South Claiborne drainage work will extend to Lowerline over next five years

The drainage project starting next month on the uppermost end of South Claiborne Avenue will gradually extend downriver to Lowerline Street over the next five years, officials said Thursday evening, and Hollygrove residents worry that it will increase, rather than reduce, flooding in their neighborhood. The Sewerage & Water Board and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are building a major new drainage canal under South Claiborne that is expected to commence with utility relocation next month near Monticello Avenue and the Jefferson Parish line, officials said at an information session in the Carrollton community. The first segment of canal construction will then begin in April, followed by a second segment that starts in August, a third in January 2013, and a fourth, final segment in May 2013. That entire $27 million stretch — from Monticello to Leonidas Street — is known as Phase 1, and will wrap up in August 2014. However, there is a Phase 2, which runs from Leonidas to Lowerline.

Demolition requested for two Dante Street properties

Two Dante Street homes will be among the properties facing demolition today in a hearing before the city’s Neighborhood Conservation District Committee, according to the Preservation Resource Center. One home, at 1037 Dante, was placed on the agenda as part of the city’s code enforcement efforts. The demolition of a double at 1922-24 Dante was requested by its owner. Other properties in neighborhoods around Uptown New Orleans are listed below, grouped by location with photos by the Preservation Resource Center. Central City
2613 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR BLVD
2914-16 DANNEEL ST – FEMA
2918-20 DRYADES ST – FEMA (already demolished)

Hoffman Triangle
1119-21 S GAYOSO ST
2316 SEMINOLE LN
3218 TOLEDANO ST – FEMA

Hollygrove
8828-30 FORSHEY ST

Hollygrove playground build Saturday, the second Uptown KaBOOM! project in two weeks

The latest KaBOOM! playground in Uptown New Orleans will be built by volunteers Saturday at Conrad Park on Hamilton Street, only two weeks after the same organization brought new equipment to the Claiborne Avenue campus of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans. Details of the Hollygrove build, via an emailed news release:

DESIGNED BY KIDS, BUILT BY VOLUNTEERS:
ORGANIZATIONS PARTNER TO SAVE PLAY BY BUILDING NEW PLAYGROUND
IN JUST ONE DAY FOR HOLLYGROVE CHILDREN

WHAT: More than 200 volunteers will join together on Saturday, Nov. 19 to build a new playground at Hollygrove’s Conrad Playground in one day. The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in September.

KIPP on South Carrollton headed to Gentilly, Banneker to Hollygrove, RSD says

KIPP Believe College Prep on South Carrollton is headed to a new school building in Gentilly, and Benjamin Banneker Elementary in the Riverbend is slated for a new campus in Hollygrove, according to school assignment plans being aired publicly by the Recovery School District this week. Those two changes are the most significant for Uptown campuses among the recommendations that the RSD will be hosting public hearings on this week. Many other RSD schools around Uptown will essentially be unaffected, and some of the higher-profile schools run through the Orleans Parish School Board are not included in the list. KIPP’s highest-performing middle school, KIPP Believe College Prep, is slated for the old Stuart Bradley site on Humanity Street just off Interstate 610, where one of the city’s new $22.5 million school buildings will be constructed from FEMA money. The move will leave its current site, the McNair High School campus on the corner of South Carrollton and Birch, as an “opportunity” campus — suitable as a temporary site while another campus is being renovated, but not slated for any renovations or long-term assignments itself.

Costco plans receive warm reception from Hollygrove neighbors

After planning, permitting, design and construction, Costco could open in spring of 2013. “With every meeting, we keep checking the boxes,” said company vice president Jackie Frank. “It seems very very positive to us. We haven’t found a fatal flaw. Everything about this site and community has been very positive.”

Six weekend shootings around Uptown wound eight victims, all following separate personal feuds, police say

A string of six shootings in the Broadmoor, Carrollton and Hollygrove neighborhoods over the weekend injured a total of eight people — including a woman eight months pregnant with twins — and led to two arrests, but all stem from a series of separate personal feuds, police said Wednesday. Broadmoor| Two shootings were reported this weekend — Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon — near the same intersection, Louisiana Avenue Parkway and South Roman. In the Friday afternoon incident, a 17-year-old was found with a gunshot wound to the right arm, and said he was shot by a stranger while walking near that intersection, police said. In Sunday’s case, a 37-year-old victim was found with a gunshot wound to the leg, police said. He told police that his son and another man, both in their early 20s, got into an argument, and that he broke it up but was shot while trying to get his son back home.

NOPD: Fake SPCA officer extorts woman, 90, with threats of taking her cats

A man impersonating an animal-control officer threatened to take a 90-year-old woman’s cats away if she did not pay him a fine, and stole additional cash and her cell phone while in her Hollygrove home during the scam, police said. The man first showed up at the woman’s home in the 8300 block of Palm late Thursday evening, claiming that he was with the SPCA and saying that he was going to remove her cats from her home unless she paid $40 for a certificate allowing her to keep them, said Lt. Mike Montalbano, interim commander of the NOPD Second District. The woman paid him the money, and he left and then returned with a tall woman with a nose ring and a diamond tattoo on her face, who the man said would train the woman’s cats to remain in the backyard, Montalbano said. The supposed cat trainer took the woman to the backyard while the fake SPCA officer stayed inside, and when they walked back inside, one of the woman’s cats drew near him and he yelled, “Get that cat away from me! I don’t like cats!”

NOPD: Hollygrove carjacking victim survives gunfire, wild ride to recover stolen truck

After being carjacked in his driveway, a Hollygrove man jumped into the bed of his truck and dodged gunfire in an effort to thwart the teen who stole it, police said. The 32-year-old victim had pulled into the driveway of his home in the 9100 block of Edinburgh about 9 p.m. Friday, when a teenager walked up, pointed a gun at him and demanded his keys and phone, said Lt. Mike Montalbano, interim commander of the NOPD Second District. The teen got into the red Toyota Tundra pickup and began to drive away, but the victim chased the truck and jumped into the bed of it, Montalbano said. The teen saw the victim and shot at him, shattering the rear window of the cab, Montalbano said, and the victim jumped out at the intersection of Pritchard Place and Mistletoe streets as the teen drove off. As he walked home, he saw his truck again at the intersection of Live Oak and Forshey streets, and watched as it was parked in a rear yard in the 9400 block of Forshey, then went home and called police.

Woman, 22, found shot to death inside her Hollygrove home

A 22-year-old woman was found dead Sunday morning of a gunshot wound to the head inside her Hollygrove home, police said. The woman was shot shortly after 7:30 a.m. in the 9000 block of Edinburgh Street, according to the NOPD. The victim’s name was Cierra Luckie, a mother of three, and two of her children may have been in the home and witnessed the shooting, according to ABC26 news reporter Vanessa Bolano. Anyone with information is urged to call homicide Detective Andrew Packer at 658-5300 or, to leave a tip that could result in a cash reward, call CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.