court

Abramson easily wins re-election to legislature; runoffs ahead for state school board, civil court

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The only Uptown New Orleans-based lawmaker to draw a challenger in Saturday’s election easily defeated his opponent by a 3-1 margin on Thursday evening, but races for the state school board and civil district court are headed to runoffs next month, according to complete but unofficial results. State Rep. Neil Abramson, a first-term incumbent Democrat, received 5,793 votes (73.6 percent) to return to his newly-redrawn District 98 seat, which now includes the Carrollton, Audubon, university, Broadmoor and other Uptown neighborhoods between the Jefferson Parish line to Napoleon Avenue. Fenn French, a Republican businessman endorsed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and former advisor to U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao, received 2,078 votes (26.4 percent), according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. “I will continue throughout my next term to visit with residents, property owners and businesses – and to listen,” Abramson wrote after the election in a statement on his website. “As a community we have common concerns: the need for lower insurance premiums, eliminating crime, protecting our families, improving public education, and creating jobs and opportunities for ourselves and our children.

court

Only one Uptown-area lawmaker draws challengers

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One Uptown-based lawmaker will face three opponents in his newly drawn district in the Oct. 22 election, while the rest of the area’s legislative delegation appears likely to return to Baton Rouge without a re-election fight. Incumbent state Rep. Neil Abramson, a Democrat, drew one Republican challenger, “Fenn” French, and two challengers from his own party, Myron Katz and Evan Wolf, after qualifying ended Thursday afternoon. French is a retail developer and business partner to former City Councilman Jay Batt as well as former Congressman Joe Cao’s campaign manager. Katz, an energy consultant, ran for Congress against U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise last fall, and Wolf ran in 2007 for in the Carrollton-based District 95 that existed prior to redistricting.

business

Neighborhood eyes possible problems with zoning for proposed Walgreens

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Zoning on Magazine Street may not be as accommodating to a Walgreens pharmacy as was originally assumed, members of the adjacent neighborhood association said Tuesday evening as they began preliminary discussions of the proposed development. The old American Legion in the 5500 block of Magazine is zoned B-2, which allows for a variety of general retail uses, said Peggy Adams, an attorney on the board of the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association. Although B-2 does not specifically prohibit drug stores, pharmacies with drive-through lanes are specifically mentioned in a separate section of the city zoning code, C-1A. And in some cases, Adams said, the fact that one type of development is specifically mentioned in a certain zoning has been used to preclude it in other zonings. Adams’ concerns about the building’s zoning come at a very preliminary point in the Walgreens discussion, as the three neighborhood associations are planning a public meeting with the developer, Stirling Properties, tentatively set for March 16.

city government

Private patrols or off-duty officers under consideration by Fontainebleau, university-area residents

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A neighborhood association that stretches from some of Uptown’s most placid blocks to some that have suffered through open warfare between criminals and police is now exploring the idea of increasing its police presence with off-duty officers. The Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association held a sort of fact-finding session Thursday night about fee-based security districts, the first in what association president Scott Barron said would be a series of meetings informing residents about the concept. Security districts, used in a number of Uptown neighborhoods, usually levy an additional fee of several hundred dollars onto each property owner’s tax bill within a strictly defined area. That money is then used by a board of neighborhood residents to hire additional patrol officers (either off-duty NOPD officers or a private security team) who patrol only that area, from investigating complaints of suspicious activity to escorting residents to and from their homes at night. In order to be implemented in the Claiborne-University area, the association would first have to vote to request state Rep. Neil Abramson to draft a bill authorizing the district, and then residents inside the district would have to approve it in a special election.

elections

Nola.com: Uptown could lose two House seats in redistricting

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Uptown New Orleans could be represented by as few as three seats when the state House of Representatives is redistricted using the new Census numbers this year, according to an analysis by Bill Barrow and Ed Anderson of the Times-Picayune. New Orleans will likely lose three seats in the House because of its shrunken population, and state Rep. Walker Hines’ decision not to seek re-election means his district will likely be among those carved up in the redistricting process, the newspaper reports. State Rep. Cameron Henry of Jefferson told the reporters he was open to giving up the Black Pearl area he also represents. Some of that area would then presumably be absorbed by Reps. Neil Abramson, Walt Leger and Helena Moreno, the three remaining Uptown incumbents.

business

Tonight’s community meeting about Romney Pilates construction postponed

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A meeting of Magazine Street-area neighbors concerned about the construction of a new Pilates studio has been postponed temporarily, an organizer said Wednesday morning. Romney Pilates, currently located on Magazine near Amelia, is planning to move farther uptown to a new site across from the Whole Foods supermarket. Construction has already begun, but the design of the new building has drawn the interest of several neighborhood groups. The announcement of a meeting about the Romney project originally set for today set off a flurry of email alerts and conversations Wednesday among members of the Audubon-Riverside, Hurstville and Upper Hurstville neighborhood associations, which together represent most of the households Jefferson Avenue and Audubon Park, from St. Charles Avenue to the river.

blight and demolition

Neighborhood eyes Lusher possibility with uncertainty

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The possibility of Lusher Charter School expanding into the shuttered former Uptown site of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts brings mixed feelings in the surrounding neighborhood, and the balance of opinion may rest on whether local children could gain attendance privileges to the popular school. The Orleans Parish School Board had previously put the old NOCCA building up for auction, but it failed to draw a legally high-enough bid, Upper Hurstville Neighborhood Association president Karen Duncan told a crowd of more than 50 residents at a Sunday evening meeting. The law was then changed to allow the school board to sell it for less, but before a second auction could be held, Lusher Charter School expressed interest in expanding to the site and asked the school board for time to study the possibility, Duncan said. “A lot of people will be happy to see Lusher expanding” and to see the site returned to life, Duncan said, but immediate neighbors to the campus have concerns about traffic and the impact on property values on the area. One serious point of concern at the meeting was the fact that Upper Hurstville is well outside of Lusher’s attendance district, which is on the opposite side of St.

city government

Try, try again: Upper Hurstville election may be moving to Nov. 2; October votes won’t be counted

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If an eleventh-hour do-over makes it through state government by the end of this week, votes cast regarding the Upper Hurstville Security District in the Oct. 2 election will not be counted and the ballot question will be moved to Nov. 2 in slightly altered form. The security district — which uses a $485-per-parcel fee to provide around-the-clock security patrols from Magazine to Prytania, between Nashville Avenue and Audubon Park — was created by neighborhood voters in 2003 for a seven-year term, and thus needed renewal this year. Late last week, however, district chair Karen Duncan discovered that the ballot question as worded would effectively raise the fee to $650 — rather than merely giving the district board that option if the needed arose — and moving the election date emerged as the only solution.