Tipitina’s Foundation, Project Homecoming and the United Way hope to have the restoration of Professor Longhair’s former home in the 1700 block of Terpsichore finished by the end of the year, so his daughter and grandson can then move into it, according to a report by Eric Paulson of our partners at WWL-TV.
Jean-Paul Villere
The little-prison-that-could didn’t this last week when it failed to garner any bids during the City of New Orleans Surplus Property Auction. That’s right, the Treme jailhouse at 2552 St Philip that raised eyebrows upon entry failed to rock, open wallets, or lift paddles. Among the properties that did see successful play were two: each a corner brick two-story from different eras and areas. Continue reading »
Rather than tear down a century-old home in the 3900 block of Tchoupitoulas Street to make way for a filming lot, property owner Troy Keller and renovator Robert Brent will move the house next Tuesday to a lot Brent owns in the 3500 block of Tchoupitoulas for renovations, according to a report by Bill Capo and our partners at WWL-TV.
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
For many years, the 33-story World Trade Center overlooking the Mississippi River was one of New Orleans’ most important centers of business.
Powerful people, companies and government agencies including the Port of New Orleans occupied suites at the WTC. The 30th floor restaurant, the Plimsoll Club, was usually packed. You needed a reservation to get a table. The World Trade Center suite on the 29th floor was often the site of important civic press conferences and educational seminars. Located at the foot of the Mississippi River at the end of Canal Street, the WTC offered incredible views of the river, especially from the Plimsoll Club. At the top of the building a revolving bar called the Top of the Mart was an important social spot. During her years as a lobbyist for the Dock Board, Danae worked at the WTC Building and enjoyed it. She, along with her colleagues, thought the Plimsoll Club was a neat place for lunch. Continue reading »
3527 South Liberty (photo by Jean-Paul Villere)
Jean-Paul Villere
Once upon a time the ivy-covered, faded green house with broken glass panes and missing siding at 3527 South Liberty in Uptown New Orleans probably was a family home, a quaint if not classically styled shotgun with sidehall elements, wrought iron fencing and floor to ceiling windows facing the street. Today it sits beaten to hell but still seemingly structurally intact, an eyesore of eyesores, and consumed by litter including household discards, dozens upon dozens of old tires, and yes, even hypodermic needles. Additionally according to nolaassessor.com/ there is a code-enforcement lien, and the city’s new Blight Status site shows a hearing next week on 11 violations found in January 2013.
This kind of scenario represents the face of blight in the Crescent City today. Continue reading »
5325 Perrier Street (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
The proposed front elevation of the home listed in the demolition application. (via nola.gov)
Jean-Paul Villere
I’m no newshound, but of late I’ve noticed more than a few comments on pieces detailing the present tense of some older, and until recently, largely overlooked New Orleans neighborhoods. Some call it a white tea pot effect, and others have expounded on this, even hyping it up with modified phrasing like re-gentrification or super-gentrification. But the tone often leans toward a woeful finger wagging on that whispery word unto itself: gentrification.
And all I keep coming back to is, do we not live in a free market society? Are the choices made by the citizenry not their own? To live somewhere or not. To embrace risk versus reward in prospecting or strict investment, whether as an owner occupant or out and out landlord? Yes, incentive can come in the form of local, state, and federal tax incentives, and yes, re-zoning has been known to kickstart a movement. But these benefits are not exclusive to any one demographic, and they never will be. Quite simply, population migrations happen. Continue reading »
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 »
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.)
The vacant lot at 2101 Prytania (image via Google maps).
Firefighters battle the flames consuming the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on Prytania Street in January 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo)
A home on Delachaise Street burns Friday night just off South Claiborne. (submitted photo)
A fire that began in a vacant house on Delachaise Street just off South Claiborne scorched an adjacent fourplex Friday night, destroying two families’ homes, according to a report from our partners at WWL-TV.
820 General Pershing Street, photographed in December.
LaToya Cantrell
Firefighter Michael Williams, right, and a city code inspector survey damage from the backyard of a house that collapsed Thursday afternoon in the 700 block of General Pershing. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
An image of the house dated March 2011 from Google Maps.
820 General Pershing Street
The fire that destroyed almost the entire 3300 block of First Street in the Hoffman Triangle area of Central City is believed to have started in an abandoned building, according to a report by Monica Hernandez of our partners at WWL-TV.
The former assisted living center at 2101 Louisiana Avenue will reopen next summer as a 42-unit apartment building next summer, half of which wiil be transitional housing for the homeless with on-site case management, and the other half will be for low-income renters, reports Monica Hernandez of our partners at WWL-TV.
The Central City Renaissance Alliance will hold a patron party this evening (Friday, Nov. 9) for its home tour Saturday showcasing new homes and renovations in the neighborhood. Continue reading »
Students’ projects from September 2009 still hang on a bulletin board in a corridor at the New Orleans Free School at 3601 Camp Street. The building was abruptly abandoned three months later because of structural issues, and is now headed for auction. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
The former New Orleans Free School on Camp Street.
Students’ work still hangs on the walls three years after it was turned in, and their art lays strewn about the floor of the old Free School. A few children’s books sit in crates, toys lay abandoned on the dirty floor, and pigeons flutter in and out of the dark fourth-floor attic. To the trained eye, however, the most insidious problem is the sudden dips in the hardwood floor.
The century-old Free School on Camp Street looks as though it was abandoned overnight, as it almost literally was in December of 2009 when critical structural problems were discovered there. Next month, the building is one of seven former school sites around the city scheduled to be auctioned off by the Orleans Parish School Board, raising the possibility that it might finally be redeveloped into something new, or even one day hold students once again. Continue reading »
A campaign sign on Louisiana Avenue. (photo by Jean-Paul Villere for UptownMessenger.com)
Jean-Paul Villere
The other day my 10-year old says aloud to me as I scrawl something somewhere with my trusty ink pen, “Hey, I have that pen too!” I respond quickly, if not a little gruff, “You do? Well, it’s mine, so give it back to me.” To which she closes me down, “Well, it has my name on it soooo – - – ” She spins her (my) pen in her hand and holds it horizontally toward me, and sure enough there’s her full name spelled out. And there you have it! Possession remains 9/10ths of the law big, beautiful world. Lap it up! Ahhhhh, rules! That one’s going to be a lawyer I tell you; her mother and I have always said this. Continue reading »
A fire that broke out shortly after 4 a.m. Monday at a home at 9035 Pritchard Place heavily damaged the vacant house where it started and also caused some damage to the two houses on either side of it, displacing one family but harming no one, according to a report by our partners at WWL-TV.
Last week, another vacant home was damaged in a fire about a block away.