Crime fighting via Text Message

There is a new Carrollton Area Network Crime Collaborative.

One of the tools being recommended by the Collaborative is NOLA SMS Crime Alert Network

This history of the development of this tool and more can be found on the website above.
"One night soon after the tragic murder of Wendy Byrnes in the French Quarter, a friend of Wendy's was mugged in the Marigny. Concerned friends sent out text messages to others warning them of the specific area to avoid and to be careful in general - and urging everyone to pass the message along. Ten copies of the same text message and three phone calls later, the idea to set up an SMS Crime Alert Network was born, with the intention of warning as many people as possible of recent and/or in-progress crimes without inundating anyone with multiple copies of the same message."

Anyone who is interested has the ability to send or receive text messages associated with crime in the Carrollton Area. These reports are from regular folks like you. This is the stuff that can slip through the 911 cracks.

S&W Apple Street Update

From: BECKER, Joe <jbecker@swbno.org>
Date: Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Apple Street Restoration
To: et61274@yahoo.com, jackie clarkson <jbclarkson@cityofno.com>, arnie fielkow <afielkow@cityofno.com>, Karen Gadbois <karen.gadbois@gmail.com>, shelly head <shead@cityofno.com>, cynthia lewis <cwlewis@cityofno.com>, shelly midura <smidura@cityofno.com>, ch morrell <CHMorrell@cityofno.com>, times picayune <fixthis@timespicayune.com>Cc: "JACKSON, Robert" <RJACKSON@swbno.org>, "BAHAM, Gloria" <GBAHAM@swbno.org>, "AUGUST, Rudy" <RAUGUST@swbno.org>

My name is Joseph Becker and I am the General Superintendent for the Sewerage and Water Board. First, let me apologize for the inconvenience associated with the sewer main replacement that is currently going on in your neighborhood. The sewer main is about 8 feet deep and runs down the middle of the street. The construction associated with this much excavation is very intrusive and time consuming. Rest assured we do everything within our control to minimize the delay and inconvenience to residents whenever we have to make such intrusive repairs.

The Sewerage and Water Board is continually researching our database of repair records and we identified a significant increase in the number of sewer problems in this area. In an effort to be proactive, a more detailed inspection was undertaken in order to identify the nature of the problem causing the increase in defects. In this instance, we found that the sewer main was very old and was in imminent danger of collapse. Rather than continue to respond to defects on an emergency basis and further inconveniencing our residents, a decision was made to replace these defective line segments, utilizing a contractor available to the Sewerage and Water Board.

The sewer work has been completed and the cuts have been backfilled. Currently, the contractor is in the 8100 block of Apple and is working on street restoration. Once he completes this work, the paving crew will move to the 8200 block and they will continue to repave, from block to block until the job is completed. The inspector assigned to this job indicated that the contractor is anticipating to move into the 8200 block of Apple in the next few weeks. It is the goal of the Sewerage and Water Board to have this resurfacing work completed as quickly as possible and to satisfy the requirements of the Department of Public Works for street restoration.

Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience that the repair work is causing you. The SWB is replacing these old, broken pipes in an effort to minimize future inconvenience to you on a returning emergency basis. We appreciate your patience and we will do everything we can to minimize the inconvenience as much as possible as we complete the surface restoration.


Joseph R. Becker, P.E.
General Superintendent
Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans
phone: (504) 585-2365
fax: (504) 585-2461

NorthWest Carrollton - Walkable Neighborhood

Taken from City-Works Newsletter:

Walk Score is a fun tool to measure how walkable our communities are. This website was featured on nola.com recently. Just plug in your address and see how it stacks up to some of the most walkable communities in the country. The center of New Orleans measures up quite nicely when compared to anywhere else in the country - a "Walker's Paradise". New Orleans has a lifestyle that other places are still trying to emulate.


Click here to see the walkability score for 8316 Apricot Street New Orleans, LA 70118 (aka Incarnate Word). This address is close to the center of NorthWest Carrollton

Spraying for Buck Moth Caterpillars

Please see the attached link for information on spraying for buck moth caterpillars from Parkway Partners.

http://www.parkwaypartnersnola.org/SaveOurTrees.html

DEADLINE is March 31, 2009

Parkway Partners 2nd Saturday Sale

Parkway Partners
1137 Baronne St (corner of Baronne & Clio)
9 AM - NOON

Second Saturday Program - 02/14/09 - Valentine's Day

Roses and Trees

Citrus, Live Oak, Flowering Crabapple, Cypress, Silver Bell, Taiwan Cherry, Bay and Japanese Magnolias, Fringe, Redbud, Fig, Old Garden and Knock Out Roses

At 10:00 am Peggy Martin of the New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society will speak.

Carrollton Intersection Improvements and Carrollton and Palmetto/Washington Streetscape Community Meeting

WHEN :February 14th, 2009 2:00PM

WHAT: Community meeting to discuss upcoming streetscape enhancements.

WHERE: 3424 Eagle Street

Project Boundaries are:
South Carrollton Avenue - Stroelitz Street to I-10
Washington Avenue - Short Street to South Carrollton Avenue
Dixon Street - Dublin Street to South Carrollton Avenue

A streetscape is a public improvement project that will enhance the public area and trigger subsequent recovery and investment in surrounding neighborhoods. This development is designed to help create additional and continued private investment in the City’s key recovery areas. Streetscape projects enhance the area surrounding the actual roadway, but do not include roadway repair or reconstruction. Project options include improvements to sidewalks, walkways, bike paths, vehicular and pedestrian signalization and signage, landscaping and public art.

FRIDAY NIGHT GLASS BLOWING DEMONSTRATIONS

FRIDAY NIGHT GLASS BLOWING DEMONSTRATIONS ARE BACK!!!!

PRESENTING: Local Artist, PAULO DUFOUR

Blown Glass DEMO @ New Orleans Creative Glass Institute

Paulo and his team will be demonstrating various Glass Blowing Techniques to create one of a kind glass vases that will be featured in art show in March. Paulo is represented by the Baton Rouge Gallery. His show titled "Mysterious Visitors" is scheduled to open at the gallery on March 4th, 2009!

This will be one you don't want to miss! Exciting for kids and the whole family!!!
Come on out and support your local artist and glass studio!!

Friday, Feb. 13th, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at our studio in Mid-City
3924 Conti St, (near the intersection of Carrollton and Bienville, near Rousse's)

!THIS IS A FREE EVENT!

For Questions:
Please contact JennyStudio Manager N.O.C.G.I.
504-482-6003
http://www.blogger.com/

S. CLAIBORNE STREET SCAPE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT COMMUNITY MEETING

WHEN: Thursday, February 12, 2009 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: 2929 Second Street

WHAT: A community meeting to discuss the upcoming street scape enhancement project on South Claiborne Avenue from Napoleon Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The project, which has a budget of $1.63 million, is funded by Community Development Block Grants.

A street scape is a public improvement project that will enhance the public area and trigger subsequent recovery and investment in surrounding neighborhoods. This development is designed to help create additional and continued private investment in the City's key recovery areas. The street scape is designed to benefit the surrounding neighborhood residents, business owners and visitors by providing amenities that contribute to economic vitality. Street scape projects enhance the area surrounding the actual roadway, but do not include roadway repair or reconstruction. The current scope of work for the project may include:
Sidewalk, bike way, driveway and other pedestrian surface walkway improvements
Traffic and pedestrian signalization and signage, Landscaping, Lighting, Public Art, Pocket park improvements, Minor utility modifications and improvements.

This community meeting is designed to offer local neighborhood residents the opportunity to provide input on the project and present any specific plans created by the community. For this community meeting, we ask that residents come prepared to voice their opinions on the design of this project.

8300 Nelson

On 02-08-09, at approximately 5:57am, the victim heard a loudbang on the front door. The victim then walked outside, that’s when a black male came out of the alley house pointing a gun at the victim. The suspect asked the victim's name, the victim reponded and the suspect left the scene. The suspect was known by the victim and was positively identified a short time later as the pertrator. A warrant for Brandon Plains (black male,11-10-83, 6' weighing 140lbs) has been issued.

If you have information on the whereabouts on this person please call 911 or notify CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.

Remember to report any suspicious persons or activities you see in your neighborhood by calling 821-2222. In an emergency, call 911 immediately. Comments regarding crime acitivities in NorthWest Carrollton can also be left as comments on any Neighborhood Watch post.

Health Care & Heritage - A Forum

Free and Open to the Public
A Forum for developing the best possible Medical Center for New Orleans

Organized by the Louisiana Landmarks Society and the Preservation Resource Center

When: February 9th, 2009 7:30PM

Where: Preservation Resource Center, 923 Tchoupitoulas St

Louisiana Healthcare Policy - NOT

New Orleans City Council rejects healthcare discrimination - See it on YouTube!

On December 18, 2008, the New Orleans City Council unanimously rejected Louisiana healthcare policy which discriminates against elderly and disabled poor people in New Orleans and elsewhere.

See how Louisiana healthcare policy:
- decreases healthcare access and increases disparities in health care,
- disproportionately harms elderly African Americans, as well as the mentally & physically disabled,
- makes it illegal for poor Medicare beneficiaries to receive the same benefits as wealthy beneficiaries, even though everyone paid taxes and purchased the same Medicare benefits.
- heightens New Orleans mental health crisis.
- causes a doctor drain out of poor neighborhoods.
- penalizes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes more than 60 other parishes.
- harms 108,000 elderly and disabled people in Louisiana and 5 million people across the United States.

National Coalition for Dually Eligible People
Sheldon Hersh, MD, President

New Orleans Crime Watch - Thank you Brian

See Brian Denzer's latest Email on New Orleans Crime Watch

Really an ordinance is required so that the city will make contracts available as public records?
What a shame that this true.

And straight from Brian's Crime Watch Letter
"Cerasoli Rex
Fare well Robert Cerasoli, but this is not good bye:
Sure, there’s more work to do. We wouldn’t have you do it all by yourself. We have to take responsibility for our own destiny. What we needed, you gave us — an example to lead us, a path to follow, a goal to achieve.
We won’t forget you, because we expect you to beat your health problems, and to return as an honored New Orleanian.
After his health improves, which krewe will be the first to crown Robert Cerasoli for his dedication to getting the inspector general’s office set up?"

Here, here! Which Krewe indeed. Bob deserves it!

1st day of Volunteer Work @ Leonidas House

What: 1st day of Volunteer Work @ Leonidas House

When: Saturday, February 7th from 9AM - 4PM

Where: 1407 Leonidas (corner of Willow & Leonidas)

Why: to remove debris and recycable materials, uncover original architectural features (bead board walls & ceiling) chip away old paint and continue to build community in the Carrollton Area.

NorthWest Carrollton Homes Eligible for Rebuilding Together Assistance

If you are a homeowner who still needs assistance to finish rebuilding your house, Rebuilding Together New Orleans may be able to help you. Only if you live in select areas of the city, like NorthWest Carrollton, can you apply for our 2009 home renovation program now.

Program is open ONLY to low income elderly or disabled and first responders.

To learn more about our application process, call Rebuilding Together New Orleans.
Contact Info: 504-636-3061
85 Egret St., New Orleans LA 70124

Not Boomers

Below is an article published in USA Today January 27, 2009.

For YEARS I've been saying: "I'm not a Boomer." Now finally Jonathan Powell has allowed me to say I am: GenJones. Practical Idealism..... pretty much captures my personal approach to life.... but it also captures NorthWest Carrollton's approach to PostKatrina Recovery and creating the NEW New Orleans we want to live in.

Stuck in the middle
President Obama carries the torch for the millions of Americans who aren’t really Boomers, but aren’t really Xers either. Meet the generation in which idealism trumps ideology, in which pragmatism is the guiding light.
By Jonathan Pontell

For 16 years, Baby Boomers occupied the Oval Office. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush came of age during the 1960s — the decade that spawned the culture wars that would define national affairs for the next 40 years. Conventional wisdom holds that post-Boomer Barack Obama's inauguration once and for all ended that tumultuous era's long grip on American politics. But are the '60s really dead? Hardly.

While the Boomer moment may be over, most observers have misread the generational significance of Obama's inaugural. It really marks the 1960s' second act. The difference is that the torch has passed from that decade's "flower children" to its actual children.
Obama was born in 1961 — 15 years after Clinton and 19 years before Chelsea. He is neither Boomer nor GenXer. Instead, he belongs to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt.

Defining the Jonesers
I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this large cohort born between 1954 and 1965. It's a generation that includes the new president, me and 53 million other Americans. Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences. Our background is just as distant from Generation Xers'. We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between "Turn on, tune in, drop out" and "Just Say No," and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioral data corroborates this distinction. Generational self-identification is particularly compelling. When polled, those in this age group identify not with Boomers or GenXers, but overwhelmingly with this generation in between.

So who are we? We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name "Generation Jones" derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the "keeping up with the Joneses" competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. But above all, the name borrows from the slang term "jonesin' " that we as teens popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.
The Jones runs deep in us. It arose from our 1960s childhoods. While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still in elementary school — wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice. By the time we came of age and could take the stage, though, a decade of convulsions had left the nation fatigued. During the game we'd been forced to watch from the sidelines, and passage into college and careers came only after the final gun had long since sounded.

The Boomers had their opportunity, and the GenXers weren't around soon enough to bear witness. Neither was left jonesin'. But the actual children of the 1960s yearned for something more. Our unrequited idealism has bubbled beneath the surface ever since.
Obama has The Jones. It permeates his biography and his philosophy. It's a crucial piece of his identity. His message and approach reverberate with GenJones themes.
Bridging the divide

Recognizing this generational mindset provides insight not only into an Obama presidency, but into America itself in 2009. Generation Jones is poised to grab the mantle of leadership. More than a quarter of all U.S. adults are Jonesers. We've ascended to unprecedented positions of leadership in business and government. Not only Obama, but also many of his key appointees, are members of GenJones. Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force.

But there is something beyond our mere demographic might. What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in American politics. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often-unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren't engaged in that era's ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while Boomers argued about Vietnam. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead.

Last century, Thomas Wolfe wrote that another generation wasn't lost so much as undiscovered. "And the whole secret, power and knowledge of their own discovery," he declared, "is locked within them — they know it, feel it, have the whole thing in them — and they cannot utter it." Generation Jones is clearing its throat. Its voice will be heard. What had been a steady stream of unsolicited e-mails to me from supportive Jonesers before the election is now a flood. A generation aching to act has awoken. We are finally scratching the itch of The Jones.
For Boomers, the legacy of the '60s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is idealism. That spirit of the '60s is far from dead; its seeds were planted in us then, and are flowering now. We're not late Boomers; we're late bloomers.

Jonathan Pontell is a social commentator who focuses on the intersection of politics and culture.