NorthWest Carrollton, New Orleans

The crimes of Toris Young

2012-01-28T11:50:00.000-06:00

NorthWest Carrollton Civic Association would like to thank the Times Picayune for the "Scamming the SBA" opinion in Saturday 28, 2012.

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/01/scamming_the_small_business_ad.html

The crimes of Toris Young deserve attention. Our neighborhood has struggled with the peripheral affects of Torris Young's crimes for so long Bibleway has its own category on our neighborhood blog.

Toris Young has not only stolen money but he has stolen quality of life, caused neighborhood volunteers to have to cycle and recycle with NOPD and the city of New Orleans to try and contain the Bibleway blight. But, because the "owner" is in jail, the blight remains.

We have one request of the Times Picayune. Our Neighborhood is not Hollygrove. Our neighborhood is West Carrollton-Leonidas and more specifically we are NorthWest Carrollton. We'd appreciate it if when articles are published on this area that the correct label be used.

https://www.google.com/search?q=west+carrollton+leonidas+neighborhood&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SKPT_en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas,_New_Orleans

http://nwcarrollton.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-name-northwest-carrollton.html

Clueless in College

2012-01-27T22:23:00.002-06:00

Really??? Seriously??? Hello?!!!!??? Penn Institute?!!!??... We were there!

Dear Penn State Editors Birch & Wachter:

You say in your letter to the Times Picayune, published today, and regarding Ed Blakely's book on New Orleans Post Katrina, that:
"In decades to come, serious readers, scholars and other analysts will return to these works, making their own judgments about the people and the events that shaped history."

And STILL you do not seem to realize that *THIS* is exactly why Blakely's book so incenses New Orleanians. We know that "scholars and other analysts" will look back to this book. Can we say "Duh"? Specifically *BECAUSE* Blakely gets it WRONG, and you were too lazy to do the fact checking we should expect from a publisher, those who look back at history to "make their own judgments" (ABOUT US!) will get it WRONG too.

All we see in your response to James Gill's Opinion piece (thank you James Gill, again!) is a complete failure to understand context and NO (zero, not even a little) interest or respect for the facts. For James Gill to be able to say "It would take another book to list all the errors in Blakely's" and your only response to be to say that Blakely's blather is "a revealing personal statement" all the while noting the potential that this book could have for future "research" is almost more insulting than Blakely's book.

Blakely was here, clueless, but here. You are making decisions, and not checking the facts, from the comfort of your not quite Ivory Tower. You have shown to be clueless too. And not just by publishing the blather but by your totally lame defense of it. Do you really think that the people of New Orleans are too stupid to judge for themselves the potential long term impact of the book? We are not too clueless to realize that, years in the future, someone could someone pick this up and actually think it is something more than a "revealing personal statement, about Ed Blakely's ego. The thought makes us collectively shudder.

Shame on you Penn Institute for Urban Research. Shame on you University of Pennsylvania. You should have known better.

Above in repsonse to
New Orleans Times Picayune Letter to the Editor from Penn State Institute on January 27, 2012
Re: "Ed Blakely can't get anything right," Other Opinions, Jan. 18.

Penn Editors say that Blakely book is a personal statement

As coeditors of the University of Pennsylvania Press series "The City in the 21st Century," we stand behind publication of "My Storm: Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina," by Edward Blakely, who served in the Nagin administration's post-Katrina recovery efforts. And we offer a few clarifying points in reference to James Gill's column.

Voices of key participants in the extraordinary events in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina are worthy of being heard. While these voices may be discordant, express differing points of view or make uncommon assertions, they add to the record by providing eye-witness accounts. In decades to come, serious readers, scholars and other analysts will return to these works, making their own judgments about the people and the events that shaped history.

Since 2006, Penn Press has published four other books on post-Katrina New Orleans and, more broadly, disaster research, all in an effort to capture the complexities of such compelling issues. These books reflect a wide variety of approaches, ranging from "Blues for New Orleans" (2006), co-authored by New Orleans's own Nick Spitzer, that captures the city's romantic spirit, to our own "Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina," which tries to show how economists, engineers, geologists, landscape architects, historic preservationists, educators and others set priorities in rebuilding disaster-torn cities.

We are delighted that Mr. Gill found "My Storm" coherent -- as did we -- but sorry that he could not appreciate the book for what it is: a revealing personal statement of the physical, social and economic challenges faced by one influential player in the story. But in an effort to place this book in context, and add to his post-Katrina library, we have put our other books in the mail, hoping he will consider them in another essay.

Eugenie L. Birch
Susan Wachter
Co-Directors
Penn Institute for Urban Research
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Penn.

Above in response to:
Ed Blakely can't get anything right: James Gill
In the Katrina memoir he came out with last year, former Mayor Ray Nagin was finally able to reveal the true extent of his heroism and resourcefulness.

This was a great public service, because those of us who were here at the time had no idea that Nagin had single-handedly brought the city back while battling incompetent and obstructive state and federal governments. In fact, the general impression was that the pressure had driven him off his gourd and the recovery was botched.

Certainly, Andy Kopplin, who was chief of staff to Gov. Kathleen Blanco during and after Katrina, did not find that the opus squared with his own recollections. Kopplin, who is now Mayor Mitch Landrieu's chief administrative officer, said, "It's no wonder Mayor Nagin self-published his secret conspiracy theories, as any publisher would have required rigorous fact-checking before printing these delusional and offensive charges."

Kopplin was wrong, as Ed Blakely, who spent two years here as Nagin's recovery czar, has now conclusively demonstrated with his own memoir. Blakely found a reputable publisher -- the University of Pennsylvania Press, no less -- but no "rigorous fact-checking" occurred. Blakely's book is no less delusional than Nagin's. Evidently times are so hard that the Ivy League can't afford to hire an editor.

Not that it would require an eagle-eye, or any familiarity with New Orleans, to spot the howlers. It is obvious, as early as the second paragraph of the introduction, that Blakely has not the remotest idea of what he is talking about. There he concedes that New Orleans has produced "great artists," and sets out to prove it by naming five of them. A reasonably intelligent child from anywhere in the country could do that.

Blakely did get two -- Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson -- right, but Tina Turner is from Tennessee, while Scott Joplin was born in Texas and Josephine Baker in Missouri. If Pennsylvania had an editor, that list would never have made it into print. It jumps off the page.
Where Blakely gets these screwy ideas is a mystery, but he evidently prefers making up facts to looking them up. He was always given to what Douglas O'Dell, President George W. Bush's point man on the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, termed "ethereal visions."

Blakely gets O'Dell's name wrong in his book, but probably not out of revenge for that remark.

Blakely gets everything wrong regardless.

When Blakely left town in 2009, he wrote that he and Nagin "parted as we started -- good friends and mutual admirers." Their admiration for each other, and themselves, was not widely shared and it is unlikely that their books will change any minds.

Those who have read both their books -- we are not a large group -- agree that Nagin's is even worse than Blakely's. Perhaps someone in Pennsylvania did read the Blakely manuscript, albeit not for factual accuracy, because it is more or less coherent. It is a mighty hard read, however, containing tedious recitations of his daily movements, and repeated boasts of the supposed successes in disaster recovery that preceded his imaginary triumph here. It is full of urban planning jargon and its tone is self-congratulatory, to a degree remarkable even in a memoir.

He confides that he has a "bad habit" of saying whatever is on his mind -- meaning, of course, that he is admirably fearless and candid -- but in his case, this really is a bad habit, because what is on his mind is such piffle. He does not allow his ignorance to undermine his confidence, however.
It may be that somewhere in these pages lurks an insight of value, but it is impossible to trust his conclusions when he can't be bothered to check the facts. He regales us with his expertise on the Mississippi River, for instance, while suggesting that Houma stands on its banks. No doubt local government could use an overhaul, but only Blakely could complain that the City Park Commission "collects and uses its own taxes without city supervision." The commission has no taxing authority whatsoever.

It would take another book to list all the errors in Blakely's. But it does have a fine photograph of Katrina damage on the dust jacket. The picture was taken in Slidell; Blakely could hardly be expected to know the difference.

••••••••
James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com.

Dante Street Murder

2012-01-26T23:46:00.000-06:00

Nola.com article... mis-identifies NorthWest Carrollton as Hollygrove.
2600 Dante is between Apple and Belfast.

New Orleans police are investigating a shooting late Thursday night in the Carrollton neighborhood that left an unidentified man dead. The man was found inside a house in the 2600 block of Dante Street shortly before midnight, according to Officer Garry Flot, a department spokesman.

Police arrived on the scene shortly after receiving a call that shots were fired at the location. The man was shot several times and died on the scene, Flot said.

Investigators found marijuana on the scene, according to Flot.
No information about a possible suspect or motive was given. Homicide Detective Michael Cochran is in charge of the investigation.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call Crimestoppers at 822.1111.

Earlier this year Another shooting took place near the Walgreens on Claiborne at Carrollton on January 11, 2012.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/01/new_orleans_police_investigati_121.html
This time the neighborhood is properly identified as Carrollton.

Thank you Times Picayune .... Watch the SELA Projects

2012-01-17T07:24:00.000-06:00

Wow! I was speechless for a minute...
Please take a look at today's Times Picayune Opinion piece.
Looks like they too think there might be a problem with the planning for the SELA Projects.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says its computer modeling confirms that planned underground drainage improvements in Uptown New Orleans won't worsen flooding in nearby Hollygrove. But a history of flooding along a section of Hollygrove's Monticello Canal explains the concerns from residents and Jefferson Parish authorities.

Upcoming drainage improvements Uptown are raising concerns about potential flooding in Hollygrove.

That's why it's important that corps and New Orleans officials keep a close eye on the Monticello Canal as the drainage project advances, and they need to be ready to make improvements to the canal if needed.

Crews are soon expected to start the first phase of a $427 million project to build almost six miles of new underground drainage canals Uptown. The work includes building concrete canals under South Claiborne Avenue between Monticello Avenue and Leonidas Street; under Napoleon Avenue between South Claiborne Avenue and Carondelet Street; and along Louisiana and Jefferson avenues and Prytania Street.

Hollygrove residents fear that the increased drainage capacity Uptown will cause water to rise more quickly in the Monticello Canal, along the Orleans-Jefferson parish line. In recent downpours, water has overflowed the canal's banks on the Orleans side, which, unlike the Jefferson Parish bank, lacks a levee and floodwall.

Officials said the corps' modeling indicates the flow of water in the Monticello Canal will increase about one foot during a 10-year storm, but that the canal will not overflow. In addition, the corps has acknowledged that a bottleneck in a culvert at Airline Drive, known as Hoey's Cut, may back water up into the canal south of that location.

Considering that the canal has overflowed in recent rains, it's understandable that residents fear the additional flow of water from the added drainage Uptown.

Jefferson Parish officials are also worried. They asked the corps to expand its computer modeling to see whether the projected one-foot water rise in the Monticello Canal would create flooding problems at Hoey's Cut. That analysis is expected soon, and officials in both parishes need to work
together to address those concerns.

The long-term solution requires improving the flow of water at Hoey's Cut. The state has committed $1.8 million for that effort, but the likely cost is $20.5 million. City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, whose district includes the area, said that until that funding is secured she wants the Monticello Canal north of Airline Drive to be widened and an earthen levee on the Orleans Parish side hardened with concrete. That's a reasonable proposal.

The drainage work Uptown is needed, and it's good that officials are launching that effort. But they need to make sure the work won't hurt residents near the canal.

Partner with the National Guard, bring back the FBI!!!

2012-01-17T07:18:00.000-06:00

Here is a link to the Opinion in the TP on Monday

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/01/new_orleans_needs_national_gua.html

Yeah, Yeah and I agree something needs to give because it ain't getting better, it's getting worse.

And the National Guard should definitely be a part of the solution. BUT not a one time oh shit cry to the governor to "Help Us!". Instead a plan should be developed that would partner NOPD with the National Guar to use New Orleans as a training area for troops that are sent so often into civilian areas around the globe. We get more eyes on the street. The military\National Guard get civialian situational experience aka "street time" to help with the many times that they are deployed on humanitarian missions and policing becomes a part of the job. This becomes a win win; for NOPD, for the National Guard, for the citizens of New Orleans and for Louisiana. Are ya listening Mitch???

The other thing that NOPD needs to do is re-create, re-invent, re-enforce its relationship with the FBI's Drug & Weapons teams. When neighborhood organizations could call in tips to both the FBI and NOPD was when we made significant traction in the fight against drug dealers and the assocaited murders. Like it or not the truth is some folks just don't trust NOPD. But folks were willing to call into the FBI. This program may still be "in place" in the NOPD. But citizens aren't told they can call the FBI and this was when our neighborhood turned the corner on a.. pocket of drug dealers we had not been able to move. Bernazzani and the folks from the FBI made a difference.

This is not just an issue of "bad" people with "bad" manners killing each other. There is something under this driving the action. Fear and murder is being used as a weapon on our culture society and the question should be Who is benefiting?? Why simply isn't cutting it. The NOPD can't just keep blaming the victims. Yes it is true that no stone can be left unturned as NOPD works to solve murders and the victim's history is a part of this BUT there has to be more to it.

So if it takes a village fine. NOPD, FBI, National Guard...

Are ya listening, Mitch??? Cheif Serpas....

and while you are readng take a look at the New Orleans Independent Examiner.

Close to everything... location, location...... location

2012-01-15T07:07:00.000-06:00

Click on the link to see what this weekend's Times Picayue Real Estate section had to say about our area.

"... Carrollton and Broadmoor blend a relaxed quality of life with a panoply of architectural marvels and styles that make them great places to call home.
As for location, well — smack in the middle of the map, this combined area is just a quick trip away from just about every part of the greater metro region.
With access to just about anywhere, a rich blend of cultural, educational and commercial outlets, Broadmoor and Carrollton are areas that maintain buyer attention in the housing market."

Highlight on NorthWest Carrollton's Dublin Street

2012-01-14T15:47:00.002-06:00

From This Saturday's Time Picayune InsideOut

Stylistic accents stand out on a stretch of Carrollton's Dublin Street.
By R. Stephanie Bruno

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Northwest Carrollton, part of the Carrollton Historic District and bounded roughly by Earhart Boulevard on the north, South Claiborne Avenue on the south, South Carrollton Avenue on the east and Leonidas Street on the west. The Northwest Carrollton Civic Association collaborates with other Carrollton-area neighborhood groups to stage events, such as the annual Christmas caroling in Palmer Park.

Photo by R. Stephanie Bruno -

A Craftsman bungalow with tan weatherboards, white trim and terra-cotta accents has plenty of sassy personality, even though the front porch has been enclosed with jalousie-style windows.

The group considers itself one of the "four corners" neighborhoods that meet at the corners of Carrollton and Claiborne and also include the Fontainebleau, Central Carrollton and Palmer Park neighborhoods.
Craftsman bungalows and raised-basement houses join a mix of early 20th-century house types and styles to define Northwest Carrollton's visual personality. Businesses along Earhart and South Claiborne serve the neighborhood's commercial needs, while Ye Olde College Inn and Rock 'n' Bowl on Carrollton number among the dining and recreational opportunities.
If you aren't sure where Northwest Carrollton is located, just look for the lion statues atop pedestals that herald the entrance to Pritchard Place, developed in 1913.

THE BLOCK: The 2700 block of Dublin Street on the even-numbered, or west, side, between Apricot Street on the north and Belfast Street on the south.
Notre Dame Seminary and Lafayette Academy can be found just across South Carrollton Avenue.

THE HOUSES: Five early 20th-century houses, including an up-down duplex, a raised- basement double and three single-family homes.
The raised-basement and two bungalows are all in the Craftsman style. Because the house at the corner of Dublin and Apricot has a highly detailed side façade, it almost looks as if the block has a total of six addresses.
********

Photo illustration by R. Stephanie Bruno - Craftsman bungalows and raised-basement houses join a mix of early 20th-century house types and styles to define Northwest Carrollton's visual personality.

With holidays and sports events come droves of out-of-town friends. And with out-of-towners come requests to tour the city and see how various neighborhoods have recovered from Hurricane Katrina.
Invariably I show them areas that are examples of rejuvenation as well as those that still have work to do. I make Northwest Carrollton a featured spot on my most recent tour and trumpet the neighborhood's success in bouncing back after both a hurricane and a tornado.

I deposit my guests at the bowling alley to amuse themselves, and treat myself to a Street Walk in the 2700 block of Dublin Street, where I find interesting houses and friendly people willing to chat.

Anatomy of the block
I'm not sure if the other residents of the block were just super speedy in taking down their Christmas decorations or if few on the block decorated this year, but on the day I visit, only the first house on the block (at the corner of Belfast) still wears its holiday garb in the form of red bows affixed to its ironwork.

Blue with a hipped roof, central dormer and impressive masonry columns, the house is built atop a low terrace, giving it extra height and presence. A central set of steps leads from the sidewalk to the front porch, now glass-enclosed and protected by elaborate security ironwork. The glass is a little too reflective for me to get a good look at the front façade details, but the view from the sidewalk suggests a pleasingly symmetrical composition.

A cheery yellow two-story duplex next door exhibits an array of Craftsman features: Exposed rafter tails, deep eaves, angle brackets, multipaned gable windows, latticed gable vents, full-length battered wood columns on the second floor and shorter ones atop pedestals on the first.

The third house on the block is a Craftsman-style raised-basement house. This one looks especially tall, and I think I know why: Whereas the ground-level ceilings of raised-basement houses are usually a couple of feet lower than those above, here it looks as though the ceiling heights are equal on the two floors. The monumental central stairway adds to the vertical illusion, balanced only in part by the low-pitched horizontal lines of the side-gabled roof. That roof dormer? Low and wide, another stylistic accent.

I walk a few steps farther toward Apricot Street and stop in front of the next house, a spacious Craftsman bungalow with a full-width front porch, low-pitched roof and pairs of short columns atop brick pedestals supporting the leading edge of the roof. Like the first house on the block, this one sits atop a gentle terrace. And just like the raised-basement house, this one has a low, wide roof dormer, maybe even a mega dormer compared to its more understated neighbor.

As I walk toward the fifth house -- the one with the pretty garden and LSU flag -- I notice something embedded in the sidewalk. It appears to be a half-dozen or so coins set in the cement, all in one line. As I look closer, I see that they are foreign coins, maybe a lira, a franc, or something similar. Who set the coins in the sidewalk here? Why did they do it and when? I add this to the list of Street Walk mysteries.

The last house on the block with a Dublin Street address is a sassy Craftsman bungalow with tan weatherboards, white trim and terra-cotta accents. Even though the front porch has been enclosed with jalousie-style windows, the house still has plenty of personality, thanks to its intersecting roof gables, siding pattern (alternating wide and thin), gable vent details and post brackets. Big masses of fluffy blooming alyssum in the front garden tumble over granite boulders (perhaps ballast stones?) used for edging, adding to the house's allure. As is often the case with Craftsman bungalows, the sides of this house are as architecturally detailed as the front, yielding three vistas for consideration.

Life on the street
Cedric Todd is sitting in a car parked at the curb in front of the raised-basement house, chatting with a family member. When he asks what I'm doing, the explanation inevitably leads to a chat about the neighborhood and the block.
"This is our family home," he tells me. "It belongs to my daughter."
As Todd and I talk, another car pulls up, and Maxine Rixner and Derek Rixner, his sister and nephew, respectively, exit.
When Todd asks Maxine Rixner, "What you cookin' today?" she answers, "Great Northerns," and then offers me a brief lesson in beans.
"Great Northern is white bean, like a Navy bean," she tells me. "But the Navy bean is small and the Great Northerns are big. You cook 'em up pretty much the same way you cook red beans."
Derek Rixner joins the conversation and claims to have stuffed a flounder, but Todd laughs him off.
"The only things he knows how to cook are eggs and French fries," Todd says.
The conversation goes on long enough for Todd to ask me which Bruno I am related to, and when I tell him the bar, we discover one of those ancient connections everyone in New Orleans seems to have to one another if we dig deep enough.
In this case, the connection is the corner of Maple and Hillary streets, where Bruno's Tavern is located, where Todd worked at Maple Hill restaurant in the early '70s, and where Maxine Rixner's in-laws lived when they would supply mint to Bruno's for its cocktails.
We talk about X-Ray Cleaners and the Applewhites, Amy's Sno-Crème (which was where Fresco is today) and the Betz Funeral Home.
By the time I leave, I feel like I have just found long-lost family members.

********
R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at housewatcher@hotmail.com

Water from "richer" areas of New Orleans soon to flow at a faster rate into the Monticello Canal

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

Take a look at the map provided by the Times Picayune:

Water from "richer" areas of New Orleans will soon be flowing at a faster rate into the Monticello Canal. But we are told that we are not to worry.

I ask you to do the following experiment:
Hook up a lot of hoses to various faucets on the outside of your house.
Put all the open hose ends at approximately the same location and turn on the water.
What happens? Water backs up right?
Increase the flow rate. What happens? MORE Water backs up.

But this won't happen when the SELA projects do just that to the Monticello Canal, at least that's what Sewerage and Water Board, Council Member Guidry, the State of Louisiana and the Corps of Engineers want us to believe.
It's not just about the capacity of the canal. It is about the water that will back up in streets and drains that dump into Monticell because there will already be too much water in the Monticello from other areas of the city. This is not a Robin Hood story. This is Prince John dumping on the peasants.

"With the first phase of a seven-year, $427.2 million effort to build nearly six miles of new underground drainage canals in Uptown slated to begin in a few weeks, the Army Corps of Engineers said this week that a second round of computer modeling has confirmed that the work will not worsen flooding in Hollygrove."

Remember what the Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana and others said about MRGO?

Below is the full article from the 1.12.2012 Times Picayune

Drainage Canal work won't worsen Hollygrove flooding, corps assures.

By Michelle Kruppa, who keeps reporting on this when it seems no one else cares.
Thank you Michelle.

"With the first phase of a seven-year, $427.2 million effort to build nearly six miles of new underground drainage canals in Uptown slated to begin in a few weeks, the Army Corps of Engineers said this week that a second round of computer modeling has confirmed that the work will not worsen flooding in Hollygrove.

Corps officials ran the additional test in response to long-standing concerns from residents that water flowing west from Uptown backs up water in the Monticello Canal, which runs along the western edge of Hollygrove at the Jefferson Parish line and empties into the wider 17th Street Canal, then into Lake Pontchartrain.

In recent downpours, water has spilled over the Monticello Canal banks into the neighborhood, which unlike the Jefferson Parish side of the canal is not protected by a levee and floodwall.
That flooding stirred fears among Hollygrove residents that significant expansion of drainage capacity under five Uptown thoroughfares would cause water in the canal to rise even more quickly. But corps and S&WB officials have insisted that the mammoth capacity of Pump Station No. 6, which straddles the 17th Street Canal about two miles south of the lake, is sufficient to keep streets dry.

S&WB General Superintendent Joe Becker said in an email that the corps’ most recent modeling indicates the flow will increase about one foot during a 10-year storm but will stay below the canal’s containment walls. New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, whose district includes the area, said she is satisfied with the findings.

Though corps officials have insisted that the Monticello Canal can handle additional drainage from Uptown, they have acknowledged that a narrow culvert at Airline Drive — about three-fifths of a mile north of the canal’s origin at South Claiborne Avenue — could force water to back up into the large section of the canal south of Airline Drive.

Becker said Jefferson Parish leaders have asked the corps to expand its computer modeling of the Uptown drainage work “to see if that one-foot rise would create any potential flooding issues” at the Airline Drive bottleneck, known as Hoey’s Cut.

“The corps has agreed to do that,” Becker said, adding that the analysis “is expected to be completed shortly and will be presented to both Jefferson and Orleans to make sure that all issues are addressed.”

Jefferson Parish officials last year announced that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration had committed $1.8 million to improve the flow of water in that area, though the sum amounts to a fraction of the $20.5 million likely needed to complete the job.
Wingate said a broader corps study of potential improvements to the area is “on hold pending receiving additional appropriations.”

Guidry said that until the full sum is in hand, she wants the Monticello Canal north of Airline Drive to be widened and an earthen levee on the Orleans side hardened with concrete.
The drainage causing concern includes construction of concrete canals under South Claiborne Avenue between Monticello Avenue and Leonidas Street; under Napoleon Avenue between South Claiborne Avenue and Carondelet Street; and along Louisiana and Jefferson avenues and Prytania Street. All of the work is expected to be completed by 2017."

Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.

Shootings across the City

2012-01-11T23:30:00.000-06:00

Shortly after 5:00 p.m . (Wednesday January 11, 2011), officers got a report of a shooting at the intersection of S. Carrollton Avenue and S. Claiborne Avenue. An eyewitness at the scene tells FOX 8 she saw one person shot on the neutral ground near the bus stop. The witness says the victim ran towards the parking lot at Walgreens. Eventually an ambulance arrived and transported the victim for treatment.

Officers investigating this incident say the man was walking down the street when he was shot in his hand and shoulder. They say a group of men came by in a car and started shooting at the man.
See story:
http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Four-shootings-in-one-evening-rattle-the-city/_4TkMTAS6kWAPAT2X9NNvw.cspx

Look out for yourselves. Look our for your neighbor.

2011 - recovery - loss - Chris Rose

2012-01-04T11:25:00.000-06:00

See video of Chris Rose's commentary for start of 2012

2011 New Orleans Murders

2012-01-01T11:21:00.003-06:00

Since this is NorthWest Carrollton's blog....
We're going to focus on the area surrounded by Earhart-Carrollton-Claiborne-Leonidas.
And we're going to notice that there are, thankfully, no murders inside these boundaries this year.
We'd like to believe that knowing your neighbors and the Neighborhood Watch helps.
NorthWest Carrollton is just below and to the right of the large Earhart Blvd text in the map below.

Yes there are murders near NorthWest Carrollton. One on Carrollton and Walmsley was in a car. Another was someone crossing the center of Earhart. The memorial in the Earhart neutral ground is still maintained.

Then you can read the entire article from Nola.com. The statistics are scary and will drive the approach that NOPD takes. I just hope that there is a place in the NOPD process for remembering to treat everyone with dignity and that statistically everyone they interact with is not a criminal.

One day we hope that the individuals using guns to address issues will acknowledge and take to heart these quotes:

Chinese Proverb: "If you seek revenge, dig two graves."

Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121 - 180): "The best revenge is not to become like the one who wronged you."

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha): "The grudge you hold on to is like a hot coal that you intend to throw at someone, only you're the one who gets burned."

Earhart Traffic Cameras

2011-12-29T10:09:00.000-06:00

This article in the Times Picayune says the Traffic Cameras at Earhart and Carrollton are OFF.
And they were during the Earhart Construction that took place during much of 2011.....
BUT the construction is complete AND have no doubt that they will be turned back on.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.....

And please keep an eye out for the Photo Enforced signs...
The city has to tell you they are going to take a photo. So be smart and slow down.

See the graphic from the Times Picayune article below.
I know of at least one camera (Prytania between Jackson & Washington) that is NOT shown on the graphic. IF there is one then there are others and cameras are added all the time.

Praise for Complete Streets

2011-12-26T12:46:00.000-06:00

So can we get bike lanes and crosswalks painted on Earhart????

NorthWest Carrollton would like to see Earhart become THE template for how Complete Streets could tranform a street and the surrounding neighborhoods and by extension the city..... all for the better.

From Times Picayune - December 23, 2011 - by Bruce Eggler

Many ordinances passed by the New Orleans City Council attract little notice beyond other offices in City Hall. But it didn't take long for an ordinance approved this month on the subject of "complete streets" to begin attracting compliments. Tributes to the council's wisdom rolled in from sources such as the Louisiana Public Health Institute, Tulane University's Prevention Research Center and the University of New Orleans Transportation Institute.

The basic premise of the growing "complete streets" movement is that city streets should not be designed only with cars and other motorized vehicles in mind. Instead, advocates say, designers and engineers ought to consider everyone else who uses the streets, including bicyclists, pedestrians, people in wheelchairs and transit riders.

The goal, according to the National Complete Streets Coalition, is "road networks that are safer, more livable and welcoming to everyone."
The ordinance adopted 7-0 by the council on Dec. 15 at the urging of Kristin Gisleson Palmer, chairwoman of the council's Transportation Committee, says the city's complete-streets program will require that "all transportation improvements are planned, designed and constructed to encourage walking, bicycling and transit use" as well as moving people and freight in cars and trucks.
In practice, the law says, that means streets should be designed and constructed to include features such as "sidewalks, bike lanes, bike racks, crosswalks, traffic calming measures, street and sidewalk lighting, targeted pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements," plus measures to facilitate access for transit riders and people with disabilities. It also calls for an emphasis on "street trees and landscaping, drainage and storm water management, and street furniture and other amenities."
The Department of Public Works and the City Planning Commission are directed to "develop goals and metrics" for the program, which is to be "fully implemented" by December 2012.
Exceptions are authorized for roads on which walking and cycling are prohibited, those where there is no demand for such activities and those where accommodating all users would raise a project's cost by more than 20 percent. The law also does not require broad redesign for minor street repairs such as filling potholes. But whenever a street is overlaid or rebuilt, the new rules apply.
The ordinance was endorsed by Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant, who oversees all infrastructure and capital projects for the Landrieu administration, and recently hired Public Works Director Mark Jernigan.
Jernigan said the new policy represents a "fundamental leap" in the way the city will approach the planning, design, construction and maintenance of streets. It puts New Orleans "on the cutting edge of industry practices," he said. Noting that 24 miles of bike paths have been constructed in recent years, he said, "A lot more are on the way."
Palmer said Louisiana has one of the best statewide complete-streets policies in the country but that New Orleans is the first town or city in the state to adopt its own policy.
Public health advocates favor complete-streets policies because they promote activities such as walking and bicycling.
"Research shows that people take opportunities to be active when intersections, bike lanes and sidewalks are not only available but also well maintained and safe," said Kathryn Parker-Karst, assistant director of the Prevention Research Center at Tulane.
"By creating safer environments for our citizens, we're also creating a healthier lifestyle for many," said Joseph Kimbrell, CEO of the Louisiana Public Health Institute. "The passage of this ordinance is another sign our community is become more forward-thinking for us and future generations."
Palmer said the new approach also can help lower-income people save money by taking public transit or cycling to work. New Orleans already ranks sixth in the country in the percentage of people who ride bikes to work, she said.
The City Council was not the only legislative body embracing complete-streets principles this month. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation passed a federal transportation authorization bill that includes a measure for the "safe accommodation" of all users in federally financed street projects.

•••••••

Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.

Not quite Goi Du Du

2011-12-12T16:15:00.000-06:00

Salad above is a modification of another reciepe.

The trick is to have just little more papaya then carrot.
1 medium (from our papaya tree in the backyard)
5 medium carrots (from the store)

Chop and julienne the papaya (different cuts make the salad more interesting)

In a large bowl
Soak the larger chopped bits of payaya in the lemon juice.
Add the rest of the papaya
and then sprinkle with kosher salt
Mix papaya and salt
Add carrot & mix

Into another small bowl
Squeeze out the exta lemon juice (the papaya will soak most up)
Add 1/4 teaspoon Habanero Sauce = Habaneros (from the backyard) mixed a blender add salt an a tiny bit of vinegar
Mix well adding a little extra lemon juice to ensure mixing.
Pour over payapa & carrot in the larger bowl and Mix well and Quickly!

Julienne at least a dozen medium Fresh Basil leaves (from the backyard) and add to the papaya & carrot mixture.

Lightly Toast about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of roasted pine nuts (I like more!) and add to the salad and serve.

Replacement Trees for Claiborne promised

2011-12-11T18:30:00.000-06:00

Please note that we will remember that this was promised:
"Once construction is complete, the corps will put in new landscaping, said spokeswoman Sarah McLaughlin. There likely will be two or three times as many trees planted, with wider, mature trees being replaced inch-for-inch with younger trees, she said."
Can someone please show us the line in the SELA implementation plan and the associated budget so that we will KNOW that this promise (like the one made for Dublin Street) doesn't end up BROKEN?

Also please note that, while the TREES can be replaced, NOTHING has been said or done (or if it has it has not been communicated to the neighborhood organizations that raised the question) regarding the Monticello Canal and the constriction at Airline which will cause all the water that is expected to flow faster down Claiborne from other areas in Uptown to potentially back up into the areas around the Monticello Canal. Taking Water from wealthier areas and funneling it into less wealthy areas.

See full article from Times Picayune below:Claiborne trees lost to Drainage Project

New Orleans Times Picayune

By Mark Schleifstein

An Army Corps of Engineers contractor has removed 73 trees and dozens of shrubs from the Claiborne Avenue neutral ground between the Jefferson Parish line and Cambronne Street as part of a massive project to improve drainage in the area.

The work, which was completed this week, was the first step in a $27.1 million contract to build about 2,500 feet of covered canal adjacent to the existing canal underneath the neutral ground.
The 38-month project is aimed at improving drainage in the Carrollton area to handle 9 inches of rain in 24 hours, or a 10-year rainfall event.

Once construction is complete, the corps will put in new landscaping, said spokeswoman Sarah McLaughlin. There likely will be two or three times as many trees planted, with wider, mature trees being replaced inch-for-inch with younger trees, she said.

The clearing work was coordinated and approved by the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, which is the local sponsor of the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Damage Reduction Project, and by the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways, said corps spokesman René Poché.

Poché said corps officials discussed with the city agencies possibly relocating some of the trees, but it was decided to use all the money set aside for landscaping on restoring the neutral ground after the new canal work is completed at the end of 2014.

He said a similar strategy was used in restoring parts of the neutral ground along Napoleon Avenue after completion of a new canal there several years ago.

Uptown - University Area Crime Wave... Not NorthWest Carrollton BUT...

2011-12-10T15:06:00.001-06:00

But not that far either.... So pay attention!!!

Knowing your neighbors is the BEST way to protect yourself.So this holiday season.... say HELLO and Happy Holidays. It's friendly, nice and it helps keep you safe too.

http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Wave-of-crime-hits-Uptown/soV3XZhc_EmknokyEr5reQ.cspx

5th Annual Caroling in Palmer Park

2011-12-04T13:11:00.000-06:00

Sunday, December 11
5:30 PM

Led by Metairie School of Music

Please bring cans of non-perishable foods to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank

(Boxed Macaroni & Cheese,

Peanut Butter, Tuna Fish are an expressed need)

Thank You to our Sponsors & Neighborhood Partners:

Central Carrollton Association, Carrollton United,

Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association,

Friends of Palmer Park, Fontainebleau Improvement Association, Holly Grove Neighborhood Association,

Maple Area Residents, Inc.,

Northwest Carrollton Civic Association,

Palmer Park Neighborhood Association &

Uptown Triangle Neighborhood Association

Roberts

Walgreens

Take 5

5th Annual

Caroling in Palmer Park

Another cry in the wilderness for parking enforcement!

2011-11-28T10:03:00.001-06:00

Clear the Walkways: Letter to the Editor

Published: Monday, November 28, 2011, 1:15 AM Times Picayune / Nola.com

I have two questions.

First, is blocking a sidewalk with a parked car unlawful? If so, the city's budget could be balanced by tickets on Tchoupitoulas Street alone.

Recently, I was jogging on Tchoupitoulas, and I stopped to attend an elderly woman in a wheelchair who was crying. She was trying to visit her grandchild at Children's Hospital, but she was blocked by heartless people who parked their vehicles on the sidewalk. I had to step out in the street to hold up traffic so that she could cross the street and continue to the hospital.

What good is handicap access at intersections if sidewalks are blocked?

Second, is driving through crosswalks unlawful? Drivers ignore the crosswalks on Magazine Street connecting the zoo and the park. Someone is going to be injured or killed.
At least, we need signs to instruct drivers to brake for pedestrians.

Come on, 2nd District police! Remove those cars and trucks blocking the sidewalks on Tchoupitoulas! Enforce the crosswalks on Magazine!

Ronnie Davis
New Orleans

Federally recognize the United Houma Nation

2011-11-20T13:18:00.001-06:00

Read more about the United Houma Nations struggle for recognition here.

The White House promised to review the United Houma Nation's petition for federal recognition if 25,000 signatures are acquired. At this time yesterday, the count was 4868. Late last night, it passed the 5000 mark. At this pace, the number of signatures will only get to about 6500 by the December 1st deadline. We can all play a role in making this happen if we ask our friends and family to sign.

So click on this LINK to White House.Gov Petitions

CREATE an Account.
Yes it is a pain to have to create an account. But people must create an account to register themselves as REAL people are signing the petition.
Once you create your account you will get an eMail and you will have to click on the link to validate the account and sign in.

ONLY then can you actually sign the petition.

It's pointing and clicking.... and a few minutes of your time.

The United Houma Nation has been waiting a long time.

"The United Houma Nation has sought federal recognition for decades. The tribe has been recognized by state and foreign governments as an Indian tribe. In fact, Houma children were forced to attend a segregated Indian school until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Located along Louisiana's Gulf Coast, the Houma Indian culture and community depend on the wetlands. The BP spill has devastated the Houma. However, BP denied the Houma's claim because they are not federally recognized.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recommends the United Houma Nation be recognized to preserve the Houma’s culture. An NAACP report stated the oil industry lobby is blocking their request because they want access to lands that would be protected under the federal designation."

---Below is a sample of the Email you will get requiring you to confirm your account---

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: "Whitehouse.gov"
Sent: Nov 12, 2011 5:30 PM
To: Your Email address
Subject: Almost done! Verify your WhiteHouse.gov account

You're only one step away from creating your WhiteHouse.gov account. Just
click on the link below to confirm this is a working email address:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/user/validate/5411635/1321140545/d40494472XXXXXXXa1e4ba5070c43cc

IMPORTANT: If you created your account in the process of signing a
petition on We the People, you still need to click on the "Sign this
Petition" button on the petition's webpage.

Here is your WhiteHouse.gov account information, including an automatically
generated password:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/user
e-mail: yourEmailaddress


password: theWebGeneratedPassword




More information about WhiteHouse.gov accounts is available in the  
WhiteHouse.gov's Privacy Policy (http://www.whitehouse.gov/privacy) and the  
Terms of Participation  
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/terms-participation) for We  
the People.

-------------------------------------------------------
This email was automatically sent by WhiteHouse.gov because someone attempted  
to create a WhiteHouse.gov account using the address YourEmail@YourServiceProvider.xxx

Buy Local this Holiday Season!!!!

2011-11-18T16:27:00.001-06:00

Birth of a New Tradition (for you mom!)

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high
gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods, and merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor.

This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine
concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift
giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes
there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in
a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates
from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some
health improvement.

Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned
detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a
book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down
the Benjamines on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift
receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or
driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift
certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about
a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this
isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town
Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or
motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a
local cleaning lady for a day.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin
their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery
and beautiful wooden boxes.

The Art Market is at Palmer Park on

Saturday November 26 & Sunday November 27

Saturday December 17 & Sunday December 18

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave
your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at
your hometown theatre.

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese
lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about
fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to
burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that

China

can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about
US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow
their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our
communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine.
THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.

This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn't that what Christmas is about?

Enforcement .... Really???

2011-11-15T20:42:00.001-06:00

Clipped from the Times Picayune article (in full below):
"Another component of the initiative will be strict enforcement of existing laws, from the ban on parking on sidewalks to hours of operation to responsibilities for cleaning up outside business establishments, the mayor said."

Ok so finally.... neighborhoods have been CRYING for Parking Enforcement forever and NOW that the mayor has linked enforcement to tourism.... and it's his idea... maybe, just maybe we'll get some. When the infrastructure we do have so so precious and under-maintained we need to do everything possible to keep it functional. This means *NOT* parking on sidewalk or over curb cuts, not trashing our drains... Good luck Mitch! Let the enforcement begin.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

launches initiative against litter in the city

(November 15, 2011 by Frank Donze)

As New Orleans prepares to host an array of high-profile sporting events, Mayor Mitch Landrieu rolled out a new public awareness campaign Monday designed to spruce up the city in advance of the onslaught of visitors.

The city on Monday announced a new public awareness campaign to encourage residents to keep New Orleans clean in advance of several major events.

"All eyes will be on New Orleans, and it will be once again our time to shine," Landrieu said at an afternoon news conference where he asked locals to embrace the "Don't Trash Dat" slogan that will adorn buses, streetcars, garbage cans, billboards and bumper stickers.
Other similar motivational messages will follow in the coming months.
While the keep-it-clean push will focus on the French Quarter and other downtown "hospitality zones," the mayor said he wants the anti-litter spirit to spread across the city.
"We can clean up, but if you don't throw it down we have less to do. And we need everybody to do their part," Landrieu said. "If you see something on the ground, pick it up. If you see one of you neighbors throw something out of their car, let them know about it."
In January, New Orleans will be home to college football's championship game, followed in the spring by the NCAA Men's Final Four, college basketball's premier weekend. In 2013, the Super Bowl will be here along with the Women's Final Four.
New Orleans also will be the inaugural stop for a three-year celebration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 in April, serving as home to a fleet of international Tall Ships and U.S., Canadian and British naval vessels.
Those events will join the city's annual lineup, which includes Mardi Gras, the Essence Music Festival, the Bayou Classic, the Sugar Bowl, the French Quarter Festival and the Jazz Fest, among others.
"If there was ever a signal that people needed to know whether New Orleans was back, this is it," Landrieu said.
Another component of the initiative will be strict enforcement of existing laws, from the ban on parking on sidewalks to hours of operation to responsibilities for cleaning up outside business establishments, the mayor said.
Kurt Weigle, president of the Downtown Development District, said the crowds of visitors will offer "a great opportunity to show the world how much we respect and love our hometown" and "to change our own hearts and minds about how we treat our city."
Landrieu also served notice that the clock is ticking on the Occupy NOLA encampment that's been established across from City Hall in Duncan Plaza.
"We think that we have been a great host to Occupy NOLA," he said. "They have been there in a peaceful way. But at some point in time, we've got to say 'Look, you've worn out your welcome.'
"At some point in time, it's going to get beyond just a First Amendment expression."
While Landrieu did not offer a timetable, he said the protesters likely will be asked to leave "sooner rather than later."

••••••••

Frank Donze can be reached at fdonze@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3328.

Improved Roadways should get Painted Bike Lanes.

2011-11-06T09:14:00.002-06:00

Quote from article below:
"With improved road surfaces, dedicated bike lanes and a wealth of resources for cyclists, the city that was once perceived of as blatantly antagonistic to riders now has a bike-friendly reputation nationwide."

So given the improved road surface on Earhart and Carrollton.... what's holding up PAINTING SOME BIKE LANES on Earhart & Carrollton... maybe even Leonidas..??? This seems a very EASY step to make.

If you want something to happen....
"The City Council has set a goal of attaining "gold" status by 2018."
You have to make a space for it! Painting bike lanes does just that....

Full Article from Times-Picayune Sunday November 6, 2011 by R. Stephanie Bruno

Six years ago, bicycling from Canal Street to Poland Avenue would have been a ride fraught with challenges, including dodging traffic and avoiding cavernous potholes. But in the years since Hurricane Katrina, conditions have improved so dramatically that bikers are turning out in record numbers -- so much so that New Orleans has been designated a bronze level "Bike Friendly City" by the League of American Bicyclists.

Local advocates say two prime factors have boosted the city's bike-friendly profile: the post-storm resurfacing of numerous roads, and the striping of several major roadways, including Marconi Drive, Crowder Boulevard, MacArthur Boulevard, St. Charles Avenue and Harrison Avenue.
Thanks to millions in disaster aid from the federal government, many miles of roads have been improved since 2005. The city footed the bill for adding bike lanes to the repaired roads, quadrupling its bike-lane mileage from 11 miles in 2005 to 44 miles today, with an additional 15 miles planned.
Studies conducted by Kathryn Parker of Tulane University's Prevention Research Center show that ridership along St. Claude Avenue increased by 57 percent after bike lanes were added in 2008. On South Carrollton Avenue, the number of cyclists jumped a whopping 225 percent after bike lanes were striped in 2010.
Richard Campanella began biking from his Bywater home to Tulane University, where he works as an urban geographer, nine years ago.

"My decision then was largely pragmatic," he said. "It boiled down to an utter frustration with urban driving, jockeying in traffic and trying to fit a car through tight spaces."
Thirty thousand miles later, Campanella can testify to the fact that many more commuter cyclists are on the streets. Although road conditions are a key reason, there are other factors motivating bikers as well, he said.
"There is an increasing appreciation nationwide of a simpler lifestyle involving biking and walking," Campanella said. "There's a rising interest, especially among young people, in sustainability and concern about global warming. And there is also a recession and high gas prices."
In New Orleans, 18 percent of households in the city don't own a car, a statistic partly responsible for fact that New Orleans ranks sixth among like-sized cities in the percentage of workers who commute to work by bike, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey.
Bart Everson, who has been commuting to work by bike for eleven years, said he started doing it to save money, but soon became hooked by the "sheer pleasure" biking brings.
"I carry a camera with me and I stop to take photos of interesting things, things I would never see or be able to appreciate in a car, much less be able to stop for," he said.
Everson is a major force behind the effort to create a 3.1-mile bike path along the derelict Lafitte Corridor, which will connect the French Quarter to Canal Boulevard, linking seven neighborhoods along the way.
Whether cyclists are spurred by economics, philosophy, health goals, pleasure or frustration, they now have a bounty of resources available to them that didn't exist a few years ago.
If they need a place to "park" a bike downtown or elsewhere in the city, they can rely on as many as 69 bike racks installed by "Where Ya' Rack?" an initiative of the Young Leadership Council. If they need a map of dedicated bike routes and lanes, they can log on to the web site of the nonprofit Bike Easy and find one.
If they're curious about biking conditions on a favorite back street, they can access "Chain Gang," a detailed map of street conditions generated by NolaCycle from data collected by volunteers. If they need inexpensive parts to repair a bike, they can visit Plan B, a bike co-op in Faubourg Marigny.
And if they plan to ride to a local event but don't know where to safely stash a bike, Bike Easy provides "Bicycle Valet" service at some events -- such as the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, Wednesdays at the Square and the Lafitte Corridor Hike -- where bikes are stored in secure "corrals."

With improved road surfaces, dedicated bike lanes and a wealth of resources for cyclists, the city that was once perceived of as blatantly antagonistic to riders now has a bike-friendly reputation nationwide. But bronze level recognition just isn't good enough for some: The City Council has set a goal of attaining "gold" status by 2018.

Amount of money held in metro banks remains high

2011-10-30T13:01:00.002-05:00

Lest you think it doesn't matter... this is what will helpNew Orleans survive and become a 21st Century City

See Full Article below:

Published: Sunday, October 30, 2011, 9:20 AM

By Rebecca Mowbray, in the The Times-Picayune
Thousands of homes have been rebuilt, businesses have reopened and levee improvements are substantially complete, yet six years after Hurricane Katrina, local banks are still awash in cash. After Hurricane Katrina, the amount of money held at local banks rose sharply as people deposited their insurance checks in bank accounts while making their rebuilding plans. It was a fairly expected occurrence.

View full size

Economies recovering from disaster often see a buildup in bank deposits as a result of the insurance payouts. The funds are usually spent in the months following the disaster.
But despite all the rebuilding that has taken place since Katrina, the amount of money on deposit at local banks hasn't dropped to anywhere close to where it was before the storm. In fact, after declining slightly from 2006 to 2008, the amount of money held at local banks has again been climbing over the past few years. As of June 30, metro area bank deposits totaled $29.2 billion. In June 2005, area bank deposits amounted to $20.1 billion, or $23.3 billion in today's inflation-adjusted dollars.
Why the puzzling pattern? Bankers, economists and other experts say it's a mix of the local story of the long path of hurricane recovery, changes in the New Orleans economy after the storm, and a bit of money from BP. The economic anxiety about the future that is gripping the nation may also be encouraging consumers to keep money in their bank accounts.
High levels of bank deposits don't necessarily mean that it will be easier for consumers to get loans. Credit and underwriting standards are still tight after the 2008 financial crisis, and banks say that consumer and business demand for loans is weak. But bank deposits are a window into people's saving behavior and how the flow of money has changed in the New Orleans area in recent years.
Karl Hoefer, president of IberiaBank's Louisiana market, said that lots of insurance money flowed into the New Orleans area after Katrina, and people spent it rebuilding homes and businesses. But the money didn't stop flowing a few years after the storm: insurance disputes that ended up in litigation took several years to get resolved, the city has only recently settled some of its disputes with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over rebuilding payments, and projects such as replacing school buildings across New Orleans and construction on the University Medical Center complex are just beginning.
When the financial crisis hit in 2008, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. increased the amount of bank deposits it would insure to $250,000 per account and came up with several other programs to protect money in banks. In the process, Hoefer said, the FDIC created a safe haven where people could store more of their money and protect it from the whims of a turbulent stock market at a time when there were few other investment opportunities.
Economic uncertainty
Three years later, the stock market remains volatile, and even though individuals and businesses aren't earning much interest on their deposit accounts, they're more keen to preserve their capital rather than risk it all in the stock market. Individuals are conserving cash because they're worried about job losses, and companies are sitting on money in case they need to draw on their own liquidity if they can't get the credit to expand, take advantage of an opportunity in the downturn, or plug a hole if something goes awry in their business, Hoefer said.
Meanwhile, the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster again gave people reason to be fearful about the future and cautious with their money. As of Oct. 24, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, the organization set up to make reparations to people outside of court, has paid nearly $1.7 billion in Louisiana, putting more money in people's bank accounts.
Loren Scott, professor emeritus of economics at Louisiana State University, said the amount of money people have been paid by BP is probably more than many people would have earned fishing, since some payments are designed to take care of the possibility of economic dislocation extending into the future. In addition, increased economic activity from the cleanup efforts could have generated other earnings that could allow people to put money in the bank.
Rising incomes locally
Meanwhile, Scott said, even though the population of New Orleans is smaller after Katrina, the people that remain are earning more money than they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary in the New Orleans area was $32,750 in May 2005. In May 2010, the most recent figures available, the average local salary was $41,000. One reason the amount of money on deposit remains elevated, Scott said, is that the New Orleans area economy has a different mix of people with different earning power than before the storm.
But Brian Bowling, vice president in bank supervision, regulation and credit risk management at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said the story of robust bank deposits in New Orleans since 2008 is really the same thing that's happening nationally. "It's just the uncertainty. People are holding more and conserving more in cash, both consumers and businesses," Bowling said.
Bowling believes that's the case because the ramp up in deposits in New Orleans over the past three years looks just like the increase in deposits in other cities such as Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Ala., and Tampa, Fla., even though they didn't face Katrina or the brunt of the oil spill.
Hoarding cash
Furthermore, national economic anxiety is readily apparent in bank deposit numbers from this summer, when the European debt crisis was getting worse and Congress was deadlocked over raising the debt ceiling. According to figures from the Federal Reserve, the amount of money on deposit at U.S. banks grew fairly consistently in 2009 and 2010, but this summer, as concern was building over Europe and the debt ceiling was mounting, deposits nationally grew at an annualized rate of 8.3 percent in June, then jumped to 18.9 percent in July, before falling back to 8 percent in August and 2 percent in September.
All of that makes Bowling pretty certain that businesses and individuals in New Orleans are hoarding cash just like their counterparts elsewhere in the country. "All of those things would lead me to believe that New Orleans doesn't look out of line with any other market or the national numbers," Bowling said.
Steve Hemperley, greater New Orleans market president for Capital One, the area's largest bank, said he agrees with Bowling, that the recent uptick in deposits is all about economic uncertainty.
"Many banks are flush with deposits," Hemperley said. "People feel more comfortable preserving their liquidity. Even though they may not be earning a whole lot of money, they may not be losing a whole lot of money."
Rebecca Mowbray can be reached at rmowbray@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3417.

Polling locations 17-10 & 17-12 return to NorthWest Carrollton!

2011-10-22T14:38:00.003-05:00

This is a BEAUTIFUL Picture

for the FIRST TIME since Hurricane Katrina
polling locations 17-10 and 17-12 have returned to the neighborhood.

Bike Lane advocate 2011 Urban Hero - J. Ruley

2011-10-22T13:44:00.001-05:00

Bike Lanes shouldn't be a second thought.
Many people use transportation other than cars, trucks, motorcycles.   Some people walk, take the bus, or ride a bike. Complete Streets acknowledges this. And this is why NorthWest Carrollton as asked and will keep asking for bike lanes on Earhart and down Carrollton Avenue.

A favorite quote from the Nola.Com article below: “Recreational riders stay out of traffic,”
Other cyclists ride for transportation and THAT is what we need our planners and Public Works staff to understand and advocate. Non-recreational riders, pedestrians are as important as cars. Jennifer Ruley gets it.   Hands clapping Jennifer.

See FULL ARTICLE below from Nola.com
When Jennifer Ruley was growing up in Algiers in the 1980s, smack in the middle of seven siblings, her busy mother didn’t have time to drive all the kids to school. Jennifer, like most children in the neighborhood, biked or walked to Alice Harte Elementary School.

John McCusker / The Times-PicayuneJennifer E. Ruley advises the city of New Orleans on cycling issues. The Intersection of Filmore and St. Bernard is now the hub of bike lanes in Gentilly Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Today, as a bicycle and pedestrian engineer advising New Orleans City Hall, Ruley, 41, works to make the city safer and more accessible for walkers and bikers of all ages. For her efforts, Ruley will be recognized Saturday as the Urban Conservancy’s 2011 Urban Hero.
“I always think of her when I see the bike icons on the street,” said Dana Eness, executive director of the Urban Conservancy. “She really embodies everything we are trying to do in terms of creating a better connected, more walkable, pedistrian-friendly city.”
Ruley came to the city “on loan” from the Louisiana Public Health Institute through a public health grant in 2004. With a master’s degree in civil engineering and a decade of experience in the public and private sectors, her job was to help New Orleans neighborhoods become more walkable and bikeable.
That work later included helping the city implement new bikeway and pedestrian safety projects under the 2005 $240 million, five-year capital bond issue, which represented the first time bike and pedestrian projects would be explicitly funded through the city’s capital improvement plan, said Ryan Berni of the Mayor’s Office.
Hurricane Katrina gave the process a jolt, as major and minor roads all over the city had to be repaired, Berni said. Meanwhile, attitudes toward bikers and walkers were becoming more welcoming.
Ruley acknowledged that New Orleans is considered walkable because it’s compact and has commerce woven into the fabric of neighborhoods. But better sidewalks, curb ramps and signals can take a city to the next level: pedestrian-friendly.
“With time, this has become much more mainstream,” Ruley said. “It’s about people. It’s about health.”
It’s a topic that’s close to her heart personally, as well as professionally. As a college student and then a young professional in Baton Rouge, Ruley biked for recreation, riding up to 80 miles a week along trails and in parks. “Recreational riders stay out of traffic,” she pointed out.
Then she started biking to work. “Commuters are a whole different animal,” sharing the road with sometimes-grudging drivers, Ruley said.
Before Ruley leaves her Bayou St. John home, she straps on a helmet. She’s had a couple of close calls when cars turned in front of her or swerved as if they were deliberately trying to hit her. She’s lived — and biked — in many areas of the city, including Gentilly, the university section, Bywater and her home turf, Algiers. On a busy road, a designated bike lane is safer and “legitimizes that user,” she said.
“It is rewarding to see the large number of people using these new facilities and the positive comments I’ve heard from the community,” Ruley said. “Bicyclists and pedestrians can be a tough crowd to please. So it’s nice to know when we get it right.”
With the goal of improving health, City Hall has seen a golden opportunity to add bike paths, bike ways and walkways without adding huge costs, Berni said. Since the storm, the city has quadrupled the miles of bike-friendly asphalt in the city, he said.
The engineer commutes to the CBD in her work clothes — a short-sleeved polo shirt, corduroys and loafers on a recent day. She locks her black “commuter clunker” right outside the front door of City Hall while drivers jockey for expensive downtown parking spots. She also hops on the bike to inspect road construction around the city, making sure that bike lanes or walkways are built correctly and channel users as intended.
If it rains, “I get wet,” she shrugs.
In her free time, Ruley walks her beagles, Linus and Humphrey, on the banks of Bayou St. John, and volunteers with an animal rescue group. She also travels the world and has found ideas to make streets more accessible to walkers and bikers.
Eness, of the Urban Conservancy, says the roadwork is making an impact. “Once you have safe, easy ways for people to travel by something other than car, and you pair that with accessiblity with bike racks, you see those bike racks being used. Every single bike rack is chock-a-block full of bikes,” she said. “That either means people are getting there who couldn’t before, or you are getting relief in some of those congested parking areas.”
••••••••
Jennifer Ruley will be recognized as the 2011 Urban Hero at the Urban Conservancy’s 10th anniversary fundraiser, “You Are Here” at the Icehouse, 2803 St. Philip St. in Mid-City. There will be silent live auctions of local products, along with “street baskets” featuring items reflecting the character of local commercial corridors. There will be live music, and a pedicab company will offer complimentary rides. For event information, contact Keely Hill at 504.561.7474 or keely@staylocal.org. Tickets may be purchased online at www.youarehereforapurpose.eventbrite.com or at the door.
•••••••
Annette Sisco is community news editor. She can be reached at asisco@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3310.

5th Annual Palmer Park Halloween Party

2011-10-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

Friends of Palmer Park ~ FOPP

5^thAnnual Halloween Party!

Come join us as we celebrate the culmination of everyone’s hard work in the park. Time to have fun!

"!"

6-9 p.m., Saturday, Oct 29

Park party kicks off in the park near the new play-set

Each family is asked to bring their drinks (we have coolers with ice) and a

spooky dish to share.

FOPP will provide tables, tents, paper products, music, etc…

This magical neighborhood event is FREE however, for those that can afford it, a suggested donation of $5.00 helps pay for event expenses and future park projects.

Bank Robber Nabbed in MidCity Carrollton @ Canal

2011-10-19T00:28:00.000-05:00

The New Orleans Police Department- Public Information Office

New Orleans Police Nab Suspect in an Attempted Early Morning Bank Robbery on Carrollton

The New Orleans Police Department in conjunction with the FBI arrested 49 - year- old Calvin Johnson in connection with an attempted Mid City bank robbery. The incident occurred around 10 this morning at the Capital One Bank located in the 4100 Block of Canal Street.

Detectives reported Calvin Johnson entered the bank and handed a bank teller a note with the words “No bait” written on it. Johnson became startled at which time he grabbed the note and walked out of the bank. Officers on proactive patrol in the 4300 block of South Carrollton Ave observed a subject matching the description of Calvin Johnson. The officers brought Calvin Johnson back to the bank where the FBI agents made a positive identification.

Calvin Johnson currently has outstanding warrants for Forgery and Theft from an incident in 2010. New Orleans Police will book Johnson with the outstanding warrants while the FBI will book him with the Attempted Bank Robbery.

The New Orleans Police Department, under the leadership of Superintendent Ronal W. Serpas, is engaged in a complete transformation in its approach to ensuring that New Orleans is a safer place to live, work and visit. The police force, which currently employs dedicated men and women, is committed to transparency, accountability, collaboration and integrity. To learn more about the NOPD and our services, visit http://www.nola.gov/GOVERNMENT/NOPD and visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/New-Orleans-LA/New-Orleans-Police-Department-Official/133853236665761

###

Officer Frank B. Robertson, III

Night Out Against Crime - Palmer Park

2011-10-13T22:48:00.000-05:00

Click here to see pictures

Palmer Park

Tuesday, October 11, 2010

5:30PM - 7:30PM

Invited Guests include

CM Susan Guidry; Sen. Karen Carter Peterson; Rep. Neil Abramson

2^nd District NOPD Leadership and Officers

Music by

Shocking Blond

Plum Street Snoballs + Crêpes à la Carte + Fruit Sensations

Prize Wheel + Fire Engine Exhibit

Hot Dogs for $1.00 Donation

(NOPD 2^nd District & NOFD Fire House at Carrollton & Claiborne)

bring your donations

Fire House needs - Gift certificates to Robert's Fresh Food Market

NOPD 2^nd District needs - Gift Certificates to Office Depot

organized by

Carrollton Area Network

Sponsors

Robért Fresh Market 5 Minute Oil Change Walgreens

Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association; Carrollton United; Central Carrollton Association;

Fontainebleau Improvement Association; Maple Area Residents Inc.; StateStreetDrive.com;

Northwest Carrollton Civic Association; Palmer Park Neighborhood Association;

Participating Partners

Daughters of Charity; AARP; Entergy

Visit our Facebook page - http://facebook.com/CANOAC

James Gill GETS it.... Thank you Mr. Gill

2011-10-05T21:41:00.000-05:00

Now all we need is for the city to figure what to do about the blighted properties Toris Young has left in our neighborhood.

Toris Young is under indictment and in trouble with the law.... Again.

Toris Young is Bibleway. Bibleway owns 3 consistently Blighted Properties with code violations in NorthWest Carrollton.
These empty lots do not eliminate blight they only create a different kind. Please see the photos in the links:

http://nwcarrollton.blogspot.com/2011/09/bibleway-blight-its-everywhere.html
Location Address 2940 JOLIET ST
Owner: BIBLE WAY BAPTISTCHURCH Mailing Address P O BOX 850341 NEW ORLEANS, LA 70185
This location has Permitting & Safety Issues. The sand is piled too high on the lot and has covered the drains and the sidewalks.

Location Address 8419 S CLAIBORNE Ave
Owner: BIBLE WAY BAPTISTCHURCH Mailing Address 1829 HAMILTON ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118

http://nwcarrollton.blogspot.com/2011/09/bibleway-blight-abandoned-cars-on-apple.html
Location Address 8325 & 8523 Apple
Owner: Greater Bibleway Housing CDCL
Mailing Address 2936 Joliet St. New Orleans 70118

2925 Joliet is also a Bibleway Property but it has an unoccupied house on it.
8515 Pritchard Place is also listed as a Bibleway Property. This property has a house on it.

The city's blight stat meetings focus on number of houses demolished as a measure of success. We will measure success when these vacant lot properties are consistently cleaned up and the houses are renovated and occupied. We've been asking for help addressing these issues for YEARS. All we've seen is James Gill's opinion columns and Toris Young repeatedly in jail. What can the city do to help with this issue?

See Opinion by James Gill in the Times Picayune >>>
Pastor Toris Young racking up indictments: James Gill

The effrontery of our thieving pastor Toris Young is something to behold. According to his latest indictment, Young screwed the federal government out of close to a million bucks while awaiting trial for running up large bills on credit cards in other people's names.

Rusty Costanza, The Times-Picayune archive The Rev. Toris Young.

Young, who had been indicted for fraud and identity theft just before Katrina, wound up in the penitentiary after pleading guilty in 2006. Meanwhile, the feds now allege, Young took the Small Business Administration to the cleaners for imaginary reconstruction of a church and ancillary buildings destroyed in the storm.

The SBA transferred the last installment to Young's bank account on the very same day he began his sentence for the earlier scam.

We already knew that Young is not the most circumspect of crooks. He had been out of prison for less than a year when he pulled a bank fraud in Mississippi. Last year, he pleaded guilty to that one too, and is now back inside. A perusal of his most recent indictment suggests that it will be many more years before he is at liberty again.

If a smart crook does not draw attention to himself, far less do his utmost to get his name in the newspapers, Young must be deemed a pretty dumb one. As soon as he got out of the joint, he was to be found pushing his way to the front wherever the cameras gathered. In 2009, he was a leading light in the drive to recall then-Congressman Joseph Cao, which was pretty stupid, considering the law does not allow a congressman to be recalled. Meanwhile, he joined Corey Miller in a campaign to stop "senseless murders" on the streets of New Orleans.

Miller is something of an expert on the subject on murder and was under house arrest awaiting trial for one at the time. His stage name as a fairly successful rapper was C-Murder, so this was not a crime-fighting duo with much credibility. Miller got life.

Young, meanwhile, held himself out as the head of a vast ministry built up since his ordination in 1987 by "a council of International Pastors under the Auspices of The Spoken Word Ministerial Alliance of Greater New Orleans." According to his website, his empire, with its "main sanctuary" on Joliet Street, included a children's church, a computer lab, a school, a cafeteria, administrative buildings and two housing complexes for the poor and elderly. Young had been undaunted by Katrina; his church remained "live and full of the "Holly Spirit." No, it wasn't Christmas; Young meant that the Paraclete had descended on Joliet Street.

Well, he didn't find much there. Certainly yours truly did not when paying a visit in 2009. Where the array of glorious buildings purportedly stood, a few scruffy and vacant lots were all that was to be seen. The address given for one of the housing units did not exist, and the other was a pumping station.

It was not because of a shortage of cash that Young's ministry no longer existed, if, indeed, it ever had. He did not let the grass grow under his feet when Katrina struck, claiming extensive damage to church property and applying on Sept. 10, 2005, for a low-interest federal loan.

According to the indictment just handed up, Young extracted $923,000 from the SBA on the strength of forged construction invoices. All the money went into Young's pocket, and the feds now want it back. Good luck on that one.

Oct. 12, 2006, was a decidedly mixed day for Young in his relations with the federal government. While the marshals carted him off to the pen, the SBA credited his bank account with the balance of the loan, $463,900. He had little chance to spend the loot right away, presumably, but he was evidently hard up a few months after his release.

In the fall of 2009, he was up to his old tricks, opening a bank account in Mississippi with someone else's Social Security number and stolen money orders. A Mississippi federal judge gave Young 27 months in January last year, but, since he was still on probation at the time, U.S. District Judge Lance Africk tacked on another 24.

Now that he has been indicted again, Rev. Young is in what can only be described as a holy mess.

••••••••

James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3318.

Polling Locations return to Incarnate Word

2011-10-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

Yeah!!!!!!

We are HOME from our PostKatrina voting exile at Xavier University.

Xavier was nice and very good to us but it is better for everyone to be able to walk to the polls.

Thanks to all the government services for the followups and follow throughs that made this happen.

6 years was long enough!!!!!!

17/10, 17/12 changed TO

Incarnate Word Head Start, 8326 Apricot St., New Orleans, LA

SELA Phase 1 - dumping into Monticello's bottleneck

2011-10-04T21:04:00.000-05:00

The article in the Times Picayune today (in full below) indicates that Phase 1 of our nightmare is starting.

We all know, from conversations with representatives at the Corps of Engineers, this means that eventually more water will get dumped faster into the Monticello Canal. This means that the Monticello (which *already* fills during heavy rainfall) will fill faster. We also know that without an increase in the capacity at the railroad tracks (near Airline) that this will backup in Monticello and eventually backup into the houses in Hollygrove and Carrollton and Broadmoor and Fountainebleau. When there are very high water levels in the Monticello the drains in the streets start backing up.

Don't believe us. Ask the Corps of Engineers and S&W about the restriction (narrowing) of the Monticello at the railroad tracks near Airline. They will tell you it is real. They will tell you it is a potential problem. They will tell you that they were working with Joseph Cao when he was in Congress to get monies to address the issue.

So our question is: where is the money to eliminate the restriction? Without this money and a plan all that is being done is moving water from Uptown into Hollygrove, Carrollton and Broadmoor. Our understanding was that Congress was being lobbied to provide funding to allow for the restriction to be removed. Can anyone provide an update on the comprehensive plan for the SELA projects and how the Monticello drains (or doesn't because of the restriction) into the flow also coming from Palmetto and into the 17th Street Canal?

The article from the Times Picayune today (in full below)
The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $27.1 million contract to increase drainage for the Carrollton area with improvements to an underground concrete canal along South Claiborne Avenue between Monticello Avenue and Leonidas Street. The project, part of the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Damage Reduction Project, is aimed at allowing the drainage system to accommodate runoff from a 10-year rainfall event.

A 10-year rainfall in New Orleans represents 9 inches of rain in 24 hours, a corps spokeswoman said.
The 38-month project will be built by Louisiana-based Cajun Constructors Inc., and includes about 2,500 feet of covered canal and the relocation of sewer and water lines to accommodate the project. A notice to proceed will be issued to the company this month, and the job is expected to be completed in the winter of 2014.
The new canal will parallel an existing canal in the South Claiborne Avenue neutral ground and will tie in to the existing Monticello Canal and to a similar new canal to be constructed under the South Claiborne Avenue Phase 2 contract at Leonidas Street. The new canal will be built in the traffic lane closest to the neutral ground in the west-bound roadway, and will require the closure of adjacent traffic lanes at times.
The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board will brief the public on the project at a meeting that is not yet scheduled. The S&WB will brief residents along Napoleon Avenue about a similar project at a meeting Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. at The Salvation Army, 4526 South Claiborne Ave.
The second phase of the Claiborne project, including canal improvements on Claiborne between Leonidas and Lowerline streets, will be awarded next spring.
This is the 13th SELA contract awarded in New Orleans, financed with money made available by Congress in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with 35 percent of the cost borne by the S&WB.

Resilience and Opportunity

2011-10-04T10:38:00.000-05:00

Dear friends and colleagues,

Have you heard about Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita? We gathered more than 20 local scholars to document our collective learnings post-Katrina and pulled all of this knowledge together in a book.

Published by Brookings Institution Press, Resilience and Opportunity appeared on book shelves on the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina just one month ago.

This book will be invaluable to new students at our local universities or anyone else who's recently arrived and getting involved in New Orleans’ rebuilding efforts, and to those of us that have been watching and contributing to our community’s progress since the day we returned home. Moreover, it is in hot demand from decisionmakers all over the world who are grappling with recent disasters hitting major population centers.

What's in the book? You can get a taste by watching this 3-minute video featuring some of the authors who contributed. Check it out at:

http://e2ma.net/go/10764521685/3938373/110083780/7852/goto:http://www.gnocdc.org/TheNewOrleansIndexAtSix/ResilienceAndOpportunityVideo.html

Sincerely,

The GNOCDC team

Melissa Schigoda, Allison Plyer, Ben Horwitz, Charlotte Cunliffe, Elaine Ortiz, and Susan Sellers

@@@

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center is a product of Nonprofit Knowledge Works and is supported in part by United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area, Community Revitalization Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Baptist Community Ministries, Metropolitan Opportunities Fund at the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and data users like you.

Fight Fraud. Shred Instead!

2011-10-03T14:54:00.000-05:00

What:	Fight Fraud. Shred Instead!

When:	Saturday, October 8, 2011 10 am - 1 pm

Where:	Daughters of Charity parking lot 3201 South Carrollton Ave. New Orleans Dear Neighbor, It's estimated that every year more than eight million Americans fall victim to identity theft, losing over 40 billion dollars annually. How do criminals do it? They steal your personal information. Fight fraud. Shred instead! You're invited to a free shredding event hosted by AARP and Shred-It, a secure document destruction company. Bring your financial statements, cancelled checks, credit card statements and pre-approval offers, payroll stubs, insurance forms and out dated medical records for shredding. Protect yourself from identity theft and shred old documents that contain personal information. You can shred up to five bags or one medium sized box. This free event is for individuals only -- companies not allowed. AARP staff and volunteers will be on hand to help you with your materials and provide information about identity theft and consumer fraud. Powered by nearly 500,000 members, AARP Louisiana is a champion for all generations to live their best lives, independently, in their own homes and communities. Discover more of what AARP and its army of volunteers do in Louisiana at www.aarp.org/LA.

Community Conversations with Candidates

2011-10-02T10:16:00.001-05:00

"Community Conversations with Candidates" starting next week. Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) is hosting a series of non-partisan, candid conversations with local candidates to discuss important housing related issues in New Orleans. From housing discrimination to new construction to affordability, we're interested in hearing from members of the community on the issues that affect them most. Come out, meet your local candidates and find out where they stand on issues affecting us all.

Tues. Oct 4th:
Senator, 3rd District & State Rep 99th District;

Invited: J.P. Morrell ,Cynthia Willard-Lewis, Wesley T. Bishop, Samuel Cowart

Vaughans Lounge, 800 Lesseps St, New Orleans, 6-8pm

Wed. Oct. 5th:

Civil District Court Judges, Div. B & Div.E

Invited: Regina Bartholomew, Ellen Hazeur, Nakisha Ervin-Knott, Clare Jupiter, Kris Kiefer
Bridge Lounge,1201 Magazine Street, New Orleans, 6-8pm

Thurs Oct. 6th:

State Rep. 94th District

Invited: Josie Haas, John Labruzzo, Nick Lorusso

Ralphs on the Park, 900 City Park Avenue, New Orleans 6-8pm

Tues. Oct 11th :

Commissioner of Insurance
Invited: Jim Donelon, Donald C. Hodge
Bridge Lounge, 1201 Magazine Street, New Orleans, 6-8pm

Wed Oct 12th:
State Rep 98th District

Invited:Neil Abramson, Fenn French, Myron Katz

Maple Leaf, 8316 Oak St, New Orleans, 6-8pm

Thurs Oct 13th:

State Rep 102nd District:
Invited: Jeff Arnold, Carlos Williams

Tout De Suite, 347 Verret Street, New Orleans, 5-7pm

Toris Young indicted for stealing SBA money

2011-09-29T23:40:00.000-05:00

See FULL Article below from Times Picayune. Bibleway owns multiple properties in NorthWest Carrollton and these property significantly contribute to blight. With the "owner" in jail already and now indicted.... What happens to the properties....??? Or do we have to just keep looking at the blight?

N.O. minister indicted on charges of stealing SBA money

Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune

A New Orleans minister already serving time in federal prison for bank fraud and forgery was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury that found he stole almost $1 million in U.S. Small Business Administration loans that were supposed to be used to rebuild his church after Hurricane Katrina.

Rusty Costanza, The Times-Picayune archiveThe Rev. Toris Young was photographed in April 2009.

The Rev. Toris Young, former pastor of Greater Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church in Hollygrove, made a name for himself in recent years by teaming with local rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller on an anti-crime initiative when Miller was under a murder indictment in Jefferson Parish. Miller was convicted shortly after that initiative was announced. Young also led a failed recall effort against former U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao.
Young, 40, is being held at a federal prison in Pollock after pleading guilty to bank fraud and identity theft. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons website, Young is scheduled to be released in two years.
The new indictment, released by U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office, charged Young with mail fraud and theft of government money. He received $500,000 in SBA loans to rebuild the church after his initial application on Sept. 10, 2005. The following year, Young received a loan increase, bringing his total loan amount to $963,900.
According to the indictment, Young told the SBA in May 2006 that he had spent $655,240 rebuilding the church. But Young actually stole the money, the indictment stated.
If convicted of the new charges, Young will face maximum prison sentences of 10 years for theft and 20 years for mail fraud. Letten's office also filed a notice of forfeiture to require Young to repay the stolen money.
Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3316.

Save Our Shipyard

2011-09-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

Dear Greater New Orleans Neighborhood Association,

I'm writing to you because you and the community you are a part of are concerned about and active in making your community the best it can possibly be.

As someone who has been working with Avondale SOS--the campaign to save Avondale shipyard and the 5,000 jobs of the workers at the yard, as well as the 6,500 jobs that rely on the yard--I thought you would be interested in the recent survey about how housing prices will be decimated by the slated closure of the shipyard.

A study conducted by UNO professors released this week found that the proposed closure of the Avondale Shipyard "will depress housing values by more than 20 percent in the West Bank communities close to the shipyard. One quarter of real estate professionals surveyed in the study also said values could decline by more than 20 percent for communities throughout the entire New Orleans region." The full study is available here.

In an interview with the Times-Picayune, Professor Steve Striffler, who worked on the survey said, "I think we were surprised that almost uniformly, Realtors not only saw this as a problem in the area right around Avondale, but more broadly." You can read the full Times-Pic article here.

This closure is not a done deal. In fact, there is a much better option for the workers, our neighborhoods, and for the Greater New Orleans area as a whole. Avondale shipyard could move from producing Navy ships to producing commercial ships, which gives New Orleans thousands of middle-class jobs that will be around for years to come.

This Saturday, October 1, there is a Rally and March to keep the shipyard building ships and for us to show that we will not stand by and let our communities suffer a loss that does not need to happen. We are assembling at 10am at the Superdome, marching down Poydras at 10:30am, and rallying at the Hale Boggs Federal Building (500 Poydras at Camp St.) at 11am for an hour of speakers.

The speakers at the rally show that this is a moment where everyone in the Greater New Orleans community is coming together, and include Congressmen Cedric Richmond and Steve Scalise, as well as Jefferson Parish President John Young and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, as well as the Chairman of American Feeder Lines--a company that wants build commercial ships at Avondale, which will help maintain the $2 billion/year that the shipyard provides to our economy.

I'm asking you to please send this information on to the residents of your community, and let them know that their voices will be heard and that their attendance will make a difference.

If you have any questions, please contact me at esmendenhall@gmail.com or give me a call at 504-564-3153.

Thanks, and hope to see many, many concerned citizens voicing their opinion at the rally on Saturday.

Local Carrollton Business Listings

2011-09-25T15:06:00.000-05:00

See the link to Carrollton Area Businesses on Stay Local

Right at the end of the streetcar line... Roberts' has great prepared food.

And Red Star on Earhart has great Chinese Take Out/Delivery.

Walking.... using the sidewalks... what a concept!

2011-09-22T18:49:00.001-05:00

Agree completely wiht the Op Ed published in the TP this past Wednesday September 21, 2011.
Now tell us WHEN will the 2nd Phase of the FEMA sidewalk repairs begin????

AND

WHEN will we get parking enforcement so people STOP parking on the sidewalks?????

Have a read.....

Make walking to school safe for children: a letter to the editor

With childhood obesity rates that have more than tripled in the past 30 years, our nation's children need more opportunities to be physically active to reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke. Sixty-five percent of adolescents (and 50 percent of adults) do not get the recommended amount of physical activity each day. Physical inactivity and childhood obesity pose a serious threat to our kids' health, increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.

American Heart Association data indicates that only 13 percent of children walk or bike to school today, down from nearly 50 percent in 1969 -- but studies have shown that schools receiving infrastructure improvements through the Safe Routes to School program increased walking and bicycling by 20 to 200 percent. Walking one mile to and from school each day equals two-thirds of the recommended level of physical activity per day, and children who walk to school are more physically active throughout the day. In Louisiana alone, tens of thousands of people living within a half-mile of a school could benefit from Safe Routes to School projects that improve the environment for walking and bicycling. Funds offered through the Safe Routes to School program could help many families recapture the joy many of us vividly recall walking to and from school.

As a volunteer with the American Heart Association's You're the Cure network, we urge Rep. Bill Cassidy, a doctor, to support the Safe Routes to Schools program in the transportation bill. We believe that establishing fun and safe walking and biking routes in our communities is essential since some schools don't provide daily physical education.

Louisiana has just been designated at the nation's third-most obese state with a 30 percent prevalence of adult obesity. This program can create opportunities to provide solutions toward preventing childhood obesity. Our elected officials have the power to make it easier for kids to lead healthy lives which will lead to a healthier Louisiana.

Albert D. Sam II
National spokesman
American Heart Association
Baton Rouge

Tell me again WHY we have a Master Plan????

2011-09-19T15:27:00.000-05:00

RED ALERT
YOUR HELP NEEDED TO PROTECT
THE FRENCH QUARTER AND THE MASTER PLAN

On Thursday, September 22, the City Council will take up a proposal to allow a 190’ tower in the French Quarter, at the corner of Rampart and Canal. While VCPORA (Vieux Carre) supports the redevelopment of that parcel, we cannot and do not support the specifics of the plans that are under consideration. We believe that the proposed building’s design would harm the character, charm and tout ensemble of our neighborhood, but just as importantly, that approval of this plan would seriously undermine the Master Plan via a huge override of its companion Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please tell the City Council that we want to end the era of ad hoc planning and what Council President Jackie Clarkson has called the practice of developers “kissing the ring” to get what they want. Ask them respectfully to vote against this proposal by the developer of 1031 Canal.

And please try to attend the City Council meeting next Thursday, September 22. (We don't know exactly what time this matter will come up, but hope to have
a better idea by early next week and will share that with you)

Suggested email text below (feel free to edit, or to write your own)
Email addresses: afielkow@nola.gov, jbclarkson@nola.gov, kgpalmer@nola.gov, shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, chmorrell@nola.gov, jdjohnson@nola.gov, info@vcpora.org

Dear City Council Members:

I’m writing to urge you to vote against the proposal to allow a massive 190’ building at the corner of Canal and Rampart Streets.

The City Planning Commission staff’s recommendation – based on the new proposed Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) – is for a height limit of 120’ on Canal Street and 70’ on Iberville Street. An approval for anything in excess of those heights would violate the spirit and intent of the Master Plan, which was supposed to end the practice of allowing parcel-by-parcel zoning changes, ushering in an era of fairness and predictability to our land use decisions.

Citizens voted to enshrine the Master Plan in the City Charter to ensure that it could not be tinkered with. Changes, when needed, should be made to entire districts, not for individual properties and their property owners. That’s not good planning and it’s not fair.

A vote for this project would break faith with the tens of thousands of citizens who want to create a local economy driven by a strong efficient planning process.

Please, vote no to this 1031 Canal proposal – to protect the invaluable, irreplaceable French Quarter, and to demonstrate support for the Master Plan and CZO!

Regards,

PRC Great Neighborhood Celebration

2011-09-15T21:31:00.001-05:00

Houses for sale in NorthWest Carrollton.
There's something for everyone!

Great Location @ 2821 Dublin $189,995

Beautiful! Inside and Out @ 8201 Pritchard Place $389,000

For Sale By Owner @ 8211 Apricot $240,000

Work’s already Done @ 2517 Dante $169,000

Great Double @ 8132 Belfast $158,000

So much potential! @ 8309 Belfast $79,000

Short Sale @ 8315 Belfast $60,000

Pretty Inside, Great Deck @ 8517 Belfast $140,000

Huge Property … needs love! @ 2616 Joliet $29,000
JP Morgan Chase to Federal National Bank for $106,648

House & Lot in great shape @ 2505 Leonidas $169,000

Cute on the corner @ 8400 Apple $115,000

With thanks to
Ruthie Winston @ Keller Williams Realty New Orleans

504-220-4278 RWinston4@cox.net

Palmer Park Event: EACH ONE SAVE ONE Barbeque

2011-09-15T18:28:00.003-05:00

When: Saturday, September 17th

What Time: 11am-5pm

Where: Palmer Park

1st annual EACH ONE SAVE ONE Q'n for Kids BBQ Fundraiser on Saturday, September 17th, 2011.
Join in for great food, great fun, and a little competition for a great cause-presented by our sponsors EZ PARKER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q'n for Kids is a BBQ Cook Off event at New Orleans Palmer Park on September 17th to support Each One Save One, a 501c3 nonprofit charity that provides mentors to public school children in the Greater New Orleans Area.

Up to 40 Amateur BBQ teams will compete in 8 categories with trophies/prizes awarded.

This is an exclusive annual fundraiser with all profits going to Each One Save One. Sponsorships and vendors are welcome, hand selected, limited and exclusive. Amateur BBQ teams proudly compete and raise money for Each One Save One.

Local Celebrities/Chefs will judge the BBQ competition, along with the public voting for their favorite in the overall People's Choice category. Our first selected judge is Joel Moore, owner of Pop's BBQ on the Northshore. Find about more about Joel at his website, http://www.pigsfearme.com/!

General admission to the event is free for the public with unlimited BBQ sample bracelets available for just a $10 purchase good from 11am-2pm.
BBQ Team registration opens July 8th on our BBQ page at http://www.eachonesaveone.org/

Saturday, Sept. 17th: 11am-6:00pm Open to General Public Free Admission
($10 BBQ sample pass from 11am-2pm)

-Judging of the barbeque prepared by 40 amateur teams
-Competition of Best Decorations and People's Choice
-Wristbands sold to the public for $10 for unlimited BBQ samples from 11am-2pm
-Dedicated children's area with fun activities!
-Vendor booths and promotional products available
-Beer, soft drinks, water and food sold
-Entertainment
-Games and Raffles with lots of great prizes
-5PM All awards at main stage
-BBQ, Beer, & Fun...

Reported to Sewerage & Water Board

2011-09-15T13:14:00.000-05:00

We'll give S&W a month before we escalate. Feel free to report and report again.
YOU CAN make a difference.
Use this link to report S&W issues. PLEASE report the ones below again. It can't hurt!

The sidewalk is a swamp in front of 2522 S. Carrollton.

Leaking Fire Hydrant 2900 Dante @ Pritchard.

Water Leak near 8329 Apricot... Rollover curbs kill S&W infrastructure....
Parking enforcement could solve many problems.

On Joliet between 8400 & 8500 Block of Apricot.

Very similar leak on Dante between 8200 & 8300 block of Apricot.

Continuing Leak @ 2820 Leonidas

Incomplete Street Repairs on Leonidas

In the 8500 Block of Belfast

We'll give S&W a month before we escalate. Feel free to report and report again.
YOU CAN make a difference.
Use this link to report S&W issues.

Opportunities for Minority/Women Owned Businesses

2011-09-13T18:43:00.000-05:00

Local businesses can access contracts to provide products and services for the Men’s Final Four basketball tournament in 2012.

The first thing you will need to do is become certified through the City of New Orleans.

The certification process is outlined below. Presently the City’s certification process takes about 60 days provided you submit a correct, complete application. Questions? Call the Office of Supplier Diversity: 504-658-4235. The deadline to complete your registration is November 30, 2011. A complete registration means you’re business is certified as a MWBE.

Do these things:

1. Register your business with the NCAA at http://www.gnosports.com/ (you should do this immediately. As soon as you finish reading this e-mail)

2. Become certified through the City of New Orleans Office of Supplier Diversity:

http://www.nola.gov/BUSINESSES/Office-of-Supplier-Diversity/Certification-Programs-and-Applications/

Call if you have questions: 504-658-4235

3. Become certified through the Women’s Business Enterprise Council: http://www.wbecsouth.org/

Call if you have questions: 504-830-0149

4. Become certified through the Louisiana Minority Supplier Development Council: http://www.lamsdc.org/

Call if you have questions: 504-293-0400

Presently the City’s certification process takes about 60 days provided you submit a correct, complete application. Questions? Call the Office of Supplier Diversity: 504-658-4235. The deadline to complete your registration is November 30, 2011. A complete registration means you’re business is certified as a MWBE.

Free Title Clearing and More

2011-09-12T18:39:00.000-05:00

A new title clearing collaborative was recently formed by

Louisiana Appleseed, Southeast La. Legal Services.

The Pro Bono Project, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The collaborative will work together to help 400 low-income home owners in Orleans Parish clear title to their property free of charge, enabling residents to rebuild, make productive use of their land, and build wealth and assets.

The attorneys can also help with successions, property liens, blight judgments, co-owner disputes, and tax sales.

Volunteers are available to come speak to your community about property and title clearing. They will also distribute copies of Louisiana Appleseed’s “Protect Your Property” booklet and talk about how these free legal services can be accessed.

If you are interested in scheduling an outreach event for your group, please contact Jessie Haynes, Program Director of Louisiana Appleseed, at 504-561-7304 or jhaynes@appleseednetwork.org.

To learn more about the collaborative, go to www.savenolahomes.org.

This notice care of New Orleans Office of Neighborhood Engagement (ONE)

Tire Piles on Leonidas

2011-09-08T17:02:00.002-05:00

There are 2 tire piles on Leonidas

This one at 8604 Apple now sports abandoned vehicles.
Despite its Apple Street address is fronts on Leonidas

The owner of record on New Orleans Assessors Website is
Name MCKNIGHT JOHN L
Mailing Address 7808 COLAPISSA ST
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70125
Location Address 8604 APPLE ST

There is a tire pile and what appears to be an illegal business at 8539 Apple
Again this tire pile also fronts on Leonidas.
The owner of record on New Orleans Assessors Website is
Name TURNER THOMAS J
Mailing Address 2800 S CARROLLTON AV NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118

Bibleway Blight & Abandoned Cars on Apple @ Cambronne

2011-09-08T15:29:00.000-05:00

There is no license plate on this vehicle

This license plate
is on this vehicle

According to folks at the last neighborhood meeting (August 31st): These abandoned cars at the back of the lot are where guys from the neighborhood go to smoke weed. They park up against the abandoned cars so they will blend in with them. Neighbors say the cops are so used to the abandoned cars that they do not see the smoking activity. The issue has been reported to the NOPD Quality of Life Officer Eddington.

This vehicle is across the street from the empty Bibleway lot.
We've requested it be tagged and towed.

This is only one of many blighted lots in NorthWest Carrollton owned by Bibleway.
Location Address: 8325 & 8523 Apple St
Owner: Greater Bibleway Housing CDCL
Mailing Address: 2936 Joliet New Orleans, LA 70118

Old Knights of Columbus Hall on Apple Street

2011-09-08T14:55:00.001-05:00

Please see this link above FROM 2009.
This building is blighted and has been for a long time. We DO NOT WANT IT TORN DOWN!
We want it cleaned out, restored and returned to use in the neighborhood.

Please see the photos below from TODAY!

First thing that has to happen is that the House has to be sited for Blight.
Then we have to hope that someone can find the owner.
If any one knows the owner please contact us as nwcarrollton@mindspring.com
or Jeff.Hebert@cityofno.com or ejsterling@cityofno.com.

There are people interested in returning this building to commerce. But no one can find the owner!!!!

Assessor's WebSite has the following information:
Assessors Office indicates owner is Keith J SEWELL and that his Mailing Address is
c/o MS. SHEREE CAMEL
2823 DANTE ST
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118

Additionally the trailer that sits in front of this building

has also been reported to NOPD Quality of Life Officer Eddington

Invitation: Save Our Sons Crime Action Summit

2011-09-06T18:35:00.000-05:00

Invitation: Save Our Sons Crime Action Summit

Please join Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Commissioner James Carter for:

Saving Our Sons Crime Action Summit

Saturday, Sept. 17^th

10:00 – 12:00

UNO Lakefront Arena (6801 Franklin Ave.)

We must rally as a community to solve this problem. This will not be a summit of false hope and unfulfilled promises. Join me to learn how we can all take action.

All are welcome and invited. Please share the attached flier and encourage your neighborhoods, work, faith and other communities to attend. Register at: www.nola.gov/crime-summit.

Container @ Carrollton Lumber & Wrecking

2011-09-05T19:26:00.001-05:00

This container on Leonidas is only a part of the blight problem associated with Carrollton Lumber & Wrecking. The container itself is illegally parked on the street and dangerously blocks the view of traffic coming down Leonidas toward Earhart.

While having the container removed would be a step in the right direction, the blight at this location is long term and needs to be addressed.

Location Address 2920 LEONIDAS ST
Ownership Information Name PATERNOSTRO VERONICA B ET AL
Mailing Address 5819 ANNUNCIATION ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115

Container on Joliet... going on 5 years

2011-09-05T17:35:00.000-05:00

Lot with Container
Location Address 2928 JOLIET ST
Owner: TAYLOR DEBRA D C/O TYRONE DILLON
Mailing Address 2928 JOLIET ST
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70124

Note date on photo. Note visible FEMA Sidewalk repairs.

September 2011 - Please note container still in place.
What will it take to have the container and the other blight removed from this lot?

8316 Fig Street - Reporting AGAIN!

2011-09-05T16:19:00.001-05:00

PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PROPERTY!

Location Address 8316 FIG ST
Owner: EARL R HAAS JR Mailing Address 8316 FIG ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118
Property Class Residential

It is ugly no matter how you look at it.

And it's been like that a LONG time!

BibleWay Blight.... it's everywhere

2011-09-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

Grass covers sidewalk.
Empty lots do not eliminate blight they only create a different kind.

Location Address 8419 S CLAIBORNE Ave
Owner: BIBLE WAY BAPTISTCHURCH
Mailing Address 1829 HAMILTON ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118

Lot is overgrown. Sand on lot is higher than allowed by code. Sand had covered sidewalk on Fig. People are dumping on sidewalk on Fig.

Location Address 2940 JOLIET ST BIBLE WAY BAPTISTCHURCH
Mailing Address P O BOX 850341 NEW ORLEANS, LA 70185

Please note this is what the lot @ 2940 Joliet looked like after the FEMA Sidewalk repairs in 2009.
You can no longer SEE the FEMA sidewalk repairs.

Can't use the sidewalk on S. Claiborne...

2011-09-05T13:30:00.002-05:00

Lot is overgrown 8325 S CLAIBORNE AV
and the weeds block the sidewalk.

Much Better... right?

2011-09-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

These 2 houses on Fig Street were expendable.

What is there now is much better:

Tickets to be issued for creating wakes in flooded streets

2011-09-03T13:10:00.001-05:00

New Orleans Police Department Public Information Office

You Will Be Ticketed If Driving Faster Than 5-MPH On Flooded Streets in New Orleans

(September 2, 2011)- Superintendent Ronal Serpas says you will be ticketed if you choose to drive down a flooded street going faster than 5-Miles Per Hour.

When motorists make this decision, they immediately put themselves and the street’s residents at risk. The car’s engine could flood, stalling the vehicle and trapping the driver. Or, if the car exceeds 5 miles an hour, the driver might lose control of the vehicle. There’s also a possibility that the waves the car creates will seep into other residents’ cars, homes or businesses, possibly causing costly damages.

Superintendent Serpas said, “Our officers will strictly be enforcing this ordinance. Drivers who disregard it are acting irresponsibly and recklessly, and putting themselves and others in a dangerous situation. I can’t stress enough that residents should stay home during storms like this. No one should be venturing out either on foot or in their cars unless an emergency situation makes it absolutely imperative that they do so.”

A citation for violating the ordinance will cost no less than $200 in fines plus court fees. The ordinance in its entirety is below:

17271 MCS 154-404, Operation on Flooded Streets

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to operate any motor vehicle or boat on the streets, roads, highways or bridges which are flooded or inundated within this city either (i) in excess of a speed of five miles per hour or (ii) in such a manner as to cause water, waves or wakes to damage property alongside of or adjacent to such streets, roads, highways or bridges at any speed.

(b)

No person shall in any way tamper with, move, damage or destroy any barricades, signs or signals placed upon any streets, roads, highways or bridges within the city by any department of the city government or any other governmental agency in connection with any such street, road, highway or bridge being flooded or inundated, nor shall any person disobey the instructions, signals, warnings or markings of any warning sign, signal, city employee, or barricade so placed on any such street, road, highway or bridge which is flooded or inundated, unless at the time having been expressly so directed by a police officer of the state or city.

(c)

Any person may file an affidavit with the Traffic Court of New Orleans complaining of a violation of this section in accordance with City Code Section 154-142 and R.S. 13:2512.

* * * *

Superintendent Serpas would also like to reiterate that residents are allowed to park their vehicles on neutral grounds legally until the City officially announces that it is no longer legal.

The NOPD also asks the public to report malfunctioning traffic lights and high, rising waters by calling: (504)821-2222.

And, as always, in case of an emergency, please call 9-1-1.

# # #

Contact: Remi Braden

rabraden@nola.gov

New Orleans Streets to avoid in a storm

2011-09-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

New Orleans Police Department Public Information Office

Streets in Greater New Orleans Area Prone To Flooding

(September 1, 2011)- The following is a list of streets where residents have reported significant flooding during past storms. Residents are advised to stay at home during the forecasted storm unless an emergency makes it absolutely necessary for them to get on the road.

Calliope @ Claiborne towards Tchoupitoulas St

Calliope & Tchoupitoulas St On-ramps

I-10 and Tulane Exit towards Claiborne

Airline & Tulane Ave intersection

4400 Block of Washington

Washington Ave. near Xavier

All surrounding streets to St. Charles flooded, Gravier/Tulane/S Dupre, S Claiborne/Washington.

Claiborne/Orleans Ave.

S Carrollton/Palmetto

Magazine/St Mary

Broad/Louisiana Ave./S.Claiborne

Josephine/Prytania,

Earhart/Jeff Davis-Carrollton

500 blk of Lake Marina

Canal Blvd/I-10/Navarre

Erato/S Genois/City Park/Carrollton

Washington Ave. near Xavier, Washington

Gravier/Tulane/S Dupre

S Claiborne/Washington

Simon Bolivar & Calliope coming from Loyola Ave under the overpass

Poland Ave from St Claude to N. Claiborne

S. Claiborne at Joseph

Holiday to the Crescent City Connection

Shirley and DeGaulle

DeGaulle under the Westbank Expressway

NOPD August Anti-Crime Walk: Wednesday, August 31st at 6:00pm

2011-08-30T17:55:00.002-05:00

NOPD August Anti-Crime Walk: Wednesday, August 31st at 6:00 pm

Click here to see Map

Start and end at the intersection of Maple and Dublin.
On Maple to Dante St.
On Dante to Burthe St.
On Burthe to Cambronne St.
On Cambronne to Zimple St.
On Zimple to Joliet St.
On Joliet to Plum St.
On Plum to Cambronne St.
On Cambronne to Oak St.
On Oak to Dublin St.
On Dublin to Maple end of walk.
Total Distance 1.09 miles

Crime Report

2011-08-30T17:50:00.002-05:00

On August 24, 2011 Detectives conducted a follow-up investigation into an aggravated battery by shooting which occurred on August 22, 2010, in the 8400 block of Apricot. Detectives were able to identify the suspect believed to be responsible. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Reginald Saulny, black male, 7-05-1991, who is currently wanted for this offense.

The travesty of the Earhart missed opportunity

2011-08-02T17:52:00.007-05:00

Quote taken from Page 32 of the New Orleans Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan 2005

The process of creating the planning and engineering guidelines to meet the ADA requirements provides an
excellent opportunity to consider the overall quality and accessibility of the sidewalk system. The city of Portland’s influential Pedestrian Design Guide (1998) provides a strong, usable framework for understanding the basic components that help to create well-designed sidewalk corridors.

The guide identifies four basic zones of the sidewalk corridor area.
Stretching from the street to the property line, these zones are:
the curb zone, the furnishings zone, the through pedestrian zone, and the frontage zone.

The curb zone helps to define the pedestrian space by preventing cars from entering the area and helps to provide clues to help disabled citizens locate the edge of the street. The furnishings zone helps to provide a buffer for pedestrians and should be the location for any utilities, signs, or street furniture. To help create an effective buffer for pedestrians, street trees should be installed where there is proper width.
The through pedestrian zone is the place where pedestrians actually travel. If the furnishings zone was properly confi gured, there should be no obstructions in this zone.

The Portland manual has several diff erent width recommendations depending on the type of district containing the sidewalk. It, for example, recommends 8 feet widths for pedestrian districts with extra width provided for high intensity areas. Finally, the frontage zone defines the edge of the sidewalk with adjacent property. This area could have a variety of uses from a sidewalk café to a landscaped edge dividing a parking lot from the sidewalk to a place for utilities that cannot be placed in the furniture zone. While many different uses can be accommodated here, care should be taken to make sure that the through pedestrian zone is kept free of objects that can block the path.

This four-zone conception of the sidewalk area provides designers and planners with an excellent way to conceptualize this space. By placing utilities and street furniture in the proper place, a continuous area is provided for pedestrians that, if designed properly, should help to meet ADA requirements. At the same time, proper design using this four-zone conception can help to create an entire sidewalk system that encourages higher levels of walking, provides a much safer design layout, and helps to create aesthetically-pleasing, well-designed places within the city.

And taken from page 33:
While it is difficult to change the entire fabric of a community at once to conform to these design guidelines, communities are advised to identify priority areas such as high-use areas and areas around important community facilities for retrofitting projects

Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (aka CZO)

2011-08-01T06:52:00.000-05:00

The City Planning Commission has released a public review draft of a new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.

For more information or to view, visit www.cpc.nola.gov or www.nolamasterplan.org.

Note that the draft zoning maps show both existing and draft zoning.

Reporting Street Light Outages

2011-07-30T18:32:00.001-05:00

Public Works requests that everyone call Public Works’ Street Call Center to report outages.
The number is 504-658-8080.
We've been told that you'll talk to a live person to open a work order.

Pedestrian vs Car.... even when the car is parked.

2011-07-27T17:45:00.001-05:00

Quote below taken from Page 32 New Orleans Bicycle & Pedestrian Plans 2005

"The provision of a continuous sidewalk system is a crucial first step in assuring that they can successfully move within the system.

While most streets in New Orleans have sidewalks, there are some conspicuous breakages in the system
that should be addressed."

Those conspicuous breakages often take the form of cars parked across the sidewalk. This is why we consistently and continually ASK for Parking Enforcement in NorthWest Carrollton

Albert out, Montalbano in

2011-07-24T12:13:00.002-05:00

After the 2 previous Commanders - Albert was a breath of fresh air in the 2nd District.

Uptown Messager clip below
After little more than a year directing more than 100 officers in the New Orleans Police Department’s Uptown-based Second District, Commander Darryl Albert was chosen Friday as the interim replacement for a deputy chief who abruptly retired this week, authorities said.

A 20-year veteran of the department who previously led the department’s SWAT team, Albert was assigned to lead the Second District in June 2010, the only district to receive a new captain in Superintendent Ronal Serpas’ first round of departmental reorganizations. In April, he was one of 16 captains promoted to Serpas’ new classification of commander.

Lt. Mike Montalbano, Albert’s second-in-command in the Second District, will serve as the interim commander. Montalbano, who has also served in the department 20 years, has led the Second District’s investigative unit since prior to Albert’s arrival.

In the wake of Deputy Chief Marlon Defillo’s retirement Thursday following charges of neglect of duty in the death of Henry Glover, Serpas said he will continue assessing leadership in the department before making permanent appointments.

Another Times Picayune Notice on this change:
New Orleans police Superintendent Ronal Serpas on Friday named Commander Darryl Albert acting assistant superintendent, filling the department's second-highest position left vacant after the abrupt retirement of former Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo.

Defillo retired Thursday amid scrutiny of his failure to investigate allegations that police killed Henry Glover and burned his body in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Albert, who has been with the department for more than 20 years, was named 2nd District commander last June. Lt. John Montalbano, a 20-year veteran, will oversee the district, which includes Uptown, Gert Town and a portion of Hollygrove, during Albert's time at NOPD headquarters.

Serpas will evaluate assistant superintendent candidates from within the department, an NOPD spokeswoman said. Police provided no definite time frame as to when Serpas will name a permanent replacement.

Infiighting and getting nowhere

2011-07-22T20:28:00.003-05:00

And we wonder WHY the solutiuons that have seemed so obvious to so MANY for so LONG go NOWHERE. It's not the Corps in Mississippi who suffers or is affected.... it's US. The only skin the Corps has in the game is budget and power... it's our lives and livelihoods.

Taken from Times Picayune

Corps of Engineers closing Louisiana science office

A fight between the Army Corps of Engineers and the state over who controls the science governing construction of nearly $2 billion in coastal restoration projects has led the corps to order closure of the Louisiana Coastal Area Science & Technology Office by Oct. 1.

The corps is considering using the office’s unspent money to dredge sediment from the Mississippi River or repair levees damaged during this year’s flooding.

Louisiana officials say they refused to sign a cost-share agreement committing the state to pay 35 percent of the science office’s 10-year, $100 million budget, because the agreement did not allow the state to veto the office’s budget or studies the office would conduct. The corps also refused to allow the state to audit the office’s spending.

In an April 26 letter to Garret Graves, director of coastal activities for the state, Major Gen. Michael Walsh also vetoed a request by the state to approve operation of the office on a year-to-year basis.

As commander of the corps’ Mississippi Valley Division headquarters in Vicksburg, Walsh oversees all corps operations along the river, including the agency’s restoration program in Louisiana. He will soon move to the Pentagon as the Army’s deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations.

The Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Plan, approved by Congress in 2007, authorizes construction of 15 major projects, including diversions of sediment and water from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to build wetlands, and the rebuilding of several barrier islands and shorelines.

“Currently, the lack of an agreement is delaying resolution of many complicated issues for both ongoing and future projects,” Walsh said, including the ability of the state’s two rivers to provide enough sediment in the right locations to rebuild wetlands.

In a July 11 letter to Graves, Walsh said that the state’s failure to respond to the April letter left him with no choice but to order an “orderly shutdown” of the office.

“Because many proposed LCA wetland restoration projects require scientific support to demonstrate technical sufficiency, such technical efforts will now need to be funded through individual projects,” he said.

But in an interview, Graves said the state remains convinced that it has the right to control the use of science in building projects within its borders, and that the corps office has been too slow in generating reports needed to advance construction of a number of major projects, including diversions.

“They refuse to provide any type of milestones (for completion of reports), scope of services, goals to be achieved, or what the dollars would be used for,” Graves said. “And our attorney general’s office questioned whether it was even constitutional for us, as we have to show that all state money is used for the public good.”

The state also objects to the office being based in the corps’ division office in Vicksburg and its reliance on corps scientists.

“The money was all going to be spent by the corps in Mississippi,” Graves said. “We wanted Louisiana academia, which the corps was required (by the congressional authorization legislation) to consider the use of, and there’s no question that the top expertise on coastal Louisiana are our own academia at LSU, Tulane, University of New Orleans, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and to ignore that was very flawed.”

Graves said the state viewed the science program as an opportunity to build on the expertise of state scientists in coastal restoration issues that could then be used by governments around the world, “instead of paying other people to learn what our scientists already know.”

The state is working with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Greater New Orleans Inc. and the state Department of Economic Development to create a water institute that would serve the same role as the corps office, Graves said.

“We will have an independent entity that is developing science, rather than a federal agency that is looking in the mirror and saying how great they are all the time,” he said.

The state also has created its own science office in the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration.

Corps science office director Barbara Kleiss, who worked for the corps division office in Vicksburg when she took the job, said she asked at the time not to be relocated to Louisiana.

“That was discussed with the state and the state gave their permission for the position to be located in Vicksburg prior to my accepting it,” Kleiss said.

“There were discussions early on about it being in Louisiana, even discussions about it being on a specific college campus,” she said. “But early on in the process, many of the other universities objected to that, felt that was a bit of home cooking.”

The out-of-state location and use of both state and non-state scientists help keep the science objective, she said.

Meanwhile, a member of a board of nationally-recognized scientists advising the science office, expressed concern about the shut-down. “It’s not clear to me what this means for the LCA Program, but the Science Board members were disappointed and concerned to learn the news of an ‘orderly shutdown,” said John Wells, director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.

“This is the failure of a brilliant concept of having a science office that would support critically-needed science and make sure it served decision-makers and provide program accountability,” said Donald Boesch, a former member of the science board who is president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

But Boesch said it’s been clear for some time that the friction between the corps and the state could lead to the office’s demise.

“It’s like the Spruce Goose that never flew,” he said, referring to Howard Hughes’ failed flying boat transport plane after World War II. “As soon as the Jindal administration was in place, it started to develop its own science capabilities. We knew the science office was becoming irrelevant and would not do much, because the state had decided to go its own way.”

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327.

Recovery School District Johnson & Priestley School MEEETING

2011-07-17T13:01:00.001-05:00

SHORT NOTICE:

The Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School Board held a public meeting July 9 to explain a proposal to amend the current School Facility Master Plan. The current plan calls for renovating the closed Priestley site on Leonidas and moving Johnson School onto that site with a cost estimate of $23 m. The more recent proposal for the Master Plan presented July 9 is to renovate the existing Johnson site for $16 m. ($2 m. has already been spent on this site.)

A group of Carrollton people have met informally on occasion to discuss the future of the closed Priestley site and the Johnson School. This morning the group met again and agreed to the attached petition. A School District E
meeting is scheduled for Monday night - July 18th, at 6:00 P.M,
at McMain School cafeteria, corner of Claiborne and Nashville.
This is a critical meeting for our neighborhood schools.

We are asking Carrollton United people to do two things:

* Please attend the meeting Monday evening July18th. They need to hear our voices and know how much the community cares about our children’s education, starting with a safe and visible site with accessibility.

* If you are asked to sign this petition, we hope you do so.

Carrollton Neighborhood, in an effort to improve the quality of education and neighborhood viability, is proposing and supporting the move of Johnson Elementary School from the Monroe Street site to the Leonidas St. Priestley site, The move will provide greater safety, visibility, and accessibility for the children and families of the greater Carrollton area. This move will maintain the historical significance of the community framework.

Thanks so much,
Jean Fischer (861-1807)

StreetCar Shelter coming......???

2011-07-17T10:38:00.002-05:00

There is a Streetcar Shelter proposed for the neutral ground at the very end of the line (Carrollton @ Claiborne), between the bank and the park. John Klingman of the Tulane Arch. School. created the design which was recently reviewed (this June) by the RTA Board. The RTA Board approved RTA staff to solict for a construction contractor.

John Klingman jklingm@tulane.edu
John P. Klingman
Koch Professor of Architecture
Tulane University

Fred A. Basha frederick.basha@veoliatransdev.com
Veolia/RTA
Director of Infrastructure
2817 Canal St.
New Orleans, LA 70119
Phone - 504-827-8310
Cell - 504-400-6308

MAYOR LANDRIEU’S OFFICE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO HOST BUSINESS INFORMATION SESSIONS

2011-07-16T05:10:00.002-05:00

Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced that the City’s Office of Economic Development will host a series of Business Information Sessions featuring information, resources and opportunities helpful for business owners and entrepreneurs, with a meeting to be held in each City Council district.

“The success of our local small businesses is key to the strengthening of our economy and our city’s recovery,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “The goal of these information sessions is to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners to technical assistance providers and financial resources that will enable them to start or grow their businesses.”

Several City departments and external partners will participate in the sessions including
- The NOLA Business Alliance, who will speak to overall economic development efforts including luring large and retail businesses to the City. T
- The Office of Supplier Diversity will address the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.
-The Office of Cultural Economy will answer questions about permitting and incentives offered within cultural districts.
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program will explain their educational program, which recently graduated its first class of 30 small business owners.
- The Small Business Administration will provide information on the resources and support they can provide.
- JOB1 Business and Career Solutions, who will answer questions regarding training opportunities and incentive programs they offer.
- The New Orleans Fresh Food Retailer Initiative will discuss their efforts to increase access to fresh foods in traditionally underserved neighborhoods in the City in addition to providing quality employment opportunities and serving as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization.
- The World Trade Center will answer questions regarding importing and exporting.

District A Meeting will be held
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public
Thursday, July 28, 2011
JOB1, 3400 Tulane Avenue (Tulane @ Jeff Davis)

Residents or businesses seeking additional information should contact Margaret Frazier, Office of Economic Development at 504-658-4237 or mmfrazier@nola.gov

Tell the people what you WANT!

2011-07-14T19:41:00.002-05:00

Use this link to get to Neighborland and tell the people what you WANT in New Orleans.

I discovered this by reading the article below published TODAY in the Times Picayune's New Orleans Picayune

Self-help books (and industrious friends) always say the best way to reach a goal is to write it down. To-do lists and wish lists help bring dreams to life.

Now there’s an interactive website to serve that purpose for your neighborhood in New Orleans — and everyone can join in and see other people’s ideas.

Bike racks, like this one installed last year by the Young Leadership Council, are high on neighborhood wish lists.

Neighborland.org was founded by artist Candy Chang, along with brothers Dan Parham and Tee Parham, with help from Tulane University’s social entrepreneurship program.

It’s pretty simple, really. Go to the site and answer the question, “What do you want in your neighborhood?”

Here’s a sample of what New Orleanians say they want:
- A Vietnamese restaurant in Lakeview.
- A swimming pool in Faubourg Marigny.
- Canoe racks and a boathouse on Bayou St. John.
- A single-screen movie house in Mid-City.
- More bike racks everywhere.

The ideas range from the whimsical (a clocktower on Bayou St. John?) to the wonky (low-interest equity financing for home rehabilitation in St. Claude). Three people claim they would like a mall Uptown.

Website users can go to a discussion area where, for instance, they can chat about the specifics of opening a small business.

Organizers hope the notions posted at Neighborland.org will inspire entrepreneurs to, say, open a florist shop in St. Roch, or the city to improve sidewalks in the Irish Channel.

Now that the site has been up and running a while, the group wants to focus on bringing a popular idea or two closer to reality. You still have time to add your voice.

OK, as long as we’re dreaming: I want the libraries open seven days a week and late at night. I want rail transit to the suburbs so I don’t have to fight traffic on Interstate 10 or any famously long bridges. And I want kids’ splash pads with fountains, sprays and water jets in all our parks.

What do you want?

Go to Neighborland.org and chime in.

••••••••
Annette Sisco is community news editor. She can be reached at asisco@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3310.

THANK YOU ANNETTE!!!!!!!!!!!

Criminals & Pregnant Women

2011-07-12T17:14:00.000-05:00

Based on the Gambit's Scuttlebutt, it seems our governor put them in same boat.

"We already make sure criminals know thier rights. Before the people arrest someone they information them of all their rights under the law, so it is only common sense that we would do the same for women before they get an abortion. Women deserve to know their legal rights and the protections already afforded them under the law, and we are confident that the more they know, the more the they will choose life."
Gov. Bobby Jindal on July 6, as he signed into law HB636. Among its provision: clinics that perform abortions will need new signage throughout outlining "pregnancy resources"; women seeking appointments will be directed first to the state Department of Health & Hospitals "abortions alternatives" website; and any outpatient abortion facility that has a nonphysicin performing abortions can have its license revoked by the state.

The Budget Breakdown....this week on Canal Streeet

2011-07-11T18:49:00.000-05:00

Your City, Your Money – Who Decides?

GET INVOLVED IN THE CITY’S NEW BUDGETING PROCESS

“The Budget Breakdown”

Citizen Training On The City’s New Budget Process

Wednesday, July 13^th, 6-8pm

Grace Episcopal Church

3700 Canal St.

Conducted by Bob Rhoden, former Commissioner of Criminal Justice and Finance Department staffer

Presented by the New Orleans Coalition on Open Governance

Free and Open to the Public

Pre-register by calling (504) 940-2207 or emailing nolacpp@gmail.com

The City of New Orleans’ new budget process calls for public input on how your tax dollars are going to be spent across six priority areas: Public Safety, Children & Families, Economic Development, Sustainable Communities, Open & Effective Government, and Innovation.

Tell them what you think about COX

2011-07-10T18:56:00.000-05:00

Cable Franchise Survey Will Be Closing Soon

“The City Council Cable, Telecommunications, and Technology Committee, is overseeing the renewal process for the current Orleans Parish Cable Television Franchise which is up for renewal this year. Citizens are encouraged to participate in a survey prepared to help the City Council evaluate the performance of Cox Communications, the current cable television provider for Orleans Parish.

We want to hear from citizens. Our public engagement process will include an online survey and public hearings. I am asking all my constituents to take a moment to answer the online survey. Please note that this survey will be closing on Tuesday July 12.

You can participate in public hearings by attending the Cable and Telecommunications Committee meetings to be held in the Council Chambers at 10am on the following Mondays: August 22, and September 26.

Cox has a non-exclusive franchise to operate in Orleans Parish. The non-exclusive franchise was initially granted in the mid-1980s and renewed in 1995. Federal law governs cable television franchises and designates citizen input as a step in the local renewal process. The public input gathered will be used in the renewal evaluation process. Federal law does not allow the City Council to set subscriber rates; therefore the Council has no influence over a Cox subscriber's monthly bill.

For additional information, visit http://www.nolacitycouncil.com/."

Thank you for your cooperation,
Susan G. Guidry

8425 Apple - denied

2011-06-21T12:38:00.002-05:00

Neighborhoods are about houses & people more than they are about empty lots.

Empty lots are their own kind of Blight.

We are glad this property is still in tack. Demolition denied by NCDC on June 20th.

But how interesting the demolition request of 2 properties (in even better shape) was denied
and then approved with City Council gushing over the owner and yet the remaining lot still sits empty.

City Council Redistricting... No change (currently) for NorthWest Carrollton

2011-06-21T07:16:00.000-05:00

Take a look at the Redistricting Plans and Meetings

It looks like NorthWest Carrollton will stay in District A no matter what.

BUT if you really *like* attending public meetings then use the link above to see where they will all be held. You never know when things can change.

Thank You Blake Pontchartrain

2011-06-19T07:53:00.000-05:00

Hey Blake,
I was wondering if you had any information on the two large lions on pedestals on Pritchard Place at Carrollton Avenue. Can you tell me when they were placed there and why? Who was Pritchard anyway?
Jenel

Blake responded in the May 31,2011 Gambit... exerpted below.
"Dear Jenel,
The Pritchard Place subdivision was developed in 1913 and was so named because it was an extension of Pritchard Street, which already existed. Pritchard Street was named for R.O. Pritchard, a businessman who developed the luxurious Verandah Hotel in 1838 on the corner of St. Charles Avenue and Common Street. The hotel cost $300,000 to build; it was destroyed by fire in 1855.

A large ad in the newspaper in 1913 advertised the Pritchard Place neighborhood and showed a picture of the lions that would be placed at the front entrance to guard it. The Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite Company was contracted to carve the lions from Bedford stone.

Residential development had taken off in the Carrollton area, and the developers of Pritchard Place, the Hopkins-Rhodes Company, described it as an "ideal location for your home within easy access to the best car line in the city and only fifteen minutes from Canal Street."

About 15 years later the lions of Pritchard Place were famous, at least locally. Folks who had cars loved a Sunday drive, and the newspaper ran an article suggesting places to go on drives around the city. The lions were on the list. They were in the paper again in 1930, but this time they were portrayed as "extreme traffic menaces." The article pointed out that when the lions were placed on their pedestals, there were so few automobiles that no thought was given to a potential traffic problem. However, drivers emerging from Pritchard Place in 1930 were at risk when they tried to turn onto Carrollton Avenue because the giant lions blocked the view of oncoming traffic. Accidents had occurred, with one near fatality.

In 1999, a car crashed into one of the lions and knocked it onto the sidewalk. After much "roaring" from the folks in the neighborhood, then-state Rep. Alex Heaton and Sheriff Charles Foti restored the lion to its pedestal."

Extend Bike Lanes down Carrollton Ave.

2011-06-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

For too many years biking in New Orleans has been focused on RECREATIONAL Biking.
It's time to make it MORE about getting from Point A to Point B.

"For us to say we're successful is to really build the commuting population," says Robert Mendoza, the city's director of Public Works. "If we don't get to that, I don't know we'll be able to say we were successful in doing this."

The challenge now? "The name of the game is increasing connectivity," MBC director Wine says. Finding ways to connect bike lanes to other bike lanes means giving cyclists a place to go once they've arrived at their destination. There are bike paths in Mid-City near Bayou St. John, but how does the city connect those to Carrollton Avenue in Uptown? And from there to St. Charles Avenue? Streetcars and buses have similar budgetary and geographic gaps, but bikes have a bigger obstacle: bad roads.
"I get calls: 'Why does it stop there, why not continue on?'" Ruley says. "The reality is we don't want to direct people to potholes."

Well now that Carrollton is repaved it seems a PERFECT TIME to extend the bike lane from where it ends at Carrollton & Claiborne on toward City Park & the Lake.

FRIDAY'S are Recycling Day in NorthWest Carrollton

2011-05-28T12:27:00.002-05:00

the City did not make a pick up the 1st Friday in May... but has every Friday since.

YOU ARE PAYING for this service whether you USE it or not.
So... we recommend... Using it!

Register for your recycling bins by clicking the link below
http://www.nola.gov/en/RESIDENTS/Department-Of-Sanitation/CartRegistration

You just type in your address and the bin is delivered.

Here's what you can put in the bin:

•Paper products including office paper, newspapers and color inserts, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, paperboard boxes (including cereal boxes, 12-pack soft drink boxes) telephone books, shredded paper

•Plastic containers coded #1 through #7 (water, soda, juice bottles, etc.), plastic pots from nurseries, plastic bags

•Aluminum cans, Steel Ferrous metal food containers & lids)

•Cardboard

•Boxboard (Examples: cereal, food, detergent, paper egg cartons)

•Waxed cartons (Examples: juice boxes and milk cartons)

Youth Walk against Violence

2011-05-28T12:21:00.002-05:00

The Carrollton Community
"Youth Walk Against Violence & Tent Gathering"

"HARRELL PARK"
Saturday, May 28, 2011 - (9am - 3pm)

FREE, FOOD, FUN, & MUSIC

WANT A BETTER COMMUNITY - SEE YOU THERE
Event Walk Time in Community 12noon - 1:30pm

Take a look at last year event!!!
http://www.wdsu.com/news/24211607/detail.html
People, Taking Ownership!!!

Kaboom in Palmer Park

2011-05-19T10:28:00.001-05:00

From: communications@ppnanola.org
Subject: All you want to know about the park...

Date: May 18, 2011 2:59 PM
Dear Neighbors,

Palmer Park is going to get a HUGE face lift on Sunday, June 5th .
The project includes:
- a 2,500 sq ft Kaboom! playground with swings
- 15 New park benches
- New Landscaping
- The cleaning and painting of the grand arch
- Painting and repair of the flag pole with new flags and hardware
- Repairing, cleaning and staining of all the wood Bollards
- Painting of all the black lamp posts
- Multiple Dog waste stations
- New Trash/recycling containers throughout the park
- Directional signage
and more....

We need volunteers!!!!

Aside from the actual build day on June 5th, there is also a Prep Day on Friday, June 3rd. On Prep Day there will be power tools involved, cutting wooden pieces to size, etc. It is an essential day for making sure everything is there, getting it sorted into packets for about 20 teams to assemble different parts of the playground and various side projects. Also in the 2 weeks left leading up to the build day there is much to be planned. If anyone feels they could be helpful in one of the following areas, we can connect them with that committee's chair:
- Food (attaining food, water, utensil donations for breakfast and lunch on build and prep days)
- Recruitment/Registration (what this email is all about)
- Construction (obtain tools, head up a build day crew, building permits)
- Logistics (secure port-a-potties, water source, trash/recycling, tables, tents, parking, electrical, etc.)
- Youth Involvement (get kids involved in lead-up time as well as build day activities, obtain necessary materials)
- Safety & Maintenance (first aid, safety training & equipment, develop maintenance plan)
- PR/Web Outreach (Recruit music, photographer, PA system, VIPs; Develop PR release, opening/closing ceremonies, Kaboom! website)
- Green (recycling, compost of food, leftovers donations)
AND of course anything else you can think of is a welcome addition to this major group effort.

Please let us know the extent to which you would like to get involved. No effort is too small.

The email kaboompalmerpark@yahoo.com is the best way to reach the project captains.

In addition to the above information please read below info from Erin Ribka (Project lead) explaining the placement of the play-set in case of any concern...

Regarding the placement of the play-set, the only public input was on the design of the playset itself. Early in the process, Anne and I spoke with Ann Macdonald (Director) and Hailey Bowen (Chief Landscape Architect) of Parks and Parkways regarding the placement of the playground and other potential "side projects". It may seem harsh, but there was no public input into siting the playset. The placement was at the discretion of Parks and Parkways. Two years ago, when the park was first being considered for one of the Allstate playground grants, the placement of the playground was a potential deal killer; the Allstate folks insisted, for safety reasons, that a new playset needed to be placed on the Sycamore side of the park, in the location where the new slab has been placed. It is my understanding that Parkways was convinced of the wisdom of this plan and when the KaBOOM! project presented itself, the decision was to maintain that site plan. The old equipment has been removed and Parkways is working to get the old concrete slabs removed as well. Those areas will then receive some fill and hydroseed to maintain large green spaces in place of the old playsets.

As you know, the timeline on this project has been significantly compressed. I found out about the opportunity at the end of January, the application was submitted March 18 and we were awarded a June 5 build on Thursday, April 14. In the 2-3 weeks immediately preceeding the award, we worked to establish a planning committee of approximately 20 people, at least half of them parents, to help with the bulk of the planning process. We reached out through neighborhood e-mail blasts and personal connections to drum up interest and support. Once we were awarded the project, we had less than 4 days to pull together a Design Day meeting of 20-30 adults and approximately 20-30 children, held at the KIPP: Believe school on Monday, April 18. Design Day is the kickoff to every KaBOOM! project and the first (and in our case, only) major public meeting. Again, we reached out through e-mail to acheive the necessary numbers of adults and children for that meeting. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the people who participated in Design Day were those who had already self identified as interested in the process and committed to participating in the planning committee. At that meeting there was an overview of KaBOOM! and how builds happen (in one day!); kids drew pictures of and talked about their dream playgrounds and what they wanted in them; adults then got together to discuss all the different moving parts and committees necessary to make this project successful and at the end, we poured over dozens of pictures of playground equipment and came up with a list of things we "had to have", "did not want to have" and "liked". These ideas were compiled by the KaBOOM! project manager and submitted to Playworld Systems, the manufacturer of the equipment. Their playground designers fashioned 3 different playgrounds for us to choose from. Those 3 designs were then sent to everyone who had been present at the Design Day as well as e-mail blasted again to the surrounding neighborhood organizations. We also asked for recipients to share the designs with neighbors and friends and solicit input. We had 48 hours to choose; voting was done by e-mail and the results were tallied. There was (thankfully) a single, clear winner.

It has been my intention throughout this process to involve as many people as possible and to achieve a fair representation of the neighborhood. I know that we have not been as successful in that regard as I might have hoped. While I know also that we will never make 100% of folks happy 100% of the time, I am confident that we have done what we could in the time available to engage as many people as want to be involved in the process.

I know this is wordy - sorry! Just trying to be thorough....

e

New Orleans 2nd Best Big City for Jobs in the US

2011-05-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Take a look folks....

http://blogs.forbes.com/joelkotkin/2011/05/02/the-best-cities-for-jobs/

It's true....

Future of I-10/Claiborne Expressway

2011-05-09T21:20:00.002-05:00

Dear Resident of the New Orleans Metro Area:

We want your opinions on the future of the Claiborne Expressway/I-10 corridor. Please complete the following online survey, which should take approximately 5 minutes.

http://neworleans.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d40GlxjIQt3kiQ4

Please forward this survey to your friends, family and colleagues as the more people that complete this survey, the more valuable the results will be for guiding the future of New Orleans.

Sincerely,

Transportation Studies Program
University of New Orleans

Overflow Parking Options

2011-04-25T03:00:00.000-05:00

Red Crosshatching shows where Rock'n'Bowl overflow parking could be located.

The lot behind the AutoZone is owned by AutoZone and used and maintained by Landis. NorthWest Carrollton researched ownership and contacted AutoZone Corporate Headquarters. Headquarters didn't realize that this lot had not been sold when the block was subdivided. As soon as they were made aware they took care of the debris and have worked with our commerical neighbors Landis to maintain it. We very much appreciate their quick and ongoing response. Landis supports NorthWest Carrollton's neighborhood watch by sponsoring our Neighborhood Watch.

The lot in front of Helm Paint & Lighting Inc. is not used at night and already provides overflow parking.

Eggler & the Demo Diva

2011-04-23T20:23:00.000-05:00

Take a look at the article in today's Times Picayune by Bruce Eggler reporting on the ugliness that was the Demo Diva's radio show.

The people who serve on the NDCD deserve better than Simone has. But she does make her money tearing things down. I guess that goes for people and processes as well as houses.

Tear down duplexes for green space

2011-04-23T17:11:00.001-05:00

WWL Reporting on NorthWest Carrollton. See full article below.
Rock 'n' Bowl owner looks to tear down duplexes for 'parking, green space'
Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News

"Within one city block at S. Carrollton Ave. and Earhart Blvd. sits a bowling alley, a restaurant, several other structures-- and two duplexes."

"If you took New Orleans and shook it up in a can, you would have this neighborhood," said Jenel Hazlett, president of the Northwest Carrollton Civic Association.

The civic association has come out against the proposed demolition of the duplexes, which are located in the 8100 block of Fig Street.

"Every house in the historic neighborhood is precious to us," Hazlett said.

Kaboom @ Palmer Park

2011-04-23T09:55:00.002-05:00

Palmer Park is going to get a HUGE, kid-friendly face lift on
Sunday, June 5th
with a 2,500 sq ft Kaboom! playground with swings.

We need volunteers to assemble the playground equipment as well as team captains for Build Day to keep a crew of well-intentioned people assigned to a particular part of the playground organized. Aside from the actual build day on June 5th,

there is also a Prep Day on Friday, June 3rd. On Prep Day there will be power tools involved, cutting wooden pieces to size, etc. It is an essential day for making sure everything is there, getting it sorted into packets for about 20 teams to assemble different parts of the playground. Also in the 6 weeks leading up to the build day there is much to be planned. If anyone feels they could be helpful in one of the following areas, we can connect them with that committee's chair:

Food (attaining food, water, utensil donations for breakfast and lunch on build and prep days)
Recruitment/Registration (what this email is all about)
Construction (obtain tools, head up a build day crew, building permits)
Logistics (secure port-a-potties, water source, trash/recycling, tables, tents, parking, electrical, etc.)
Youth Involvement (get kids involved in lead-up time as well as build day activities, obtain necessary materials)
Safety & Maintenance (first aid, safety training & equipment, develop maintenance plan)
PR/Web Outreach (Recruit music, photographer, PA system, VIPs; Develop PR release, opening/closing ceremonies, Kaboom! website)
Green (recycling, compost of food, leftovers donations)

AND of course anything else you can think of is a welcome addition to this major group effort.

Please let us know the extent to which you would like to get involved. No effort is too small.
The email kaboompalmerpark@yahoo.com is the best way to reach the project captains.

This Kaboom! build is being sponsored by Disney, the Points of Light Institute, the Friends of Palmer Park, and the City of New Orleans Department of Parks and Parkways.

Fair... it's what everyone wants: Fair and Consistent

2011-04-22T08:04:00.000-05:00

Stupid parking rules only enforced in select locations or at select times of year are a problem all over the city, not just around the Fairgrounds. Fair consistent parking enforcement for all, that's what we deserve. If you live around the Fairgrounds and you know that there will be parking craziness and you know one of the ways the city tries to help *you* is with a residential permit. Just get one and work to make sure that the process to allow you to apply and renew is efficient. At least you have parking enforcement. Our curbs and sidewalks are being slowly demolished by illegal parking and parking enforcement is more like a Christmas present than normal city services.

Selective enforcement of parking restrictions isn't fair: A letter to the editor
Published: Friday, April 15, 2011, 5:06 AM

Jazz Fest is right around the corner. Parking is going to be hectic for residents. Why is residential street parking in the area surrounding the Jazz Fest only enforced during the festival weekends?

No one in City Hall follows up on whether residents are purchasing the required permits to allow for street parking. I know this for a fact. Yet the ticket writers are out in force for the two weekends of Jazz Fest writing tickets.

This is unfair ticketing, and if residents are not supporting the program by purchasing the required yearly permits, then the signs should be removed, and the two-hour parking limits should be eliminated.

Garmanne Mack
New Orleans

Heal the Wounds avoid Permanent Scars

2011-04-21T22:02:00.004-05:00

Quotes from a comment from an article on The Lens

"Blighted property are open wounds, but a razed lot is a permanent scar."

"Each razed house is a lost opportunity."

Jose Fernandes says:
April 20, 2011 at 12:06 pm
"I moved back to New Orleans in December 2010 after 5 years living in Europe. I stayed for the storm and left 4 days later. I’m buying a house in bad shape to renovate, but Im buying it cheap. I want to buy more houses for rentals. Katrina was the biggest disaster we’ve had in New Orleans and it will take many years to heal. Blighted property are open wounds, but a razed lot is a permanent scar. The city’s blight czar’s first obligation should have been to connect and facilitate the communication between State and Federal programs for rehabilitation, the owners of blighted property, people like me that are returning and the providers of rehab services such as construction, architectural and lending institutions that are geared towards this particular market. It should grab the opportunity of the channelling of millions of dollars of rehab into the city which would promote jobs in the area and spiral up the redevelopment of the area. Many people like me are returning to buy and renovate. The city needs more time to allow people to return. Each razed house is a lost opportunity. We have an unique character and we need to fight to preserve it. It is the basis for our strength.
My heart hurts."

Mr. Fernandez we understand.... come take a look at NorthWest Carrollton.... we'd love to have you in our neighborhood.

Meeting @ Incarnate Word

2011-04-20T19:00:00.003-05:00

Neighborhood Meeting
Wednesday @ 7 o'clock in the evening
April 20th, 2011

Incarnate Word School
8326 Apricot

Agenda

• Return of Polling Location to Incarnate Word
• Neighborhood Watch – Abandoned Cars
• Proposed Fig Street Demolitions
• Earhart Construction Debris Pickup
• Tree Planting November 12th
• S & W repairs, complaints
• Help registering for recycling (you’re paying for it)
• Recent Road Home Property Sales

Come meet your neighbors and
share your questions & concerns
Please encourage your neighbors to attend

New Blight Rules ???

2011-04-19T16:42:00.001-05:00

Jennifer Farwell, president of the Mid-City Neighborhood Association, urged a more public process. She said community stakeholders should have a chance to weigh in, in case the city is considering forgiving a lien on a property whose owner has a history of shirking responsibility.

She also bemoaned the city's propensity for forgiving liens so blighted houses can be purchased and simply demolished.

"Vacant lots do not revitalize this city," she said.

We agree. Read the full article using this link

Beauty in the built environment

2011-04-18T22:41:00.000-05:00

From Keep America Beautiful

America's cities and towns are being transformed by visionary community leaders who recognize the value of beautification to attract residents, draw tourism, sustain economies, and repel the elements of blight and decay.

Incorporating visual beauty into public spaces has proven to be an effective method for raising property values, reducing crime, enhancing the local economy, and improving public health. KAB affiliates incorporate a variety of practices that create and enhance their communities, including:

Graffiti prevention and removal
Creating community gardens
Tree planting and urban forestry initiatives
Building parks and greenspaces
Litter and illegal dump cleanups
Enhancing public spaces

Facts... too many people don't worry about the facts

2011-04-16T18:05:00.008-05:00

Read the article from TP on the demolition of houses used in TREME promo

Then read all the trash talking, non fact based, nonsense written on Nola.com. And remember why you stopped reading the comments. It seems that the folks who post comments are the folks with uneducated opinions... nee prejudices.

But David Simon gets it and he gets us when he says:
"they (are) genuinely reflective of the local architecture
that is so threatened by such widespread damage and disrepair"

"For years now, one of the fascinating thing for me is how progress in a city as vibrant and as essential as New Orleans always comes so slowly, or not at all. Why is it that consortiums and consensus-building and cooperation are all so elusive? Well, after being tossed between the mayor, preservations, reporters and the generalized and absurd resentments and suspicions of many ordinary New Orleanians yesterday, I am beginning to see more of the light."

Yes Mr. Simon and it might be a train but those of us who love New Orleans have to stand and fight. We have to use the facts, like you did in you comments, to fight the good fight and hope for processes that support the long term vision of a city that honors its past and builds (or rebuilds) its future. Uneducated, intentionally ignorant idiots aside. Believe it or not some things are better but the good fight is still ahead of us. So many New Orleanians are proud to have you among us.

And remember the truth will set you free.

Click here and scroll down to read Mr. Simon's Comment in full.

Water Leak - 8300 Block of Apricot @ Dante

2011-04-16T14:55:00.004-05:00

A huge repair job was completed a few months ago in the 8200 Block of Apricot....
unfortunately as soon as this job finished
up a new leak popped up in the street.

Abandoned Car 8200 Block Fig

2011-04-16T14:46:00.001-05:00

This car has been here no less than 4 months.... NOPD please take it away...

THANKS!

8200 Block of Fig Sewerage & Water Board issues

2011-04-16T11:50:00.004-05:00

First issue - 8200 Block of Fig @ Dublin
Dangerous Hole - accident waiting to happen

Water Meters Leaking @ 8212 Fig Street

Water Meters Leaking @ 8228 Fig Street

Something serious is definitely going on in the 8200 Block of Fig.

Redistricting City Council Representation

2011-04-14T23:27:00.003-05:00

Taken from:
http://uptownmessenger.com/2011/04/36-hours-uptown-redistricting-comes-to-city-council/

With new district lines now drawn for state House and Senate seats, the New Orleans City Council will be the next governing body to participate in the redistricting process, and a town hall meeting has been scheduled for Thursday evening to introduce residents to the process.

Although Uptown’s post-Katrina population shifts were not as dramatic as elsewhere in the city, some of its council representation could still be subject to change. Susan Guidry’s District A, which stretches from Lakeview to Mid-City down to the Audubon neighborhoods, will have to be reduced by greater than 10 percent from its current population of 77,166. Stacy Head’s District B, which runs from Uptown to the Central Business District, has a population of 70,903 — the closest of any of the districts to the new target of 68,768 — but may have to shift to accommodate the more dramatic population changes in neighboring District C and possibly also District D.

The city is also planning a series of meetings to gather input about the process within in each district.

The meetings in District “A” are scheduled for:
Monday May 9th at Rogers Chapel, 1229 Broadway
Thursday May 12th at 1st Baptist Church 5920 Canal Blvd

3 Houses sell in NorthWest Carrollton

2011-04-13T16:54:00.001-05:00

2500 JOLIET - HOUSE - WITHDRAWN - NOT SOLD
8237-39 APRICOT - HOUSE - 2010 Damage Est 43.12% - Sale Price $40,000
8505 PRITCHARD PLACE - HOUSE 2010 Damage Est 33.93% - Sale Price $49,000
8518-20 PRITCHARD PLACE - HOUSE - 2010 Damage Est 53.91% - Sale Price $41,000

Read the article from the Times PicayuneBrisk sales of abandoned properties at recent New Orleans Redevelopment Authority auction
Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 11:44 AM
Updated: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 5:18 PM
By Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune

Here are a few quotes:
"...the latest bulk sale aimed to unload the most desirable NORA-held properties -- many of them designated as historic -- across neighborhoods where the real-estate market has been humming..."

"With 537 bidders registered and 94 bids accepted, NORA and city officials and even the auctioneer who ran the sale have trumpeted the single-day effort as a sign that interest in restoring dilapidated properties remains strong in a city where one in four housing units is blighted or vacant.

Total bids exceeded $3.5 million."

"NORA officials and preservationists noted that parcels that included structures drew strong demand, calling into question the wisdom of widespread demands for NORA to raze most storm-damaged buildings. Those calling for demolition theorized that vacant lots would generate more interest from buyers and would not scar the landscape as badly as vacant, boarded-up homes."

View Auction Action in a larger map

Green: Property sold at or above appraised value
Yellow: Property sold below appraised value Red: Property didn't sell
"There was a huge tidal wave of people pushing to demolish" all of the properties NORA acquired through the Road Home, Sathe said. "But these properties are so much more marketable with structures."

"The presence of salvageable structures, especially ones with historic character, on those lots could create a modest windfall for the city, while boosting the chances that the parcels will be returned to commerce over the long haul, Tipper said."

"Brad Vogel, of the local office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, pointed out that several homes that sold at the NORA auction for around $30,000 apiece resemble in condition and location other buildings that have been authorized for demolition.

"If a better effort were made to market some of the properties that are going through to demolition, I think you would see more people looking to snap those up," Vogel said.

In addition to maintaining the architectural fabric of neighborhoods, Vogel said saving historically significant abandoned properties from the wrecking ball also increases the chances that a lot ultimately will house an inhabited building again.

Particularly in the city's oldest neighborhoods, tearing down homes leaves slender parcels. "It's just harder to get people to want to build a new house in a old narrow lot, but the historic charm of the old house often overcomes the narrowness of the old narrow lot," he said."

House Moving ... it's been done before

2011-04-12T20:43:00.004-05:00

Lest anyone think that house moving is a strange and new thing to think about....

In February 2007 due the voices coming from NorthWest Carrollton a house on Dublin @ Earhart

was moved less than 10 blocks

to 7213 Pritchard Place @ Broadway

Beautiful!

This is why we think the moving the Fig Street houses across the street is possible and much preferable to demolition.

Palm Air Crime Meeting @ Hollygrove Market & Farm

2011-04-12T20:35:00.002-05:00

While we haven't see a rash of crimes in NorthWest Carrollton apparently our neighbors in Palm Air have.

URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! Palm Air Neighborhood Meeting

TOPIC: RASH OF CRIMES IN AREA & THE LONDON LODGE MOTEL

SPEAKER: COMMANDER DEAN 3RD DISTRICT/Councilperson Guidry Rep. Sterling

When: Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2011

Where: Hollygrove Market & Farm
8301 Olive Street
New Orleans, La. 70118
(@ Carrollton Post Office and turn right on Olive)

Time: 7:00 pm

Come and voice your concerns about the wave of crime in the area!!!!!

Redistricting Meetings

2011-04-12T19:39:00.000-05:00

Councilmember Guidry requests that you notify your neighbors and members about
this Thursday’s important meeting on City Council redistricting
that will be held in the City Council Chamber from 6pm until 7:30pm.
This meeting begins the process of informing and advising the public on the required redistricting process. It will be an informational meeting, to address the population of the City as a whole, and provide information about the necessary shifts to equalize population among the five districts for the next ten years.

Each District Councilmember identified two locations to host public meetings within current boundaries. For your convenience, all district meetings are listed at the bottom of this email, and all meetings will be held from 6pm until 7:30pm.

The meetings in District “A” are scheduled for:
Monday May 9th at Rogers Chapel, 1229 Broadway
Thursday May 12th at 1st Baptist Church 5920 Canal Blvd

Preservation reaps benefits: A letter to the editor

2011-04-11T23:00:00.003-05:00

From the Times Picayune
Published: Monday, April 11, 2011, 1:59 AM
If you believe in "teachable moments," then one is certainly going on right here, right now. It has to do with economic development.

The Times-Picayune recently reported on the woes of District E Councilmember Jon Johnson, who can't get a decent grocery store to move into his modern suburban-style district.

Meanwhile across town on old timey Magazine Street, his District A counterpart Susan Guidry is busy quelling a pitched battle between salivating developers and nearby residents over a big-box Walgreens and an expansion of Whole Foods' hours and deliveries.

The lesson here? Preservation is apparently good for business.
Homework assignment for city leaders: zealously revive and protect your old neighborhoods.

Owen Joyner
New Orleans

Keep America Beautiful - Volunteer Opportunity

2011-04-11T22:33:00.003-05:00

The City of New Orleans is proud to announce the formation of Keep New Orleans Beautiful (KNOB), an affiliate organization of Keep American Beautiful (KAB) and Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB).
Keep America Beautiful and its affiliate organizations follow a practical approach that unites citizens, businesses and government to find solutions that
prevent litter,
reduce waste,
and beautify communities.

Keep New Orleans Beautiful as a KAB affiliate organization, renders the City of New Orleans eligible for numerous grant opportunities and gives us a proven arsenal for further reducing blight and a vehicle for engaging citizens to effectively participate in neighborhood improvement efforts.

KNOB is a private-public partnership between many different City, State and Federal agencies, corporations, small businesses, community groups and individuals of our area.

One of the tools we will be using for Keep New Orleans Beautiful (KNOB) is the Litter Index, a statistically reliable tool for evaluating the amount of litter in selected areas. Conducting the Litter Index involves sending teams of volunteers to visually assess preselected sub-areas of the City. We are looking for 50 volunteers (over age 18) to assist us in this undertaking. We plan to have a brief 30 minute training on the day of assessment and then send volunteers out in groups of 3-5 to conduct the assessments. At least one volunteer in each assessment group must provide their own vehicle to conduct the assessments.

We plan to hold the first round of assessments on Saturday April 16th from 1-5pm. Please contact Dani Levine at dzlevine@nola.gov or 504-658-4071 if you are interested in participating. Please indicate in your email whether you have your own vehicle and how many passengers you can hold.