Councilwoman pledges to seek more enforcement of Mardi Gras safety laws

 Posted by at 6:16 pm  city government, Featured, neighborhood groups, public safety, transportation
Feb 272013
 

City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell smiles as she takes notes on an issue raised by a member of the Bouligny Improvement Association on Wednesday evening. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The use of public space on the Mardi Gras parade routes improved slightly this year, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell said Wednesday night, but the city laws need to be reviewed starting now to make sure that less of the sidewalks and neutral grounds are unfairly co-opted by furniture, ropes and improperly-placed ladders. Continue reading »

Jean-Paul Villere: Party like it’s 1899, or, wanna buy a jail?

 Posted by at 11:21 am  blight and demolition, city government, opinion
Feb 272013
 

The 111-year-old jail on St. Phillip Street. (photo by Jean-Paul Villere for UptownMessenger.com)

Jean-Paul Villere

Two days ago via Twitter New Orleans’ own PRC posted a link detailing a list of city owned property likely to soon be available at auction.  The Crescent City remains riddled with blight, therefore the city must own some of it, right?  Right!  My personal favorite on the list happens to be the old jail erected in 1902 at 2552 St. Philip in Treme.  It’s a gorgeous old brick and mortar bunker of a building; today’s new construction absolutely pales in comparison to this craftsmanship.  Unfortunately due to the city’s neglect this sweet corner piece has fallen well beyond disrepair, but fortunately not so far that it can’t be brought back. Continue reading »

Veteran federal customs officer returns to NOPD as Uptown rookie

 Posted by at 4:36 pm  city government, crime, public safety
Feb 262013
 

“[Richard] Hamilton is the essence of what I’m looking for,” NOPD Commander Paul Noel said of his 58-year-old rookie in the Uptown-based Second District, in the following report by Mike Hoss of our partners at WWL-TV. “When you see him out in the street, you know he not only walks the beat and talks to people, but you can tell he genuinely cares.”

All streetlights on Carrollton Avenue to be repaired in 90 days, councilwoman says

 Posted by at 6:05 pm  city government, Featured, neighborhood groups
Feb 252013
 

City Councilwoman Susan Guidry speaks at a town hall meeting Monday night at Lafayette Academy in Carrollton. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The prolonged stretches of darkness that have regularly fallen over Carrollton Avenue after sunset will soon be a thing of the past, City Councilwoman Susan Guidry told residents Monday night, reporting that the city plans to have all of the thoroughfare’s streetlights repaired within 90 days. Continue reading »

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: A cool Nagin seems to calmly await his fate

 Posted by at 12:06 pm  city government, court, crime, opinion, politics
Feb 232013
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

Back in the early days of his mayoral tenure, before things began to fall apart, Clarence Ray Nagin was a rock star. He didn’t know much about city government but he was cool, glib and very optimistic.

Did the city need an infusion of money? He’d sell the airport. Continue reading »

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Craig Giesecke: Playing the waiting game, New Orleans-style

 Posted by at 10:44 am  business, city government, food and drink, opinion
Feb 222013
 

Craig Giesecke

If you’ve ever built a house or otherwise been involved in construction or extensive remodeling of a building, you know any contractor’s standard answer is “two weeks.” You also know only too well how, particularly in this city, the wheels of the public utilities and their regulatory minions in city government grind v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y –- unless, of course, you’re late paying a bill. Continue reading »

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Jimmy’s Music Club launches challenge against city ban on alcohol establishments in Carrollton

 Posted by at 1:23 pm  city government, Featured, food and drink
Feb 192013
 

As the owners of Jimmy’s Music Club continue to seek the reopening of their landmark Willow Street venue, they are employing an unusual legal strategy to get around the temporary ban on new alcohol licenses in the Carrollton area.

Instead of asking the City Council to grant them an exception to the moratorium, they are asking the city’s alcohol commissioners to rule that the latest iteration of that moratorium is illegal altogether and thus inapplicable to Jimmy’s. Continue reading »

City alcohol board takes aim at Grits bar on Annunciation, Uptowner banquet hall on Henry Clay

 Posted by at 6:03 pm  business, city government, Featured, food and drink
Feb 182013
 

The “Gabrielle in Purgatory” dinner in February 2011 at the controversial Uptowner location on Henry Clay Avenue. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)

The latest Uptown establishments to fall under the scrutiny of the New Orleans Alcohol Beverage Control board are Grits bar on Annunciation Street and the Uptowner banquet hall on Henry Clay Avenue, and the effort to bring back Jimmy’s Music Club may also be heard by the panel Tuesday afternoon as well. Continue reading »

Owen Courreges: The mayor’s consent-decree blame game

 Posted by at 10:13 am  city government, crime, opinion, politics, public safety
Feb 182013
 

Owen Courreges

Mayor Landrieu has a terrible case of buyer’s remorse.

Last July, Mayor Landrieu was on hand to announce a consent decree between the U.S. Justice Department and the City of New Orleans in a lawsuit that alleged widespread abuses of basic civil rights by the New Orleans Police Department.  “Now, after more than two years of work, the consent decree is done,” Mayor Landrieu remarked at the time.

Well, perhaps not quite done.  Apparently, Mayor Landrieu didn’t consider the fact a consent decree might be reached with respect to the city’s other constitutional abomination, Orleans Parish Prison.  That’s exactly what happened.   Landrieu spokesman Ryan Berni argues that “both the prison and NOPD consent decrees cannot be paid for at this time without raising taxes or laying off or furloughing employees.” Continue reading »

Allen Katz and Danae Columbus: All hail the mayor’s Mardi Gras ball

 Posted by at 1:07 pm  city government, events, opinion, politics
Feb 072013
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

Danae’s Mardi Gras is not complete without the annual trek to Gallier Hall for the Mayor’s Ball. Lucky for us, Gallier Hall is only four blocks from our office, so Danae walks over.

Last night’s event — as usual — was an outstanding gathering, a great place to people watch and do business. His Honor of course was present along with most of his senior staff and the majority of the City Council — LaToya, Cynthia, Jackie, Kristin and Susan — and their husbands. Danae overheard Mayor Landrieu speaking to a national journalist about the willingness of investors to bring their money to New Orleans, since the Mayor never misses an opportunity to promote the city. Honorary Dutch Consul Connie Willems, new president of the Consular Corp, was talking about how foreign governments are placing more emphasis on trade in this region. Continue reading »

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City officials pledge to end unruly teenage parade crowds on Amelia Street

 Posted by at 11:57 am  city government, events, Featured, public safety
Feb 062013
 

A vacant lot on the corner of Amelia and Baronne where neighbors say unruly teenagers congregate during Mardi Gras parades. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

A two-block stretch of Amelia Street that neighbors say has become an out-of-control gathering place for unruly teenagers during Mardi Gras will receive increased attention this week from both police and city officials who promise to end the problem.

The problem is different from the typical Carnival-time revelry that lines the Uptown route, neighbors and officials say. Instead, a vacant lot at the corner of Baronne Street — memorable to passers-by for a lone set of stone stairs in the center of it — has become a gathering point for teens, and they form a dense throng for two blocks between there and the parade on St. Charles Avenue. Continue reading »

Owen Courreges: Safe haven for pit bulls

 Posted by at 9:58 am  city government, opinion, public safety
Feb 042013
 

Owen Courreges

New Orleans is the city of the pit bull.  Last year Gambit reported that New Orleans has one of the highest rates of pit bull ownership per capita in the country.  It is home to the Sula Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at “fostering responsible pit bull ownership” which raises money by selling yearly calendars of the “Pit Bulls of New Orleans.”  It is home to “Ban Ignorance, Not Pit Bulls,” a group established to “advocate for pit bull rights and educate the general public in a positive way that will help lessen the ignorance concerning pit bulls.”

For you TV junkies out there, the evidence is even more apparent.  The Animal Planet reality series “Pit Bulls and Parolees,” which pairs ex-cons with pit bulls, aired its 2012 season in New Orleans after relocating its rescue and adoption facility to the Lower 9th Ward from Los Angeles.  The show cited onerous regulations as the primary driver of the move. Continue reading »

“Imagination Playground” donated to Lyons Center as volunteers celebrate 20,000 trees planted since Katrina

 Posted by at 12:15 pm  city government, good works, sports and recreation
Feb 032013
 

Officials stand near pieces of the Imagination Playground being donated to the city on Saturday. (submitted photo)

The “Super Saturday of Service” brought two citywide celebrations of volunteerism to the Lyons Center park in the Irish Channel, as the city received the donation of an “Imagination Playground” that includes large blue foam blocks for children to play with, and volunteers celebrated the replanting of the 20,000th tree since Hurricane Katrina. Continue reading »

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Superdome and Super Bowl overlook blight in Central City in photo essay

 Posted by at 10:20 am  blight and demolition, business, city government, recovery
Feb 032013
 

The Superdome can be seen through a hole in the roof of the former Myrtle Banks school on O.C. Haley Boulevard, which is slated for redevelopment. (Photo by Steve Beatty used with permission from The Lens.)

While the Superdome and the so-called “Clean Zone” around it have been the focus of numerous improvements leading up to the Super Bowl, some of the city’s most severe blight remains literally right next door in Central City, as shown in a photo essay by the editors of The Lens.

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Repaving of Broadway Street and section of Leonidas soon to begin

 Posted by at 6:01 pm  city government, Featured, flood protection and drainage, state government, transportation
Jan 312013
 

Map of the sections of Broadway and Leonidas set to be repaved starting in the next few weeks — not to scale. (Map via pavinglaroads.com)

Rick Hathaway and Alex Wommack listen to residents’ concerns about the upcoming repaving of Broadway and Leonidas streets. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

A $5.6 million project to repave two miles of Broadway Street through the university area and half-mile segment of Leonidas in Hollygrove will start in the next few weeks, but residents who attended an informational session about the project Thursday night were skeptical that the new surfaces will last long as old pipes continue to crumble underneath. Continue reading »

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