This expansive complex, which includes both the UMC and the adjacent Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital, is a result of post-Hurricane Katrina “urban renewal” that effectively
destroyed a working-class neighborhood of modest houses, many of which had been renovated by owners after the storm. Properties were seized through eminent domain, while the preservation community fought to have structures moved rather than being razed. Results were mixed; some structures were moved and languished in new locations, while others were destroyed. The argument for creating a vast medical complex here near the city’s Central Business District was economic and occurred at the state level, leaving the city with little input. To date, the rosy economic predictions and anticipated occupants of the complex have not materialized.