Three juveniles arrested in recent vehicle thefts, carjacking

The NOPD has arrested three juveniles suspected in separate vehicle thefts that occurred Friday (Nov. 12) and Saturday, including a car theft in the Costco parking lot and a carjacking in the Xavier University parking lot. Police announced Wednesday (Nov. 17) that a juvenile was booked in the ongoing investigation of an armed robbery on Friday in the Costco parking lot. At about 6:30 p.m. a woman was loading groceries into her car when two gunmen approached and demanded her keys.

Interactive maps show how your neighborhood voted for mayor, sheriff and at-large council members

Saturday’s election snuck up on New Orleans — after Hurricane Ida delayed voting day by a month, it would have been easy to forget that there were still crucial races for mayor, sheriff, City Council and more. Nevertheless, more than 75,000 voters cast their ballots and made their voices heard, a turnout of around 28%. See how your neighborhood voted for mayor, sheriff and the at-large council seats below. 
Mayor’s race
This race was not a nail-biter: as widely expected, Democrat LaToya Cantrell comfortably won re-election with 65% of the vote, around 49,000 ballots. Although Cantrell faced an unlucky 13 opponents, few of them garnered real support. Republican Vina Nguyen came in second with 13% of the vote, around 10,000 ballots.

Police blotter: Multiple carjackings and vehicle thefts among the crimes reported in Uptown neighborhoods

New Orleans Police Department crime reports show a rash of vehicle thefts and carjackings over the past week, with multiple incidents in the Lower Garden District and on or near South Carrollton Avenue. Shoppers were targeted in robberies at Costco on Carrollton and the Magnolia Marketplace on South Claiborne Avenue. Two stabbings and a shooting were also reported in Uptown neighborhoods. Stabbing: A woman cut another woman’s ear Monday (Nov. 15) at a Lower Garden District park, according to a police report.

Rabbit’s Foot Market & Cafe, set to open on Prytania, wants to be a hub for local small businesses

The Rabbit’s Foot, a market and café concept that will serve local goods and food, plans to open in January. The location at 2042 Prytania St. is the former home of Zara’s Supermarket, which closed in 2014. The building’s owners, Robbie and Liz Blum, had planned to open a market in the space called Garden District Grocery, but that concept never came to fruition due to zoning issues. The Rabbit’s Foot owner, Ryan Murphy, has been in the food and beverage industry for twenty years.

Jay Banks and Lesli Harris will go to runoff for City Council District B race

 

The race for the City Council District B seat has been tough, and it’s not over yet. Incumbent Jay H. Banks won 45% of the vote in the election on Saturday, while challenger Lesli Harris won 37%, meaning that both Democrats will go to a runoff on Dec. 11. 

Banks is no stranger to nail-biter races; he won his seat in 2017 by just 128 votes in a runoff against former School Board member Seth Bloom. Harris, an entertainment attorney, doesn’t have previous experience in political office, but she has proven to be a formidable candidate and managed to outraise all of her opponents in campaign contributions.   

Democrat Rella Zapletal, an attorney and president of the Touro Bouligny Neighborhood Association, garnered 14% of the vote, winning in two precincts. Independent Rosalind Reed Thibodeaux, who supports more ideological diversity on the council, got 5% of the vote.

Joe Giarrusso rides a landslide into re-election for City Council District A

For Joe Giarrusso III, the question was not whether he would win his re-election bid for City Council District A, but by how much. The answer: by a landslide. 

Giarrusso crushed his competition, Libertarian Amy Misko and fellow Democrat Robert Murrell, and won with 76% of the vote in Saturday’s election, according to unofficial results from the Louisiana Secretary of State. In comparison, he won his first race for City Council in 2017 with 65% of the vote. The incumbent council member not only earned more than three times as many votes as his two opponents combined, he won in every District A precinct. 

His strongest performance was in the University area of Uptown, where he won more than 90% of the vote in four 14th Ward precincts (9, 8, 14 and 6). 

His weakest performance — although he still prevailed — was in a few left-leaning Mid-City spots: 5th Ward precincts 9 and 10, in the lower Bayou St. John area, and 3rd Ward precinct 19, a slice of Mid-City between Canal Street and the Pontchartrain Expressway.

Lusher board puts off name change, rejects naming school after Jeanne Marie Lusher 

After years of controversy and debate, the board governing Lusher Charter School officially voted on Thursday to change the school’s name to … something to be decided. 

At an emotional meeting that lasted almost four hours with 90 public comments, the Lusher board voted against renaming the school after pediatric oncologist Jeanne Marie Lusher. The four board members who opposed keeping “Lusher” in the name were Alysia Loshbaugh, Rachel Wisdom, Kiki Huston and George Wilson, while the two members willing to consider it were Brenda Bourne and Gary Solomon.  

“We are not the name. We are the community. We are the students. We are the faculty,” Wisdom said.