NEW ORLEANS -- Donald Lymous looks at the newly cleared lot across the street from his Lower 9th Ward home, and smiles.
"Hallelujah," Lymous said. "What a great feeling it will be to see this gone. What an eyesore it has been to us and this community."
At the time of the first Action Report in December, the bottom floor of a two-story house had collapsed, with the upper floor resting on the debris. Neighbors worried about a second collapse.
"Very scary," Lymous said on Dec. 14. "It could fall at any time, and we don't know if it is going to fall in the middle of the street when someone is passing."
More than two months passed when the demolition crew showed up. The mayor's office responded to my repeated e-mail messages that they had to wait for demolition money in the new budget to become available. But when it did, it was time for a neighborhood to celebrate.
"Now we can look around and see that progress is getting done, and we want to thank WWL Channel 4 and you Mr. Cap and your photographer for doing such an excellent job," Lymous said. "We also thank the city, even though they move kind of slow, we appreciate the progress."
But James and Joyce Brown are not celebrating yet across the street. They are still waiting for the city to demolish three abandoned houses next to theirs.
"I think it's sad, because number one, its setting our little house in danger, because of fire," said Joyce Brown, a Lower 9th Ward resident. "And they had promised me definitely that they were going to have it removed before Christmas, and here it is March."
City spokesmen say fines of more than $12,000 have been ordered in each case, but the three houses still stand.
I contacted Mayor Nagin's director of communications, Ceeon Quiett, and sent her several email messages, asking what do I tell the Browns about what plans the city has for these buildings? Will they tear them down as promised?
I didn't even get an answer from her, and that left the Browns feeling angry.
"It's a disgrace to a neighborhood trying -- we're trying to build up," said James Brown, a Lower 9th Ward resident.
Adding insult to injury, the houses next door are now a stop for busses filled with visitors taking Katrina tours.
"Sometimes I come out here, the tour bus comes through here, going slow, looking at all this around here," Brown said. "It just, I don't know it just gets to you."
