schools

Ecole Bilingue to break ground Friday on Magazine Street expansion

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Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle Orleans, the French-immersion private elementary school, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for its latest expansion, a center for arts and athletics in former historic Magazine Street shopfront. The new Center for Arts & Athletics at 4310 Magazine is the school’s fourth campus, including its flagship building at 812 General Pershing Street around the corner. The school enrolls more than 300 students from preschool to eighth grade. “Ultimately, this space will serve as our Center for Arts & Athletics, boasting a brand new dining hall, art studio, gymnasium, and library for the students,” said Rose Goodman, director of marketing for the school. “Not only does expanding to such a prominent location mark a milestone in our own history, but very much so in that of the local francophone and educational communities, as well.”

crime

Man beaten and robbed at gas station on South Claiborne; robbery reported on Dante, police say

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A man was beaten and robbed of his wallet while at a gas station Saturday on South Claiborne Avenue, and two women were robbed that evening on Dante Street in Carrollton, New Orleans police said. Shortly before noon Saturday, Sept. 8, a man in his 50s was pumping gas at a station on South Claiborne Avenue at Jackson Avenue when a juvenile suspect tried to take his wallet from his back pocket, according to the initial NOPD report. Several other assailants joined the fight, but then other people came to the man’s aid and the attackers left, the report states. Around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, two women — one 18 years old and the other 21 — were getting into a parked vehicle at Dante and Sycamore streets in Carrollton when a stranger “pushed the driver side door and demanded money,” the report in that case states.

crime

Man shot to death on Dryades Street; two injured in shooting at Hollygrove park

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A man was shot to death Sunday night on Dryades Street in Central City, shortly after a separate shooting at a park in Hollygrove that wounded two people, New Orleans police said. The fatal shooting took place around 10:45 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at the intersection of Second and Dryades streets, police said. Police responding to a shooting found the victim lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the initial NOPD report. here are two confirmed victims in this incident – one adult female with a reported gunshot wound to the head, and one male visit with reported gunshot wounds to the leg and arm.

business

City planners suggest support for grocery-store proposed for Freret Street

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The proposal to turn a building previously used as a nightclub on Freret Street into a grocery store with condos above its parking lot has received a recommendation for partial approval from the New Orleans planning officials as its hearing before City Planning Commission approaches next week. The building at 4528 Freret — last known as the Publiq House — remains owned by Neighborhood Housing Services, which is proposing to convert its first floor into a grocery store, keep the office space on the second floor, and build 24 new condos over the parking lot. The first hearing on the project is scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting of the City Planning Commission, and the commission’s staff is recommending “modified approval” of the plan in a preliminary report that runs more than 200 pages. While the Freret Street face of the lot already has mixed-use zoning, the rear part of the lot on LaSalle Street is zoned residential, which cannot be used for multi-family buildings like a condo. The city planners say that the residential portion was historically shotgun homes like those still around it, so it would be inappropriate to extend the mixed-use zoning into the neighborhood — and thus recommend denial of that part of the application, just as they did a proposal for 10 townhouses over the parking lot in 2017.

crime

Damaged vehicle sought after fatal shooting in Howard Avenue gym, police say

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New Orleans police are SUV believed to have been used by suspects in a fatal shooting last month inside a gym on Howard Avenue, and investigators believe that distinctive damage over its front passenger-side wheel could help the public recognize it, authorities said. The SUV is a white Ford Escape Titanium. For more details, see the NOPD announcement below:

NOPD officers are searching the above pictured white Ford Escape Titanium after it was allegedly used by the perpetrators in a homicide that occurred on August 27, 2018, in the 3900 block of Howard Avenue. The vehicle of interest was reportedly occupied by two male subjects wearing dark colored hooded sweatshirts. At the time of occurrence, the vehicle possibly had an obscured temporary license plate or no license plate at all.

business

New three-story building planned to replace Magazine Street parking lot

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A new three-story building with office or retails space on the ground floor and apartments above it is planned to replace a small parking lot on Magazine Street, residents learned this week. The building at 4210 Magazine Street does not yet have a tenant for the first floor, but it will be built as a “white box” that could be used for a small shop or professional office, architects said. The owners — who will live in the third-floor penthouse apartment, above two other apartments on the second floor — do not want a restaurant, bar, or other high-traffic business there, and the space will have no major commercial plumbing, essentially just a restroom inside, the architects told neighbors at a meeting Tuesday night. “They specifically do not want a restaurant or anything loud,” said architect Jared Bowers of Albert Architects. “We’re actually not plumbing this for a kitchen.

crime

Man robbed at gunpoint by acquaintance on Martin Luther King Boulevard, police say

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A man was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday evening on Martin Luther King Boulevard, New Orleans police said. The victim, a man in his 30s, was in the 2400 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, when a man he knew confronted him with a handgun, according to the initial NOPD report. The gunman took the victim’s belongings at gunpoint, then left on a scooter, the report states.

elections

Danae Columbus: Will Louisiana’s elections follow national anti-incumbent trends?

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With a stunning victory Tuesday night against 22-year Congresssman Mike Capuano, Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley is the latest candidate to upend the traditional political party system in America. An avowed progressive who was endorsed by the Democratic Party structure, Capuano is the fourth House incumbent to be defeated by a fresh face who was able to connect with voters in a very real way. An African-American female, Pressley is a former aide to Rep. Joseph Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry who has worked her way up by keen networking and strong performances. Although not a political upstart like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who knocked out long time Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, Pressley convinced voters that it was her time to serve and will be the first African-American member of Congress from Massachusetts. Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Conor Lamb – also a Democratic star in this cycle – have all pledged to forgo corporate PAC money, which up until now has always help re-elect established members of Congress.

public safety

Gordon makes landfall on Mississippi Gulf Coast; weakens to tropical depression

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Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast just west of the Alabama border on Tuesday night, sparing New Orleans the brunt of its 70-mph winds and flooding rain, and rapidly weakened to a tropical depression over land Wednesday morning. Gordon came ashore with 70-mph winds — just 4 mph short of being classified a Category 1 hurricane –around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4 just east of Pascagoula, Miss., according to the National Hurricane Center. By 7 a.m., the storm was outside of Jackson, Miss., and was downgraded to a tropical depression with winds of about 35 mph. Gordon’s rainfall could pose a significant flooding threat as it continues to move inland, the National Hurricane Center said in its final update on the storm at 10 a.m.

“Even though Gordon is weakening, heavy rainfall will continue to affect the western Florida Panhandle, southwest Alabama, central Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, southern Iowa and Illinois, with isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches possible,” the forecasters wrote.

public safety

Orleans schools remain closed on Wednesday amid worries of power outages, street flooding from Gordon’s approach

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All Orleans Parish schools will remain closed on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Gordon proceeds toward an expected hurricane-strength landfall overnight, officials said Tuesday afternoon. For details, see the announcement from Orleans Parish School Board released Tuesday afternoon:

Due to continuing storm threats and resulting complications from Tropical Storm Gordon, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) has announced that all public schools in Orleans Parish will remain closed on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. The district previously announced closures for Tuesday, Sept. 4. Students and families are urged to adhere to city-wide recommendations concerning the storm.