This evening at the Preservation Resource Center - 923 Tchoupitoulas St. in the Warehouse District.
7:30 PM sharp.
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The USA Today profiled the Charity issue over the weekend. Given that LSU's position has been that those who question the utility of the LSU/VA project are holding up the process and hurting the city's recovery, I thought that LSU general counsel Raymond Lamonica's statements regarding the real roadblock - LSU's utter lack of funding for the project - were quite revealing (emphasis mine):
Lamonica says Louisiana plans to appeal FEMA's $150 million figure, saying the agency's actions were "lawless" and that officials hope they will have better luck with the Obama administration. But he says the dispute is almost certain to end up in court.
Meanwhile, Lamonica says, the state is working to design the new hospital and to buy land for it near the Superdome.
"That's going to take a couple of years," he says. "Hopefully by then we'll have our money."
The alternative plan to build a state-of-the-art facility in the Charity frame would cost less and begin sooner but apparently any reasonable public discussion of that plan remains objectionable.
As Civitch pointed out earlier:
FYI the LSU folks have now refused to come to FOUR public meetings/events about their project.
They turned down VCPORA, then they declined to appear on the WWL morning show, then they said no to the Baton Rouge Press Club, and they're not attending tonight's meeting at the PRC.
LSU's plan, it would seem, is to run out the clock even though nobody is sure they have either the ball or the lead.
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