LSU VA hospital site

I am for building the hospitals downtown. New Orleans needs this project DESPERATELY. Building the VA hospital at the Lindy Boggs site and renovating old Charity might be adequate, but New Orleans cannot settle for adequate.

As for the historical value of the neighborhood that will be demolished:

I'm sure that the neighborhood has historical value. I am an ardent supporter of preservation, and it pains me to see historic structures demolished. On the other hand, that neighborhood is not going to come back. I know someone who struggled to rebuild his house in that neighborhood, and my heart goes out to him, but it is still largely abandoned and the population of New Orleans isn't going to grow at such a rate that those houses will be occupied. Given the choice between not tearing down a largely delapidated neighborhood and building a hospital complex that will pour billions into the local economy, it is obvious what must be decided.

Almost everything in New Orleans is old enough to be considered historical. The city needs to strike a balance between preserving the essential and sacrificing the expendable. Without significant investment in the city, which this project promises, none of the historic buildings in New Orleans have a chance. The rest of the nation doesn't care about abandoned shotgun houses. They care about jobs and innovation.