land use & development

University area neighbors taking another look at parking restrictions after Planning Commission vote

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The City Planning Commission on Tuesday (July 13) gave a thumbs-down to continuing and expanding an off-street parking mandate in the University area aimed at stemming the tide of “doubles to dorms” conversions. The commissioners backed the city planners, who recommended denying the proposal, calling it “inappropriate, regressive and harmful.”

The concerns voiced by commissioners, the City Planning staff and advocacy groups have sent the proposal’s proponents, District A Councilman Joe Giarrusso and a host of neighborhood associations, back to the drawing board for further tweaks. The measure would establish a zoning district, the University Area Off-Street Parking Overlay District, where developers are required to create an off-street parking space for each increase in the number of bedrooms.

The City Council will next vote on the proposal. In September, the council approved an Interim Zoning District with an off-street parking requirement despite the Planning Commission’s recommendation for denial. That IZD is set to expire in two months.

schools

Lycée Français plans to open high school in former Priestley building in 2022

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It’s been three decades since students and teachers occupied the classrooms of Alfred C. Priestley Junior High School on Leonidas Street. That is expected to change in the 2022-23 school year, when Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans opens the renovated historic building as its new high school. The public French immersion school has been slowly expanding its presence in the Pigeon Town section of Carrollton. It is currently leasing the former James Weldon Johnson school building a few blocks away at 1800 Monroe St. and the former Ronald G. McNair Elementary School at 1607 S. Carrollton Ave.

crime

Carjacking reported on Willow Street in Central Carrollton

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A woman’s SUV was stolen from her at gunpoint Monday afternoon on Willow Street in Central Carrollton, but police located the vehicle shortly afterward stashed behind a home on General Ogden Street. The carjacking took place around 1 p.m. near the corner of Willow and Adams, said the victim’s husband. The carjacker took her gold Lexus RX 350, but did not harm her, he said. “She was out cleaning her car, and a kid walked up to her with a big gun, stuck it in her face and said to get away from the car,” said her husband, who asked not to be identified. The area around the 1700 block of General Ogden is known as a dump site for stolen cars, so officer looking for the stolen vehicle began patrolling the area on a hunch and found it behind a home there, police say.

crime

Three injured, one killed in two separate Monday night shootings along Carrollton

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One man was killed and another injured Monday evening in a shooting that stemmed from an argument inside a west Carrollton home, and two other people showed up at the hospital from bullet wounds apparently sustained in another shooting near South Carrollton and Washington avenues, police said. In the first case, an argument broke out inside a home in the 8300 block of Cohn Street shortly before 6 p.m., then spilled into the street where a gunman shot two 27-year-old men, killing one (later identified as Terrell Jackson) and striking the other in the arm, police said in a news release. Police are now questioning the primary resident of the home about the incident, the release states. About three hours later, two men showed up at the hospital, one with a gunshot wound to the shoulder blade and the other with a graze wound to the neck, police told our partners at WWL-TV. While the location of the incident remains under investigation, they are believed to have been shot near Carrollton and Washington avenues, police said.

crime

Pigeontown Steppers to lead anti-crime march through Carrollton

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After Broadmoor decided to “stomp” against crime in June, west Carrollton will show off its own fancy anti-crime footwork Wednesday with the help of the Pigeontown Steppers. Inspired by the strong turnout Broadmoor had when the 610 Stompers led them, Jill Stephens of the Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association said the Pigeontown Steppers were a natural partner for Wednesday’s march. “I didn’t want to wait until Easter to see them again,” Stephens said, referring to the club’s annual second-line through west Carrollton. “Also, NOPD’s walk in Broadmoor was so successful last month when the 610 Stompers led them, I wanted the same attraction to our walk.” The anti-crime march will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Palmer Park, head to Dante, Cambronne and back up Dublin streets and end up where it started.

crime

Bus passenger shot in the arm on Carrollton Avenue route

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A passenger on a South Carrollton Avenue city bus was shot in the arm late Thursday afternoon by another man who had just disembarked near Washington Avenue, about two blocks before Interstate 10. Two men were quickly arrested — the alleged shooter, Devonte Davis, 17, and an alleged accomplice, Cordero Johnson, 23 — and police recovered the gun, according to Tania Dall of our reporting partners at WWL-TV.

business

The next three Uptown burger joints

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The Uptown New Orleans burger scene has already improved greatly over the past year, but three more burger concepts are on the way: steamed organic burgers at Juicy D’s on Oak Street, the rapidly growing chain Smashburger in the 3300 block of Magazine, and the (literally) high-profile burger emporium Charcoal at Jackson and Magazine. The features of each are described in detail today by Brad Rhines and Mary-Devon Dupuy of NOLA Defender.

business

Robber shoots at woman during afternoon carjacking just off Oak Street

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A woman who was being robbed of her SUV just off of Oak Street was shot at by her attacker when she tried to run away, police said. The woman was not hit and her vehicle was found minutes later in a west Carrollton yard, but the gunman remains at large. The woman was returning to her car parked about a block off of Oak Street near the intersection of Dublin and Zimpel streets about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday when a teenager wearing a fisherman-style hat and holding a silver revolver approached her from between two parked cars, demanding her purse and keys, according to a report from the NOPD Second District. The woman dropped her belongings and the gunman ordered her to pick them back up, but she refused and began running back toward Oak Street, police said. As she ran, the robber fired a shot at her, then left in her white Mercedes SUV, the report states.

arts, books and music

What should be on Oak Street? planners ask

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As Oak Street’s status among New Orleans “going out” destinations continues to rise, a number of residents’ groups have engaged a planning firm to help them ensure that the “mixed use” commercial corridor evolves into something more diverse than a strip of bars and restaurants. Carrollton-Audubon Renaissance Inc., formed by residents’ groups from around the Carrollton area, is sponsoring a study by the planning firm Villavaso and Associates to help define the “neighborhood mixed use” zoning designation currently slated for Oak Street. The firm has created a complete list of the current uses of buildings on Oak Street, and planners are now meeting with individual business owners and residents to determine how they would like to see the rest of the street develop. After public hearings about their findings, they will draft language about Oak Street to be inserted into the new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance the city is assembling now, said planner Steve Villavaso of the University of New Orleans at a meeting last week of the Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association. “We have put Oak Street under our microscope,” Villavaso said.