The Archdiocese opts for demolition

Take a look at the new article on Squandered Heritage.

Perhaps "It is time for the Archdiocese to come out and talk about the plans for the future and the future of it’s assets."

No one should have to live on a porch

From: NorthWest Carrollton
To: admin@unitygno.org
Cc: Shelley S. Midura; Arnie Fielkow; Jackie B. Clarkson; Major Bruce Little; Officer Wilford Eddington
Sent: Mon Jul 27 08:10:15 2009
Subject: Homeless Assistance

We are writing in the hope that you can assist someone who is homeless and camping out in the 8400 block of Apple Street (odd number side). This man literally lives on the porch of an empty house (there are no numbers on the house. The front doors are boarded). He says the owner has indicated that this is OK. It is not OK. Drug deals go down regularly at the corner of Apple & Joliet (2 doors away from the porch
next to the Aston Theatre). We are working with NOPD on this problem. The man says he does "repair work" from the porch. He handles weed whackers, watches, busted bicycles, bits of brass. The "repair process" results in unhealthy oily waste being left behind on the porch and sidewalk. Another concern is that the goods he deals in may be stolen.

NOPD has been called a number of times. NOPD moves him along and he comes back. He has no where else to go. We are hoping that Unity can assist in finding him someplace to live that isn't squatting in the open on the porch of a vacant propery. We are also hoping that since this fellow says he has the capacity to do repair work that it might be possible for him to get employment that will eventually allow him to pay to put a roof over his own head. No one should live on a porch.

Sincerely,
Representatives of NorthWest Carrollton
bounded by Earhart-Carrollton-Claiborne-Leonidas
nwcarrollton.blogspot.com

Response:
From: "Amy E. Chandler"
Sent: Jul 28, 2009 10:43 AM
To: nwcarrollton@mindspring.com
Cc: Arnie Fielkow , "Shelley S. Midura" , "Jackie B. Clarkson" , "Deborah J. Langhoff"
Subject: RE: Homeless Assistance

Thank you for the email. I've forwarded this information on to Martha
Kegel of Unity. She and her staff will be getting in touch with this
individual to assess his needs and see what resources they can provide.
This may take a week or two.
I will pass on any further information that I get.
Thank you,
Amy Chandler
Legislative Director
Councilmember Shelley Midura
District "A", City of New Orleans
Office 504.658.1010
Fax 504.658.1016
aechandler@cityofno.com

Please could we have parking enforcement, they got it in Lakeview

From: NorthWest Carrollton
To: orleans@timespicayune.com
Subject: Parking Enforcement
Date: Jul 30, 2009 12:44 PM
This email is in response to Lynne Jensen's article published in the Times Picayune on July 2, 2009

We thought we'd offer are a few reasons why parking enforcement is a good thing at this stage of our recovery:

Parking legally, especially facing in the right direction, is safer. There are some streets in our neighborhood where it is difficult to tell if the street is a one or two way because so many cars are parked against traffic. Since the streets that parallel Carrollton are 2 way and the streets perpendicular to Carrollton tend to be one way, getting the right "signals" from how the cars parked can be important. Also have you ever been driving down a narrow 2 way street only to have a car parked in the wrong direction pull out at you? Trust me it happens. It's scary and very dangerous.

Parking legally, especially not on the green space between the sidewalk and the street, safeguards the green space and provides places where trees can be planted. Trees clean the air, sequester carbon (fighting global warming), help reduce energy bills, raise property values and have also been shown to reduce crime. Allowing folks to park illegally on the green space especially all over their front lawns usually results in folks thinking that the next best thing is to pave their front yards. This results in either compaction of the soil or a reduction of the soils capacity to absorb rainfall and contributes to neighborhood street flooding.

Parking legally is in keeping with the Broken Windows Theory. This means that when it looks like a neighborhood cares about trash, high grass, and things like FOLLOWING the (parking) RULES, then criminals find somewhere else to work.

Parking legally, especially not on the sidewalks, protects the sidewalk infrastructure from damage and provides a safe place for pedestrian traffic. Have you ever had to venture into the street because a car was across the sidewalk. Imagine doing this when you use a walker or are pushing a stroller. Sidewalks are for people not vehicles. Clear sidewalks encourage the walkable neighborhoods we said we wanted in all those planning sessions and encourages people to use the sidewalks instead of their vehicles. For that matter so do trees.

These are just a few of the reasons why parking enforcement is a better idea than one might initially think. Given the alternate of supporting the city's recovery by paying a parking ticket or supporting the city's recovery by following the rules, we're hoping folks will choose to follow the rules.

Sincerely,
Representatives of NorthWest Carrollton
nwcarrollton.blogspot.com

Take a look at what illegal parking can do for a neighborhood.... it isn't good.

Clarkson Statement Re: Purchase of Chevron Building for City Hall

Councilmember-at-Large Clarkson Statement
Re: Purchase of Chevron Building for City Hall

New Orleans, LA - July 28, 2009 - "Today, I voted against purchasing the Chevron Building as a new location for City Hall.

"When the Mayor first approached the Council with the idea of relocating City Hall, I considered the issue with an open mind. I was not predisposed to oppose or support the purchase because of any personalities involved. Instead, I wanted to give the idea a fair hearing and all the due diligence that it and my constituents deserve.

"I did not then, nor do I now, think the City needs a new City Hall for ourselves while many of our constituents continue to live without streetlights, parks, and in some areas without libraries and hospitals. But, as a Realtor with 40 years of experience, I did see an excellent financial opportunity to buy a modern office building at a great price as an investment, instead of pumping the same dollar amount into a building that probably will be demolished in the coming decade.

"I believe the City's leaders ought to "think big" about the current City Hall site - a site that, with the renovations to the Superdome, Dominion Towers, the Hyatt, and the demolition of the old state buildings around Duncan Plaza, is land too valuable to be holding only a dilapidated City Hall. This site should instead be master planned for a public/private, mixed-development, government complex with an architecturally appropriate City Hall, incorporating the adjacent state property and Duncan Plaza, with private tenants to buy down the cost of government. Other progressive cities have done this, and it has worked. Twenty years ago, as a District Councilmember, I proposed this idea to the Administration. With that perspective, I have taken the opportunity to investigate the possibility of using the Chevron Building as an interim City Hall. I have consulted with my fellow Councilmembers, community leaders, constituents, former professional colleagues, the Mayor, and members of his administration.

"But even in spite of the great opportunity and potential I see for this land, I have continued to have serious reservations about the purchase. Without a comprehensive, public plan for a new City Hall development; a plan that the public has time to understand and buy into; a plan that we can show beyond a reasonable doubt will contribute to the City's wealth and not detract from its recovery, purchasing the Chevron Building is a mistake. With a team of the best minds in this City, we may yet have a chance in the future to come up with a planning process that provides for a new City Hall that doesn't detract from recovery. But with the contract for the Chevron Building on the table today, my vote is 'No.' "


Contact:
Jacquelyn Cole
Office of Councilmember-at-Large Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson
Ph: 504-658-1072
Cell: 504-577-3600
jlcole@cityofno.com

The Mounting Evidence That Broken Windows Works

George L. Kelling
How New York Became Safe: The Full Story
A citywide effort, involving many agencies and institutions, helped restore order.
17 July 2009

Just 20 years ago, New York City was racked with crime: murders, burglaries, drug deals, car thefts, thefts from cars. (Remember the signs in car windows advising no radio?) Unlike many cities' crime problems, New York’s were not limited to a few inner-city neighborhoods that could be avoided. Bryant Park, in the heart of midtown and adjacent to the New York Public Library, was an open-air drug market; Grand Central Terminal, a gigantic flophouse; the Port Authority Bus Terminal, “a grim gauntlet for bus passengers dodging beggars, drunks, thieves, and destitute drug addicts,” as the New York Times put it in 1992. In July 1985, the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City published a study showing widespread fear of theft and assault in downtown Brooklyn, Fordham Road in the Bronx, and Jamaica Center in Queens. Riders abandoned the subway in droves, fearing assault from lunatics and gangs.

New York’s drop in crime during the 1990s was correspondingly astonishing—indeed, one of the most remarkable stories in the history of urban crime,” according to University of California law professor Franklin Zimring. While other cities experienced major declines, none was as steep as New York’s. Most of the criminologists’ explanations for it—the economy, changing drug-use patterns, demographic changes—have not withstood scrutiny. Readers of City Journal will be familiar with the stronger argument that the New York Police Department’s adoption of quality-of-life policing and of such accountability measures as Compstat was behind the city’s crime drop.

Yet that explanation isn’t the whole story. Learning the rest is more than an academic exercise, for if we can understand fully what happened in New York, we not only can adapt it to other cities but can ensure that Gotham’s crime gains aren’t lost in today’s cash-strapped environment.

As New York suffered, an idea began to emerge that would one day restore the city. Nathan Glazer first gave it voice in a 1979 Public Interest article, “On Subway Graffiti in New York,” arguing that graffitists, other disorderly persons, and criminals “who rob, rape, assault, and murder passengers . . . are part of one world of uncontrollable predators.” For Glazer, a government's inability to control even a minor crime like graffiti signaled to citizens that it certainly couldn't handle more serious ones. Disorder, therefore, was creating a crisis that threatened all segments of urban life. In 1982, James Q. Wilson and I elaborated on this idea, linking disorder to serious crime in an Atlantic story called “Broken Windows” (see below).

Yet it wasn't just intellectuals who were starting to study disorder and minor crimes. Policymakers like Deputy Mayor Herb Sturz and private-sector leaders like Gerald Schoenfeld, longtime chairman of the Shubert Organization, believed that disorderly conditions—aggressive panhandling, prostitution, scams, drugs—threatened the economy of Times Square. Under Sturz’s leadership, and with money from the Fund for the City of New York, the NYPD developed Operation Crossroads in the late 1970s. The project focused on minor offenses in the Times Square area; urged police to develop high-visibility, low-arrest tactics; and attempted to measure police performance by counting instances of disorderly behavior.

Despite some initial success, Operation Crossroads was ultimately aborted, and the NYPD returned to business as usual. Later, the police employed similar tactics in Bryant Park after Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis threatened to close it; again they met with early success, but again they eventually abandoned the attempt.

As soon became clear, sporadic police programs weren’t enough. Only when a wide range of agencies and institutions began to work on restoring public order did real progress begin. In 1980, a second attempt to fix Bryant Park took off: the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, headed by Dan Biederman, used environmental design, maintenance, private security, and other approaches inspired by the success of Rockefeller Center. Similarly, in 1988, the Grand Central Partnership (also led by Biederman) began reducing disorder in the 75 blocks surrounding Grand Central by employing private security and hiring the homeless to clean the streets. Thirty-two more Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) were developing similar approaches in New York.

Public transportation was another area where public order became a priority. In 1984, David Gunn, president of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), began a five-year program to eradicate graffiti from subway trains. Then, in 1989, Robert Kiley, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, asked the transit police (then located within the NYCTA) to focus on minor offenses; a year later, he hired as its chief William Bratton, who immediately zeroed in on disorder, especially fare beating. And in the early nineties, the NYCTA adopted similar policing methods for Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal.

Neighborhood organizations, too, began demanding that order be restored—even the local community board in the Tompkins Square Park area, which had once been quite tolerant of disorderly behavior. And the judiciary branch got involved as well, with the 1993 opening of the Midtown Community Court, which swiftly handles those who commit minor offenses.

In sum, a diverse set of organizations in the city—pursuing their own interests and using various tactics and programs—all began trying to restore order to their domains. Further, in contrast with early sporadic efforts like Operation Crossroads, these attempts were implemented aggressively and persistently. Biederman, for example, worked on Bryant Park for 12 years. When Kiley was struggling to restore order in the subway, he had to withstand pressure from powerful opponents: the New York Civil Liberties Union, the mayor’s office (which had suggested bringing portable kitchens and showers into the subway for the homeless), the police commissioner, and the transit police. In fact, it was after the transit cops resisted Operation Enforcement, Kiley’s first effort to restore order, that he hired Bratton.

By the early 1990s, these highly visible successes, especially in the subway, had begun to express themselves politically. Better than any other politician, Rudy Giuliani understood the pent-up demand for public order and built his successful 1993run for mayor on quality-of-life themes. Once in office, he appointed Bratton, who had orchestrated the subway success and understood the importance of order maintenance, as New York’s police commissioner.

Under Bratton, the NYPD brought enormous capacities to bear on the city's crime problem—particularly Compstat, its tactical planning and accountability system, which identified where crimes were occurring and held local commanders responsible for their areas. Giuliani and Bratton also gave the force’s members a clear vision of the “business” of the NYPD and how their activities contributed to it. In short, a theory previously advocated largely by elites filtered down to—and inspired—line police officers, who had constituted a largely ignored and underused capacity.

Once the NYPD joined the effort, the order-maintenance movement expanded even more. Port Authority, initially skeptical about Kiley's approach in the subway and Grand Central and Penn Stations, took similar action to restore order; the Midtown Community Court spawned the Center for Court Innovation, a nonprofit organization that helped develop the Red Hook Community Court in 1998; and BIDs increased from 33 in 1989 to 61 in 2008.

Clearly, Giuliani and Bratton were heroes in reclaiming public spaces. But Glazer, Sturz, Gunn, Kiley, Biederman, and others were stalwarts as well. They set the stage for what was to follow. Current mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Ray Kelly also deserve kudos; rather than overturning the Bratton/Giuliani innovations and going their own way—as new administrators are wont to do—they adopted, refined, and strengthened them.

As New York confronts a fiscal crisis, its leaders need to remember that the city owes its crime decline to a broad range of public and private agencies. Maintaining the NYPD’s commitment to its proven crime-fighting methods is crucial, of course. But so is the broader citywide emphasis on public order.

George L. Kelling is a professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in Newark and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

The Mounting Evidence That Broken Windows Works
Twenty-seven years ago, James Q. Wilson and I published “Broken Windows”in The Atlantic, proposing that untended disorder and minor offenses gave rise to serious crime and urban decay. We also hypothesized that government and community action to restore order might reduce crime. Not surprisingly, responses to the article were mixed. The Justice Department’s research arm, the National Institute of Justice, prepared to fund a major experiment to study the links between disorder and serious crime, but senior officials nixed it as too controversial. Police were sympathetic to the Broken Windows theory but also wary, since they felt overwhelmed by 911 calls already and didn't relish the prospect of still more work. And the article got little attention in the academy.

But after New York City’s astonishing crime drop in the nineties—much of which Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton credited to the Broken Windows approach—a firestorm of academic criticism erupted, claiming that Broken Windows was racist, it harassed and criminalized the poor, it constituted cultural imperialism, it amounted to overzealous “zero tolerance,” and so on. Moreover, the crime drop had nothing to do with Broken Windows (or any other police action); it was the result of changes in the economy or other broad social trends. Some criminologists attacked Broken Windows to advance their careers, realizing that variations on the theme of “Broken Windows disproved” were an effective way to call attention to their own work. But for most, ideology was at stake. Not only did the effectiveness of Broken Windows undermine the decades-long assumption that only large-scale social and economic change could prevent crime; it also meant that breakthroughs in crime prevention could come from the Right—anathema to criminologists, most of whom occupied the far Left.

Still, critics of Broken Windows had one good point: New York provided, at most, anecdotal and correlational evidence of a relationship between disorder and crime. There were very few experimental studies—the most certain method of establishing causality—showing that the first caused the second.

But that changed last year, when University of Groningen researcher Kees Keizer and his colleagues published a paper in Science. In six experiments in the Netherlands, Keizer observed and compared the behavior of people under artificial conditions of order and disorder. Invariably, he found that disorderly conditions encouraged further and more serious levels of disorderly behavior. In one experiment, for example, Keizer placed an envelope conspicuously containing five euros in a mailbox. When the mailbox was clean, 13 percent of people who passed it stole the money; when it was covered with graffiti, 27 percent took it.

Also in 2008, Harvard University researcher Anthony A. Braga and his colleagues published the results of a complex set of field experiments in Criminology. Researchers and police identified small neighborhoods in Lowell, Massachusetts, and randomly assigned them to experimental and control conditions. In each of the experimental areas—where police were maintaining order, Broken Windows–style—crime dropped more sharply than in the control areas and, moreover, did not simply move to adjacent neighborhoods. The article also built on an earlier experiment, with the same results, that Braga had conducted in Jersey City a decade earlier.

While these studies do not settle, once and for all, the question of the relationship between disorder and serious crime, they do provide a substantial body of experimental evidence that fixing broken windows ought to be an integral part of any community’s response to crime. In fact, it’s hard to think of a policy option for fixing a major social problem that is as strongly supported—by both experience and solid research—as is Broken Windows.
George L. Kelling

Compstatting the Fire Department
This year, the New York City Fire Department will spend more than most state public-safety agencies: its 2009 executive budget provides for operating expenses of $1.5 billion and capital commitments of $224.7 million. To date, the public has continued to support generous funding—understandably: the FDNY has earned its reputation as one of the city’s outstanding public agencies. But the department could do even better. While it fights fires with great success, bureaucratic mismanagement has resulted in serious problems in two other areas: controlling costs and managing risks.

The FDNY’s expenditures don’t receive as much oversight as do state budgets, which are managed by professionals and subject to scrutiny by various local, state, federal, and independent entities. The department’s waste of tens of millions of dollars in overtime pay, among various embarrassing and costly mistakes, makes clear that it deeply needs accountability and performance measurement. Especially in a time of lean budgets, the city deserves a better accounting for its investment. Better risk-management practices, meanwhile, might have prevented some recent FDNY tragedies. The 2001 Father’s Day fire took the lives of three outstanding men and was started by an explosion in a building long overdue for inspection. Inspection failures were at least partly to blame for the deaths of two firefighters in the Deutsche Bank fire of 2008 as well.

One way to address both problems would be to reinstitute an important tool: a fire-department version of the NYPD’s Compstat system. Compstat, developed in the early nineties, issues weekly reports on crime statistics and trends. Local commanders also receive reports on department statistics, such as overtime, accidents, sick leave, and injuries. They are held accountable for meeting crime-reduction objectives and for managing their resources effectively.

In early 2001, the FDNY launched its own version of Compstat, called FireMARC (Management Appraisal, Review, and Comparisons). The program was designed to improve communication and coordination among various bureaus in the organization. As in Compstat, information databases were coupled with a geographic mapping system that produced graphic displays, detailed reports, and trend analyses. These included a variety of reports on overtime, sick leave, injuries, accidents, and apparatus downtime. The system also assigned priorities for building inspections.

FireMARC was still being integrated in June 2001, when the Father’s Day fire took place. A few months later, of course, the department was devastated by the 9/11 attacks, and FireMARC understandably took a backseat in the aftermath. But even once some sense of normality had returned, the system never became fully realized, and it was abandoned in 2002. It’s time the FDNY gave it another look.
Tom Von Essen

Lutheran Volunteers in NorthWest Carrollton

Maybe you saw the story in the newspaper about 37000 Lutherans converging on New Orleans.

Today we had 40 volunteers working in NorthWest Carrollton. They painted the dance studio on Apple & Cambronne, right across from the Ashton Theatre. They cleaned ALL the drains on Apple Street and many on Joliet and Nelson and Leonidas as well. They helped us pass our our Night Out Against Crime Flyers. They picked up trash as they passed out flyers. Tomorrow a different group will be putting the second coat on the Dance Studio and will continue the drain cleanouts.

It is probably hard for them to imagine the HUGE! difference this kind of attention makes to our little corner of the world. It is not possible to say THANK YOU enough.

Here are today's hardworkers at a well deserved lunch

We are doing our best to RECLAIM APPLE. We will be planting trees in the neighborhood in November. Chef Seaton (who lives on Apple) is working with all the home owners and trying to get folks to agree to plant bright pink crepe mytles down the length of Apple Street.

Anyone interested in trees for property located in NorthWest Carrollton bounded by Earhart-Carrollton-Claiborne-Leonidas can leave a comment on this post and we'll get back to you with a form.

Disaster Preparedness Seminar

Saturday July 25, the Leonidas House invites you to attend the Neighborhood Disaster Preparedness Seminar/Resident Survey Information Workshop hosted at the Xavier Ballroom.

The event is open to all residents in New Orleans with the intent of building community in the Carrollton area. If you have not attended a Red Cross seminar, this is a great opportunity to receive information on disaster and emergency preparedness in time for hurricane season.

When:
Saturday, July 25 starting at 12:00pm

Where:
The Xavier Ballroom
One Drexel Dr.,
New Orleans, LA, 70185

Agenda
12:15pm - 1:15pm: Red Cross Neighborhood Disaster Preparedness Seminar
*Hosted by Tilman Hardy

1:30pm - 3:00pm: Resident Survey Information Workshop
*Brief presentation by LSU Sociology Professor Rick Weil regarding the importance of neighborhood data for community rebuilding, followed by opportunity to complete LSU Disaster Recovery Survey

To RSVP for this event please email Laura Pryor with the Neighborhoods Partnership Network at: laura@npnnola.com.

2nd District Email Blast - 8300 Block of Belfast

On Saturday, 07/11/09 at about 11:40 p.m., Second District units
responded to a shooting in the 8300 block of Belfast Street. Upon
arrival Officers observed a black male clad in a white and blue stripe
polo styled shirt, blue jean shorts, and white tennis lying in front
of a rsidence in the 8300 block Belfast Street, suffering from one gun
shot wound to the head. EMS attempted to render aid but could not
revive the subject. On July 12th Ricardo Jackson (b/m 18 yrs. old)
turned himslef into the police for the incident. Additional
information on this arrest and/or subsequent prosecution can be
obtained via the Docket Master at www.opcso.org.

Where's the Cool Air Going?"

Thursday, July 16
9 AM
Catholic Charities Incarnate Word Center
8326 Apricot St.

"Where's the Cool Air Going?"
Presenter: Andre Olagues, LSU AgCenter Associate

This presentation will discuss how to seal your home to reduce hot air infiltration, including how to correct air leakages in your ductwork to prevent loss of air-conditioned air. We will also provide some ideas for "Do It Yourself" measures that will produce quick payback and are easy for homeowners to do.

For suggestions on how to keep your house cool and your utility bills
low this summer:
http://lsuagcenter.com/en/family_home/home/design_construction/Design/Remodeling+Renovation/Improving+Energy+Efficiency/

Keep NOAH Open! Protest Governor Jindal's outrageous veto

Protest Governor Jindal's outrageous veto, prompting the closure of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital!

“With a stroke of the pen, the governor eliminated vital mental health care in New Orleans and placed the safety of our law enforcement officers and private citizens at serious risk.” -- Louisiana State Representative Neil Abramson, The Times-Picayune, 7/2/2009

With the removal of the impatient beds at NOAH, our local entity to provide secure 24/7 care, we in essence lose the heart of all these (outpatient) programs. Without the heart, the ability for the other components to function properly is compromised.” -- Commander Cecile Tebo, New Orleans Police Department Mobile Crisis Unit, The Times-Picayune, 4/1/2009

“What distinguishes NOAH is that we took people regardless. We were the Charity (Hospital) equivalent.” -- Dr. Martin Drell, Clinical Director, LSU-HCSD for New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, The Times-Picayune, 7/3/2009

Urge your state legislators to override Governor Jindal's veto!
Don’t know how to reach your senator or representative?
Call 1(800) 256-3793,
Monday thru Friday 9:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-4:00pm
or go to http://www.legis.state.la.us

RALLY TO KEEP NOAH OPEN
Wednesday July 8, 7:00pm
St. Matthews Baptist Church,
2800 First Street
INFO: Advocates for Louisiana Public Healthcare
504) 269-4951 or bradott@bellsouth.net

PUBLIC FORUM ON NOAH
Tuesday July 14, 6:00pm
New Orleans City Council Chambers,
1300 Perdido Street
INFO: Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital
(504) 908-5310 or dmorrison33@com
Louisiana ACORN – (800) 239-7379 x 2345 or la@acornmail.net
United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) – (504) 304-2160 or kndang@utno.org

Freedom to do anything they want

The Chin Family owns property in NorthWest Carrollton: Property on Belfast. Property on Apple.

The City of New Orleans has allowed these properties to languish and decay, essentially allowing the property owners to do anything they want. The Chins have gotten away everthing from doing nothing to endless code and health violations and now illegal demolisions. In addition to the city allowing the Chins YEARS to demolish their property by neglect, now the city has either helped with the demolitions (Belfast) or allowed them to take place illegally (Apple). The rights and freedoms of others, to live in a neighborhood without code violations, to have rule of law in their city, to have their property values protected, well those don't seem to matter much.

The Apple Street property was demolished without a permit on July 2nd.
The Belfast Properties had their stability compromised essentially overnight, after almost 4 years of neglect and the city was forced to take them down. Then after the demolition the debris of these 2 properties sat for nearly a week.
This brings the total to 3 properties demolished without permits.

The Apple St property had been through the Admin Adjudication process in March. We've asked for updates and have received nothing. Additionally the property had been through the same process the year before and the order NEVER signed off by Code Enforcement thus allowing the property to slide into further decay. The City enables these people to continue to do as they please, putting the rest of the neighborhood at the mercy of their whims and the City's inability or unwillingness to fine the owner, who just so happened to be a major campaign contributor to the Nagin camp.

A formal Public Records request was made for all communications in regards to 8400 and 8404 Belfast St between the City of New Orleans and the Chin Family. There has been no response from the City. Another request will be filed for the communications on Apple St.

This family has willfully allowed these properties to fester, ignored or evaded fines, and eventually did what they sought to do all along.

On this Fourth of July let's all celebrate our freedoms!

Chinese Drywall?

The City of New Orleans Mayor's Office of Environmental Affairs is hosting an Environmental Justice Listening Session in cooperation with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 6

When: July 9, 2009

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Where: 1300 Perdido St. 1st Floor, City Council Chambers

This meeting is in preparation for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council meeting that will take place in July in Washington, DC. The Listening Session will provide participants an opportunity to discuss a variety of topics pertaining to health and the environment. Issues to be discussed may include: Chinese Dry wall, unintended effects of green building, alternative energy, air quality, food security, illegal dumping issues and other topics of interest.



If you have key issues that you would like to discuss that evening, please contact Wynecta Fisher, City of New Orleans, wmfisher@cityofno.com (504) 658-4070

The meeting is open to the public.