crime

NOPD Second District anti-crime walk to march through east Carrollton

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The NOPD Second District’s monthly anti-crime march Wednesday will take to the streets of east Carrollton, which was the site of a rash of home-invasion attacks earlier this month. The march will begin at 6 p.m. at Hickory and Fern, and proceed for about a mile-long loop through the surrounding blocks, police officials announced:

Starting and ending at Hickory and Fern St. On Fern St to Green. On Green St. to Burdette.

church

Central City church to host first of mayor’s discussions on racial reconciliation

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The Welcome Table New Orleans — a grant-funded effort “to facilitate meaningful and honest discussions about race in respectful, safe and structured spaces” — will launch tonight (Monday, April 28) with an informational session at New Hope Baptist Church at 1807 Lasalle Street in Central City. The event begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. For details on the Welcome Table program, see the news release below:

MAYOR’S OFFICE ANNOUNCES NEW INITIATIVE ON RACIAL RECONCILIATION
The Welcome Table New Orleans Promotes Relationship Building Among Citizens to Improve Communities

Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced a new multi-year initiative focused on race, reconciliation and community-building. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Welcome Table New Orleans, will bring citizens of different racial groups and backgrounds together to build relationships that lead to improvements in key areas throughout the city. The Welcome Table New Orleans will be offered in partnership with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

business

Owen Courreges: Disgrace at Elk Place

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Elk Place has seen better days, and poor transit planning is the most obvious culprit.  Near the intersection with Canal, transit users wait alongside derelict and ill-maintained structures with inadequate shelter and seating.  Drivers buzz by as throngs brave the elements to make their connections. This is what happens when over 20 transit lines converge at one location, with over 5,000 riders boarding and disembarking streetcars and buses. It’s a notorious disgrace.  The immediate area has been slow to redevelop.  The sidewalks are difficult to navigate and litter is an ongoing problem.  Not only have transit users suffered – local businesses and property owners are dissatisfied as well. In the words of District B Councilwoman Latoya Cantrell:  “Boy, oh boy, we need some love. We need a lot of love…we’ve got to clean it up.”

This past Tuesday, local nonprofit Ride New Orleans set up 200 folding chairs to highlight the unmet need for seating and shelter.  Though well-appreciated, the effort was a publicity stunt, obviously not a permanent fix.

crime

77-year-old man held at gunpoint by five attackers in Central City home invasion

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A 77-year-old man was held at gunpoint while five intruders raided his Central City home of his valuables Sunday evening, New Orleans police said. The victim was at home in the 2700 block of South Liberty (about a block from A.L. Davis park at Washington and LaSalle) around 6:45 p.m. Sunday when he answered the doorbell, according to the initial police report. Five men rushed in, forced him onto the sofa and held him there at gunpoint while they searched the home, the report states. They made him open his safe and took money and jewelry from inside it, then left, the report states. Further details were not immediately available.

schools

Audubon Charter considers new vendor for school lunches

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Responding to complaints from students and parents alike, officials at Audubon Charter School are exploring using a new service for school lunches next year that they say provides markedly better food. Audubon’s school lunches have traditionally been prepared by the Orleans Parish School Board, but the schoolchildren do not like the meals they serve, said operations manager Alisa Dupre at the April monthly meeting of Audubon’s governing board. “The kids are not eating the lunch,” Dupre said. “Most of the time it ends up in the trash can. …

arts, books and music

Tipitina’s “Instruments A-Comin'” benefit Monday keeps the music playing for children in New Orleans

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The instruments are a comin’ to New Orleans school programs from the Tipitina’s Foundation benefit concert — in between two Jazz fest weekends — where attendees can enjoy food, an outdoor battle of the best local bands and a silent auction (Monday, April 28). For more about this event, read the following from the Tipitina’s Foundation:

On Monday, April 28, Tipitina’s Foundation will host the thirteenth annual “Instruments A Commin'” benefit concert and silent auction. This all-star event, held the Monday between Jazz Fest weekends, showcases the best of New Orleans’ music, food, and art. Outdoor events begin at 6 p.m. and include the silent auction, Walk of Fame and Wall of Fame induction ceremony, food, and drink, and a battle of the bands between “Instruments A Commin'” recipient schools. The doors to the benefit concert open at 8 p.m. This year’s benefit concert lineup includes: Galactic, Anders Osborne, Dumpstaphunk, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha-Chas, New Orleans Suspects, Bonerama, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Susan Cowsill, Honey Island Swamp Band, Flow Tribe, & Naughty Professor.

crime

Two men critically wounded in Annunciation Street shooting

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Two men were critically wounded in a shooting Friday night on an Uptown block of Annunciation Street that has in years past been a hotspot for deadly violence, New Orleans police said. The two victims each suffered multiple gunshot wounds around 9:45 p.m. in the 3900 block of Annunciation, and both were taken to the hospital in critical condition, said NOPD Officer Frank Robertson, a departmental spokesman. Four people were shot to death in an nine-month stretch of 2011 and 2012 in the 3800 and 3900 blocks of Annunciation — James Leon Wells in August 2011, Jamal Phillips and Terrence Barber in December 2011 and Darnell Brown in April 2012 — a rate of bloodshed in an otherwise calm neighborhood that prompted residents to beg repeatedly for NOPD intervention. Since then, the level of gun violence has apparently decreased, as NOPD crime maps show Friday’s incident to be the only shooting there in at least the last six months.

crime

Uptown vehicle burglaries decrease after suspect’s arrest, police say

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A rash of Uptown vehicle break-ins has slowed to a trickle since the arrest of a man caught on video in one of the cases, New Orleans police said Friday. Officers on patrol stopped 23-year-old Christopher Tunson earlier this week on Napoleon Avenue near Freret Street, and saw that he had his sleeves covering his hands — a common tactic of car burglars trying to avoid fingerprints, said NOPD Second District Lt. Doug Eckert at Friday’s departmental meeting of ranking officers. Tunson was actually walking with another man who took off running when police approached, Eckert said, but investigators were able to identify Tunson from an earlier car-burglary case on Coliseum Street that had been caught on “unbelievably great video,” Eckert said. Tunson is currently in jail charged with one count of burglary, but detectives are continuing to investigate his involvement with other car break-ins in the area near Napoleon and the river, Eckert said. “We know he’s responsible for at least four auto burglaries in that area,” Eckert said.

city government

Proposal to make Newcomb Boulevard one-way deferred until May

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Even after the fence blocking one end of Newcomb Boulevard has been removed, controversy surrounding traffic flow along the street lingers on, as the New Orleans City Council postponed a decision Thursday on whether to make the street one-way. Pending before the Council for most of this month has been an ordinance making Newcomb Boulevard one-way toward Freret Street, as some residents have argued that it is too narrow to be navigated by cars moving in both directions. Opponents, however, say Newcomb is not substantially narrower than other neighborhood streets, and that making it one-way would actually increase speeding by eliminating oncoming traffic that drivers would have to slow down for. The ordinance was set for Thursday’s meeting of the City Council, but it was deferred without comment until May 8.

events

Holocaust survivor to keynote memorial program Sunday at JCC

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Join the New Orleans Jewish Community Center and pay homage to those lost during the Holocaust for the community-wide memorial program, Yom Hashoah. Philip Bailowits, one of seven Holocaust survivors living in New Orleans, will be a keynote speaker for the event Sunday (April 27). For more about Yom Hashoah, refer to the following information from the New Orleans Jewish Community Center:

Philip Bialowitz, one of seven living survivors of Sobibór, will be the keynote speaker for the Yom Hashoah community-wide Holocaust Memorial Program held Sunday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m. at the New Orleans Jewish Community Center – Uptown. This event is free and open to the public. The memorial program remembers and honors local survivors while educating the public about the horrors of the Nazi regime and teaching the importance of tolerance.