I will tell you why I oppose the Master Plan Charter change.

Because the fear of being zoned out of existence is real because it has happened before.

If you wonder why many of our storefronts are empty it is because simple economics dictates that no one will spend a penny on a building they cannot use.

So, when my family’s storefronts are zoned out of existence, it makes it hard to trust zoning. Particularly when this measure comes from the NIMBY wing of our city who is prepared to shout NO at any new development.

If this master plan does not enshrine as it’s primary goal economic development, this city is DONE!!!

THERE IS NO HISTORIC PRESERVATION WITHOUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

If there is no money to fix anything there is no historic anything. And if there are no jobs there is no one to live in anything anyone might want to preserve anyway. I know we have a lot of people here who “moved in for the funkiness and stayed for the decay” but those of us born here have seen everyone else who wanted any chance at economic success move away. The one thing this city does well is tell people NO and we want to make it easier. And when we have run off all business, and all the people have followed them who is going to be here?

This process will not take money out of the zoning process, it will simply increase the number of people who need to be paid off. Some days it seems as if it is a game, whereby they restrict what you can do with your property and make you pay for the pleasure of doing with a building what it was designed for. The current restrictive CZO probably bought more politicians houses than any other document in our city. Remove the restrictions and you remove the money.

We can wait until the plan is written to see if it protects our interests. We don’t have to write this process a blank check. As anyone who was involved in the UNOP process or BNOB process knows, everyone can participate but eventually someone decides. You can input all you want, in the end we are going to have a plan that everyone may find unacceptable.

It’s strange to get worked up over zoning but I have seen the destruction that restrictive zoning has brought to my city. More people have left New Orleans over projects that didn’t happen and lack of economic opportunity than have EVER left because an “inappropriate project” was built nearby.