<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-housing1oct01,1,7394467.story?coll=la-news-a_section"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-housing1oct01,1,7394467.story?coll=la-news-a_section</SPAN></FONT></A></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 21.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><B>A SHATTERED GULF COAST</B></SPAN></FONT></P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><B>New Orleans' Racial Future Hotly Argued</B></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><B>The U.S. housing chief expresses doubts about rebuilding, and draws anger and concern.</B></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">By Joel Havemann</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Times Staff Writer</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">October 1, 2005</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">WASHINGTON — President Bush's housing secretary has touched off a tempest by saying that a revived New Orleans may no longer be a majority-black city and that some of the low-lying and predominantly black neighborhoods probably should not be rebuilt.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who is black, said that he expected New Orleans — a city of about 475,000 that was two-thirds black before Hurricane Katrina hit in late August — to emerge only 35% to 40% black and with possibly 350,000 residents.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">"Whether we like it or not, New Orleans is not going to be 500,000 people for a long time," Jackson told the Houston Chronicle, which published his comments Thursday. "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>