crime

Shooting injures two teens in Freret area

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Two teenagers were injured by gunfire Tuesday night in the Freret neighborhood, the New Orleans Police Department reported. The two 18-year-old males were at LaSalle and Valmont streets at about 9:25 p.m. when they were struck by gunfire. The shooting occurred near Evans Playground. One victim was struck in the arm and leg; he taken to the hospital by the Emergency Medical Service. The other victim arrived at the emergency room in a private car.

business

Lilly’s Café planning second location in the Garden District

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The owner of Lilly’s Café, a popular Vietnamese restaurant in the Lower Garden District, is planning to open a second Lilly’s farther up Magazine Street. Lilly Vuong, who runs the 8-year-old restaurant with family members, told Garden District neighbors in a Neighborhood Participation Project letter that she recently purchased the cottage at 3329 Magazine St. to open a second Vietnamese restaurant. Before that can happen, she needs approval from the City Planning Commission and the City Council; a restaurant is only allowed as a conditional use in the district. A hearing is on the Planning Commission’s Jan.

Christmas

Need some Christmas cheer? See the lighted oaks on St. Charles Avenue

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If you drive on St. Charles Avenue any evening between Thanksgiving and Twelfth Night, you are bound to see a small traffic jam in the 4500 block, across from Academy of the Sacred Heart. The reason? An extravagant light display on the majestic live oak trees and the fence at 4534 St. Charles Ave.

Christmas

City releases information on holiday trash collection, Christmas tree recycling

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There will be no curbside trash collection on Friday, Dec. 25, in honor of Christmas Day, or the following Friday, Jan. 1, in honor of the New Year’s holiday. Curbside trash collection will resume on the next regularly scheduled collection day. For areas with Friday recycling collection, Metro Service Group and Richard’s Disposal will conduct special collection days.

Silver Lining Series

Silver Lining: Shop discovers jewelry repair is another pandemic trend

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Behind the glittering offerings at Symmetry Jewelers lies a pandemic story despite how very busy they are and have been. 

Like other non-essential businesses, Symmetry Jewelers closed down when it was mandated on March 22. They reopened a couple of months later, on the first day it was allowed. They bought masks for staff and customers alike, installed sanitizer stations and social-distancing markers, and developed a regimen for regular sterilizing. And like other local businesses, they had to register with the city to be permitted to open up. During those two lockdown months, the business took out a line of credit to pay employees while they applied for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Street Renaming Commission

Leonidas removed from list of streets to be renamed

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Carrollton area resident Katie Smith told the City Council’s Street Renaming Commission in a presubmitted comment last week that she looked forward to the day she could give her cross street as Mahalia Jackson Street instead of Leonidas. That day now looks less likely. The commission voted Wednesday to remove Leonidas Street, as well as Lakeview’s Walker Street, from the list of names to be replaced. The City Council created the Street Renaming Commission in June to identify the streets and other public places in New Orleans that were named to honor white supremacists, and to recommend replacement street names.  
Many of the streets that honor Confederate leaders were named in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as part of the “Lost Cause of the Confederacy” propaganda campaign.

crime

NOPD arrests one, seeks two more suspects in recent string of armed robberies

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The New Orleans Police Department has arrested one suspect and is searching for two additional suspects wanted in connection with a string of armed robberies and carjackings that occurred in the Irish Channel, East Riverside, Touro and Milan neighborhoods over the past month. The suspects are accused of involvement in six armed robberies and carjackings in the NOPD’s Sixth District from Nov. 25 to Dec. 11, police said. The first robbery occurred on Nov.

crime

17-year-old arrested in brutal carjacking that left victim with broken bones and concussion

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The New Orleans Police Department has arrested a juvenile suspect wanted for attempted murder and carjacking. On Friday (Dec. 18), the NOPD’s Violent Offenders Warrant Squad and the U.S. Marshal’s Service arrested a 17-year-old male on an outstanding warrant for attempted murder and carjacking. He is accused in a violent carjacking in the Leonidas area. On Nov.