In the early 1980s the tenant leaders of the New Orleans St. Thomas public housing development and their activist allies were militant, uncompromising defenders of the city's public housing communities. Yet ten years later these same leaders became actively involved in a planning effort to privatize and downsize their community--an effort that would drastically reduce the number of affordable apartments. What happened? John Arena--a longtime community and labor activist in New Orleans--explores this drastic change in Driven from New Orleans, exposing the social disaster visited on...

In the early 1980s the tenant leaders of the New Orleans St. Thomas public housing development and their activist allies were militant, uncompromising defenders of the city's public housing communities. Yet ten years later these same leaders became actively involved in a planning effort to privatize and downsize their community--an effort that would drastically reduce the number of affordable apartments. What happened? John Arena--a longtime community and labor activist in New Orleans--explores this drastic change in Driven from New Orleans, exposing the social disaster visited on...