Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
We will never get out of our minds the picture of then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert in the wake of Hurricane Katrina asking of New Orleans, “Why would anyone want to rebuild there?” He later apologized but we thought the question marked Hastert as forever an idiot. Continue reading »
This year’s Thanksgiving meal will be the first at the New Orleans Mission since Hurricane Katrina, reports Scott Satchfield and our partners at WWL-TV.
Bricolage Academy will become the next new charter school to open from the ground up in New Orleans next fall, after the full Orleans Parish School Board voted unanimously in favor of the project Tuesday evening.
The next step for the fledgling school is to nail down a location — with Uptown options a priority — before opening admissions for four small classes of kindergarten students. Continue reading »
Chelsea Thornton (via opcso.org)
A group of teenagers were arrested Tuesday morning after allegedly using a BB gun in a robbery and fight in an effort to steal someone’s baseball cap on Earhart Boulevard in Hollygrove, police said. Continue reading »
In this image from “It’s A Wonderful Life,” a young George Bailey makes a wish for a million dollars. I’d settle for a dozen birthday balloons. — Jean Paul Villere.
Jean-Paul Villere
Last week when my 4 year old made, well, 4 neither my wife nor I thought too much about snagging a bag of birthday balloons from a nearby, preferably local, business, but man, were we wrong. If you live in Uptown New Orleans I challenge you to discover where those in need of a good old-fashioned latex balloons might find them and report your results right back here, but I’ll tell you now, you won’t be reporting much (though I hope you do). Here’s what we encountered: Continue reading »
By Dana Kaplan
In a week where many New Orleanians are giving thanks and celebrating the holiday with their family and friends, I too would like to take pause to give thanks.
First, I’m thankful to the voters of District B who have expressed their confidence in my plan for our future by voting for me on November 6th. I continue to work hard in the runoff by reaching out to supporters whose candidates didn’t make the runoff and sharing my message throughout the district. Continue reading »
Damont Burton (via opcso.org)
The Daiquiri Place Cafe (via Google Maps)
The daiquiri shop’s owner blamed the problems in part on a restaurant in the next block and on the unruly crowds of “second liners” themselves, but his arguments did little to sway the the commissioners, who voted unanimously to revoke his liquor license.
“This is intolerable,” said commissioner Robert Jenkins of conditions created by the bar. “This is horrible.” Continue reading »
Craig Giesecke
All of us who go out to eat, be it high-brow or to a dive, are highly concerned about the atmosphere of where we go. All of us have been into place where the décor, the music and the other things Just Aren’t Right to match the food, and it seriously takes away from what might otherwise be a very enjoyable meal. Continue reading »
A proposed change to city law that would allow gas stations on Tchoupitoulas Street in the Lower Garden District failed to find support Monday evening among members of the Coliseum Square Association, but the Sterling Express fresh-food store planned for one intersection there will press forward with its opening whether its fuel pumps are approved by the City Council or not, developers told the group. Continue reading »
The Bouligny Improvement Association will host a neighborhood watch refresher course next week that will include a presentation from Project NOLA about home surveillance cameras. Continue reading »
The operators of the John J. Hainkel Jr. Home and Rehab Center on Henry Clay Avenue are waiting on a federal judge’s decision as to whether the state Department of Health and Hospitals can revoke its nursing home license, as it had planned to do Nov. 10, reports Gambit’s Jeremy Alford. State officials point to a string of citations at the facility for what Alford describes as “relatively minor deficiencies” over the last year, but Alford looks at the $4.8 million annual Medicaid-revenue stream the state could possibly tap into for putting the 85 patients elsewhere.
The new owner of Jazz Daiquiris — the popular South Claiborne Avenue second-line stop and nightclub where reputed Central City crime lord Telly Hankton killed Darnell Stewart in 2008 and where his lieutenant, Walter Porter, allegedly killed Curtis Matthews, the former owner’s brother, last year — is “suing the city for denying an alcohol permit,” reports The Louisiana Record. Jeffrey Thomas and attorney Ed Washington argue that the alcohol permit should have followed with the sale of the property, the report states.
One man was arrested following a purse snatching at Constantinople and St. Charles as New Orleans police investigate a series of four unarmed robberies in the Uptown area in about a week’s time, authorities said. Continue reading »
A drawing of the proposed Sterling Express building on Tchoupitoulas submitted to the City Planning Commission.
A proposal to allow two fueling bays for large trucks at an upcoming Sterling Express location on Tchoupitoulas will be discussed by the Coliseum Square Association tonight (Monday, Nov. 19). Continue reading »
An 89-year-old man was injured last week in a home-invasion robbery in the Irish Channel, police said. Continue reading »
(Cartoon by Owen Courreges for UptownMessenger.com)
Owen Courreges
The Pontchartrain Expressway homeless encampment is no more. This past Friday morning, police swept the remaining homeless people from the encampment in the underpass that separates the Central Business District from Uptown New Orleans. The number of persons removed was 55 persons by the city’s count, but closer to 100 according to the New Orleans Mission, which adjoins the expressway. By either count, it was a significant encampment. Continue reading »
Crowds of festival goers pack Oak Street for the 2012 Po-Boy Fest on Sunday afternoon, as seen from the balcony of Mellow Mushroom near Dublin Street. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
See below for live coverage, photos and comments from the festival.
The Soul Rebels perform a mid-afternoon set Saturday at the Fourth Annual Magazine Street Blues Festival, which organizers said had a record turnout. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Perfect weather, a strong music lineup and an ideal location at one of the most prominent intersections in Uptown New Orleans combined Saturday to draw what by all accounts was the largest crowd yet for the Magazine Street Blues Festival. Continue reading »