When Hurricane Katrina devastated the health care system in New Orleans, an especially big loss was Louisiana State University's Charity Hospital, a teaching facility that played a special role serving the city's indigent and uninsured.

Closed since the disaster, Charity's future has been uncertain -- and now that uncertainty has spread to the surrounding neighborhood that has worked hard to rebuild in the storm's wake.

Because rather than renovate the existing Charity Hospital, as a report [pdf] released earlier this year found would not only be possible but would also save time and money, LSU has chosen to join forces with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build a brand-new hospital complex with facilities for veterans as well as for teaching. But the plan entails tearing down 15 blocks of the historic Mid-City neighborhood near the old Charity Hospital, including historic homes and other structures.

The decision has shell-shocked residents and outraged historic preservationists. They've joined forces to fight the plan, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation has called a "serious error."

"The VA and LSU had other options, yet they chose the most difficult and destructive route to delivering health care to the region's veterans and a medical teaching facility to the community," says NTHP President Richard Moe. "We strongly urge the VA and LSU to reconsider, and take another look at other less harmful alternatives on the table."

Announced last month, the LSU and VA site decision wasn't  exactly a surprise for Moe's group: Back in May, NTHP had placed the Mid-City neighborhood on its list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places due to the threat from the planned hospital complex.

Working with the Foundation for Historical Louisiana and local neighborhood groups, NTHP  identified other alternatives to minimize Mid-City's destruction. They included having the VA build on the site currently proposed for the new LSU hospital, with LSU occupying a rehabbed Charity Hospital; putting both the new VA and LSU hospitals on the site currently slated for a new LSU hospital; and building both facilities on the site of the vacant Lindy Boggs Medical Center.

Not only would those alternatives eliminate the need to destroy large stretches of a historic neighborhood, but they would also be more cost-effective, NTHP points out. The group makes the case that the public funds slated for demolition -- the project's budget currently includes $79 million in federal money for land acquisition --- would be better spent on much-needed housing and neighborhood revitalization in the city.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is calling on the VA to work with the incoming Obama administration to explore alternative sites that would restore needed health care facilities faster and at a lower cost while preserving more of Mid-City. It has also launched an advocacy campaign encouraging concerned citizens to contact the Governor, the La. Secretary of Health and Hospitals, and the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs and ask them to reconsider the plan. To learn more, click here.

(Photo of Mid-City neighborhood from National Trust for Historic Preservation)