Most of the communities along the Gulf Coast

Most of the communities along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi are demanding that “Mississippi Cottages” — small, vernacular dwellings designed by new urbanists for Hurricane Katrina survivors — be hauled away by next spring. Nearly 2,400 cottages have been supplied to displaced residents by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). The Christian Science Monitor reported May 22 that many municipalities along the coast regard the dwellings as having narrow profiles reminiscent of trailers and as not providing the tax base, community image, and aesthetic character associated with the pre-Katrina years. Pass Christian, population 3,000, “lost a third of its beachfront mansions in the storm,” the Monitor reported, and “expects the cottages to be gone by March.” Lou Rizzardi, a Pass Christian alderman, was quoted as saying, “We’re seeing a whole change of character, a change of lifestyle, and that is extremely difficult for many people to accept.” The fate of the wheeled houses, some measuring about 450 square feet, is made more tenuous by the fact that residents, not knowing whether they will stay or go, have in some instances done nothing to landscape or decorate them. MEMA says the cottages can be moved onto permanent foundations. The state is apparently afraid that cottages which cost roughly $40,000 each may have to be mothballed. For residents of the cottages, the situation is made more difficult by the fact that “since the storm, living costs have doubled and construction costs have nearly tripled throughout the region,” according to the Monitor. Quite a few cottage inhabitants would like to continue living in them. Said Russell Voorhies of Waveland: “Small works for me right now.”