A local politician in suburban St. Bernard Parish ~ predominantly working-class and almost entirely white ~ proposed an ordinance outlawing the conversion of homes that were owner-occupied before Katrina into rental property, with the only exceptions allowed being rental within the owner's family.

There was a lot of controversy, public discussion, etc., much of it on racial themes ~ that the motive was to exclude black renters from the parish. I'm sure that a degree of racism was a factor, especially unconscious racism, but it was not the primary motivation.

In any event, the proposed ordinance did not pass.

There were out-of-state real estate speculators buying up properties in badly-flooded St. Bernard really cheap in the aftermath of the storm. The relatively few people who had returned to fix up and reoccupy their homes and their communities ~ which had always, since they were built in the late 1940s, been composed of homeowners ~ were understandably concerned about half the properties on each of their blocks being bought up for development by investors living in Florida.

St. Bernard is just "below" (downriver from) and adjacent to the lower 9th ward, is in the same flood "basin" at an even lower elevation, and had many more properties sitting in much deeper water. The lower 9 gets a lot of public attention, deservedly enough, for a number of reasons:
~ The area immediately next to the Industrial Canal level-break was hit by a huge, explosive, fast-moving wall of water that blew houses off their foundations, turned cars and trucks upside-down, and generally created the most amazing photo ops of the whole disaster.
~ The Lower 9th is (or was) the entire nation's leading neighborhood in terms of black home-ownership, while at the same time being a very poverty-stricvken area. Almost every home in the area was inherited by its occupants, and many were built "by hand" by the father or grandfather.

St. Bernard was arguably more throughly damaged than any part of New Orleans, but is more generally "forgotten" by the media and the outside world, and the citizens have a bit of a chip on their collective shoulder.

******************************

I've heard nothing about a landlord in New Orleans being thrown in jail for renting to anyone, black or white. Some of them probaly should be thrown in jail for jacking up their rents and evicting long-time residents so they can get their new higher prices from newcomers.

These are instances where relatively affluent people (those who own multiple properties) are taking advantage of the less fortunate, but it has nothing to do with race. In fact, most landlords in New Orleans are African-American, just as most people, and almost all elected officials, are black.

Also, most landlords in New Orleans, white and black alike, are pretty small-time capitalists who inherited their houses ~ could never have afforded to buy more than one home ~ and in very many cases only own one structure, living in one half of a double (two-family house) while renting out the other side.