neighborhood groups

Baronne Street neighborhood launches contest for a new name

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After 18 years, the Baronne Street Neighborhood Association has a new leader for the first time, and the group may soon have a new name as well. The association board is seeking ideas for a new name from its members, new president Lynn Alline said at a neighborhood meeting Tuesday night. The primary concern, she said, is that defining the neighborhood by Baronne Street “doesn’t really represent the territory.” To her point, a new resident in the area responded that he had seen a sign for Tuesday’s meeting but had not realized it referred to his neighborhood. Baronne Street stretches 3.5 miles across New Orleans, starting downtown on Canal Street by the Roosevelt Hotel, through the skyscrapers of the Central Business District, past some of the most dangerous corners in Central City, past the small Uptown commercial district soon to be anchored once again by Martin Wine Cellar, and ending at the house on Dufossat made infamous by MTV’s most recent New Orleans season of The Real World.

arts, books and music

Latter Branch hosts Children’s Book Festival

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Thousands of screaming children can’t be wrong. And that the screams at the First Annual Children’s Book Festival — which took place Saturday afternoon at the Milton H. Latter Memorial Library on St. Charles Avenue — were screams of joy, shows that somebody got it right. The Festival, sponsored by the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library and the Ruby Bridges Foundation, aimed to link readers, writers, and book lovers of all ages, as well as raise awareness of literacy issues and resources in the greater New Orleans area. The festival drew patrons from across New Orleans, which was its strength, said Rona King, a lower-elementary teacher at Audubon Charter School.