On 02-08-09, at approximately 5:57am, the victim heard a loudbang on the front door. The victim then walked outside, that’s when a black male came out of the alley house pointing a gun at the victim. The suspect asked the victim's name, the victim reponded and the suspect left the scene. The suspect was known by the victim and was positively identified a short time later as the pertrator. A warrant for Brandon Plains (black male,11-10-83, 6' weighing 140lbs) has been issued.
If you have information on the whereabouts on this person please call 911 or notify CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.
Remember to report any suspicious persons or activities you see in your neighborhood by calling 821-2222. In an emergency, call 911 immediately. Comments regarding crime acitivities in NorthWest Carrollton can also be left as comments on any Neighborhood Watch post.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Health Care & Heritage - A Forum
Free and Open to the Public
A Forum for developing the best possible Medical Center for New Orleans
Organized by the Louisiana Landmarks Society and the Preservation Resource Center
When: February 9th, 2009 7:30PM
Where: Preservation Resource Center, 923 Tchoupitoulas St
A Forum for developing the best possible Medical Center for New Orleans
Organized by the Louisiana Landmarks Society and the Preservation Resource Center
When: February 9th, 2009 7:30PM
Where: Preservation Resource Center, 923 Tchoupitoulas St
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Louisiana Healthcare Policy - NOT
New Orleans City Council rejects healthcare discrimination - See it on YouTube!
On December 18, 2008, the New Orleans City Council unanimously rejected Louisiana healthcare policy which discriminates against elderly and disabled poor people in New Orleans and elsewhere.
See how Louisiana healthcare policy:
- decreases healthcare access and increases disparities in health care,
- disproportionately harms elderly African Americans, as well as the mentally & physically disabled,
- makes it illegal for poor Medicare beneficiaries to receive the same benefits as wealthy beneficiaries, even though everyone paid taxes and purchased the same Medicare benefits.
- heightens New Orleans mental health crisis.
- causes a doctor drain out of poor neighborhoods.
- penalizes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes more than 60 other parishes.
- harms 108,000 elderly and disabled people in Louisiana and 5 million people across the United States.
National Coalition for Dually Eligible People
Sheldon Hersh, MD, President
On December 18, 2008, the New Orleans City Council unanimously rejected Louisiana healthcare policy which discriminates against elderly and disabled poor people in New Orleans and elsewhere.
See how Louisiana healthcare policy:
- decreases healthcare access and increases disparities in health care,
- disproportionately harms elderly African Americans, as well as the mentally & physically disabled,
- makes it illegal for poor Medicare beneficiaries to receive the same benefits as wealthy beneficiaries, even though everyone paid taxes and purchased the same Medicare benefits.
- heightens New Orleans mental health crisis.
- causes a doctor drain out of poor neighborhoods.
- penalizes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes more than 60 other parishes.
- harms 108,000 elderly and disabled people in Louisiana and 5 million people across the United States.
National Coalition for Dually Eligible People
Sheldon Hersh, MD, President
New Orleans Crime Watch - Thank you Brian
See Brian Denzer's latest Email on New Orleans Crime Watch
Really an ordinance is required so that the city will make contracts available as public records?
What a shame that this true.
And straight from Brian's Crime Watch Letter
"Cerasoli Rex
Fare well Robert Cerasoli, but this is not good bye:
Sure, there’s more work to do. We wouldn’t have you do it all by yourself. We have to take responsibility for our own destiny. What we needed, you gave us — an example to lead us, a path to follow, a goal to achieve.
We won’t forget you, because we expect you to beat your health problems, and to return as an honored New Orleanian.
After his health improves, which krewe will be the first to crown Robert Cerasoli for his dedication to getting the inspector general’s office set up?"
Here, here! Which Krewe indeed. Bob deserves it!
Really an ordinance is required so that the city will make contracts available as public records?
What a shame that this true.
And straight from Brian's Crime Watch Letter
"Cerasoli Rex
Fare well Robert Cerasoli, but this is not good bye:
Sure, there’s more work to do. We wouldn’t have you do it all by yourself. We have to take responsibility for our own destiny. What we needed, you gave us — an example to lead us, a path to follow, a goal to achieve.
We won’t forget you, because we expect you to beat your health problems, and to return as an honored New Orleanian.
After his health improves, which krewe will be the first to crown Robert Cerasoli for his dedication to getting the inspector general’s office set up?"
Here, here! Which Krewe indeed. Bob deserves it!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
1st day of Volunteer Work @ Leonidas House
What: 1st day of Volunteer Work @ Leonidas House
When: Saturday, February 7th from 9AM - 4PM
Where: 1407 Leonidas (corner of Willow & Leonidas)
Why: to remove debris and recycable materials, uncover original architectural features (bead board walls & ceiling) chip away old paint and continue to build community in the Carrollton Area.
When: Saturday, February 7th from 9AM - 4PM
Where: 1407 Leonidas (corner of Willow & Leonidas)
Why: to remove debris and recycable materials, uncover original architectural features (bead board walls & ceiling) chip away old paint and continue to build community in the Carrollton Area.
Monday, February 2, 2009
NorthWest Carrollton Homes Eligible for Rebuilding Together Assistance
If you are a homeowner who still needs assistance to finish rebuilding your house, Rebuilding Together New Orleans may be able to help you. Only if you live in select areas of the city, like NorthWest Carrollton, can you apply for our 2009 home renovation program now.
Program is open ONLY to low income elderly or disabled and first responders.
To learn more about our application process, call Rebuilding Together New Orleans.
Contact Info: 504-636-3061
85 Egret St., New Orleans LA 70124
Program is open ONLY to low income elderly or disabled and first responders.
To learn more about our application process, call Rebuilding Together New Orleans.
Contact Info: 504-636-3061
85 Egret St., New Orleans LA 70124
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Not Boomers
Below is an article published in USA Today January 27, 2009.
For YEARS I've been saying: "I'm not a Boomer." Now finally Jonathan Powell has allowed me to say I am: GenJones. Practical Idealism..... pretty much captures my personal approach to life.... but it also captures NorthWest Carrollton's approach to PostKatrina Recovery and creating the NEW New Orleans we want to live in.
Stuck in the middle
President Obama carries the torch for the millions of Americans who aren’t really Boomers, but aren’t really Xers either. Meet the generation in which idealism trumps ideology, in which pragmatism is the guiding light.
By Jonathan Pontell
For 16 years, Baby Boomers occupied the Oval Office. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush came of age during the 1960s — the decade that spawned the culture wars that would define national affairs for the next 40 years. Conventional wisdom holds that post-Boomer Barack Obama's inauguration once and for all ended that tumultuous era's long grip on American politics. But are the '60s really dead? Hardly.
While the Boomer moment may be over, most observers have misread the generational significance of Obama's inaugural. It really marks the 1960s' second act. The difference is that the torch has passed from that decade's "flower children" to its actual children.
Obama was born in 1961 — 15 years after Clinton and 19 years before Chelsea. He is neither Boomer nor GenXer. Instead, he belongs to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt.
Defining the Jonesers
I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this large cohort born between 1954 and 1965. It's a generation that includes the new president, me and 53 million other Americans. Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences. Our background is just as distant from Generation Xers'. We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between "Turn on, tune in, drop out" and "Just Say No," and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioral data corroborates this distinction. Generational self-identification is particularly compelling. When polled, those in this age group identify not with Boomers or GenXers, but overwhelmingly with this generation in between.
So who are we? We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name "Generation Jones" derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the "keeping up with the Joneses" competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. But above all, the name borrows from the slang term "jonesin' " that we as teens popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.
The Jones runs deep in us. It arose from our 1960s childhoods. While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still in elementary school — wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice. By the time we came of age and could take the stage, though, a decade of convulsions had left the nation fatigued. During the game we'd been forced to watch from the sidelines, and passage into college and careers came only after the final gun had long since sounded.
The Boomers had their opportunity, and the GenXers weren't around soon enough to bear witness. Neither was left jonesin'. But the actual children of the 1960s yearned for something more. Our unrequited idealism has bubbled beneath the surface ever since.
Obama has The Jones. It permeates his biography and his philosophy. It's a crucial piece of his identity. His message and approach reverberate with GenJones themes.
Bridging the divide
Recognizing this generational mindset provides insight not only into an Obama presidency, but into America itself in 2009. Generation Jones is poised to grab the mantle of leadership. More than a quarter of all U.S. adults are Jonesers. We've ascended to unprecedented positions of leadership in business and government. Not only Obama, but also many of his key appointees, are members of GenJones. Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force.
But there is something beyond our mere demographic might. What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in American politics. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often-unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren't engaged in that era's ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while Boomers argued about Vietnam. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead.
Last century, Thomas Wolfe wrote that another generation wasn't lost so much as undiscovered. "And the whole secret, power and knowledge of their own discovery," he declared, "is locked within them — they know it, feel it, have the whole thing in them — and they cannot utter it." Generation Jones is clearing its throat. Its voice will be heard. What had been a steady stream of unsolicited e-mails to me from supportive Jonesers before the election is now a flood. A generation aching to act has awoken. We are finally scratching the itch of The Jones.
For Boomers, the legacy of the '60s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is idealism. That spirit of the '60s is far from dead; its seeds were planted in us then, and are flowering now. We're not late Boomers; we're late bloomers.
Jonathan Pontell is a social commentator who focuses on the intersection of politics and culture.
For YEARS I've been saying: "I'm not a Boomer." Now finally Jonathan Powell has allowed me to say I am: GenJones. Practical Idealism..... pretty much captures my personal approach to life.... but it also captures NorthWest Carrollton's approach to PostKatrina Recovery and creating the NEW New Orleans we want to live in.
Stuck in the middle
President Obama carries the torch for the millions of Americans who aren’t really Boomers, but aren’t really Xers either. Meet the generation in which idealism trumps ideology, in which pragmatism is the guiding light.
By Jonathan Pontell
For 16 years, Baby Boomers occupied the Oval Office. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush came of age during the 1960s — the decade that spawned the culture wars that would define national affairs for the next 40 years. Conventional wisdom holds that post-Boomer Barack Obama's inauguration once and for all ended that tumultuous era's long grip on American politics. But are the '60s really dead? Hardly.
While the Boomer moment may be over, most observers have misread the generational significance of Obama's inaugural. It really marks the 1960s' second act. The difference is that the torch has passed from that decade's "flower children" to its actual children.
Obama was born in 1961 — 15 years after Clinton and 19 years before Chelsea. He is neither Boomer nor GenXer. Instead, he belongs to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt.
Defining the Jonesers
I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this large cohort born between 1954 and 1965. It's a generation that includes the new president, me and 53 million other Americans. Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences. Our background is just as distant from Generation Xers'. We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between "Turn on, tune in, drop out" and "Just Say No," and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioral data corroborates this distinction. Generational self-identification is particularly compelling. When polled, those in this age group identify not with Boomers or GenXers, but overwhelmingly with this generation in between.
So who are we? We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name "Generation Jones" derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the "keeping up with the Joneses" competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. But above all, the name borrows from the slang term "jonesin' " that we as teens popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.
The Jones runs deep in us. It arose from our 1960s childhoods. While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still in elementary school — wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice. By the time we came of age and could take the stage, though, a decade of convulsions had left the nation fatigued. During the game we'd been forced to watch from the sidelines, and passage into college and careers came only after the final gun had long since sounded.
The Boomers had their opportunity, and the GenXers weren't around soon enough to bear witness. Neither was left jonesin'. But the actual children of the 1960s yearned for something more. Our unrequited idealism has bubbled beneath the surface ever since.
Obama has The Jones. It permeates his biography and his philosophy. It's a crucial piece of his identity. His message and approach reverberate with GenJones themes.
Bridging the divide
Recognizing this generational mindset provides insight not only into an Obama presidency, but into America itself in 2009. Generation Jones is poised to grab the mantle of leadership. More than a quarter of all U.S. adults are Jonesers. We've ascended to unprecedented positions of leadership in business and government. Not only Obama, but also many of his key appointees, are members of GenJones. Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force.
But there is something beyond our mere demographic might. What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in American politics. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often-unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren't engaged in that era's ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while Boomers argued about Vietnam. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead.
Last century, Thomas Wolfe wrote that another generation wasn't lost so much as undiscovered. "And the whole secret, power and knowledge of their own discovery," he declared, "is locked within them — they know it, feel it, have the whole thing in them — and they cannot utter it." Generation Jones is clearing its throat. Its voice will be heard. What had been a steady stream of unsolicited e-mails to me from supportive Jonesers before the election is now a flood. A generation aching to act has awoken. We are finally scratching the itch of The Jones.
For Boomers, the legacy of the '60s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is idealism. That spirit of the '60s is far from dead; its seeds were planted in us then, and are flowering now. We're not late Boomers; we're late bloomers.
Jonathan Pontell is a social commentator who focuses on the intersection of politics and culture.
Friday, January 30, 2009
We will miss you Bob
Mr. Cerasoli, You offered us hope. You showed us that what we want to do to build the New New Orleans can be done. It is up to us to keep going. With luck you can come back and consult.
We wish it had been possible to make you less lonely in our hopeful city. We won't forget you or your contributions. We are grateful and wish you only the best.
Mr. Cerasoli spoke at NorthWest Carrollton's 2008 Night Out Against Crime gathering that was held at the "park" on the corner of Carrollton and Pritchard Place.
See TP Article online & below in full
New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli quits post, citing health issues
by Brian Thevenot, The Times-Picayune
Thursday January 29, 2009, 10:22 PM
Robert Cerasoli, the veteran Massachusetts investigator who navigated a maze of bureaucracy and politics to found the New Orleans inspector general's office, will resign today to reunite with his family and prepare for surgery to remove potentially dangerous growths.
This morning, he plans to hop in a rental car packed with a few belongings and drive home to Quincy, near Boston.
For the city, the loss of Cerasoli will set back the arduous task of establishing an independent watchdog over City Hall. His hiring 17 months ago, and a subsequent City Charter change that solidified permanent financing for the office, were coups for a city long impervious to reform.
For Cerasoli, 61, the resignation marks an anxious end to a four-decade career in public service, but also allows him to lay down a heavy burden. In interviews before and after recent surgery to remove growths in his neck, and leading up to his decision to resign, Cerasoli agonized over the pressure to meet the lofty expectations of corruption-weary New Orleanians.
"I keep feeling this vicious guilt, " he said. "I've never given up on anything before in my life."
His Blackberry buzzed with an e-mail: "Don't give up -- we need you." It came from a person he had met once, and who had no inkling of Cerasoli's predicament, or the emotional wallop her message would deliver.
Cerasoli started pondering his health and his future in December, after doctors removed two growths from his neck they had feared were cancerous. The growths were benign, but he and doctors discovered two more growths, also potentially cancerous. Those will have to be removed as well.
Before that first surgery, a stranger had approached Cerasoli in one of his favorite haunts, the ornate lobby of Le Pavillon hotel. She told him how much the city needed him.
As she walked away, Cerasoli hid his face and broke into a quiet sob. Such praise has both touched and distressed him.
"It's just so hard, you know, the pressure, " he said, wiping away tears. "It's enormous. It's onerous. I get that all the time, people walking up to me on the street. . . . It's wonderful, seeing the rising expectations of the people here. But the last thing I want to be is the next 'last, best hope for New Orleans.'
"It's not about me. It's about building the office, " he said, repeating what has become a mantra even as he has become an unlikely celebrity in a job that in many places would be held by an anonymous functionary.
Building the office has proved far tougher than Cerasoli envisioned. And the challenges that remain -- even the basic work of clearly defining city agencies, budgets and policies -- are more daunting than a successor might suspect. After 17 months, Cerasoli said, the office still needs to double its staff and garner basic tools and access to records. Still, Cerasoli's experience here has opened a valuable view into the inner workings of a mysterious municipal apparatus.
"On a difficulty scale of one-to-10, it's a 10. I would compare it to governments I've looked at in the developing world, " said Cerasoli, who has given lectures about corruption in such Third World countries as Sierra Leone and Swaziland. In New Orleans, he said, "information technology is in a terrible state. Getting access to information people regularly access in other places is a major problem. Public documents aren't being made public, if they exist at all.
"And I don't think the city government truly understands what the inspector general is supposed to do -- and might provide more resistance as it becomes more clear, " he said.
'Nothing's on the level'
In mid-2007, when New Orleans first advertised for an inspector general, Cerasoli blew off suggestions that he seek the job, arguably the toughest challenge in an arcane profession that operates in the space between auditors and prosecutors.
"Nothing's on the level in New Orleans, " he recalled telling one fellow inspector. "How am I going to get a job there?"
He had just recently accepted a similar job in Philadelphia, then declined it because his ailing mother told him she would die and never forgive him if he left. And Cerasoli always listened to his mother. She had raised him and his sister on a beautician's salary in the hardscrabble community of Quincy Point, near Boston, after his father died when Cerasoli was 10.
Cerasoli continued to get calls about the New Orleans job. He gave the same answer: I'm retired. My mother's dying. I'm not going anywhere.
He had already slogged through an accomplished but high-stress career in public service that started when he was elected as a Democrat to the Massachusetts legislature during the Watergate era. During a 15-year political career, he helped lead bruising efforts to establish a state ethics board, campaign finance rules and other strictures on politicians accustomed to operating in private, and with impunity. In the 1980s, he led an investigation into the prison weekend furlough policy that allowed murderer Willie Horton out of a Massachusetts prison; Horton then committed armed robbery and rape.
After getting appointed as Massachusetts' inspector general, Cerasoli spent a decade probing corruption and inefficiency, capped by several investigations into Boston's over-budget, graft-laden "Big Dig" tunnel.
Cerasoli grew into a workaholic, obsessing over a job he viewed as crucial, even intrinsic, to the public good. When the stress built to a peak, Cerasoli turned to a unique outlet: volunteering at a suicide hot line.
"I wanted to juxtapose my own pressures with those of people under far more extreme pressure than me, to put my problems into context, " Cerasoli said.
Advice at a funeral
After retiring in 2001, Cerasoli tried to decompress. He stayed busy, teaching at a college, compulsively lifting weights at a local gym and giving anti-corruption seminars across Africa and India on the U.S. State Department's nickel. Then New Orleans came calling. And soon, his reason for spurning the job -- his mother's illness -- ceased to be a factor. Mary Cerasoli died of cancer and complications from botched radiation treatments on May 19, 2007. Cerasoli had always kept the New Orleans job in the back of his mind. The advice of a woman at his mother's funeral pushed him to take the prospect seriously.
"You should go someplace and give the knowledge, wisdom and tools you have to somebody who really needs them, " the woman said.
Cerasoli applied, along with 20 others. A few weeks later, he got a call from the Rev. Kevin Wildes, president of Loyola University and chairman of the city ethics board that hires the inspector general. Cerasoli was the unanimous pick. Cerasoli did not respond at first. His mind wandered. He thought of his mother. If she hadn't wanted him to go, he figured, he wouldn't have gotten the job. He replayed the prescient comments from the woman at the funeral. He recalled how, while watching Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on TV, he had told himself, "I want to do something for the people of New Orleans, " and he wondered whether he really meant it.
"I'll take it, " he said finally, not even asking about the salary.
A monk's existence
In New Orleans, Cerasoli was driven by the same unstinting work ethic that fueled his career in Massachusetts. He began to view the new job as a career capstone. He rented a one-bedroom apartment in the Central Business District and outfitted it with an inflatable mattress, a chair, a vacuum, cheap racks for his suits and three suitcases. No art. No TV. No computer.
"It keeps the edge, " Cerasoli said of his spare digs, peculiar for a man who rakes in a $95,000 Massachusetts pension on top of a $150,000 salary. His quarters reflect an almost maniacal avoidance of entanglements, anything that could even hint at a conflict of interest. If he enjoyed himself too much, or got too close to anyone, Cerasoli said, he would become compromised. So he just worked, rarely socialized, and returned to his cubbyhole of a home.
"He's a monk, " Wildes said of Cerasoli. "When I think of Bob and the way he works and lives his life, I think of a member of a religious order: Everything he does and thinks about is in terms of how it helps or hinders the work." Wildes recalled a meeting at Harrah's New Orleans Casino: Cerasoli, he said, refused to cross the floor without an escort, worried that someone might assume he had a weakness for gambling.
Everything a fight
Though Cerasoli had fully expected the challenge of his career in New Orleans, he was in for a few shocks. The Nagin administration at first offered him a $250,000 budget -- a ludicrously low figure, he said. In Massachusetts, he had overseen a budget of $3 million and a staff of 49.
He spent his first four months working alone in university offices Wildes provided. Eventually, he secured a $3.2 million appropriation from the City Council; permission to hire his own attorneys, a move fought by the Nagin administration; and, most important, a charter change guaranteeing a permanent revenue source.
"But every one of those things was a big fight, " Cerasoli said. "And after we got the money, we couldn't spend it, because everything we bought had to go through the city's purchasing process."
Requests ranging from pencils to lease agreements took weeks or even months to snake through the Nagin administration's approval process. Inquiries often produced excuses: "The computers are down, " or "So-and-so is on vacation, " or "We can't find your paperwork."
"There was always that mysterious hand there, that made you wonder if somebody was trying to stop it, " Cerasoli said.
Unable to spend but two-thirds of his allotted $3.2 million for 2008, Cerasoli shocked and delighted the City Council by returning the rest, a rare move for any city agency.
'Shadow government'
As Cerasoli started luring a pedigreed, experienced staff, he also started trying to understand the machinery of New Orleans municipal government. He found few answers, and an ever-growing list of questions. Just figuring out who runs what has proved an immense challenge, with a government splintered into scores of agencies, commissions and quasi-governmental nonprofit groups, some with separate dedicated tax-revenue streams, their own auditors and scant scrutiny. So far, Cerasoli has put together a list of 140 such city entities, including such curiosities as the Delgado-Albania Plantation Commission. His inspectors found records of a New Orleans Planetarium Commission, created in 1986, but couldn't confirm whether it still exists, or ever did.
"One main goal has just been to simply identify the entity that is the city of New Orleans, " Cerasoli said. "Nobody can give you an organizational chart."
So Cerasoli and his team have started one on a wall inside their office in the Federal Reserve building, a project he said might take years to accurately complete. Cerasoli cannot say whether the "vastly decentralized" structure, unlike any city Cerasoli has ever come across, leads to any specific wrongdoing or failures. But he said it surely makes it tough to track government and thus provides countless opportunities for chicanery.
"I call it the shadow government, " Cerasoli said.
Cerasoli's office finally issued its first report in December, which said the city violated its charter by granting employees 273 take-home cars rather than the legally allowed 60, and could save up to $1 million with reforms. Cerasoli attributes the slow startup to the obstacles he had establishing his office. He said he has launched other investigations that he cannot yet publish or talk about.
"We finished the crime camera investigation on the same day as the take-home cars, " he said, referring to the city's expensive and often inoperable surveillance cameras. "But it's no longer in my hands, and I can't say where it is."
But he offered a hint, noting that the inspector general's office, as a matter of practice, turns over investigations that unearth potential crimes to law enforcement agencies, mainly the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. Some of the other probes could result in published reports; others may follow another path, Cerasoli said.
A tough decision
As the new year approached, Cerasoli prepared to go under the knife. In early January, doctors cut two large growths from near his neck. He choose to forgo general anesthesia, so he was awake as doctors cut out one white, egg-sized oval and then a smaller one.
After the surgery, he asked to see the larger growth.
"It looked like a piece of haddock, or codfish, " he said in his heavy New England accent. The tests came back negative for cancer. He came back to New Orleans, hoping to put his office on a firmer footing.
He returned to another tussle with Nagin, this one over Cerasoli's recent attempt to buy guns for investigators. The administration refused to process the request; Nagin questioned the right of the inspector general to create a "paramilitary operation" armed with "submachine guns."
Last weekend, another trip to Boston brought the discovery of two more growths. His doctors gave him a reality check.
"You're 61 years old. You had a career. You retired, " one doctor said. "You're not young anymore. Why do you want to put yourself through this kind of stress?"
Cerasoli couldn't argue the point. That night, he sat down with his wife and adult children and made the decision. On Monday, he returned to New Orleans for perhaps the last time.
"I can't stay in this faraway place, working against tremendous odds, trying to shape something that will take several more years to shape, " he mused. "I feel a need to get home and deal with this. It's just so lonely here."
. . . . . . .
Brian Thevenot can be reached at bthevenot@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3482.
Also see Gambit Weekly "Being Bob Cerasoli"
We wish it had been possible to make you less lonely in our hopeful city. We won't forget you or your contributions. We are grateful and wish you only the best.
Mr. Cerasoli spoke at NorthWest Carrollton's 2008 Night Out Against Crime gathering that was held at the "park" on the corner of Carrollton and Pritchard Place.
See TP Article online & below in full
New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli quits post, citing health issues
by Brian Thevenot, The Times-Picayune
Thursday January 29, 2009, 10:22 PM
Robert Cerasoli, the veteran Massachusetts investigator who navigated a maze of bureaucracy and politics to found the New Orleans inspector general's office, will resign today to reunite with his family and prepare for surgery to remove potentially dangerous growths.
This morning, he plans to hop in a rental car packed with a few belongings and drive home to Quincy, near Boston.
For the city, the loss of Cerasoli will set back the arduous task of establishing an independent watchdog over City Hall. His hiring 17 months ago, and a subsequent City Charter change that solidified permanent financing for the office, were coups for a city long impervious to reform.
For Cerasoli, 61, the resignation marks an anxious end to a four-decade career in public service, but also allows him to lay down a heavy burden. In interviews before and after recent surgery to remove growths in his neck, and leading up to his decision to resign, Cerasoli agonized over the pressure to meet the lofty expectations of corruption-weary New Orleanians.
"I keep feeling this vicious guilt, " he said. "I've never given up on anything before in my life."
His Blackberry buzzed with an e-mail: "Don't give up -- we need you." It came from a person he had met once, and who had no inkling of Cerasoli's predicament, or the emotional wallop her message would deliver.
Cerasoli started pondering his health and his future in December, after doctors removed two growths from his neck they had feared were cancerous. The growths were benign, but he and doctors discovered two more growths, also potentially cancerous. Those will have to be removed as well.
Before that first surgery, a stranger had approached Cerasoli in one of his favorite haunts, the ornate lobby of Le Pavillon hotel. She told him how much the city needed him.
As she walked away, Cerasoli hid his face and broke into a quiet sob. Such praise has both touched and distressed him.
"It's just so hard, you know, the pressure, " he said, wiping away tears. "It's enormous. It's onerous. I get that all the time, people walking up to me on the street. . . . It's wonderful, seeing the rising expectations of the people here. But the last thing I want to be is the next 'last, best hope for New Orleans.'
"It's not about me. It's about building the office, " he said, repeating what has become a mantra even as he has become an unlikely celebrity in a job that in many places would be held by an anonymous functionary.
Building the office has proved far tougher than Cerasoli envisioned. And the challenges that remain -- even the basic work of clearly defining city agencies, budgets and policies -- are more daunting than a successor might suspect. After 17 months, Cerasoli said, the office still needs to double its staff and garner basic tools and access to records. Still, Cerasoli's experience here has opened a valuable view into the inner workings of a mysterious municipal apparatus.
"On a difficulty scale of one-to-10, it's a 10. I would compare it to governments I've looked at in the developing world, " said Cerasoli, who has given lectures about corruption in such Third World countries as Sierra Leone and Swaziland. In New Orleans, he said, "information technology is in a terrible state. Getting access to information people regularly access in other places is a major problem. Public documents aren't being made public, if they exist at all.
"And I don't think the city government truly understands what the inspector general is supposed to do -- and might provide more resistance as it becomes more clear, " he said.
'Nothing's on the level'
In mid-2007, when New Orleans first advertised for an inspector general, Cerasoli blew off suggestions that he seek the job, arguably the toughest challenge in an arcane profession that operates in the space between auditors and prosecutors.
"Nothing's on the level in New Orleans, " he recalled telling one fellow inspector. "How am I going to get a job there?"
He had just recently accepted a similar job in Philadelphia, then declined it because his ailing mother told him she would die and never forgive him if he left. And Cerasoli always listened to his mother. She had raised him and his sister on a beautician's salary in the hardscrabble community of Quincy Point, near Boston, after his father died when Cerasoli was 10.
Cerasoli continued to get calls about the New Orleans job. He gave the same answer: I'm retired. My mother's dying. I'm not going anywhere.
He had already slogged through an accomplished but high-stress career in public service that started when he was elected as a Democrat to the Massachusetts legislature during the Watergate era. During a 15-year political career, he helped lead bruising efforts to establish a state ethics board, campaign finance rules and other strictures on politicians accustomed to operating in private, and with impunity. In the 1980s, he led an investigation into the prison weekend furlough policy that allowed murderer Willie Horton out of a Massachusetts prison; Horton then committed armed robbery and rape.
After getting appointed as Massachusetts' inspector general, Cerasoli spent a decade probing corruption and inefficiency, capped by several investigations into Boston's over-budget, graft-laden "Big Dig" tunnel.
Cerasoli grew into a workaholic, obsessing over a job he viewed as crucial, even intrinsic, to the public good. When the stress built to a peak, Cerasoli turned to a unique outlet: volunteering at a suicide hot line.
"I wanted to juxtapose my own pressures with those of people under far more extreme pressure than me, to put my problems into context, " Cerasoli said.
Advice at a funeral
After retiring in 2001, Cerasoli tried to decompress. He stayed busy, teaching at a college, compulsively lifting weights at a local gym and giving anti-corruption seminars across Africa and India on the U.S. State Department's nickel. Then New Orleans came calling. And soon, his reason for spurning the job -- his mother's illness -- ceased to be a factor. Mary Cerasoli died of cancer and complications from botched radiation treatments on May 19, 2007. Cerasoli had always kept the New Orleans job in the back of his mind. The advice of a woman at his mother's funeral pushed him to take the prospect seriously.
"You should go someplace and give the knowledge, wisdom and tools you have to somebody who really needs them, " the woman said.
Cerasoli applied, along with 20 others. A few weeks later, he got a call from the Rev. Kevin Wildes, president of Loyola University and chairman of the city ethics board that hires the inspector general. Cerasoli was the unanimous pick. Cerasoli did not respond at first. His mind wandered. He thought of his mother. If she hadn't wanted him to go, he figured, he wouldn't have gotten the job. He replayed the prescient comments from the woman at the funeral. He recalled how, while watching Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on TV, he had told himself, "I want to do something for the people of New Orleans, " and he wondered whether he really meant it.
"I'll take it, " he said finally, not even asking about the salary.
A monk's existence
In New Orleans, Cerasoli was driven by the same unstinting work ethic that fueled his career in Massachusetts. He began to view the new job as a career capstone. He rented a one-bedroom apartment in the Central Business District and outfitted it with an inflatable mattress, a chair, a vacuum, cheap racks for his suits and three suitcases. No art. No TV. No computer.
"It keeps the edge, " Cerasoli said of his spare digs, peculiar for a man who rakes in a $95,000 Massachusetts pension on top of a $150,000 salary. His quarters reflect an almost maniacal avoidance of entanglements, anything that could even hint at a conflict of interest. If he enjoyed himself too much, or got too close to anyone, Cerasoli said, he would become compromised. So he just worked, rarely socialized, and returned to his cubbyhole of a home.
"He's a monk, " Wildes said of Cerasoli. "When I think of Bob and the way he works and lives his life, I think of a member of a religious order: Everything he does and thinks about is in terms of how it helps or hinders the work." Wildes recalled a meeting at Harrah's New Orleans Casino: Cerasoli, he said, refused to cross the floor without an escort, worried that someone might assume he had a weakness for gambling.
Everything a fight
Though Cerasoli had fully expected the challenge of his career in New Orleans, he was in for a few shocks. The Nagin administration at first offered him a $250,000 budget -- a ludicrously low figure, he said. In Massachusetts, he had overseen a budget of $3 million and a staff of 49.
He spent his first four months working alone in university offices Wildes provided. Eventually, he secured a $3.2 million appropriation from the City Council; permission to hire his own attorneys, a move fought by the Nagin administration; and, most important, a charter change guaranteeing a permanent revenue source.
"But every one of those things was a big fight, " Cerasoli said. "And after we got the money, we couldn't spend it, because everything we bought had to go through the city's purchasing process."
Requests ranging from pencils to lease agreements took weeks or even months to snake through the Nagin administration's approval process. Inquiries often produced excuses: "The computers are down, " or "So-and-so is on vacation, " or "We can't find your paperwork."
"There was always that mysterious hand there, that made you wonder if somebody was trying to stop it, " Cerasoli said.
Unable to spend but two-thirds of his allotted $3.2 million for 2008, Cerasoli shocked and delighted the City Council by returning the rest, a rare move for any city agency.
'Shadow government'
As Cerasoli started luring a pedigreed, experienced staff, he also started trying to understand the machinery of New Orleans municipal government. He found few answers, and an ever-growing list of questions. Just figuring out who runs what has proved an immense challenge, with a government splintered into scores of agencies, commissions and quasi-governmental nonprofit groups, some with separate dedicated tax-revenue streams, their own auditors and scant scrutiny. So far, Cerasoli has put together a list of 140 such city entities, including such curiosities as the Delgado-Albania Plantation Commission. His inspectors found records of a New Orleans Planetarium Commission, created in 1986, but couldn't confirm whether it still exists, or ever did.
"One main goal has just been to simply identify the entity that is the city of New Orleans, " Cerasoli said. "Nobody can give you an organizational chart."
So Cerasoli and his team have started one on a wall inside their office in the Federal Reserve building, a project he said might take years to accurately complete. Cerasoli cannot say whether the "vastly decentralized" structure, unlike any city Cerasoli has ever come across, leads to any specific wrongdoing or failures. But he said it surely makes it tough to track government and thus provides countless opportunities for chicanery.
"I call it the shadow government, " Cerasoli said.
Cerasoli's office finally issued its first report in December, which said the city violated its charter by granting employees 273 take-home cars rather than the legally allowed 60, and could save up to $1 million with reforms. Cerasoli attributes the slow startup to the obstacles he had establishing his office. He said he has launched other investigations that he cannot yet publish or talk about.
"We finished the crime camera investigation on the same day as the take-home cars, " he said, referring to the city's expensive and often inoperable surveillance cameras. "But it's no longer in my hands, and I can't say where it is."
But he offered a hint, noting that the inspector general's office, as a matter of practice, turns over investigations that unearth potential crimes to law enforcement agencies, mainly the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. Some of the other probes could result in published reports; others may follow another path, Cerasoli said.
A tough decision
As the new year approached, Cerasoli prepared to go under the knife. In early January, doctors cut two large growths from near his neck. He choose to forgo general anesthesia, so he was awake as doctors cut out one white, egg-sized oval and then a smaller one.
After the surgery, he asked to see the larger growth.
"It looked like a piece of haddock, or codfish, " he said in his heavy New England accent. The tests came back negative for cancer. He came back to New Orleans, hoping to put his office on a firmer footing.
He returned to another tussle with Nagin, this one over Cerasoli's recent attempt to buy guns for investigators. The administration refused to process the request; Nagin questioned the right of the inspector general to create a "paramilitary operation" armed with "submachine guns."
Last weekend, another trip to Boston brought the discovery of two more growths. His doctors gave him a reality check.
"You're 61 years old. You had a career. You retired, " one doctor said. "You're not young anymore. Why do you want to put yourself through this kind of stress?"
Cerasoli couldn't argue the point. That night, he sat down with his wife and adult children and made the decision. On Monday, he returned to New Orleans for perhaps the last time.
"I can't stay in this faraway place, working against tremendous odds, trying to shape something that will take several more years to shape, " he mused. "I feel a need to get home and deal with this. It's just so lonely here."
. . . . . . .
Brian Thevenot can be reached at bthevenot@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3482.
Also see Gambit Weekly "Being Bob Cerasoli"
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Reporting Off-Campus Behavior to Tulane
From Karen Celestan of Tulane, as shared with our other Carrollton neighbors:
I have noticed a slight uptick in the number of complaints about students living in off-campus housing. I just want to share with everyone the proper methods of reporting poor and/or negligent behavior of students living off-campus (if you haven't already heard my presentation at recent neighborhood association meetings).
Please be aware that all Tulane students are bound by a Code of Student Conduct, but also have rights as private citizens on private property. The university is actively working to create a Town & Gown code for landlords and student tenants to alleviate some of the allegations and abuses that have been reported. We are also consistently negotiating with area business and bar owners to bring them into compliance with existing Alcohol Control laws and regulations. (We had a somewhat productive meeting with the owner of The Boot yesterday.)
Here are the official vehicles for reporting directly to Tulane administrators (Student Affairs):
Phone: 862-NABR (6227)
Website: www.tulane.edu/neighbors/index.cfm
Of course, you can always call me on my cell or send an e-mail, and I will forward it to the Office of Student Affairs for any disciplinary action (if warranted). The neighborhood is a critical priority and your concerns are at the top of our list.
Please feel free to share this information with your neighbors and/or association members.
Karen Celestan
Manager, Community Relations and Policy
Office of Government Affairs
Tulane University
(504) 988-3394 [office]
(504) 214-9640 [cell]
(504) 988-3388 [fax]
kcelesta@tulane.edu
200 Broadway, Suite 126
New Orleans, LA 70118
I have noticed a slight uptick in the number of complaints about students living in off-campus housing. I just want to share with everyone the proper methods of reporting poor and/or negligent behavior of students living off-campus (if you haven't already heard my presentation at recent neighborhood association meetings).
Please be aware that all Tulane students are bound by a Code of Student Conduct, but also have rights as private citizens on private property. The university is actively working to create a Town & Gown code for landlords and student tenants to alleviate some of the allegations and abuses that have been reported. We are also consistently negotiating with area business and bar owners to bring them into compliance with existing Alcohol Control laws and regulations. (We had a somewhat productive meeting with the owner of The Boot yesterday.)
Here are the official vehicles for reporting directly to Tulane administrators (Student Affairs):
Phone: 862-NABR (6227)
Website: www.tulane.edu/neighbors/index.cfm
Of course, you can always call me on my cell or send an e-mail, and I will forward it to the Office of Student Affairs for any disciplinary action (if warranted). The neighborhood is a critical priority and your concerns are at the top of our list.
Please feel free to share this information with your neighbors and/or association members.
Karen Celestan
Manager, Community Relations and Policy
Office of Government Affairs
Tulane University
(504) 988-3394 [office]
(504) 214-9640 [cell]
(504) 988-3388 [fax]
kcelesta@tulane.edu
200 Broadway, Suite 126
New Orleans, LA 70118
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tree Planting in NorthWest Carrollton
NorthWest Carrollton continues to work with Monique Pilie of Hike for KaTREEna to rebuild the tree canopy of our neighborhood. We have now planted over 50 trees inside our neighborhood boundaries. Our last planting was January 24th. Many thanks to our neighborhood volunteers!
We would like to have one more planting this season in April. If live in NorthWest Carrollton (bounded by Earhart-Carrollton-Claiborne-Leonidas) and you want a form to request free trees, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you!
We can improve our neighborhood by adding trees to our homes, keeping our streets cool and green. Please join us in this exciting effort.
Trees can be planted on your private property or city property in front or beside your home. We only need a few things from you if you would like a tree for your home:
1) Your agreement to keep the tree/s well watered for the first year.
2) Fill out the permit application, if you want the tree(s) planted on city property (between the sidewalk and street). Trees can also be planted in your front yard or side yard as long as these trees benefit the sidewalk public area as well.
Hike for KaTREEna will provide the trees at no cost. Monique will also clear the permits with city government and work with the urban forester to determine the best tree for each location.
Stay tuned for other posts on why TREES are good for our neighborhood, your property values, your energy bills and your health and even help to fight crime.
We would like to have one more planting this season in April. If live in NorthWest Carrollton (bounded by Earhart-Carrollton-Claiborne-Leonidas) and you want a form to request free trees, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you!
We can improve our neighborhood by adding trees to our homes, keeping our streets cool and green. Please join us in this exciting effort.
Trees can be planted on your private property or city property in front or beside your home. We only need a few things from you if you would like a tree for your home:
1) Your agreement to keep the tree/s well watered for the first year.
2) Fill out the permit application, if you want the tree(s) planted on city property (between the sidewalk and street). Trees can also be planted in your front yard or side yard as long as these trees benefit the sidewalk public area as well.
Hike for KaTREEna will provide the trees at no cost. Monique will also clear the permits with city government and work with the urban forester to determine the best tree for each location.
Stay tuned for other posts on why TREES are good for our neighborhood, your property values, your energy bills and your health and even help to fight crime.
Hollygrove Market & Farm
The Hollygrove Market and Farm (HM&F) is a non-profit retail store selling locally-grown and organic produce, as well as a training location for residents interested in organic urban farming. Centrally located in the heart of the Carrollton-Hollygrove community at 8301 Olive Street (formerly Guillot's Nursery), this unique store provides healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables to residents of Hollygrove, adjoining neighborhoods, and New Orleans.
For $25 a week, box assortments of local and organic produce are available. Members are welcome to buy a box however often they like.
http://hollygrovemarket.com/fresh-produce-buyers-club/
For $25 a week, box assortments of local and organic produce are available. Members are welcome to buy a box however often they like.
http://hollygrovemarket.com/fresh-produce-buyers-club/
NorthWest Carrollton Blog has MOVED
In 2006 we were totally new to blogging. Our 1st blog was essentially free. Our current blog space is sponsored by one of our board members. We have found BLOGSPOT and it is FREE.
So we have moved our Blog to nwcarrollton.blogspot.com
NorthWestCarrollton.org will still be available for archives (for now) but future posts will be on the new blogspot site.
So we have moved our Blog to nwcarrollton.blogspot.com
NorthWestCarrollton.org will still be available for archives (for now) but future posts will be on the new blogspot site.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Arts Market in Palmer Park
Held
the last Saturday of every month
From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
No admission charge.
Located in Carrollton at the corner of S. Claiborne & S. Carrollton Avenues.
"Discover a vibrant market brimming with exciting pieces from the region’s best artisans. From paintings, photography, ceramics, glasswork, jewelry, woodwork and printmaking to handcrafted clothing, soap and candles. The Arts Market truly offers something for every person and every budget. Adding to the festive outdoor gallery is live music, creative activities for kids and foods to satisfy every craving. Whether you’re out for a day of family fun or a serious art collector in search of that next special piece, this is an event you won’t want to miss!"
Thank you,
Michelle Levine, Arts Market Manager504.373.6332
Presented by the Arts Council, the Arts Market of New Orleans (formerly Mid-City Arts Market)
the last Saturday of every month
From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
No admission charge.
Located in Carrollton at the corner of S. Claiborne & S. Carrollton Avenues.
"Discover a vibrant market brimming with exciting pieces from the region’s best artisans. From paintings, photography, ceramics, glasswork, jewelry, woodwork and printmaking to handcrafted clothing, soap and candles. The Arts Market truly offers something for every person and every budget. Adding to the festive outdoor gallery is live music, creative activities for kids and foods to satisfy every craving. Whether you’re out for a day of family fun or a serious art collector in search of that next special piece, this is an event you won’t want to miss!"
Thank you,
Michelle Levine, Arts Market Manager504.373.6332
Presented by the Arts Council, the Arts Market of New Orleans (formerly Mid-City Arts Market)
Resturants that deliver in NorthWest Carrollton
The following resturants deliver in the NorthWest Carrollton Area:
Red Star - 8330 Earhart Blvd - 504-861-1933
Mikimoto - 3301 S Carrollton Ave - 504-488-1881
Mona’s on Carrollton - 1120 S Carrollton Ave - 504-861-8175
Roman Pizza - 7329 Cohn St, New Orleans, LA - 504-866-1166
Pepperoni’s Cafe - 8120 Hampson St. - 504-865-0336 or 865-0337
5 Happiness - 3605 S Carrollton Ave. - 504-482-3935
Fresco’s Cafe 7625 Maple St - (504) 862-6363
Red Star - 8330 Earhart Blvd - 504-861-1933
Mikimoto - 3301 S Carrollton Ave - 504-488-1881
Mona’s on Carrollton - 1120 S Carrollton Ave - 504-861-8175
Roman Pizza - 7329 Cohn St, New Orleans, LA - 504-866-1166
Pepperoni’s Cafe - 8120 Hampson St. - 504-865-0336 or 865-0337
5 Happiness - 3605 S Carrollton Ave. - 504-482-3935
Fresco’s Cafe 7625 Maple St - (504) 862-6363
Key Contact Numbers
Issues can be reported to 311 online using this link.
Abandoned Cars: 658-8219
Broken Street Lights: 525-5871 or http://www.entergy.com/ or 1-800-369-3749,
Changing light bulbs is the City of New Orleans responsibility also report outage to 311
Curfew Center: 658-0369
Department of Streets: 658-2489
Drug Hotline: 581-2878
Health Department: 658-2596
Housing: 658-4215
Housing/Code Enforcement: 658-4300
Illegal Dumping/Litter: 658-3840
LA/SPCA: 368-5191
Parkway & Parks: 658-2176
Public Advocacy: 658-4015
Safety & Permits: 658-7100
Sanitation: 658-3800
Mosquito, Termite & Rodent Control - (504)658-2400 or mosquitocontrol@cityofno.com OR rodent@cityofno.com
Sewerage & Water Board: 529-2837 ,
OR use the online reporting tool.
Zoning: 658-7125
Abandoned Cars: 658-8219
Broken Street Lights: 525-5871 or http://www.entergy.com/ or 1-800-369-3749,
Changing light bulbs is the City of New Orleans responsibility also report outage to 311
Curfew Center: 658-0369
Department of Streets: 658-2489
Drug Hotline: 581-2878
Health Department: 658-2596
Housing: 658-4215
Housing/Code Enforcement: 658-4300
Illegal Dumping/Litter: 658-3840
LA/SPCA: 368-5191
Parkway & Parks: 658-2176
Public Advocacy: 658-4015
Safety & Permits: 658-7100
Sanitation: 658-3800
Mosquito, Termite & Rodent Control - (504)658-2400 or mosquitocontrol@cityofno.com OR rodent@cityofno.com
Sewerage & Water Board: 529-2837 ,
OR use the online reporting tool.
Zoning: 658-7125
Illegally Parked or Abandoned Vehicles
Any illegally parked car can be reported to Parking Enforcement.Call 658-2299. Make sure you have:- the exact location, street address if possible- the vehicle’s License number, if there is a license- Make & Model and Color of vehicle
The more people that call about a specific vehicle the better the response from parking enforcement. If you report a vehicle to parking enforcement. Please leave the details here in the comment’s section so that we can follow up.
Please help us report Abandoned Vehicles inside NorthWest Carrollton so that they can be removed from our neighborhood. Just leave a comment on this Page and someone will followup and take a picture of the vehicle and work to get city services to remove it.
Please provide
Address: Street Address or 100 Block or Cross Streets
License Plate: Number or NO Plate
Color:
Make-Model:
Parked illegally: pointing in the wrong direction on the street, or obstructing the sidewalk or street.
Statistics show that Criminals don’t like Clean!!!!
To create a 311 Report on this or any other Quality of Life or Code Violations use this link.
The more people that call about a specific vehicle the better the response from parking enforcement. If you report a vehicle to parking enforcement. Please leave the details here in the comment’s section so that we can follow up.
Please help us report Abandoned Vehicles inside NorthWest Carrollton so that they can be removed from our neighborhood. Just leave a comment on this Page and someone will followup and take a picture of the vehicle and work to get city services to remove it.
Please provide
Address: Street Address or 100 Block or Cross Streets
License Plate: Number or NO Plate
Color:
Make-Model:
Parked illegally: pointing in the wrong direction on the street, or obstructing the sidewalk or street.
Statistics show that Criminals don’t like Clean!!!!
To create a 311 Report on this or any other Quality of Life or Code Violations use this link.
About NorthWest Carrollton, from original web site
NorthWest Carrollton is a New Orleans neighborhood bounded by Leonides, Earhart, Carrollton and Claiborne. We are the “northern” (aka lakeside) peninsula of Carrollton, a historic neighborhood on the National Historic Register.
We are a Post Katrina organization formed to celebrate the fact that postKatrina we still had neighbors and to advocate for our historic neighborhood and its people. We feel it is important to address all issues of planning, recovery, rebuilding and quality of life. We revel in the diversity of our neighbors and the diversity of our historic housing stock. We have homes for every taste and income level. We have been gifted with commercial neighbors who respect the fact that they border our historic neighborhood.
We were one of the neighborhoods that the BNOB commission said had to “prove our viability”. There are many out there who have been reminded to: “Be careful what you ask for.”
We started organizing in January of 2006 because on New Year’s Eve neighbors were out on the street talking to each other as we had never talked before, sharing champagne and being hopeful (and irritated with BNOB). We wanted to do everything we could to have our neighborhood come back stronger than ever before and we wanted the rest of our neighbors to want to come back. We registered with the Secretary of State as a non-profit neighborhood organization in June 2006. We held our 1st neighborhood wide meeting in June and by September 2006 had close to 100 members. December 17th, 2006 we held our 1st fund raiser for the firehouse at the corner of Carrollton & Dublin via a Holiday Home Tour of historic housing that survived Katrina. We held our 1st very succcessul PostKatrina and PostFeb13Tornado neighborhood cleanup March 10th, 2007. We were certified by the NOPD as a Neighborhood Watch Neighborhood at the August 2007 Night Out Against Crime gathering in Palmer Park.
We like to think that we are the next coolest neighborhood in New Orleans. We’ve come to understand that it while “it takes a village”, first you need a few determined individuals to wake up the rest of the folks in the village.
We thank Alan for teaching us the power of the blog and technology.
You can contact us via nwcarrollton@mindspring.com
Jenel Hazlett - President
We are a Post Katrina organization formed to celebrate the fact that postKatrina we still had neighbors and to advocate for our historic neighborhood and its people. We feel it is important to address all issues of planning, recovery, rebuilding and quality of life. We revel in the diversity of our neighbors and the diversity of our historic housing stock. We have homes for every taste and income level. We have been gifted with commercial neighbors who respect the fact that they border our historic neighborhood.
We were one of the neighborhoods that the BNOB commission said had to “prove our viability”. There are many out there who have been reminded to: “Be careful what you ask for.”
We started organizing in January of 2006 because on New Year’s Eve neighbors were out on the street talking to each other as we had never talked before, sharing champagne and being hopeful (and irritated with BNOB). We wanted to do everything we could to have our neighborhood come back stronger than ever before and we wanted the rest of our neighbors to want to come back. We registered with the Secretary of State as a non-profit neighborhood organization in June 2006. We held our 1st neighborhood wide meeting in June and by September 2006 had close to 100 members. December 17th, 2006 we held our 1st fund raiser for the firehouse at the corner of Carrollton & Dublin via a Holiday Home Tour of historic housing that survived Katrina. We held our 1st very succcessul PostKatrina and PostFeb13Tornado neighborhood cleanup March 10th, 2007. We were certified by the NOPD as a Neighborhood Watch Neighborhood at the August 2007 Night Out Against Crime gathering in Palmer Park.
We like to think that we are the next coolest neighborhood in New Orleans. We’ve come to understand that it while “it takes a village”, first you need a few determined individuals to wake up the rest of the folks in the village.
We thank Alan for teaching us the power of the blog and technology.
You can contact us via nwcarrollton@mindspring.com
Jenel Hazlett - President
NorthWest Carrollton Blog Moves to BlogSpot
NorthWest Carrollton Civic Association is moving from northwestcarrollton.org to nwcarrollton.blogspot.com
Those of you who have followed us on northwestcarrollton.com know that this site is now owned by an Italian casino. The northwestcarrollton.org site has all the posts from the original .com site but it costs us to maintain this site so we are in the process of moving to blogspot.
We will move as much history and useful information from the .org site as we possible. We are working to archive our blog history.
Please stay tuned.
Those of you who have followed us on northwestcarrollton.com know that this site is now owned by an Italian casino. The northwestcarrollton.org site has all the posts from the original .com site but it costs us to maintain this site so we are in the process of moving to blogspot.
We will move as much history and useful information from the .org site as we possible. We are working to archive our blog history.
Please stay tuned.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Silence is Violence RED FRIDAYS
Perhaps you remember January 2008's Silence is Violence March on City Hall.
On January 9th, 2009 we were asked to wear Red to Strike against Crime. To quote the website: Striking means refusing to go through the motions of normalcy.
Those of us concerned about crime aren't just doing things one day a year. We are actively working throughout the year to do everything we can to reduce crime. So EVERY WEEK, EVERY FRIDAY of 2009 should be a Silence is Violence RED Friday. When each Friday we see more and more RED we will know that support is building and people are watching and care about what is happening in the City. Silence is Violence says speak out, act to stop the killing.
Every RED Friday will remind us that we are all in this together.
On January 9th, 2009 we were asked to wear Red to Strike against Crime. To quote the website: Striking means refusing to go through the motions of normalcy.
Those of us concerned about crime aren't just doing things one day a year. We are actively working throughout the year to do everything we can to reduce crime. So EVERY WEEK, EVERY FRIDAY of 2009 should be a Silence is Violence RED Friday. When each Friday we see more and more RED we will know that support is building and people are watching and care about what is happening in the City. Silence is Violence says speak out, act to stop the killing.
Every RED Friday will remind us that we are all in this together.
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