Sidewalk Side

The Sidewalk Side: Chestnut Street in the Touro-Bouligny neighborhood

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It’s a glorious day for a StreetWalk … or a StreetScene … or taking a walk on the Sidewalk Side. I manage to get in right under the wire before this past week or so of brutally hot late May weather, so I can take my time studying the late-19th and early-20th century houses on the even side of the 3900 block of Chestnut Street. Bounded by Austerlitz on the east and Constantinople streets on the west, I’m in the Touro-Bouligny neighborhood just two blocks away from Magazine Street’s restaurants and shops. Starting at the corner of Chestnut and Austerlitz, I’m greeted by a Craftsman double with blue weatherboards and bright red doors. There’s a front-facing gable on the left-hand side of the roof, balanced by a hipped roof on the right.

Pittsburgh couple hang their shingle on Delachaise Street, opening Yinzer’s Amazing Cheesesteaks

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After four-and-a-half years of pop-ups, Colleen Ryan and Michael Woodhull were ready to give their Yinzer’s Amazing Cheesesteaks a space of its own. They opened the casual restaurant just over a month ago on Delachaise Street between St. Charles Avenue and Prytania Street. Although they began looking for a place before the pandemic, their new space fell into their laps when a former boss of Woodhull’s called to ask if they might be interested in the restaurant space he had for rent at 1514 Delachaise St. They were. 

Vintage Garden Kitchens, known for healthy gourmet breakfasts and lunches, moved out of the space at the end of April.

Krewe of House Floats

Yardi Gras Stories: Touro, Milan and Bouligny still love a parade (of house floats)

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It’s almost unimaginable to think of Uptown New Orleans without Mardi Gras parades in February. But with parades canceled due to COVID, residents have imagined a new tradition – creating wild and whimsical Yardi Gras house floats all over their neighborhoods. Yardi Gras, organized by the Krewe of House Floats, is a safe alternative to Mardi Gras parades in the coronavirus era. Instead of congregating in large groups to watch floats go by, people have decorated their own houses and turned the streets of New Orleans into a giant, stationary parade. 

In normal times, the residents of the Touro, Milan, Bouligny and Uptown areas enjoy their easy access to Carnival parades, as reflected in their subkrewe’s theme: “Celebrating Uptown Parades.” Notable house floats include a “catnival” filled with feline puns on the 2200 block of Marengo Street and “Chewy’s Guide to the COVID Galaxy” on the 4700 block of Camp Stre

et, where giant letters spell out the much-needed message “DON’T PANIC!” 

Residents are also working to help their neighbors in need and support the artists and musicians who make Mardi Gras possible.

city government

Garden District: Neighborhood district councils would only be “more bureaucracy”

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A plan to create formal councils of neighborhood groups to increase citizen participation in city government would only “many more layers of bureaucracy” and should be scrapped, according to a letter from the Garden District Association published by The Lens. The letter suggesting changes to the Citizen Participation Project was written by Shelley Landrieu, director of the Garden District group but also a leader of the Baronne Street Neighborhood Association and Audubon Area Zoning Association. Instead of new councils based on city planning districts, the Garden District would prefer more formalized opportunities for neighborhood association input within the city’s existing policy-making process. The director of the group that drafted the plan told Karen Gadbois of The Lens that the Garden District had drawn “inaccurate conclusions.” The letter was copied to numerous other neighborhood groups, including many in the Uptown: the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association, the Touro Bouligny Association, the Baronne Street Neighborhood Association, the St.