Neighbors’ questions linger over proposed Tulane Stadium

Parking, drainage, noise and litter — the same issues that dominated a series of town hall meetings about the proposed Tulane Stadium hosted by the university — remain major concerns with unanswered aspects for some neighbors of the proposed project, leading some to call for the creation of a permanent venue for the university to hear neighborhood issues.

The two dozen or so residents who showed up for a Thursday evening forum on the stadium — hosted this time by the Central Carrollton Association, rather than by the university — mostly expressed skepticism about Tulane’s promises, especially when it comes to their enforcement. Maura Sylvester of Save Our Neighborhoods detailed those concerns, saying that the university years ago signed an agreement for the baseball field similar to the one it is negotiating now for the football stadium, but that the document hasn’t protected neighborhoods.

“This is routinely ignored, every single event,” Sylvester says.

The Tulane officials replied that both the agreement and Tulane’s own plans are a work in progress, and urged the residents to continue sharing their concerns with the mayor’s office. At the very end of an hour and a half discussion, Barbara Johnson, a former association president in the audience, said most of her neighbors view Tulane as a tremendous asset, but that somehow they have lost their trust in the university to deal fairly with them.

Johnson called for Tulane to use the stadium dispute as an opportunity to become a national model of neighborhood engagement. Tulane should build on its hiring of the well-respected Karen Celestan as a neighborhood liaison, Johnson said, and create a permanent body of neighborhood leaders to advise the university on quality-of-life issues.

Tulane officials have previously rejected the idea of a public governing body of the stadium, but seemed more receptive to Johnson’s suggestion Thursday. Tulane Police Superintendent Jon Barnwell, for example, replied that he is already exploring such an idea to help facilitate communication with the neighborhoods his officers patrol.

Sharon Courtney, Vice President for Governmental Affairs, said after the meeting that she has just begun researching the idea with other universities. While she hasn’t found a similar entity yet, she is finding that other urban universities feel the same general tension with their neighborhoods over their development plans.

“Is there a way on a regular basis that we can communicate better with neighborhood leaders? I don’t know what format that is, but we love ideas from the neighbors,” Courtney said. “We just need to figure out how we can continue to innovate in that area.”

To read our live coverage of the meeting, see below.