Children’s Hospital seeks input on changes to its Master Plan

Uptown residents living near Children’s Hospital can provide input tonight on potential changes to the hospital’s Institutional Master Plan. The Master Plan describes existing and future development on the hospital campus. Updates to this plan reflect the hospital’s recently completed campus transformation, completed renovations to our State Street campus buildings, updated traffic patterns throughout the hospital campus, and immediate future planning, which includes minimal new construction over the next several years. Neighbors can join the meeting anytime between 6 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday (July 19) at Worley Hall, 210 State St. The neighborhood meeting will be structured as a collaborative charette, with team members from Children’s Hospital, their architects, and consultants sharing components of our plans and seeking feedback.

Tulane invites neighbors to a community meeting

Tulane University will host a community meeting for University Area neighbors on Aug. 8, before students arrive for the 2023-24 academic year. Tulane officials will provide updates and information on key initiatives concerning the university and the surrounding community, according to Tulane Neighbor News, a monthly newsletter from the university’s Community Relations Department. A Q&A session will follow the updates, and neighbors are encouraged to submit questions in advance. Participants are invited to email questions to cpourciau@tulane.edu by end of the day on July 28.

On Magazine Street, Restaurant Week specials plus a Block Party

The Magazine Street Merchants Association offers some ideas for beating the summer doldrums. This week is Restaurant Week along the corridor. Then on Aug. 3,  a Block Party will take place. In honor of Restaurant Week — Monday (July 17) to Sunday (July 23) — restaurants, bars, coffee shops and sweet shops along Magazine have created special menus with tempting prices, ranging from $15 to $50. The Merchants Association is sweetening the deals by offering a Restaurant Week Passport.

Viewpoint: Property taxes may rise in 2024 for many New Orleans homeowners

New Orleans property owners in select neighborhoods — including Uptown areas — should anticipate paying higher taxes due in 2024 due to the increased valuation of properties in those areas, according to longtime Orleans Parish Assessor Erroll Williams.  Williams and his staff of in-house appraisers have spent the past year reviewing every parcel of commercial and residential property on the parish tax rolls. 

Louisiana law requires a re-evaluation on all properties once every four years. Because 2024 is a quadrennial year, Orleans Parish assessments for tax years 2024-27 will reflect market values as of Jan. 1, 2023. A similar review took place in 2019. 

State law now requires all tax recipient agencies to reduce their millage rates when a quadrennial revaluation results in an increase in taxable assessments, as is the case this year, according to an Assessor’s Office press release. This is referred to as a “mandatory rollback.” The intent of the rollback is to keep funding streams level for tax recipient agencies.

PJ Morton’s Buddy Bolden house cited again for demolition by neglect, NOLA.com reports

The Buddy Bolden house on First Street in Central City, now owned by a foundation run by musician PJ Morton, has been cited by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission for demolition of the jazz landmark by neglect, Sophie Kasakove reports on NOLA.com. The citation, which requires Morton to stabilize the building by Aug. 4, is not the first since the Grammy winner announced, to great fanfare, in 2019 his plans to revive the blighted shotgun, where Bolden lived while pioneering the music now known as jazz. It has been deteriorating since it was purchased in 2008 by Morton’s parents, Bishop Paul S. Morton and the Rev. Debra B. Morton for their church, Greater St. Stephen Ministries.

Three teenagers arrested in recent carjacking, attempted robbery

Three juveniles were arrested Thursday (July 6) in connection with an attempted armed robbery and a carjacking reported a day earlier in the East Riverside and Irish Channel neighborhoods. The victims in both incidents were women. Two of the suspects are 14 years of old; the other is 15.  Two handguns were recovered by New Orleans police and federal ATF officers during the arrest. The three boys have been charged with the attempted armed robbery and armed carjacking, according to the New Orleans Police Department. The crimes occurred within 20 minutes of each other on Wednesday afternoon (July 5), according to police reports.

Brutal carjacking of Stein’s Deli owner one of many in river area

Among the victims in a recent rash of carjackings and robberies in the Lower Garden District, Irish Channel and East Riverside was the owner of the beloved Stein’s Market & Deli on Magazine Street. Dan Stein left his Lower Garden District shop, carrying a bag with a sandwich inside, and got in his Toyota SUV on Thursday (July 6) at about 12:45 a.m., the New Orleans Police Department stated. At first, he didn’t think much of it when four men drove up in a dark-colored vehicle

The gunmen ordered him out of the SUV, and he complied. Before fleeing in Stein’s car, one of the carjackers struck him in the head with a handgun. Stein collapsed on the sidewalk and stayed there for a while, surveillance video obtained by WWL-TV shows.

Firefighters battle Carrollton Avenue blaze under scorching temps

With mid-day temperatures approaching triple digits on Sunday (July 2), the New Orleans Fire Department battled both the mid-day heat and two separate two-alarm fires. The first occurred in an occupied two-story commercial building on South Carrollton Avenue in Gert Town. A 911 call alerted at 1:31 p.m. alerted first-responders to the fire. After being dispatched to 3625 S. Carrollton Ave., NOFD Fire Operations personnel were confronted with a working fire involving two separate businesses, Mobile Tint and Audio auto window tinting service on the first floor and Lovely Nails salon on the second floor. Firefighters had to force entry into the building through first-floor front glass doors and a rear metal door to battle the fire.