Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Ignoring local protests, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week started demolishing historically valuable public housing in New Orleans.

In a city pummeled by government incompetence, the department's intransigence has become surreal. HUD was stopped days later because it had failed to seek required approval from the City Council, and Judge Herbert Cade of Orleans Parish Civil District Court halted most of the demolition until the council agrees to let them proceed.

HUD has threatened to withdraw hundreds of millions of housing reconstruction dollars and thousands of rent vouchers if the council doesn't approve its plan in a meeting on Dec. 20.

Losing the vouchers would mean that poor people entitled to live in public housing -- and no party to the controversy -- would be thrown into the street. Does the council have a choice?

More housing is needed in a city with a serious rental- housing crunch since Hurricane Katrina. Adapting the historic structures on four huge sites -- three adjacent to historic- landmark neighborhoods -- is worth doing because of their sturdy construction, sensitivity of design and quality of materials. That's why these 4,500 units were deemed worthy of listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

HUD plans to replace dozens of buildings with mixed-income developments that include some units for the very low-income residents normally served by public housing. It's highly unlikely they will match the standards of the older buildings.

Proponents of demolition have framed the controversy as obstructionist aesthetic elitists versus the voiceless displaced. Actually, it's about a more important issue: What kind of neighborhood will these vast tracts become?

Outdated Designs

There's no question that the projects' layouts are hard to police and the apartment designs are outdated. Yet serious advocates have always argued for sensitive adaptation.

The sites could be far more gracefully integrated with surrounding neighborhoods by restoring the street grid through the huge tracts, which would require the demolition of only a few units. It was mismanagement and government policies that made these projects dumping grounds that sapped hope and nurtured crime. Design -- old or new -- can't fix that.

HUD and the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which HUD took over years before Katrina, say let's get on with it, and we'll deliver the new units in a mere 18 to 24 months. That aggressive schedule is unrealistic, though, given the years it took to settle on development teams.

The local construction industry already is stressed to the breaking point. And, incredibly, the replacement designs have yet to be presented publicly. Costs, too, will be hard to control. It's doubtful that renovation would take longer, as HUD claims.

Effective Partners

To its credit, HUD has linked up with development partners that have successfully rebuilt troubled projects and engaged with locals. The blueprint is an effective HUD public-housing replacement program called HOPE VI, which the Bush administration had tried to kill before Katrina.

Yet good partners can't transcend a hurried, stamped-out redevelopment approach cooked up pre-Katrina. New structures must be designed to survive more high winds and more flooding. The rebuilt sites must radiate invigorating energy into a dozen surrounding neighborhoods, many spiraling further downward since the storm.

By contrast, nonprofit builders for the poor are welcomed all over the city: Acorn, Global Green, Habitat for Humanity and the just-announced Make It Right, to name a few. On a recent visit to a home designed and built by faculty and students at Tulane University, neighbors waved from porches and stopped their cars to greet my guide, architect Emilie Taylor.

Fitting Into the Neighborhood

Though the Tulane houses are contemporary additions to poor neighborhoods of worn but ornate ``shotgun'' designs, they're sensitive to both the future and tradition. They have become emblems of rebirth.

Yet charities and foundations can only build a few houses at a time. HUD, with clout, cash and the best expertise, could unleash enterprise and goodwill on a citywide scale. People would flock from around the country to see the results. And that would be very good indeed for New Orleans.

With a more inventive and less heavy-handed approach, HUD could become a hero.

(James S. Russell is Bloomberg's U.S. architecture critic. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: James S. Russell in New York at jamesrussell@earthlink.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2007 00:04 EST