As bad as Katrina was, some good things have come out of it. One is the “Lot Next Door” program, where abandoned, condemned properties are taken by the city and made available for sale – first to the property owners next door. In this case, an elderly couple had to deal with an abandoned property for twenty years. The city tore down the house on it, but the lot became a dumping ground for trash. Twenty years of lowering their property value, decreasing their quality of life and enjoyment of their own well-kept property finally ended on Thursday when they bought the land.
Ollie Cook, who had been planning to confront the young people who have been throwing garbage on the property, isn’t averse to tempting fate.
A seaman by trade, he took a leave day from his assignment aboard the passenger ship Robert E. Lee on July 30, 1942, only to find out the boat was sunk that day by a German U-boat at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Sixty-three years later, on his 92nd birthday, he tried to ride out Hurricane Katrina in his bed, only to wake up with water all around him, eventually ending up at the Superdome, “with my mind gone.”
But for all he’d been through, he was not willing to confront the people turning his neighborhood into a garbage heap until he could truly say it was his business.
I can’t imagine why someone would abandon a property this way, but I’m glad the Cooks finally got it. This program may revitalize bad neighborhoods all over the city. Read the rest here – Treme purchased in Lot Next Door Program
