A new website The Open House Project lets people with housing for Katrina refugees find people who need it, and vice versa. It was created by the Incubator Group, a private-equity firm in Nashville. The homepage reports, "We currently have 4459 beds available to those affected by the Hurricane." From the FAQ:
Q: What's the difference between you and the other housing projects ?
A: Our site is keeps your information private. We think that letting someone come and live in your home is a very, very big deal, and at the same time we don't think that everyone should be plastering their names, phone numbers, and addresses all over the internet and gulf coast. It's a somewhat difficult issue, because on one hand everyone really wants to open their homes, yet on the other hand, they want to be a little selective of who they are letting live with them. At this point, we are asking people who don't mind sharing all of their personal information to sign up at the larger housing sites as they have a little more open distribution of lists. However, the open house project seems to be the only one that introduces a one-way privacy approach and you should use this site if you want to initiate contact instead of people initiating contact with you.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 08, 2005 • Comments
My latest NYT column looks at research on whether religious affiliation serves as a kind of insurance, smoothing consumption or maintaining happiness in the face of financial shocks. The research finds a puzzling racial anomaly: Whites seem not to get "happiness insurance" from their religious ties, although they do get financial help.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 07, 2005 • Comments
Dr. Hemant Vankawala, an emergency physician from Plano and a member of the FEMA-associated Disaster Medical Assistance Team, reports from the frontlines at New Orleans airport, in a post on D Magazine's FrontBurner blog. I won't quote it, because you need to read the whole thing.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 07, 2005 • Comments
T.R. Reid reports in today's WaPost.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 06, 2005 • Comments
Even under ordinary circumstances, it's hard to top Dallas for well-organized, enthusiastic charitable efforts. Given a crisis, the city's extraordinary networks of volunteers, churches, and charitable organizations--not to mention spontaneous outpourings--have proven even more remarkable.
City officials feared Katrina evacuees would overflow the space available in Reunion Arena and the convention center. Instead, there's room to spare. Refugees have indeed shown up by the thousands, but fewer than expected have had to stay in the city's massive shelters, because small shelters, churches, hotels, and local residents have taken them in. "Downtown volunteers served Sunday dinner to about 10,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees, but at bedtime at Reunion Arena and the Dallas Convention Center fewer than 1,800 of the approximately 8,200 prepared beds were occupied," reports the DMN.
The response has been so hospitable that one displaced couple even named their newborn baby Dallas.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 05, 2005 • Comments
Two Fort Lauderdale-based companies have put together a simple but powerful site that lets Katrina survivors register so loved ones can find out their fate. Katrina.im-ok.org works with phone numbers, avoiding spelling problems and name duplications.
Tom Foster of CompuNex Corp., which did the programming, sent me an email asking blog readers in Dallas (and presumably other cities with a lot of refugees) "to take their portable laptops and wireless air cards and put them to work." I'm not exactly sure of the best way to connect readers' wi-fi cards with displaced hurricane victims, but consider this a solicitation. Check out I'm OK's site for more background.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 04, 2005 • Comments
I took a break from the two articles I'm juggling for Tuesday deadlines to drop off some clothes, lamps, and drinks for hurricane refugees. According to a posting on the DMN's website, a local Residence Inn was collecting donations for a "free garage sale" for its Louisiana guests and other displaced persons. A clever idea, I thought, plus I might be able to learn more about ways readers could donate for hotel costs. No dice. The parking lot was completely full of stuff, with volunteers and a police officer turning away new donations. There certainly wasn't anybody with time to talk to a blogger.
So I went to Reunion Arena, where I joined a long line of cars and trucks of every make, model, and condition--from beater to high-end Mercedes--you can imagine. A flushed and sweating police officer (it's a relatively cool 95 degrees today) directed me to Parking Lot E, where the Salvation Army--and an army of volunteer sorters--was accepting donations: huge stacks of bottled water cases, a wall of disposable diapers, and untold numbers of clothing piles. Somewhere in the distance they were sorting housewares. Around the arena, there were TV trucks from as far away as Las Vegas.
The Red Cross is asking people not to bring donations to Reunion Arena, because it has an "equal treatment" policy for the people it serves and donations are necessarily heterogeneous. I guess the Salvation Army's role is to sort and distribute to people who aren't under Red Cross auspices. But that's just speculation.
According to this DMN report the Arena and adjacent convention center will soon overflow their 10,000-refugee capacity, and the city is expecting at least 25,000. Dallas officials are looking for help from surrounding communities. Tarrant County, home of Fort Worth, has taken 500. So far, according to this DMN report the arena is proving surprisingly comfortable--at least in contrast to refugees' expectations, and their experiences of the past few days. (Locals looking for an alternative dropoff site, go here.)
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 02, 2005 • Comments
The National Furniture Bank Association, a charity organized by the furniture industry, is soliciting donations for Katrina relief (no online donations, just checks). They're also soliciting in-kind donations from furniture manufacturers and retailers and, according to a letter to the industry, they've secured a 170,000-square-foot warehouse in Houston to collect donated furniture.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 02, 2005 • Comments
My latest article, a slideshow essay on the remarkable designer Eva Zeisel, is up on Slate
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 02, 2005 • Comments
Mike Beebe, Arkansas's attorney general and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said some complacent things about the state property rights after Kelo. Republican Asa Hutchinson pounced. The tussle suggests that takings will be an issue in the campaign, with each candidate trying to demonstrate his property rights bona fides. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports:
Attorney General Mike Beebe said Tuesday that Arkansas property owners are adequately protected — much better than residents of most states — against the government taking their land for use by private developers.
Beebe, who is also a Democratic candidate for governor, said in a legal opinion that the Arkansas Constitution and numerous Supreme Court decisions make it clear that condemnation is only an option when property will be taken for public use. State courts historically have narrowly defined that type of use, he said.
Beebe's opinion was issued in his official capacity as attorney general, but it became immediate political fodder in the 2006 governor's race. A potential Republican opponent, Asa Hutchinson, declared that Beebe's approach was "passive."
Hutchinson said Beebe is suggesting that the state "doesn't need to do anything to protect people's property" even after a U.S. Supreme court ruling this summer opened the door for condemnations for private development. "It doesn't make sense to wait for somebody's land to be seized and then wait for the courts to decide the issue," Hutchinson said. "We have an opportunity to prevent potential abuses."
Hutchinson's press release on the subject is here.
Meanwhile, the Texas legislature has passed a bill strengthening property rights protections--but including provisions to protect the soon-to-be Arlington Cowboys in seizing land for a stadium.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on September 02, 2005 • Comments