Walt Leger
Jun 192013
Jun 182013
Four Uptown neighborhood groups — the Broadmoor Improvement Association, the Garden District Association, Maple Area Residents Inc. and St. Charles Avenue Association — are among 13 petitioning city officials to strengthen the city’s noise ordinance, arguing for measures such as designating a specific individual with enforcing it and measuring sound levels from venues’ property lines. Continue reading »
Jun 172013
Marshall Hevron (UptownMessenger.com file photo)
Jun 172013
(image via projectnola.com)
Jun 062013
Newsflash: “Neighbors and nightclub clash over live music.” It sounds like a headline from any given day’s report from the City Council chambers, but it’s actually a story that’s nearly as old as New Orleans.
Whether New Orleans properly takes care of its musicians and other artists is another never-ending saga — but one that may finally be showing some improvement, according a panel discussion held at Tulane University on Thursday evening. Continue reading »
Jun 062013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
There is no question that reforms are needed at the Orleans Parish Prison and the New Orleans Police Department. The voters know it, the Federal government knows it, the City Council knows it and even Mayor Landrieu. But where is the money to fund both decrees (ostensibly at the same time) going to come from?
We need a compromise with the Federal government and we need it now. The cost of the consent decrees is far beyond the city’s means and might mean bankruptcy. Is that the goal? Let’s hope not. Perhaps the city could agree to a consent decree governing Parish Prison now. After OPP has been straightened out, perhaps there could be another consent decree governing the NOPD. Continue reading »
Jun 052013
How the economy surrounding the culture of New Orleans can lead to gentrification — possibly threatening the authenticity of the culture for the future — will be debated by jazz musicians Ellis Marsalis and Shamarr Allen, as well as professor Richard Campanella, journalist Katy Reckdahl and business owner Mike Valentino in a forum Thursday at Tulane University’s Hillel Center. Continue reading »
May 232013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
For more than 75 years, the Times Picayune has always won the official journal contract from the City of New Orleans. The official journal is where all mandated public notices are printed, tax seizures, bids, City Council summaries, etc. It is and has always been a great source of revenue that the TP has counted on.
For the first time there is a real chance that John Georges or even Margo and Clancy Dubos could take that contract from the TP. The contract is bid each year and of course the best bid wins. Councilmembers could always expect to hear from TP officials like former TP publisher Ashton Phelps or Editor Jim Amoss around that time. Though never spoken, we’re sure that many councilmembers dared not to vote against the TP for fear of retaliation in the next edition. Continue reading »
May 212013
The Rolling Through food truck festival will make a stop at the Rosa Keller library in Broadmoor starting at 5 p.m. today (Tuesday, May 21) as part of a weekly series that also includes events in Treme, Central City and the Bywater. Continue reading »
May 212013
Will McGrew and his mother, Janet McGrew, who said she is proud that her son is standing up for what he believes in. (submitted photo)
jewel bush
The day before his Ben Franklin High School graduation, a time when teenagers might engage in pranks or attend parties with buddies, Will McGrew helped organize a counter protest to the NOLA Needs Peace, Not More Abortion Coalition rally. The action was held on Monday afternoon near the proposed Claiborne Avenue Planned Parenthood site, a controversial new state-of-the art health facility slated to open in 2014. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for next week. Continue reading »
May 202013
Amid rumors, protests and petitions, a Lower Garden District neighborhood group is asking city recreation officials to hold a public meeting explaining changes for a facility at Annunciation Park.
Meanwhile on Monday night, the association also heard from a resident seeking to open a new coffee shop on Jackson Avenue, met one of the first candidates to begin campaigning openly for the at-large seat that will be open in next year’s New Orleans City Council elections and discussed the problem of loitering at a Magazine Street corner store. Continue reading »
May 202013
Owen Courreges
Has the New Orleans Police Department been cooking the books on the city’s crime stats? That’s the intimation made by a recent “special report” from the Times-Picayune.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Police Superintendant Ronal Serpas often argue that while New Orleans has a sky-high murder rate, its violent crime rate actually isn’t that bad, and in fact is better than a wide range of cities from New Haven, Connecticut to Orlando, Florida. Hearing them speak, you might believe that the guy in the mouse suit at DisneyWorld is more likely to demand your wallet at gunpoint than the ribald denizens of Bourbon Street. Continue reading »
May 162013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
There was a time when New Orleans was considered a great place to shop. Dozens of stores, most of them located on Canal Street or nearby, filled specific niches in the marketplace and shoppers from across the city, the region and the state came downtown, especially women in white gloves and high heels like Allan’s mother Miriam Pailet Katz, to shop, eat and enjoy the ambiance of New Orleans.
Then came the suburban flight, the rise of Lakewood Shopping Center and the development of Jefferson Parish as the retail center for the metro area, the region and the state. Most of Canal Street went into the dumps and there were only a few first-class stores in all of Downtown.
Now, eight years after Hurricane Katrina, corporate retailers, for the first time in 50 years, are looking at Downtown New Orleans as a “hot” place to invest their money. Continue reading »
May 142013
jewel bush
When I was driving on Carrollton Avenue yesterday, I was greeted by what I thought was a timely message: “NOLA NEEDS PEACE.” Days after a mass shooting left 19 people injured at a second line on Mother’s Day, no one can dispute the call for peace and an end to the violence that plagues — and numbs — the New Orleans community.
But, then I read the rest of the sign: “NOT MORE ABORTION.”
Huh!? Continue reading »
May 132013
Owen Courreges
This past Tuesday, Senator Mary Landrieu proposed an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that would stop the implementation of National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) premium increases that Congress imposed last year. Senator David Vitter is co-sponsoring the amendment.
However, both agree that the NFIP needs to be self-sustaining. Thus, Louisiana’s Senators are agreed first, that the NFIP should pay for itself, and secondly, that this should not result in massive premium increases that spur voters to kick their keisters out of office.
At first blush, it sounds like Louisiana’s Senators are saying that chocolate should taste good but shouldn’t make you get fat. That’s not quite the case. Continue reading »
May 112013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
Doug Hammel was the clear favorite in political circles in the May 4 runoff election for a Juvenile Court judgeship but Yolanda King and her volunteers had a big surprise for him. In an election where the turnout was just about five percent, King won 54 percent of the vote.
As is almost always the case in New Orleans politics, race was a major factor. King, who is an African-American, was making her fifth race for a judgeship and was considered by some to be a perennial candidate. She spent just $7,750 on her campaign. Hammel, who is white, spent more than $125,000 and, in the view of many of his advisors, didn’t spend enough. Continue reading »
May 022013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
Today is an important milestone in Councilman-at-large Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson’s life. It is the beginning of her last year as City Council President. She is slated to take over today from the effervescent Councilwoman-at-large Stacy Head who made lots of headway on projects she considers important. Continue reading »
Apr 302013
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell delivers her “State of District B” address Tuesday night at City Hall. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell laid out a holistic vision for stronger neighborhoods with more opportunities for young people and healthier residents with better jobs, but said she will need the support of her entire district to bring it to reality.
“I wanted to truly bring our district together, much how we did in Broadmoor. We subdivided to figure out our needs, but we came together as a neighborhood,” Cantrell said. “Tonight, I want us to come together as a district. With your help, we can truly build a District B that we can believe in.” Continue reading »
Apr 302013
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell speaks to the Bouligny Improvement Association in February. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Robert Morris)
Apr 292013
(cartoon by Owen Courreges for UptownMessenger.com)
Owen Courreges
“The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the only legitimate object of good government.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1809
“Good government is practically applying the principles which make a man a good citizen.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 1902
“We are trying to resolve this behind closed doors cause that is good government.”
– Jackie Clarkson, 2013
How does that old Sesame Street tune go? “One of these things is not like the others…” Continue reading »