Tulane University President Scott Cowen answers a question about the stadium proposal at the Audubon Tea Room on Wednesday night. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Tulane University officials pledged Wednesday night to reach an enforceable legal agreement with the city of New Orleans governing the activities and operations at its new football stadium — with hopes of resolving most of the issues in it by the end of August. Continue reading »
Audubon Charter School's Broadway campus.
5428 St. Charles Avenue (photo by Preservation Resource Center)
This past Thursday, the New Orleans City Council did a curious and terrible thing. It voted to overrule the National Conservation District Committee and allow the demolition of a historic St. Charles Avenue mansion designed by a prominent architect. Continue reading »
A new restaurant on Magazine Street, a new nightclub on Freret Street and a new home in place of a historic one were all given approval by the City Council on Thursday, though each project has drawn its share of objections.
Johnny V’s restaurant next to Monkey Hill bar and the proposed Publiq House in the first floor of the Neighborhood Housing Services building on Freret were given tentative approval to step forward, receiving an affirmative vote that will not go into effect until good-neighbor agreements are signed. Meanwhile, a historic home on St. Charles Avenue can be demolished, after the council decided that the home that will replace it represents an improvement to the showcase street. Continue reading »
The Lorraine Apartments (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
The 91-year-old Lorraine Apartments on St. Charles Avenue have a new lease on life and can move forward with renovations after the city council corrected a zoning problem last week that could have kept the historic building shuttered indefinitely. Continue reading »
After nearly a year of discussions and negotiations with neighbors and the city, Whole Foods Arabella Station will now be able to stay open an hour later on Sundays and display plants for sale on its front patio, with the official approval Thursday of only the least controversial of its requested changes to its operating agreement with the city. Continue reading »
A rendering of Costco Wholesale store proposed for New Orleans by MulvannyG2 Architecture of Seattle.
Over the past six years, the Carrollton-Hollygrove Community Development Corporation has been involved in countless meetings focused on the fate of the large empty lot on South Carrollton near the interstate.
On Wednesday evening, surrounded by drawings and renderings of the Costco Wholesale store proposed for the site, CDC member Joe Sherman told store officials he has high hopes for their plans.
“You guys have addressed all of the concerns that came out,” Sherman said during a community meeting with Costco representatives and architects. “I just want to congratulate y’all on a job well done.” Continue reading »
One of the buildings on the old DePaul campus, viewed from outside the fence along Henry Clay Avenue. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
A proposed change in the zoning of the DePaul medical campus owned by Children’s Hospital could greatly expand the possibilities for commercial development in the middle of an Audubon Park neighborhood, drawing the attention and concern of neighbors and their City Councilwoman. Continue reading »
Susan Guidry
Living near two large universities can be both a blessing and a burden, City Councilwoman Susan Guidry told a crowd of about 100 constituents Wednesday night as she sought to answer their quality-of-life questions.
Guidry — whose District A includes the Carrollton, Audubon and university neighborhoods as well as Mid-City and Lakeview — offered few specific solutions during her talk, bringing a cohort of city officials and department heads to meet with people about their individual issues. Instead, she focused on descriptions of her efforts and the city’s to handle broader issues around the university areas — underage drinking, overcrowded houses and illegal parking — as well as updates on other topics, including the $55 million upcoming drainage project on Napoleon Avenue and new efforts to notify neighbors of nearby land-use changes. Continue reading »
Susan Guidry
Susan Guidry — who represents Uptown’s University and Audubon neighborhoods, Carrollton, Mid-City and Lakeview in New Orleans City Council District A — will hold a town hall meeting Wednesday evening to address a number of issues in her district. Continue reading »
One of the signs criticizing President Obama on Calhoun Street (via WWL-TV)
I’ll say this for Timothy Reily: There is no doubt as to his opinion of President Barack Obama.
The Uptown resident, whose home is located in the 1500 block of Calhoun Street, has adorned his house in custom anti-Obama signs. To say these signs are unflattering is an understatement. President Obama is depicted, alternatively, as a puppet, a dunce and a crying baby clothed only in a diaper. High political discourse they are not. Continue reading »
Officials from the Isidore Newman School will meet next week with the two surrounding neighborhood associations to discuss proposed changes to their campus, prior to the City Council’s vote on the issue next month. Continue reading »
Residents of City Council District A — which runs covers most of the Carrollton, University and Audubon neighborhoods from Jefferson Avenue to the Jefferson Parish line in Uptown New Orleans, plus much of Mid-City and Lakeview — are invited to a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss priorities for next year’s city budget with Mayor Mitch Landrieu and City Councilwoman Susan Guidry.
Department heads and deputy mayors will also be present. A “resource center” with one-on-one conversation will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the community meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Lakeview Christian Center, 5885 Fleur de Lis Drive.
2101 South Carrollton, the proposed site of the Konbini coffeehouse and convenience store (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
The rejection of a controversial Carrollton coffeeshop, the approval of alcohol sales at a new Walgreens on Claiborne, and other land-use matters on Oak Street, in Milan and in the Garden District were given final decisions this week by the New Orleans City Council. Continue reading »
The Lorraine Apartments on St. Charles Avenue. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
I call it “bureaucratic indifference.” It’s when a rule is applied rigidly for the sake of rigid application, normally because some government employee or official is too lazy or obtuse to exercise intelligent and appropriate discretion.
This is the mindset that drove the New Orleans City Planning Commission to refuse to rezone the Lorraine Apartments as multi-family residential. Continue reading »
TJ Quill’s bar has become the latest Maple Street college bar to fall under the city’s scrutiny, with a hearing scheduled Tuesday afternoon before the Alcohol Beverage Control board. Continue reading »
City Planning Director Yolanda Rodriguez holds an example of the new signs that will be required for any property requesting a land-use change. (via nolacitycouncil.com)
Facing a crowd of well more than 100 mostly-angry neighborhood residents in January, City Councilwoman Susan Guidry had little to assuage their ire. The owners of the Romney Pilates studio under construction on Magazine Street obtained permission to build legally, she said, even if very few neighbors knew about it until it was too late.
Guidry pledged, however, to correct the city procedures that allowed such a major project to be approved without neighbors’ knowledge and permitted the owners to begin construction on a building that bore little resemblance to at least one of the designs they showed the city. The bad memory of the Romney Pilates experience has haunted nearly every subsequent Uptown land-use issue this year, but Guidry unveiled a package of solutions to it Wednesday morning. Continue reading »
Rocco's Tavern on Maple Street
The creation of a dozen new rules for a Maple Street bar — governing everything from how long the front door can be open when music is playing to the appearance of its go-cups — was hailed Tuesday by Councilwoman Susan Guidry as a “wonderful outcome” that she hopes will set a new standard for college bars in the area. Continue reading »
Current City Council district lines in Uptown New Orleans.
Most of Uptown New Orleans appears likely to avoid a political tug-of-war over redrawing City Council boundaries, though one proposal would change the representation for a handful of neighborhoods along Jefferson Avenue.
Of the five proposed redistricting plans unveiled this weekend, four show no changes to representation Uptown whatsoever, and one slides six voting precincts along Jefferson Avenue from Councilwoman Susan Guidry’s District A into Councilwoman Stacy Head’s District B. Continue reading »
Volunteers work on building the new KaBOOM! playground at Palmer Park Sunday morning. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
After years of hopes and prayers, the angels finally descended this weekend on Palmer Park, hundreds of them — and they were wearing fatigues, tool belts and mouse ears.
Neighbors from Carrollton and around Uptown New Orleans joined with volunteers from Disney and a nonprofit known as KaBOOM! all converged to give the park a total makeover with a large new playground as a centerpiece. Continue reading »