Uptown Messenger (https://uptownmessenger.com/tag/freret/page/4/)
The Dat Dog manager who was shot during a robbery attempt at the Freret Street store last month calls the bullet’s path through his shoulder a “miracle,” as he returns to work and discusses his support for a new $300-per-year tax on each property in the neighborhood to hire 24-hour private security patrols, according to a report by our partners at WWL-TV.
A fee of $300 per year on properties in the Freret neighborhood could generate enough money for around-the-clock private security patrols, organizers said this week after examining a map of tax-paying parcels. Several members of The New Freret business and property owners association and the Freret Neighbors United residents’ group have been discussing the creation of a security district in the neighborhood, and on Tuesday presented the first detailed proposal. The district they envision would run between Jefferson and Napoleon Avenues, from Claiborne Avenue to Danneel, essentially bumping up against two already formed private patrols on the Jefferson and Danneel sides. Within that area, they count 975 properties that aren’t exempt from taxes, such as those owned by the Isidore Newman School or Archdiocese of New Orleans. A $300 annual fee for the district — even accounting for the 10 percent or so of those properties that will be delinquent on their taxes — will raise more than $260,000, enough to cover 24 hours of coverage 365 days per year at a $25 hourly rate quoted by the New Orleans Private Patrol, said Kellie Grengs of The New Freret at Tuesday night’s meeting of Neighbors United.
Newly elected City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell will meet with members of the Freret Neighbors United group tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 8), as members consider two separate proposals to merge with the Milan Focus Group and to create a security district for additional police patrols. For details, see the meeting announcement below:
The next Neighbors United General Meeting is on Tuesday, Jan. 8th at Samuel J. Green Charter School from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. On tap for tomorrow’s meeting is:
– Meet your Councilperson!
After more than a year and a half in the works, the new Publiq House music venue on Freret Street is open and planning its first show this weekend.
The Freret Market will feature 90 local vendors selling food, produce, art, jewelry and gifts on Saturday (Jan. 5). For more information see the following press release:
SATURDAY JANUARY 5TH
CORNER OF FRERET AND NAPOLEON
NEW ORLEANS
NOON TO 5PM
FRERET MARKET
WWW.FRERETMARKET.COM
90 Local Vendors with food, produce, art, jewelry, gifts and collectibles
Pet Adoptions by Zeus’ Place
Free Live music by
Louisiana Hellbenders at Noon
Riccardo Crespo and Sol Brasil at 1:45
Gypsy Elise at 3:30
A Philly cheesesteak shop slated for the tiny hot dog stand that grew into Dat Dog across the street is among the next new wave of businesses opening on and around Freret Street in the coming year. Michael Casey’s dream of opening a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop is now well underway. “Over the course of the year it went from, ‘Can we do this?’ to, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’” Casey said. Casey, along with friend and business partner Joseph Seremet, will open Liberty Cheesesteak in Dat Dog’s former location at 5031 Freret St.
The upstart Krewe of Freret that had hoped to join the Mardi Gras parade schedule this spring issued a statement Thursday suspending those plans because of what it termed a “misunderstanding” by the New Orleans Police Department, but said it has already begun work to roll for the first time in 2014. For details, see the news release from the Krewe copied in full below:
* * *
Krewe of Freret Shifts Momentum to 2014
NOPD claims date misunderstanding, Krewe to roll with it
The Krewe of Freret today announced the suspension of plans to parade in 2013 with a new focus on securing a riding permit for 2014 and hosting their 2013 black tie masquerade ball. The Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Board, comprised of Orleans Parish Krewe Captains, an NOPD representative, and several other Mardi Gras notables, offered almost unanimous support for the Krewe of Freret to parade in 2013. Mardi Gras World was poised to provide double decker floats. Beads by the Dozen was ready to press the custom throws.
Freret Neighbors United, which has been serving a large swath of the Freret area for nearly four decades, is considering a merger with a much newer group of activists next door who began organizing in the Milan neighborhood about two years ago. Founded in 1974, the Neighbors United boundaries — South Claiborne to Dryades, between Jefferson and General Taylor — already extend about midway into the Milan neighborhood. The Milan Focus Group, with the assistance of the Freret Neighborhood Center, began meeting in the fall of 2010 after an Easter Sunday shooting death on General Taylor Street to bring more attention to issues on their side of Napoleon Avenue. The proposal for 2013 announced earlier this month by leaders of both groups would include a number of steps toward a merger:
Neighbors United will move its downriver boundary about four blocks to Louisiana Avenue to include all of Milan. Starting in January, the two groups will meet jointly, rotating every other month between Samuel J. Green Charter School (the meeting place of Neighbors United) and the Crocker school building in Milan.
Detectives have identified and arrested the man they say shot an employee of Dat Dog on Freret Street while trying to rob the store Monday morning, authorities announced. Nathaniel “Li’l Brother” Jones, 19, is charged with attempted murder and attempted armed robbery, and police officials credit members of the Freret community with giving them the information they needed to identify him. For details, see the NOPD news release below:
Second District Police arrested the suspected gunman today who shot an Uptown restaurant manager during a botched armed robbery attempt two days ago. Officers say 19-year-old Nathaniel “Li’l Brother” Jones entered through the back door of the restaurant in the 5000-block of Freret Street on Monday morning at around 10. He was wearing a bandana over his face and carrying a handgun.
Mitchell Marks, 29, initially told police he was with William Baham the night Baham shot Erroll Meeks in front of Friar Tucks bar in January 2011, that he had tried to talk Baham out of the shooting and then saw Baham running away from the crime scene moments after shots rang out, according to a report by John Simerman of the Times-Picayune. After Marks recanted his statement during Baham’s trial, prosecutors played jailhouse recordings of Marks planning to “play dumb” during the trial and secured a 10-year sentence on a perjury conviction against Marks, the report states.
