NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Heavy equipment operators have begun toppling the sturdy brick walls of buildings that make up the Iberville low-income housing development in New Orleans as part of a neighborhood revitalization program.

Fifty-nine of the 75 buildings at the Iberville development will be demolished in the process that began Tuesday.

Iberville is the last of the city's old-style federal housing complexes.

The city and the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which runs the federal housing developments in the city, received more than $30 million in 2011 to transform the Iberville development.

A Housing Authority news release says the plan includes one-for-one replacement of all 821 current units at Iberville. When complete, the Iberville development area will have a combination of units for low- and moderate-income families and 315 "market rate" homes.

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