It's May 13, 2024, 01:25:43 AM
oh brad pitt, i bet his shit smells like Aqua Di Giorgio cologne
Six months ago, in the shell of a house just blocks from the now infamous Industrial Canal breach, a displaced resident of New Orleans' most ravaged neighborhood went head to head with a Hollywood megastar. Brad Pitt, flanked by a team of world-class architects, had just finished explaining his plan to build 150 affordable, environmentally friendly, storm-safe houses for residents of the worst-swamped section of the Lower 9th Ward. The houses would sit, he said, on the same lots where their old homes once stood. Standing under generator-powered light bulbs, some 30 neighborhood activists contemplated the pitch. It was hardly the first scheme an enterprising outsider had offered these residents, who after finally being allowed to return to their battered homes three months after Hurricane Katrina put up lawn signs attacking big developers they feared were waiting to gobble up their land. Despite Pitt's celebrity acclaim, thorough presentation and pledge to put his own money into the project, the idea met with only cautious optimism. This community, deeply cynical of promises made but rarely kept, had survived for years amid abandoned properties, failing public schools and escalating crime fueled by the illegal drug trade. Giving voice to a feeling that several people in the room recently said they shared, the man stood up and warned Pitt that he couldn't stroll into the neighborhood -- even in its ruined state -- and reengineer its future without their consent. "You have to earn our trust," he said. With the announcement this week of the $12 million Make It Right project, a venture strikingly similar to the concept Pitt laid out in March, it appears the actor met his challenge. Despite rampant skepticism, Pitt, bolstered by a nonprofit real estate investment group specializing in sustainable development, got nine civic groups with strong ties to the Lower 9th Ward to sign on to the project. They joined 13 architecture firms from around the globe that soon lent their efforts for free. Meeting every Wednesday evening, residents and planners worked together on what the new houses would look like, from open floor plans in shotgun-style houses to the inclusion of roof-level patios as havens from rising water. In keeping with one of Pitt's driving principles, architects explained elements of "green" construction to residents who lost decades-old homes that, while rich in family history, were riddled with cracks that let cool air and heat escape, driving up power bills. Many structures in the Lower 9th Ward also were caked with dangerous lead-based paint. Homes built through the Make It Right program, the architects said, would have energy-efficient appliances, south-facing roofs laden with solar panels, outdoor space for composting and interior finishes made from products that are not harmful to residents' health or the environment. At each weekly session, residents and architects shared their ideas for the revival of an area that Mayor Ray Nagin described for months after the storm as a place residents should beware of rebuilding. Recalling the process this week, residents said that each time the architects returned to their drawing boards, they came back with more of neighbors' suggestions integrated into their blueprints, from the inclusion of back-up fuel sources for solar-powered appliances to wheelchair ramps to reach elevated first floors. Steven Bingler, founder of the local architecture firm Concordia, said the innovative partnership helped architects tailor their designs to residents' needs, in contrast to the ready-made prototypes typically offered to potential buyers in middle-class subdivisions. But more importantly, Bingler said, the Make It Right process became an exercise in democracy as it upended the traditional model of home buying and offered working-class people high-quality choices in new construction -- the sort generally reserved for the upper-middle class and the wealthy. "It's asking people, who don't often have a choice about what kind of architecture they could have, what they really want," he said. "They usually end up getting what's left over, and in this case, they're being offered some of the most progressive opportunities in the city -- or maybe anywhere -- for affordable housing." Vanessa Gueringer, a local community organizer with ACORN who has participated in most of the Wednesday meetings, acknowledged this week that she could hardly believe it when she first heard Pitt, an international luminary, say he wanted to lend a hand to the modest community where she grew up. "You're used to being stepped on. You're used to being misused. So, at first, you are a little leery," she said. But Gueringer said she has been convinced by the steady devotion of architects and other participants that Make It Right will help restore an area now known as the place where a barge came to rest after floating through the levee breach. "I'm 80 percent there," she said. "I guess I'll be completely sold when I see the first house on a lot over there. But they have done everything they could to make us understand that they want to see us see our neighborhood come back." Work getting quick start The revival could be under way by year's end. With the architecture firms wrapping up work now on 13 house designs, one per firm, organizers expect blueprints to be complete this fall and groundbreaking to begin by December or January, said Tom Darden, director of the Make It Right Foundation, a nonprofit corporation that has set up shop in a downtown office donated by the McGlinchey Stafford law firm. With a goal to build 150 houses as quickly as possible, Darden said organizers are aiming initially to construct as many as 20 homes as part of a pilot program. Using traditional stick-built methods, those structures would be ready within about five months. In the meantime, Darden said he and others have begun sifting through some 40 applications to select families whose houses will be in the pilot group. The names were submitted at Pitt's request by the leaders of the nine community groups that participated in the project. The families should be chosen by Thanksgiving, he said. Organizers are still working out the process to receive applications and select families to participate in the program beyond the pilot phase. To qualify, individuals must have owned a house or a lot in the area prior to the flood. Though organizers and architects have declined to say what the houses will look like, they have said the designs will reflect traditional New Orleans architectural styles, such as shotguns, camelbacks and Creole cottages, and will incorporate high ceilings, front porches and gingerbread details. And because different architects are designing each model house, the neighborhood is not expected to have a cookie-cutter appearance, like a Habitat for Humanity project rising across the Industrial Canal from the Make It Right site. "This neighborhood, when it's finished -- and not to take anything away from it at all -- will not look like Musicians Village," said Nina Killeen, a New Orleans native who serves as liaison between Make It Right and the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, a charity founded by Pitt and his partner, actress Angelina Jolie. When designs are complete, Darden said the foundation is considering making them available for free to other nonprofit builders or to individual homeowners who want to rebuild their properties. Decision not made lightly Though the project now has all the trappings of sophisticated real estate development, organizers described their early steps as tentative, in part because of uncertainty about whether the section of the Lower 9th Ward between North Claiborne and Florida avenues should be rebuilt at all. In unveiling the project last week in New York before an audience of world leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative, Pitt said the foundation chose to begin its work there "because we see it as an icon for New Orleans," according to a video of the event posted on the Internet. "It's notable for its contributions to our music scene, our civil rights movement. It's got a great spirit," Pitt said, "and it has the least likely shot at a successful return." Darden, who works closely with Pitt, said the actor wanted to focus his recovery efforts in the Lower 9th Ward to prove that "if you can rebuild in the worst-hit area, you can rebuild everywhere." But the decision was not made in haste, Killeen said. "We didn't just blindly go out and say, 'We're going to do this no matter what anybody says,'¤" she said. Make It Right organizers said they consulted with officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, including Col. Jeff Bedey, New Orleans Hurricane Protection Office commander, and were convinced that the breached Industrial Canal levee had been rebuilt stronger than ever. "If I wanted to be next to a levee, that's the one I'd want to be next to," Bingler said.
My question is whats soooo special about Brad Pitt helping out?
Quote from: boycriedwolf619 on December 13, 2007, 11:35:08 AMMy question is whats soooo special about Brad Pitt helping out?probably you don't even help who lives near your house And if you can't understand what he's doin,shame on you!http://www.makeitrightnola.org/
Quote from: Elano on December 15, 2007, 06:59:28 AMQuote from: boycriedwolf619 on December 13, 2007, 11:35:08 AMMy question is whats soooo special about Brad Pitt helping out?probably you don't even help who lives near your house And if you can't understand what he's doin,shame on you!http://www.makeitrightnola.org/nothing like Katrina ever happened where I live. Im saying he can't be the only celebrity who is helping down there.
Quote from: boycriedwolf619 on December 15, 2007, 07:46:55 AMQuote from: Elano on December 15, 2007, 06:59:28 AMQuote from: boycriedwolf619 on December 13, 2007, 11:35:08 AMMy question is whats soooo special about Brad Pitt helping out?probably you don't even help who lives near your house And if you can't understand what he's doin,shame on you!http://www.makeitrightnola.org/nothing like Katrina ever happened where I live. Im saying he can't be the only celebrity who is helping down there.no therese some rich famous black people, but they dont get attention obviously
Quote from: boycriedwolf619 on December 13, 2007, 11:35:08 AMMy question is whats soooo special about Brad Pitt helping out?The same thing that is special about Angelina taking kids out of their cultures and adopting them; nothing. Just a bunch of attention whores looking for publicity and they have the agents and publcists to make it happen.