DeGaulle Manor

DeGaulle Manor, now Crescent City Gates, is a low-income public housing project in the Algiers section of New Orleans known for having a reputation for high levels of crime.^[1] For years the apartments stood vacant and was shutdown due to deplorable living conditions. It later became a dumping ground for trash^[2] and in 2014, became a work of art as it was transformed into a graffiti display.^[3]

History

Ground was broke for construction of the apartments in the early 1960's and originally built as Algiers first housing project with 411 units. In 1964 it opened with 12 5-6 story mid-rise buildings on Sandra Drive, known as "Bridge Plaza." The Black Panthers were the first to move into the apartments along with the African-American New Orleans Saints players. Towards the early 1970's the complex was sold to another property owner and became a low income subsidized section 8 housing complex operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Many low-income African-Americans families flooded DeGaulle Manor, leaving the other crowded housing projects in the 9th Ward and the overcrowded William J. Fischer Housing Development. The newly built Christopher Homes were also heavily populated by blacks as well.^[4][5] White New Orleans policemen avoided the area due to its increasing black population, resulting in neglect. Between 1970 and the present, no owner kept the property for more than seven years; and each time that it changed hands, the new owners made little effort to rectify the many problems that arose under the supervision of the previous owners.^[6] By 1986, only 364 units remained occupied as the rest were abandoned many unoccupied units in which became hubs for heroin addicts and crack cocaine users. In September 1990 it was auctioned for sale but no one had interest in the property.^[7] In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck, 135 out of 364 units were vandalized. One hundred families still lived in the apartments until they were evicted on Thanksgiving.^[8] Johnson Properties Group purchased the complex and was able to renovate 160 units.^[9] In 2007, Common Ground Collective bought the property from Johnson Properties Group, renaming it the Crescent City Gates Apartments. Only a portion of the complex was opened at the time and was in poor condition with termites and rodents infesting the apartments. Crescent City Gates is now vacant and will be demolished and replaced by a new sporting complex.^[10] North of Crescent City Gates were the Christopher Homes, another run-down housing complex torn down in 2013.^[11]

Decline

For decades the complex was a hotspot for violence and drug activity with most of the apartments consisting of vacant units with broken windows, trash, and debris.^[12] Approximately ten years before Hurricane Katrina the complex was is terrible conditions with interior walls damaged from water leeks of rusted pipes and broken elevators. Big rats and cockroach infestations were commonplace as well as rotting garbage stacked up in clogged trash in the dumpsters. On the exterior, walls where covered with graffiti, boarded-up windows, burned-out areas of the façade, and pavement instead of green space—all in the name of economizing created an atmosphere of decay and neglect. The balcony railings were rusted as well as the security gates which did not close. Majority of the 2-story townhouses where abandoned with some serving as crack and heroin dens. In the 1980's, the New Orleans Police Department enforced extra patrolling around DeGaulle Manor in an effort to reduce the rising drug activity but failed to make any arrests. Narcotic officers called the drug-riddled distressed complex "The Real Carter Apartments" which was the fictional crack invested apartments in the 1991 film New Jack City. Officers implied that drug dealers had multiple strongholds on several buildings and used the security gates to keep local law enforcement from entering^[13]. By the mid 1990's the cement/brick buildings where severely run-down and where in very bed condition failing HUD inspections. Due to the high amounts of violent crimes in and around the apartments maintenance workers rarely worked on the buildings, some refuse request afraid of being mugged and killed. ^{[14] [15][16]} On January 15, 1997, local Cash Money Records rap artist Kilo G was shot dead in the complex as he stepped outside his front door.^[17] It become one of many unsolved homicides that occurred in the apartments.^[18] By the early 2000's crime was at an all-time high and the complex was then nicknamed as "D-Block" became one of the roughest areas in the city "^[19] It also became headquarters for a local drug gang called The D-Block Boys.^[20] The gang, which was mostly composed of teenagers, sold heroin out of the abandoned units for years.^[21] In 2004, NOPD Capt. Louis Dabdoub was shot by a teen as he patrolled the apartments around Vespasian Blvd. The teen, who was an active member of the D-Block Gang, fled the scene into the apartments. After the shooting, DeGaulle Manor was placed on lock down as police officers and scent-hound K9s searched the apartments.^[22][23] The City Council received numerous reports of crime ten years prior to the incident but the problems that riddled the area failed to get recognition and were ignored. The apartments were shutdown in 2012 due to poor living conditions.^[24]

ExhibitBe

In 2014, Brandan Odums and his graffiti crew transformed DeGaulle Manor into a graffiti art exhibit painting murals of famous civil rights leaders and entertainers such as Tupac Shakur, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali.^[26] The murals located on 3010 Sandra Drive attracted 3,000 people when Odums opened it as ExhibitBe on 15 November 2014.^[27] It was described as "the largest single-site street art exhibit in the American South." ExhibitBe closed in January 2015 with a concert including musicians David Banner, Erykah Badu, Dead Prez, Dee-1 and a performance by the Edna Karr High School Marching Band.^[28]

See also

• List of public housing developments in the United States

References