city government

Audubon seeks $3.5 million city funding for lighting and repaving The Fly, plus new bike path

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Audubon Park officials are requesting $3.5 million from the city for long-sought improvements to the riverfront park known as The Fly, including a new bicycle and jogging path, new lighting, more protection for trees and repaved road and parking areas. The new $500,000 “multimodal” trail for bicyclists and pedestrians will run behind the soccer fields and along the railroad tracks to link what is now the entrance and the exit to the park (formally known as the Audubon Riverview), capital projects director Kyle McGehee told City Planning Commission staff on Tuesday. It will be about 10 feet wide—not as broad as the jogging path around the lake in Audubon Park, but wide enough for several bicyclists to ride side-by-side—and constructed from a semi-permeable material, McGehee said. While the path will connect at the upriver end to the bike trail on top of the Mississippi River levee, the new section Audubon is planning will not be part of either the road or along the waterfront, McGehee said. “Our bike path would be separate from the roadway.

city government

NOPD requests $37 million for new headquarters

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The New Orleans Police Department is asking city leaders to budget $37 million to replace the department’s headquarters, authorities said Wednesday morning (July 24). “We know we need a new building, and we need it fast,” said NOPD Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly in a budget meeting with city planning officials. “It’s basically time to consider looking at a new headquarters instead of spending the resources to repair a dilapidated building.” Read the full story at MidCityMessenger.com

business

Coffee shop development planned for State and Magazine seeks city approval for parking

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The new development planned for the former gas station site at the corner of State and Magazine Street needs city approval for its parking plan, and will go before the City Planning Commission next week to request it, city documents show. The building planned for the site will have space for a coffee shop as the “anchor tenant,” plus two other businesses such as a health-food or juice shop and fitness studio, according to a letter to neighbors from consultants Sherman Strategies. The developers anticipate construction being “substantially complete” by October, they said. The project is planned to have 17 parking spaces, but the site sits on multiple lots, and the portion planned for parking is technically a separate lot at 808 State Street. Because of the zoning there, that aspect of the project requires a conditional-use permit from the city, the developers said.

city government

Four NOPD officers fired after unauthorized pursuit led to fiery fatal crash into Broadmoor salon

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Four New Orleans Police officers were fired Wednesday in connection with a March car chase that ended with the suspect’s vehicle crashing into a Broadmoor salon and starting a fire that killed three people, after an internal investigation revealed “multiple policy violations” and a pattern of unauthorized pursuits, authorities said. The fired officers are Alex Mikkelsen, Jonathan Broom, Jeffrey Herrington and Alex Florian. All have been with the department for two years except Florian, who had been on the force three years. Also suspended in the investigation were two more officers, 9-year veteran Colby Stewart and William Hery, who had also been with the department two years. Steward was suspended 44 days and Hery for 54 days.

business

Molly’s Rise and Shine gets closer to adding alcohol to the menu

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By Katherine Hart, Uptown Messenger

For the past six months or so, Molly’s Rise and Shine on Magazine Street in the Irish Channel has been charming patrons with its inventive take on morning cuisine. Now, alongside the dash of irony and generous serving of millennial nostalgia, the popular spot is on its way to serving booze to wash down the Whirled Peas on Toast or Grand Slam McMuffin. The restaurant’s tandem request for a zoning change and conditional use — changes engineered to allow alcoholic beverage sales — appeared to be sailing to approval when introduced at Tuesday’s City Planning Commission meeting. The property owners and business operator want to change the zoning in one of the few residential blocks of Magazine from Historic Urban Two-Family Residential to Historic Urban Neighborhood Business. It’s now operating as a nonconforming use in the building that spent 30 years as the Magazine Street Po-Boy Shop.

city government

RTA, planners gather input for overhaul of public transit in New Orleans

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By Jesse Baum, Uptown Messenger

The Regional Transit Authority and the Regional Planning Committee hosted a community meeting Tuesday for District B at Dryades Public Market to gather feedback for a planned redesign of the public transit network that would include New Orleans and the surrounding communities. Called New Links, the project also involves Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes’ transit agencies in an effort to make the transit network more efficient and user-friendly. The current input phase of the redesign looks at where people in New Orleans travel most frequently and how they would like to see transit improved, including more options for transfers, better weekend/late night service, as well as better connections to communities like Chalmette and Metairie. In the years after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures, the RTA has seen ridership fall and has struggled to restore service to prestorm levels.

city government

Hazardous waste containers removed in Gert Town, city and state report

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As the city and state released statements on the removal of hazardous waste from beneath the surface of a Gert Town street, WVUE Fox 8 News revealed documents indicating the Mayor’s Office and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality knew the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had detected 100 times the normal level of radium at the street surface. Residents of the area surrounding the site filed a class-action lawsuit in June claiming the city knew about the radioactive materials as far back as 2013 and did nothing. In a 2010 report, the EPA estimated that there are about 15 brownfields — former industrial sites with potential contamination — in Gert Town and 40 in Central City. Mayor’s Office statement on the hazardous waste removal:
The City announced Wednesday that the final four of six total containers with underground material from the work site in the Lowerline and Coolidge area have been removed for transport to Anders, Texas. In May 2018, the Cantrell administration learned about the presence of underground material producing radiation below the road surface at the intersection of Lowerline Street and Coolidge Court.

city government

Councilwoman to discuss proposed changes to short-term rental regulations

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Governmental Affairs Committee Chair and District C Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer will present updates to the City Code relative to enforcement, permitting and fees for New Orleans’ Short Term Rental program. You can read and review a short description of the proposed changes here or the ordinance (Cal. No. 32,691) here. The Governmental Affairs Special Committee meeting is Wednesday, July 17 at 1 p.m. inside the City Council Chambers.

business

City Council approves plan for wellness center in former church, with restrictions

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The City Council last week approved the zoning change that will allow a wellness center in the former Norwegian Seamen’s Church, while promising to add some requirements for the business and property owners. The wellness center will be owned and operated by three sisters, Diana Fisher, Deborah Peters and Kendall Wininger, who are Lower Garden District residents. It will include offices for physicians and therapists, a health club with fitness classes in the former chapel and in the outdoor pool, and a carryout health-food restaurant. District B Councilman Jay Banks said the City Council is adding two provisos to the ordinance allowing the zoning change from residential to mixed-use, permitting a commercial venture. One will require the owners to submit a parking plan; the other will prohibit them from acquiring a permit to sell alcohol at the site.

city government

New NOPD commander to meet with Second District residents

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The newly-appointed commander of the Uptown-based Second District of the New Orleans Police Department will introduce himself to residents next week in an event at the station on Broadway Street. Commander Jeff Walls, a 22-year NOPD veteran, was named to lead the Second District succeeding the previous commander, Doug Eckert, who died last week after a battle with cancer. Walls led the lakefront’s Third District prior to this appointment, and previously the French Quarter’s Eighth District, as well as the department’s homicide unit. “Commander Walls has received several letters of commendation, a medal of achievement and two medals of commendation,” according to a NOPD news release. “He has an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bishop State (Ala.) Community College, a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Loyola University-New Orleans and a master’s degree in Homeland Security from Tulane University.”