver...as I've ever seen. And it remains that way.

BV: What do you think of the current state of affairs of the LSU/VA project?

MH: Oh, it's ridiculous. It's terrible. I can count on my hands, my fingers, the number of deaths that I believe are a direct result of the closing of Charity Hospital. And the financial waste of all of this is extraordinary. It's mind-boggling, especially given this economy. But the callous disregard of people's need for quality healthcare and particularly in the mental health area...shutting down that third floor of Charity Hospital. We've had terrible misfortune, a number of deaths as a direct result of that.

The terrible thing about it is that many of the people advocating for this have been doing it under the guise of bringing better healthcare to this city. It's the idea that we'll burn down the village to save the village. They've completely destroyed a community, they've destroyed lives.

You know, the Hippocratic Oath...that first line: First, do no harm? Massive harm has been done here in the name of promoting good healthcare. And it's a lie. This has never been about healthcare and the needs of the community, about what's right or just. It's always been about greed, about money, about power.

The Fight for Charity Hospital Continues

Local activists are continuing to organize for tomorrow's public hearing of the City Planning Commission, which represents another opportunity in the fight to save both Charity Hospital and Lower MidCity.

According to one organizer,

The public hearing of the Commission will first take up zoning changes, and this portion will probably last less than 45 minutes. The big item of the hearing is labeled "Property Disposition #2/10." This is Mayor Ray Nagin's plan to begin the demolition of Lower Mid City. We urge people to get to City Hall well before 1:30pm. To get on the list of speakers for "PD #2/10," sign the list on the table at the front of the City Council Chamber. We urge everybody to sign up, even if all you are going to say is "Save Lower Mid City," or "Renew, Restore, Reopen Charity Hospital." The time limit for audience speakers is 2 minutes.

If you get there after 1:30pm, after the meeting starts, when PD #2/10 comes up, the chair will ask for more speakers, that's when you raise your hand and get on the list. At the point that PD #2/10 comes up for audience discussion, the CPC will first hear the pro-speakers - all those who support the Mayor's plan to demolish Lower Mid City (LMC). Afterwards, the con-speakers - those who oppose the demolition of LMC.

If the sentiment of the metro area is reflected in the public hearing, there will be a flood of speakers agitating and educating on Lower Mid City and Charity. Remember, this hearing will be televised, we want to explain what's at stake to the vast public at large. The Commissioners are secondary. If we do our job, we could possibly get across to the CPC that his meeting format is inadequate for the popular expression of opinion on the hospital proposals. A public hearing in the evening at 6pm would be better than one at 1:30pm, when most people are at work. To make this point overwhelmingly, everybody must be there who can make it at 1:30pm. We will not pack the hearing at this time slot. But, if we can get close to 100, with 30 or 40 speakers, I think we will have made our point.

The hearing will be tomorrow, February 23, in City Council Chambers, City Hall, 1300 Perdido St. We hope to see you all there!

More than a thousand people take to the streets to support Charity Hospital

The battle over the future of Charity Hospital has just taken an exciting new turn. On Monday, August 31, more than a thousand people marched through the streets of New Orleans, in one of the largest demonstrations the city has seen has seen in recent years. The massive crowd represented every neighborhood of the city, rich and poor, Black and white, small toddlers joining with elderly retirees. While coming from many different backgrounds and political perspectives, and wearing everything from shorts and t-shirts to brightly-colored suits and costumes, everyone spoke with one voice on this issue – Charity should be rebuilt within its former building.

Dancing through the streets with The Hot 8 and Rebirth Brass Bands, people from across the city held mass-printed signs saying Save Charity Hospital, as well as individually-written messages, like “I’m a Charity Hospital Baby” and “Save Lower Midcity.”

The giant secondline, which stretched several blocks, brought out many people who have never been to a protest, as well as membership from the more than 77 organizations that have endorsed the central demands of this movement: First, that an independent analysis of the two competing hospital plans be ordered by the governor. Second, that the City Planning Commission and City Council hold the legally required public hearings on the decision to cede Lower Mid-City for expropriation. Finally, the coalition wants the costs and benefits of each competing hospital proposal to be evaluated within the confines of the Goody Clancy Master Plan process.

This mass of people added to the evidence that public opinion is completely against LSU’s plan to relocate Charity Hospital to a new location, tearing down a large swath on Midcity in the process. A new opinion poll verifies what the demonstration implied. The survey, by pollster Ed Renwick, shows that, by a solid two-to-one ratio, New Orleans residents support rebuilding within the historic edifice. Like the march, the poll results crossed lines of race, gender, age and education.

Local politicians should take special note of the poll: more than 80% of respondents thought that public hearings held by city council would be a good idea, and - by a four-to-one margin - people said they would support Mayoral and City Council candidates who support rebuilding Charity in its original structure.

At the end of the march, people cheered as speakers promised further action. Among the many public figures present was Reverend Avery Alexander’s granddaughter and a doctor who’s father built the sculpture over Charity’s door. However, state and local politicians stayed away, further demonstrating official short-sightedness.

Musician Glen David Andrews, who spoke and performed at the end of the march, summed up many people’s thoughts when he said, “They want us to say goodbye to Charity Hospital. We ought to be saying goodbye to Bobby Jindal. We ought to be saying goodbye to Ray Nagin and the whole City Council.”

Fight against LSU-VA medical complex in lower Mid-City continues
by Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune
Friday February 13, 2009, 9:23 AM

Despite insistence from Louisiana State University System officials that they have made a final decision to build a new academic medical complex in lower Mid-City, opponents of the plan continue to lobby for an audience with Gov. Bobby Jindal and his administration's top health care executive.

Their hope is to convince the governor and Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine that gutting and rebuilding Charity Hospital from within represents a better option for taxpayers, future medical students and patients.

"We're considered obstructionists, but we're offering a better plan, " Sandra Stokes of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana said in a recent interview, explaining that she wants Jindal and Levine to hear it directly, something neither has done to date.

Levine said he is willing to hear what the group has to say. A Jindal spokesman said the administration "will continue to make folks available to hear their concerns, " but did not commit the governor's time to the matter.

The historical group has discussed its ideas with Louisiana Recovery Authority chief Paul Rainwater, who reports to Jindal.

Jindal and Levine support LSU's proposal for a $1.2 billion, 400-plus-bed academic medical center that would be built alongside a 200-bed U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

The two campuses would cover about 70 acres bound by Tulane Avenue, South Claiborne Avenue, Canal Street and South Rocheblave Street.

The historical foundation plans are detailed in a September 2008 report from the Philadelphia architecture firm RMJM Hillier. The alternative would have LSU rebuild within a stripped shell of Charity Hospital, with the VA building its new complex on the lower nine or 10 blocks of the larger Mid-City footprint. The idea calls for LSU to take over the existing VA campus adjacent to

Charity for support buildings or future expansion.
The pressure directed at Jindal and Levine comes amid increasing public acrimony between LSU officials and the groups that oppose the university's plan.

The two sides have traded letters and reports, including documents written by the state facilities office that reports ultimately to the governor, disputing various claims about the respective proposals. State facilities chief Jerry Jones and LSU administrators say rebuilding Charity would be neither cheaper nor faster than constructing a new campus, as the Hillier report says.

The preservationists, as well as patient advocacy groups that want Charity reopened, have intensified their efforts in recent months as LSU's financing plan has come under increasing scrutiny. LSU's project budget depends on getting a $492 million reimbursement from the federal government for Hurricane Katrina damage to Charity and then securing about $400 million on the private bond market. Neither is a sure bet.

The preservationists have met with LSU System President John Lombardi and Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of the school's New Orleans medical operation. The university says publicly that the issue is settled, particularly given that the Legislature already has appropriated $74 million for land acquisition and other initial costs, while including another $226 million in long-term credit through the state's five-year capital construction budget.

"These groups say they have not gotten their say, when in fact they have just not gotten their way, " LSU spokesman Charles Zewe said in a recent interview.

That attitude, Stokes said, makes it all the more important to get to Jindal.

Stokes said her group has made at least four attempts to schedule meetings with both Jindal and Levine, including an opportunity for the governor to preview the Hillier report before its release. Levine had one meeting scheduled but had to cancel, she said.

Levine said: "I'm willing to be an audience. I just don't know that I can offer them anything" when discussing the "complexities of engineering and architectural" debates. "That's just not my expertise."

Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3452.

The Community Speaks Out in Favor of Restoring Charity Hospital

Last night a standing room only overflow crowd of residents, neighborhood leaders, healthcare advocates and others spoke out in favor of restoring Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

The audience heard the details of a plan to build a world-class, state of the art academic medical center inside the four walls of Charity Hospital for hundreds of millions of dollars less years earlier than LSU's plan to demolish the historic Lower Mid City neighborhood to build an unsustainable $1.2 billion medical center.

The meeting was hosted by the ReBuild Center at St. Joseph's Church and was sponsored by the Committee to ReOpen Charity Hospital, Louisiana ACORN, the United Teachers of New Orleans and C3.

Sheldon Fox of ABC26 News reports:

Legislature raises questions on proposed LSU teaching hospital in New Orleans

Legislators weigh price tag for new LSU teaching hospital in New Orleans
by Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
Thursday January 22, 2009, 10:03 PM

BATON ROUGE -- Members of a legislative budget committee grilled state officials Thursday about the financing for a proposed New Orleans teaching hospital and the decision to ignore potential alternatives that could prove less costly and less disruptive to existing neighborhoods.

It's unclear whether the seven hours of testimony will have any effect on the state's ongoing effort to build a replacement for Charity Hospital, as Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has given no indication of backing away from its plan to build a $1.2 billion academic medical complex in lower Mid-City.

But the hearing by the House Appropriations Committee provided lawmakers with their most extensive look at a plan offered by the Foundation for Historical Louisiana that calls for gutting the old Charity Hospital building and refurbishing it into a first-rate teaching hospital.

Steve McDaniel, an architect with the New York firm RMJM Hillier, said the state could shave $283 million from its expected costs by doing a gut-rehab. That includes money saved by not having to acquire land, and more than $100 million in savings through federal and state tax credits that would not be available should the state build a new facility.

"The question isn't whether we want state-of-the-art care, but how we get it, " said Sandra Stokes, executive vice president of the historical foundation.

State facilities director Jerry Jones disputed the cost estimates, and said the preservationists' plan could actually prove more expensive than what the state is proposing. He said the gut-rehab plan does not account for the cost of medical equipment, parking, information technology and an ambulatory care building that the state included as part of its figures.

The preservationists found a receptive audience among legislators, some of whom appear to be growing increasingly concerned about the cost and timetable of building a new hospital and the prospect of uprooting existing homes and businesses. The state's plan calls for spending $54 million to buy hundreds of properties inside a 70-acre footprint bordered by Canal Street, South Rocheblave Street, Tulane Avenue and South Claiborne Avenue.

"It just doesn't make much sense to me to tear up this entire neighborhood, " said House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers. Tucker said the state already owns land along Tulane Avenue, west of Interstate 10, that could be put to a medical use without affecting private property owners.

Bobbi Rogers said she and her husband are among several neighborhood residents who received taxpayer-financed Road Home grants to rebuild properties that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, only to face the prospect of having them taken by the state.

"These are the people that make New Orleans work, " Rogers said.

But Pam Perkins, the general counsel for the state Division of Administration, said the vast majority of property owners in the area have indicated a willingness to sell their property. "They are very eager to get on with their lives, " Perkins said.

Tucker joined several legislators in questioning the financial underpinnings of the project.
State officials have $450 million committed, and are counting on FEMA recovery dollars and a future bond issue to cover the rest. But there is no guarantee that the federal dollars will be forthcoming, and the shaky credit markets have made it difficult for many large-scale projects to obtain financing.

"I am very leery about getting halfway pregnant in this process and not being able to complete it, " Tucker said.

There is also the matter of the state's constitutional limit on borrowing. The Jindal administration plans to structure the bond issue in a way that the money doesn't count against the cap. But there is no guarantee that the bonds could be issued without a state guarantee, and state Treasurer John Kennedy said taxpayers would likely be on the hook if the hospital can't pay back the bonds.

Dr. Fred Cerise, who oversees health-care services for Louisiana State University, said the state's plans to build adjacent to the new VA hospital would save $400 million over 25 years by allowing the two hospitals to share certain functions.
"I think we lose critical financial and clinical efficiencies" by not building next to the VA, Cerise said.

Rep. Kevin Pearson, R-Slidell, said the state could solve the proximity problem by building a Disney World-style rail system to shuttle doctors and medical students between the two facilities.

House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, said LSU needs to do a better job of reaching out to Tulane University, Xavier University and other institutions that will be using the new hospital to train medical students and allied health workers.

"There needs to be a different level of engagement and commitment to other stakeholders, " Peterson said, adding that a failure to do so could result in a loss of support for the project from New Orleans legislators.
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Hospital at risk

Posted by Jack Davis, guest columnist, The Times-Picayune

Published January 22, 2009

State government and Louisiana State University are undermining New Orleans' chances for quick progress toward a new medical complex. Whether through misguided planning or stubbornness, they are defending a plan that:

-- Adds hundreds of millions of dollars of unnecessary expense when state and federal resources are shrinking.

-- Imposes a long construction schedule for a new LSU hospital, delaying its completion by two years.

-- Invites controversy and more delays through lawsuits challenging the secrecy and flawed planning procedures.

-- Destroys a historic residential neighborhood that could otherwise provide essential housing for medical-center workers.

-- Causes City Hall to waste $79 million to buy land, demolish architecturally valuable houses and relocate residents from a site that wouldn't be needed by a smarter hospital plan.

-- Completely ignores the immense value of one of the nation's best-designed, best-constructed, still usable medical buildings.

Why are they putting at risk the single most important economic development project this region has begun since Katrina? Their plan may fail to get financing because of its illogic and waste. And then where will we be?

LSU and the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal are commendably right in envisioning a major medical complex and committing to put it in downtown New Orleans. But they are wrong in planning the project largely behind closed doors and ignoring at least one appealing alternative. It's not too late for them to start doing it right.

In 2006, the Legislature gave the Foundation for Historical Louisiana the job of assessing the condition of Charity Hospital, the durable 1939 landmark that has long symbolized Louisiana's commitment to taking care of its people. Lawmakers wanted to make sure, before LSU irrevocably committed to new construction, that Charity -- with its great location and its million square feet of interior space -- was being properly valued.

The foundation raised $600,000 to pay for a study by architects RMJM Hillier, who have deep experience in both hospital design and historic preservation.

Their August 2008 report demonstrated that Charity could be totally gutted and rehabilitated with new systems and state-of-the-art technology to create a new hospital that would work better than new construction, would be finished at least two years sooner and would cost 22 percent less -- $136 million less.

Keeping the LSU hospital in Charity allows the Veterans Administration hospital to move to the currently proposed LSU site -- meaning that the city wouldn't need to spend that $79 million for land and evictions for the VA. That's $215 million in savings -- before counting the benefits of bringing the biomedical district into reality two years sooner.

The state budget, developed in the pre-recession days of surpluses, now faces $2.34 billion of cuts this year and next, much of it in health care.

A rational Gov. Jindal probably will perceive that spending hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily just won't work in 2009. And President Obama's stimulus program surely expects higher investment returns than LSU's wasteful plan offers.

The state House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing today on the proposal to rehab Charity. The committee should call for a speedy independent study of the costs and benefits of both plans. The Jindal administration should also insist that LSU be open with the public.

Secrecy and bad planning have put the medical complex in jeopardy. Let's save it.

. . . . . . .

Jack Davis is a board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Smart Growth Louisiana. His email is jacdav@aol.com.

Lolis Eric Elie asks: "Is the LSU Medical Center Project A Done Deal?"

Done deal? Many hope not
Monday, January 19, 2009
By Lolis Eric Elie, The Times Picayune

"Is it really a done deal?"

This question is being posed by a coalition of groups who wonder whether the current plans to abandon the Charity and Veterans Administration hospitals are wise or final ones.

Consider the statistics compiled by the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates; the Foundation for Historical Louisiana; and the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

If the ruinous plan goes forward in its current state, more than 70 acres of Mid-City will be demolished and more than 1 million square feet of downtown office buildings will be left abandoned.

Much of downtown New Orleans will be set firmly on the path to blight, and a large area of Mid-City will become parking lots.

--- Do the math ---

State and local officials seem strangely unmoved by the findings of a report requested by the Legislature and paid for by the Foundation for Historic Louisiana.

The study estimates that the 70-year-old Charity Hospital building could be rehabilitated in three years at a cost of $484 million. Building a new hospital would require two extra years and an additional $124 million.

It's the sort of math you'd expect the state to be moved by at a time when Louisiana faces a projected $2 billion deficit in the 2009-10 budget year that starts July 1.

It's the sort of thing in which you'd expect the New Orleans mayor or City Council to take a public interest.

Several relevant hearings were held by federal agencies, in fulfillment of requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act.

However, neither the mayor nor the City Council has sponsored hearings on the subject.

--- Years of waiting ---

It's been three years since American soldiers cleaned the first few floors of Charity Hospital and, according to physicians familiar with the work, rendered them safe for patients.

It's been more than three years that we have been without the city's most important health care facility.

And, if this plan goes forward, it'll be five years before a replacement facility is ready for us.

In the meantime, New Orleanians should be certain not to get sick.
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