Business Profile: Your Happy Garden and the Love of Landscaping

“We are creating beautiful, enjoyable green spaces for our clients, and that makes them happy,” said Shelley Midura, owner of Your Happy Garden, a landscaping business servicing most of the Greater New Orleans area.  Midura is the former District A Councilwoman who started Your Happy Garden in 2015, a few years after her Council term ended in 2010.

Midura had enjoyed gardening for years.  “Like many people, I liked working in the dirt,” she said. “Although it can be physically taxing, it’s grounding, it’s very satisfying.”  It was after a weekend of gardening in her Dad’s backyard that she realized that she wanted to find a way to turn her passion into her vocation.

Peaches on Magazine plans to bring historic Woolworth’s counter back to life

By Emily Carmichael, Uptown Messenger

Peaches Records, a long-time stalwart of local music, is looking to try its hand at the culinary scene with the revival of the historic F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in its Magazine Street store.

On Monday, June 3, the record store that helped give Cash Money its start will host a Neighborhood Participation Program meeting at Rosa F. Keller Library in Broadmoor. The meeting is part of a process to gain the city’s approval to serve alcoholic beverages, but Peaches owner Shirani Rea also hopes to use it as an opportunity to introduce the project to the community.

The counter at the Peaches remains in its original location at 4318 Magazine St., a former F.W. Woolworth store. The counter was built in 1940, Rea said, but its historical significance dates to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Danae Columbus: Zoning proposal latest twist in New Orleans’ complex real estate market

Domain Companies officials will meet with neighbors Friday, May 31, to explain a zoning map amendment for their South Market District properties including The Standard, The Beacon, The Paramount, and a 36,000-square-foot surface parking lot. They are asking to change the zoning from CBD -5 to CBD-1, which would allow for increased commercial use, including timeshares.

Domain liaison Christian Brierre says the company is seeking the amendment “solely for the purpose of our retail spaces” and that The Paramount and The Beacon will “continue to be market-leading multifamily apartment products.”

Xavier University administration changes bring backlash

The new administration at Xavier University of Louisiana has made plans to remove and restructure the entire Office of Student Affairs, which means key staff members will lose their jobs. Over the past few weeks, that plan and other decisions have sparked disapproval from alumni, staff and students, who circulated a petition that garnered nearly 2,800 signatures.

Some recent actions have made the Xavier community question the administration’s strategic plans and the identity and direction of the university itself.

Xavier’s President C. Reynold Verret and Vice President of Student Affairs Curtis Wright laid out plans for staff restructuring in emails sent to the Xavier community earlier this month. Wright’s May 16 letter went into detail about the changes: