The row of houses appear in Treme posters for Season 1

This afternoon, the City of New Orleans will demolish a row of houses in the 2700 block of S. Derbigny as part of Mayor Mitch Landrieu's initiative to reduce blight. But the row of houses, across from Taylor Park, aren't just another run of overgrown lots. They appear on promotional materials, and now DVD covers, for the HBO series, "Treme." The producers of the show have protested the city demolishing the property. In a letter obtained by NoDef that was delivered to the city and signed by executive producers David Simon, Eric Overmeyer and Nina Noble, they urged a halt to the demolition of the properties.

"Our hope is that a way can be found to renovate and not destroy them," the letter said. "These houses have appeared around the globe in advertisements for the show and the DVD set. In that way, they have attained something of an iconic status. New Orleans has successfully restored other similarly dilapidated rows of shotguns (see the 600 block of Gen. Taylor for but one example).  What a powerful message it would send about the resiliency and recovery of the city for this block to be restored and transformed into desirable homes for returning residents."

Through Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office, the city announced its intentions to demolish the properties this morning. They called a 1:15 news conference to spotlight the effort. In a release announcing the news conference,  the city indicates that they are following through on a committment to neighbors made at a Fight the Blight volunteer day last month.

"At the last Fight the Blight Volunteer Day on March 19, Mayor Landrieu committed to neighbors in the Hoffman Triangle neighborhood to demolish a row of dangerous nuisance properties facing Taylor Park on South Derbigny Street," the release said. " Today, the City will deliver on that commitment and demolish those properties."

A spokesman for Landrieu did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Apparently, two of the structures were already torn down this morning. Brad Vogel, a representative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation observed the beginning of the destruction to two of the houses while assessing the properties with a structural engineer. Like the Treme producers, Vogel is against the demolitions. He said the houses could be rehabilitated and put back into use. He was on site with a structural engineer this morning assessing the damage

"They could be rehabilitated, and it costs the city a lot of money to demolish homes like this," he said.

Historic preservationists have pointed out that at a recent, city-backed blight auction, the city basold run-down houses in hopes of bringing them back online.

The city's press conference is scheduled to begin at 1:15 p.m.