city government

Roadwork ahead: Emergency sewer repair closes Broadway in Fontainebleau

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From the Mayor’s Office

On Wednesday (June 22), the city closed Broadway from Earhart Boulevard to Colapissa Street to vehicular traffic for approximately two days due to an emergency sewer point repair. Department of Public Works contractor Wallace C. Drennan installed security fencing and signage around the intersection. and flaggers will be onsite to direct drivers and pedestrians. That section of Broadway will be closed to vehicular traffic while crews complete the sewer point repair and Sewage & Water Board of New Orleans conducts a full inspection to avoid the possibility of a sewage backup. Drivers will detour from Colapissa to Pine Street until the expected reopen date of Friday (June 24).

Krewe of House Floats

Yardi Gras Stories: Broadmoor and Fontainebleau enjoy a ‘staycation’

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Plans to travel the world in 2020 and 2021 may have been put on hold, but you can always make your own “staycation” at home. That’s the theme that neighbors in Broadmoor, Fontainebleau and Marlyville chose for their Yardi Gras house floats. 

“We’re aware of the irony and the reality that we can’t have Mardi Gras in its normal incarnation. We can’t just go on vacation if we want to model good public health choices,” said Caitrin Gladow, captain of the neighborhood subkrewe. It’s part of the larger Krewe of House Floats, a citywide effort to encourage people to decorate their own houses as floats since parades cannot roll because of COVID. 

The goal of the house floats project is to have fun, support artists who are out of work, and help neighbors in need. “One of our obligations as neighbors is to look out for one another,” Gladow said.

crime

Boat stolen from outside home in Fontainebleau

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A boat and trailer were stolen Sunday in the Fontainebleau neighborhood, the New Orleans Police Department reported. The incident occurred Feb. 24 at 3:53 a.m. near Fern Street and Neron Place. It was captured by a security camera and can be viewed here. The victim’s white 22-foot Key West 216 Bay Boat with a bue T-top and 2025 Honda engine and white 2004 boat trailer bearing Louisiana license plate L633334 were stolen from the side of his residence.

court

NOPD: Arrests in separate cases to end both Fontainebleau break-ins and St. Charles-area robberies

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A trio of teens believed to be behind at least five armed robberies along St. Charles and Louisiana avenues were arrested this week, as was a man suspected in at least 10 home burglaries in Fontainebleau, likely bringing to end two separate crime sprees plaguing opposite ends of Uptown New Orleans. The teens, whose names are not being released by police because all three are juveniles, approached a victim in the early morning hours of April 17 in the 1500 block of Aline Street (a block off St. Charles), and one drew a gun and said, “Give me everything,” said Lt. Mike Montalbano of the NOPD Second District investigative unit. The next day, a bank card taken in that robbery was used at a nearby bank, and still photos of the teenagers were taken, Montalbano said.

city government

Private patrols or off-duty officers under consideration by Fontainebleau, university-area residents

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A neighborhood association that stretches from some of Uptown’s most placid blocks to some that have suffered through open warfare between criminals and police is now exploring the idea of increasing its police presence with off-duty officers. The Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association held a sort of fact-finding session Thursday night about fee-based security districts, the first in what association president Scott Barron said would be a series of meetings informing residents about the concept. Security districts, used in a number of Uptown neighborhoods, usually levy an additional fee of several hundred dollars onto each property owner’s tax bill within a strictly defined area. That money is then used by a board of neighborhood residents to hire additional patrol officers (either off-duty NOPD officers or a private security team) who patrol only that area, from investigating complaints of suspicious activity to escorting residents to and from their homes at night. In order to be implemented in the Claiborne-University area, the association would first have to vote to request state Rep. Neil Abramson to draft a bill authorizing the district, and then residents inside the district would have to approve it in a special election.

crime

NOPD: Suspect in Freret slaying may have been in second shootout afterward

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Investigators released the name of a suspect Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old on Freret Street, and said the same man may have been ambushed by others shortly after the shooting on Freret. William Baham, 25, is wanted on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Errol Meeks, who was gunned down late Monday in front of Friar Tucks bar on Freret. Moments before the shooting, Baham and Meeks spoke “as if they knew each other,” said Sgt. Shaun Ferguson of the NOPD Second District persons-crime division. Meeks was a resident of the Freret neighborhood, and police have two addresses for Baham, one on nearby General Taylor Street in the nearby Milan neighborhood and one on Parc Brittany in New Orleans East.

business

Late-night armed robbery reported on Freret Street; shooting in Carrollton

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An armed robbery in the early hours of Thanksgiving Day was reported on Freret Street near Jefferson Avenue and a man was grazed by a bullet in Carrollton over the weekend, police said Tuesday. The robbery victims were walking in the 5300 block of Freret around 1 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, when they were approached by two men with a silver handgun who demanded their belongings, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department. The victims gave the robbers what they wanted, and the robbers then left, and the victims called police the next day, the release states. Anyone with information on the robbery is urged to call Detective Jerry Baldwin at 658-6020.

crime

Police attacked while investigating gun crime in Broadmoor

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Undercover police officers trying to bring an end to a string of gunpoint robberies in the Broadmoor area were ambushed and fired upon Tuesday night, police said Wednesday. In the past week or so, at least four armed robberies in various locations have been reported, including that of an elderly woman lured out of her home late at night by robbers who shut off her electricity, police said. In response, Capt. Darryl Albert of the NOPD Second District assigned two officers to an unmarked car to look for possible suspects on the streets, with a cadre of backup nearby, he said at the district’s weekly meeting Wednesday morning. Near the intersection of Fontainebleau and Vendome, they saw a bicyclist who seemed agitated by their presence pull over and make a cell phone call, Albert said. Within seconds, a blue Nissan Maxima was “on their bumper,” flashing its lights at them and honking its horn, Albert said.

crime

Carjacking reported in Carrollton area; car burglary thwarted in Fontainebleau

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Two women had their car stolen at gunpoint early Sunday morning in a Carrollton neighborhood block, police said Wednesday. The women were in a silver 2001 Dodge Intrepid waiting for an acquaintance to come out of a home in the 1700 block of Eagle Street shortly before 5 a.m. when they were approached by a man with a silver revolver, said Sgt. Shaun Ferguson of the NOPD Second District persons-crimes division. He took all of one woman’s belongings – though the others kept her purse with her as she got out of the car – and then stole the car, police said. The car was found the next day near the intersection of Sail and Wales streets in the Little Woods subdivision of New Orleans East, a common dumping ground near Lake Pontchartrain for stolen vehicles, Ferguson said.

crime

Uptown police investigating string of armed robberies, afternoon shooting

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A string of armed robberies stretched across the city and a man survived a volley of bullets on Delachaise Street in the Milan area in a weekend that showed an unusual amount of gunplay in Uptown neighborhoods, police said Wednesday. The first two robberies came Friday evening, back-to-back within 20 minutes, said Sgt. Shaun Ferguson of the NOPD Second District persons-crimes division. In the 500 block of Broadway, a couple reported that a group of men approached them, showed a gun, and demanded their belongings, Ferguson said. Police found several of their credit cards in the same block that night, and found their keys nearby the next day.