city government

RTA, planners gather input for overhaul of public transit in New Orleans

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By Jesse Baum, Uptown Messenger

The Regional Transit Authority and the Regional Planning Committee hosted a community meeting Tuesday for District B at Dryades Public Market to gather feedback for a planned redesign of the public transit network that would include New Orleans and the surrounding communities. Called New Links, the project also involves Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes’ transit agencies in an effort to make the transit network more efficient and user-friendly. The current input phase of the redesign looks at where people in New Orleans travel most frequently and how they would like to see transit improved, including more options for transfers, better weekend/late night service, as well as better connections to communities like Chalmette and Metairie. In the years after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures, the RTA has seen ridership fall and has struggled to restore service to prestorm levels.

city government

Coffee on your Corner series to tackle affordable housing

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The city is holding a Coffee on Your Corner session for District B on Thursday at the Fresh Market on St. Charles Avenue. The topic will be affordable housing in New Orleans. Coffee on Your Corner is a community meeting that brings city officials and representatives into neighborhoods to discuss specific issues of the day. “In an effort to accommodate residents who are less inclined to attend public meetings in the evenings outside of their communities, we’ve created Coffee on Your Corner to bring city government to you,” the city’s Office of Community Engagement states.

business

Peaches on Magazine plans to bring historic Woolworth’s counter back to life

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By Emily Carmichael, Uptown Messenger

Peaches Records, a long-time stalwart of local music, is looking to try its hand at the culinary scene with the revival of the historic F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in its Magazine Street store. On Monday, June 3, the record store that helped give Cash Money its start will host a Neighborhood Participation Program meeting at Rosa F. Keller Library in Broadmoor. The meeting is part of a process to gain the city’s approval to serve alcoholic beverages, but Peaches owner Shirani Rea also hopes to use it as an opportunity to introduce the project to the community. The counter at the Peaches remains in its original location at 4318 Magazine St., a former F.W. Woolworth store. The counter was built in 1940, Rea said, but its historical significance dates to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

city government

Coffee on Your Corner to discuss transportation

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Transportation is the topic of the Coffee on Your Corner event for District A to be held Thursday, May 16, at the IHop on 3511 S. Carrollton Ave. from 10 to 11 a.m.

The city’s Coffee on Your Corner events bring city officials and representatives into neighborhoods for coffee and an exchange of information. District A residents can hear about city programs, initiatives and operations directly from city officials and representatives. The event is an effort accommodate residents who are less inclined to attend public meetings in the evenings outside of their communities. Click here to register for the event.

city government

Open house about biking safety brings cyclists’ and drivers’ concern

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On Monday, cyclists, advocacy groups and city government officials gathered at Booker T. Washington in Central City to discuss issues around cycling in New Orleans. The meetings are part of an effort by New Orleans officials to make the city more bike-friendly and a safer place for cyclists. Bike safety has come more into the spotlight since Frank Fisher, a 34-year-old oil-services worker and lifelong New Orleanian, was killed in February after being struck by a garbage truck while riding on Carrollton Avenue. No citations were written or arrests made in that case. Then, on March 2, the deaths of Sharree Walls, 27, and David Hynes, 31, and the injuries of other cyclists on Esplanade Avenue galvanized the cycling community.

city government

City hosting bike network planning workshops this week

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The city of New Orleans will present a series of “open house” neighborhood workshops to engage residents in each district about the upcoming plan to expand and improve the City’s bike network. Meetings for Districts A & B take place this week. The City is working in collaboration with the Department of Public Works, the City Planning Commission, and community partners on this project, known as Moving New Orleans Bikes. The plan will help expand the City’s current Bike Network Map with the community’s assistance. Here are the meetings for the Uptown area, both from 6 to 7:30 p.m.:

Monday, April 8
District B
KIPP-Booker T. Washington
2514 Third St.

community meetings

Forum to explore open-space, parks and recreation planning

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New Orleans officials have been rethinking how the city’s parks, recreation and greenspace are organized and managed. To inform New Orleanians of the whys, hows and whats of citywide master park and recreation planning, Parks For All is sponsoring a forum, “Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Planning: International Best Practices and their Application to New Orleans.” It will feature Kurt Culbertson, a longtime leader in sustainable development. Culbertson, an LSU alumnus, will offer “perspectives gained through 40 years of experience in the planning and design of park and recreation systems and reflections on the application of these lessons to the needs of New Orleans,” the event flier says. Culbertson, the 2016 recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ highest award, is chairman and CEO of an urban design and landscape architecture consulting firm, the Design Workshop.

arts, books and music

BAR NONE hosts ‘conversation for justice’ for McKinley “MAC” Phipps

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McKinley “MAC” Phipps is currently serving a 30-year sentence for manslaughter, a crime for which he maintains his innocence. February 21, 2019 (this Thursday) marks 19 years he has been incarcerated behind the walls of the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. BAR NONE, a multidisciplinary arts initiative that focuses on “transcending incarceration through the arts,” will host a community conversation about MAC, his impact, and justice for him on Thursday. “A Conversation for Justice: Why MAC Phipps?!” takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at 8539 Willow St. (at the corner of Leonidas St.). This event is free and open to the public, however, sitting is limited.

city government

Mayor Cantrell kicks off series of community meetings in support of tax reallocation for parks

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By Nicholas Reimann, Uptown Messenger

Mayor LaToya Cantrell took her administration’s push at reallocating property taxes for parks to the grassroots level Thursday, Feb. 7, speaking to a group of mostly supportive residents at a meeting at Lyons Recreation Center, asking them to approve a May 4 ballot measure doing so. It’s the first of five meetings the mayor plans to attend as she seeks campaigns for a $20 million millage reallocation that would affect city funding for the Audubon Commission, the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission, the Department of Parks and Parkways and City Park — the latter of which looks to get city funding for the first time in its 169-year history. Cantrell’s meeting Thursday was held in City Council District B, and directed at residents living there. She’s expected to attend four more meetings this month — one in each of the other City Council districts.

city government

Forum to answer questions about plan to overhaul park and recreation funding

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Voters in May will decide on milestone changes to how the city funds and operates its public recreational spaces. To give New Orleanians a clearer understanding of how these cherished city services could be overhauled, the Carrollton Area Network is holding a public forum Jan. 14. Presenters from the Audubon Institute, the New Orleans Recreation Development
Commission, Parks and Parkways and New Orleans City Park will discuss at a forum moderated by Keith Twitchell of the Committee for Better New Orleans. The ballot proposal would give City Park its first dedicated millage while reducing the millage for Audubon Park by nearly half.