Name:	Name redacted at the request of the author
City:	New Orleans
Specific property affected:	Mazant-Royal Housing Development, 4100 Royal Street
Comments:	Dear FEMA, As you know, our ecosystem in New Orleans is fragile. Covered in cement, starved for trees and other plants whose roots help the ground absorb and hold the water which keeps the sponge beneath our city buoyant, we are sinking. This development utterly disregards the realities of our geography and also of climate change. It moves us directly away from the solutions we need in order to the city to survive. We need trees, drainage, and soil, yet this development would cover the ground with non permeable concrete and remove kill the oxygen breathing (and grand) trees which not only feed us emotionally but also literally help us live on this land at all. Yes, we need public housing. We need it on this site, in fact. But why are we short-sightedly ignoring the environment on which our city's very existence depends? Why are we cramming an unprecedented amount of people onto this one block? Why are we not providing for our future neighbors what all people deserve: a place for children to play, a sliver of nature to connect with? Why are we seeking a short-sighted solution over our sustained existence? No building like that proposed has ever existed in this neighborhood. Please do not put another nail in New Orleans' coffin. Build something here which is suited to the neighborhood AND the environmental needs of New Orleans. There was public housing on this site before that worked for the neighborhood. Please bring that back. Thank you.