city government

Renovations at Tchoupitoulas apartments may quell neighbors’ concerns, for now

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The new owner of an apartment complex at Tchoupitoulas and State streets is renovating the large collection of units there in hopes attracting college students and tenants with ties to nearby Children’s Hospital, property managers said Wednesday, possibly bringing some short-term reassurance to nearby neighbors worried that the lot could become a major commercial medical development. Investor Ben Gravolet bought the collection of two-story brick apartment buildings in December, and about 60 units are currently occupied, said maintenance manager Lisa Matthews. About eight more units around the complex are being renovated now with extensive repairs and new appliances, after which the buildings’ exteriors will get a facelift, Matthews said, and the final job will be a total renovation of the building at 223 State, which burned several years ago. The renovated units are intended to draw tenants attending classes at Tulane or Loyola, or possibly either working at Children’s Hospital or wishing to stay near a long-term patient there, she said. “We want to keep people that are clean and quiet,” Matthews said.

business

Restaurant expansion, child-care facility, real-estate deal all raise neighbors’ concerns

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The proposed expansion of a Magazine Street bar, the possibility of a commercial development on Tchoupitoulas, and a child-care center on a residential block are all drawing the wary attention of their neighbors in Uptown’s Audubon-Riverside neighborhood. The agenda for the Aug. 23 meeting of the City Planning Commission includes a request at 6100-6108 Magazine Street — the address of Monkey Hill Bar — for an expansion of restaurant space and second-floor office and storage space. Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association board member Cele Gordon pointed out a Tuesday night meeting that the property owners have not sought to inform the neighborhood about their plans, and suggested that the association draft a letter making this clear to the planning commission. “Our association has never been approached and [we] don’t know anything about it, so we can’t take a formal position on it,” said Tim Betbeze, ARNA vice president, agreeing with a need for a letter to the city.

business

Design for new Walgreens on Magazine moving in a more historical direction

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Developers of a new Walgreens proposed for the old American Legion Hall on Magazine Street presented three renovation designs concepts to a crowd of Uptown residents Tuesday evening, saying that they are moving away from the more modern storefront design that initially bothered some neighbors. “What we showed before was a very modern design, and a lot of people didn’t like it,” said architect Mac Ball. As they examined the architecture along the street, they found glass storefronts and overhanging balconies to be common architectural features.The two newer designs for the property both have balconies, though the third design exchanges some of the glass windows for more brickwork in its columns and on its ends. “This is a direction,” developer Louis Stirling said of the three designs, each moving away from that initial modern concept. “My approach has always been that we have to build something we’ll all be proud of.

blight and demolition

Blighted school-owned cottage draws neighbors’ ire

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Overgrown and vermin-infested, the old school caretaker’s cottage at Annunciation and Arabella becomes more of a nuisance and a danger to its neighborhood with each passing year of neglect, one frustrated neighbor said, prompting the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association to pledge Tuesday evening to find out why the local school board appears to be letting it rot. “It’s blight,” said Terry Gay, who lives on the same block as the caretaker’s cottage. “I’m not taking a position on whether they should tear it down or restore it. I just want them to do something.” The house was once the caretaker’s cottage for the school building at 401 Nashville, the former site of the Arthur Ashe Charter School.

city government

Little or no changes proposed for Uptown under City Council redistricting maps

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Most of Uptown New Orleans appears likely to avoid a political tug-of-war over redrawing City Council boundaries, though one proposal would change the representation for a handful of neighborhoods along Jefferson Avenue. Of the five proposed redistricting plans unveiled this weekend, four show no changes to representation Uptown whatsoever, and one slides six voting precincts along Jefferson Avenue from Councilwoman Susan Guidry’s District A into Councilwoman Stacy Head’s District B.

For the last decade, all of Uptown has been divided between districts A and B along a line that runs the length of Jefferson Avenue from the river to Fontainebleau, then heads up Carrollton toward Mid-City. Guidry represents everything upriver of Jefferson into Lakeview (including the Audubon, Carrollton, Riverbend, and Leonidas neighborhoods); Head represents everyone downriver into the Central Business District (including Freret, Milan, Touro, the Garden Distirct and the Irish Channel); and both reach into parts of Mid-City. District A lost fewer people since 2000 than the rest of the city, so Guidry will have to give up some territory. District B’s population loss was about the same rate as the city as a whole, so it does not need any changes at all, and under some of the possible scenarios it simply is left touched.

business

Audubon-Riverside association chooses new neighborhood leaders

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The Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association quietly chose a new president and several new board members last week in an election that showed little sign of the occasionally strong disagreements within the group over the last few months. The association nominating committee’s recommendations for officers were accepted without exception: Sara Meadows Tolleson for president, Tim Betbeze for vice president, Cele Gordon for secretary, Marilyn Feldmeier for treasurer, Julia Davis for membership chair and Walton Goldring for communications chair. The Rev. Raymond Cannata will also retain a seat on the board as immediate past president. The board members chosen were also closely aligned with the committee’s recommendations: Ann Streiffer of Blue Frog Chocolates as the business representative, and at-large members Ann Leyens, Sharon Smith LaHoste, Scott Wolfe, Josh Densen, Drew Brownlee, Baldwin Montgomery and Seth Smiley (the only new member nominated from the floor of the meeting). The election took place without any speeches or remarks by the nominees, and the time spent counting votes was largely taken up by representatives of the NOPD Second District and City Councilwoman Susan Guidry’s office giving various updates on their efforts in the Audubon-Riverside area, which runs from Audubon Park to Jefferson Avenue between the river and Camp Street.