
A second-grade Spanish-immersion classroom at the International School of Louisiana’s Eastbank campus, photographed in 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)

A second-grade Spanish-immersion classroom at the International School of Louisiana’s Eastbank campus, photographed in 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)

The home at 4706 St. Charles Avenue. (photo via Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans)
The request by Jack Ryan to demolish a mansion on a lot he wants to buy at the corner of St. Charles and Valence for a new home drew the support of immediate neighbors, but not the St. Charles Avenue Association, and the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee was unable to successfully vote to either defer the project or allow the demolition, reports Karen Gadbois of The Lens.
Continue reading »

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
From an economic development standpoint, among the most important buildings owned by the City of New Orleans is a campus nestled in the center of Kenner.
The campus, is, of course, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. It is the gateway through which most of the region’s eight million plus visitors annually arrive and it will be phenomenally busy during Super Bowl week in 2013. Continue reading »

Magnolia Street is closed at Washington Avenue as police investigate a fatal shooting late Wednesday afternoon. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
A 17-year-old was shot to death shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Harmony Oaks community on Magnolia Street near Washington Avenue, and three hours later a 21-year-old was shot several times in the chest in the Hoffman Triangle area of Central City, police said. Continue reading »

The former yoga studio now slated to become a Mellow Mushroom pizza restaurant on Oak Street, photographed in June. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Costumed paraders dance on Oak Street during Mid-Summer Mardi Gras in 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)

A boxing glove hangs over the ring while a Beyonce impersonator performs during the 2011 Friday Night Fights sexy Summer Show. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)

Jean-Paul Villere
It’s been a long hot summer. “How hot has it been?” you ask. So hot that those wearing a complete bikini (no shorts or skirts – bikini bottoms with accompanying bikini top) or, for the fellas, a “banana hammock,” get in FREE to this Friday night’s boxing extravaganza when Friday Night Fights at long last returns to Freret Street AKA “The Sexy Summer Show!” Brought to you by Mike Tata and the gang at Friday Night Fights, which was once upon a time on Freret but now on O.C. Haley and Euterpe in Central City. Confused yet? Don’t be. Read on. Continue reading »

Dos Jefes bar on Tchoupitoulas was one of many targets in New Orleans of a federally-funded tobacco-compliance sting, but city officials decided Tuesday not to fine the establishment. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Early in May, a 15-year-old boy walked into Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar on Tchoupitoulas, asked if they sold cigarettes and purchased a pack from the machine.
That boy was assisting agents with the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, however, and the purchase landed Dos Jefes in front of the city Alcohol Beverage Control board on Tuesday morning, along with several New Orleans other bars in the first wave of a three-year, federally-funded enforcement effort. Continue reading »
Pamela Arceneaux of the Historic New Orleans Collection will take the Nix Library’s Louisiana Bicentennial Series into the red light district on Friday evening with a lecture on the “History of Prostitution in New Orleans.” Continue reading »

Contestants in Friday Night Fights’ “Sexy Summer Show” bikini contest line the ring on Freret Street in July 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)
A man walking on Willow Street near Louisiana Avenue was robbed at gunpoint Monday evening, police said. Continue reading »
Three more Uptown bars — Cooter Brown’s, Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge and Dos Jefes — and corner stores on Oak Street and in Central City have all been added to the docket before the city’s Alcohol Beverage Control board following sweeps by state agents, and will get their first public hearing at a meeting Tuesday. Continue reading »
Over its 40-year history, the Coliseum Square Association has played a major role in the revitalization of the Lower Garden District, so its voice should be respected when it comes to development proposals that might affect it, City Council candidate Eric Strachan group told the group Monday night — in comments that drew a range of responses from other council hopefuls, from strong agreement to a dose of skepticism. Continue reading »
An officer with the Uptown-based NOPD Second District has been suspended following his arrest in Harahan on several charges, including driving while intoxicated, driving the wrong way on a one-way street and disobeying the arresting officer, authorities said. Continue reading »

Trent Mackey (via opcso.org)

Ray Cannata talks to film director Michael Dunaway while filming a scene for “The Man Who Ate New Orleans” at Cafe Nino on South Carrollton in October 2011. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)
In the first official week of the race for the District B seat on the City Council, Eric Strachan will be meeting tonight with a neighborhood association his parents helped found, LaToya Cantrell and Dana Kaplan are beginning to knock on doors in Uptown neighborhoods, and late entrants Buck Horton and Donald Vallee are both getting their campaigns organized. Continue reading »

Owen Courreges
This past Wednesday, the New Orleans Police Department announced that it would be holding a sobriety checkpoint in — wait for it — “the Orleans Parish area.”
This was a change. Normally the NOPD at least provides a general area that narrows down the location of the checkpoint in advance. A checkpoint will be held in “Uptown” or “Algiers” the NOPD will say, and then if you don’t want to be interrogated by police you at least have the option of trying to avoid that area. Continue reading »
Two masked men attemped to rob a pizza-delivery driver at gunpoint on Cohn Street in the central Carrollton neighborhood Saturday night, authorities said. Continue reading »

Craig Giesecke
We’re on the downhill slope toward full-blown football season and all that entails. Be you a fan of our Saints, Tigers, the Green Wave, the Colonels, Ragin’ Cajuns or any of the wide assortment of the region’s high school teams, it means tailgating, having a few drinks with fellow fans and generally enjoying.
Of course, it’ll be halfway through October before the weather moderates. This means the first month or so of the season is like bringing a football to a July 4th picnic, and the food choices usually reflect that. I love gumbo as much as the next guy, but it’s a lot more enjoyable when it’s 60 degrees out instead of 90. Continue reading »