business

City Council rejects Gabrielle’s petition to reopen on Henry Clay

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The New Orleans City Council delivered a unanimous message Thursday to the owners of the former Gabrielle restaurant: Please reopen your restaurant, but not on Uptown’s Henry Clay Avenue. “There are many locations that would be appropriate,” said Councilwoman Susan Guidry, after a lengthy explanation of her reasons for opposing the Sonniers’ request to convert The Uptowner banquet hall into a revival of the Gabrielle. “I do not believe this is one.” Throughout his years of fighting to open at 438 Henry Clay Avenue, Greg Sonnier has long maintained that he bought the Uptowner building after Katrina-related flooding destroyed his old location under the impression that it could be operated as a restaurant, only to be told by the city afterward that it could only be a banquet hall. Guidry, however, specifically rejected this argument, saying Sonnier requested an assurance from its seller that the Uptowner could operate as a restaurant, was rejected and bought the building anyway.

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.

blight and demolition

Stacy Head to WGNO: “The property should come down tomorrow.”

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A blighted home that Freret-area neighbors have been dealing with for years has drawn the attention of local TV station WGNO, who covered a Tuesday-evening meeting about the house attended by both City Councilwoman Stacy Head and the property owner. Head minced no words about the need to deal with the house, which has had a gaping hole in its side for years:

 

The same ABC26 reporter, Darian Trotter, examined the property more closely in a report last week.

blight and demolition

Stacy Head to WGNO: “The property should come down tomorrow.”

By |

A blighted home that Freret-area neighbors have been dealing with for years has drawn the attention of local TV station WGNO, who covered a Tuesday-evening meeting about the house attended by both City Councilwoman Stacy Head and the property owner. Head minced no words about the need to deal with the house, which has had a gaping hole in its side for years:

 

The same ABC26 reporter, Darian Trotter, examined the property more closely in a report last week.

business

Two Magazine Street eateries approved for alcohol sales; Milan church cleared to rebuild

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Two restaurants on Magazine Street were granted permission to sell alcohol and a church was cleared to build on an empty lot in Milan last week by an enthusiastic city council. Both Gott Gourmet Cafe, in the Garden District, and the Courtyard Grill, near Napoleon Avenue, must agree to follow a list of conditions in order to add liquor to their menus, said Councilwoman Stacy Head as she led the approval process before the city council. Signs for alcoholic beverages, video poker and go cups will all be prohibited, the restaurants’ owners must sign good-neighbor agreements with their surrounding neighborhoods, and they must close at 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on the weekend. The changes only drew one opponent to the city council meeting, John Pecarrere, who lives in the neighborhood just behind the Courtyard Grill and argued that too much alcohol is being served near the Magazine-Napoleon intersection, where there are also churches, a playground and a school. “Bars change.

city government

City puts Tulane solar concept on hold

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[Clarification appended]

A New Orleans City Council committee rejected a proposal to generate significant amounts of electricity from solar panels on the roofs of Tulane University dorms, saying in a Tuesday morning meeting that the city first needs a better overall system for regulating new, independent sources of energy. Current regulations allow two different levels of power generation from solar panels: 25 kilowatts from residential customers, and 300 kilowatts from commercial structures, said Matthew Fraser, legislative director for District A Councilmember Susan Guidry. If each room in Tulane’s dorms were to be classified as an independent residential unit for the purposes of solar power generation, that would far exceed the current limits, and a new designation would be needed. Under a concept known as net metering, independent generators of electrical power like Tulane can sell their excess electricity back to Entergy. Entergy has told the city that this process still incurs transmission costs to the utility, however, and if Tulane was generating its own energy, the new transmission costs could get passed on to customers around the city.

business

Streetcar plans draw sharp criticism from council

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“The convention center route sounds like it might be kind of interesting, but this is not for transportation,” said District B Councilwoman Stacy Head. “Instead of focusing on a third good transportation route, we instead went for the Disneyworld route, which is around the Convention Center. There are no real people, New Orleanians, who are going to ride that.”