city government

Traffic-ticket season to begin Aug. 1

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Traffic cameras will be catching speeders and red-light scofflaws again beginning Aug. 1 — the same day all 39 school zone cameras will be reactivated. Ten traffic cameras that were damaged during Hurricane Ida in 2021 have been repaired and will soon be back online. The repairs included replacing sensors and installing new poles and other support equipment. Three of the 10 reactivated cameras are at the intersection of Earhart Boulevard and South Carrollton Avenue.

Education

Library Block Party features ‘epic set of blocks’ and early literacy

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The New Orleans Public Library is holding Block Parties — featuring “the most epic set of blocks you have ever seen” — on Monday evenings for children age 5 and younger along with their parents or other caregivers. The playdates will be held at Nix Library, 1401 S. Carrollton Ave., and the Central City Library in the Allie Mae Williams Multi-Service Center, 2020 Jackson Ave., on Monday July 24 and July 31 from 5 to 6 p.m.

The event is designed to promote early literacy. While the children are playing, the adults will learn how to use open-ended questions and play techniques to support language development. The library’s early literacy program is designed to give pre-readers a strong foundation before they learn to read and write. It prepares children to be lifelong learners.

community meetings

Children’s Hospital seeks input on changes to its Master Plan

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Uptown residents living near Children’s Hospital can provide input tonight on potential changes to the hospital’s Institutional Master Plan. The Master Plan describes existing and future development on the hospital campus. Updates to this plan reflect the hospital’s recently completed campus transformation, completed renovations to our State Street campus buildings, updated traffic patterns throughout the hospital campus, and immediate future planning, which includes minimal new construction over the next several years. Neighbors can join the meeting anytime between 6 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday (July 19) at Worley Hall, 210 State St. The neighborhood meeting will be structured as a collaborative charette, with team members from Children’s Hospital, their architects, and consultants sharing components of our plans and seeking feedback.

colleges

Tulane invites neighbors to a community meeting

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Tulane University will host a community meeting for University Area neighbors on Aug. 8, before students arrive for the 2023-24 academic year. Tulane officials will provide updates and information on key initiatives concerning the university and the surrounding community, according to Tulane Neighbor News, a monthly newsletter from the university’s Community Relations Department. A Q&A session will follow the updates, and neighbors are encouraged to submit questions in advance. Participants are invited to email questions to cpourciau@tulane.edu by end of the day on July 28.

business

On Magazine Street, Restaurant Week specials plus a Block Party

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The Magazine Street Merchants Association offers some ideas for beating the summer doldrums. This week is Restaurant Week along the corridor. Then on Aug. 3,  a Block Party will take place. In honor of Restaurant Week — Monday (July 17) to Sunday (July 23) — restaurants, bars, coffee shops and sweet shops along Magazine have created special menus with tempting prices, ranging from $15 to $50. The Merchants Association is sweetening the deals by offering a Restaurant Week Passport.

city government

Viewpoint: Property taxes may rise in 2024 for many New Orleans homeowners

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New Orleans property owners in select neighborhoods — including Uptown areas — should anticipate paying higher taxes due in 2024 due to the increased valuation of properties in those areas, according to longtime Orleans Parish Assessor Erroll Williams.  Williams and his staff of in-house appraisers have spent the past year reviewing every parcel of commercial and residential property on the parish tax rolls. 

Louisiana law requires a re-evaluation on all properties once every four years. Because 2024 is a quadrennial year, Orleans Parish assessments for tax years 2024-27 will reflect market values as of Jan. 1, 2023. A similar review took place in 2019. 

State law now requires all tax recipient agencies to reduce their millage rates when a quadrennial revaluation results in an increase in taxable assessments, as is the case this year, according to an Assessor’s Office press release. This is referred to as a “mandatory rollback.” The intent of the rollback is to keep funding streams level for tax recipient agencies.

blight and demolition

PJ Morton’s Buddy Bolden house cited again for demolition by neglect, NOLA.com reports

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The Buddy Bolden house on First Street in Central City, now owned by a foundation run by musician PJ Morton, has been cited by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission for demolition of the jazz landmark by neglect, Sophie Kasakove reports on NOLA.com. The citation, which requires Morton to stabilize the building by Aug. 4, is not the first since the Grammy winner announced, to great fanfare, in 2019 his plans to revive the blighted shotgun, where Bolden lived while pioneering the music now known as jazz. It has been deteriorating since it was purchased in 2008 by Morton’s parents, Bishop Paul S. Morton and the Rev. Debra B. Morton for their church, Greater St. Stephen Ministries.

crime

Three teenagers arrested in recent carjacking, attempted robbery

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Three juveniles were arrested Thursday (July 6) in connection with an attempted armed robbery and a carjacking reported a day earlier in the East Riverside and Irish Channel neighborhoods. The victims in both incidents were women. Two of the suspects are 14 years of old; the other is 15.  Two handguns were recovered by New Orleans police and federal ATF officers during the arrest. The three boys have been charged with the attempted armed robbery and armed carjacking, according to the New Orleans Police Department. The crimes occurred within 20 minutes of each other on Wednesday afternoon (July 5), according to police reports.

crime

Brutal carjacking of Stein’s Deli owner one of many in river area

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Among the victims in a recent rash of carjackings and robberies in the Lower Garden District, Irish Channel and East Riverside was the owner of the beloved Stein’s Market & Deli on Magazine Street. Dan Stein left his Lower Garden District shop, carrying a bag with a sandwich inside, and got in his Toyota SUV on Thursday (July 6) at about 12:45 a.m., the New Orleans Police Department stated. At first, he didn’t think much of it when four men drove up in a dark-colored vehicle

The gunmen ordered him out of the SUV, and he complied. Before fleeing in Stein’s car, one of the carjackers struck him in the head with a handgun. Stein collapsed on the sidewalk and stayed there for a while, surveillance video obtained by WWL-TV shows.