Susan Guidry

Jimmy’s supporters, Carrollton neighbors agree to start talking

By |

The owner of Jimmy’s Music Club may be taking his fight to reopen his renowned club straight to City Hall, but a group of Carrollton neighborhood residents told him Thursday night that they aren’t his problem. In fact, the Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association said, they’d like to sit down and try to figure out a way to support him. Caught by the city’s ban on new alcohol establishments opening in the Carrollton area without explicit permission from the City Council, Jimmy Anselmo is seeking to appeal the denial of his application for a liquor license — in effect, asking the Alcohol Beverage Control board to overrule the City Council. Many of Anselmo’s supporters who showed up at the Thursday-night meeting of the Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association said the group should join Anselmo in demanding that ban be rescinded. Neighborhood resident and Jimmy’s supporter Drew Ward said the ban allows the association to force prospective businesses into agreements that put them at a competitive disadvantage.

arts, books and music

Moratorium on new alcohol-serving businesses could continue for most Carrollton neighborhoods

By |

A moratorium that requires any business in the Carrollton area that wishes to serve alcohol to get specific permission from the city could continue, based on a proposal before the New Orleans City Council this week. The current moratorium has been in place for two years, but does not ban alcohol sales outright in Carrollton — many new restaurants have successfully opened with alcohol sales in that time, such as Tru Burger and the upcoming Mellow Mushroom on Oak Street, or Kakkoii and Singha Song on Maple. But the moratorium does require such businesses to formally request a waiver from the City Council — even if their zoning would normally allow it — which often involves working out a good-neighbor agreement on operating hours and other issues with the surrounding neighborhood associations. “It’s not a total ban on it,” said Kelly Butler, special projects director in Guidry’s office. “It’s just a chance for the City Planning staff to look at it, for City Council look at it, and for neighbors to have input.”

neighborhood groups

Carrollton neighbors to confront state officials about future of Johnson School

By |

Concerned about a dwindling number of public-school options in the Carrollton area and the ever-shifting plans of the Recovery School District, a group of Carrollton neighbors plan to confront state officials yet again about the future of the James Weldon Johnson Elementary School and the old Priestly site on Leonidas. Johnson school leaders and neighbors have begged the Recovery School District for years to move the school from its current building on Monroe Street to the site of the old Priestly building, arguing that the more prominent location on Leonidas would be safer and more attractive to families in the Carrollton area. The most recent plan, as of about a year ago, was to study the feasibility of using the Priestly site, but neighbors have not heard the results of that effort. “They were supposed to talk to us in the spring time, and it’s almost winter time,” said Betty DiMarco, who has long advocated for improvements to the Johnson School, at last week’s meeting of the Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association. The $16 million slated for Johnson in the current plan is not enough to renovate the long-neglected Priestly, and some worry that even that money may not really materialize.

city government

Sheriff investigating failure of carjacking suspect’s ankle monitor as City Council pledges action

By |

After a 14-year-old arrested on charges relating to Tuesday night’s carjacking spree across Uptown New Orleans was found to have a non-working ankle monitor, the sheriff’s office has pledged to look into what went wrong with the electronic monitoring program and a City Council committee is promising its own investigation. Police followed a Toyota Solara taken at gunpoint from the 2300 block of Marengo Street — the third of four armed robberies that night — to the Ninth Ward where its three occupants bailed out. Two were found, and when police saw that the 14-year-old suspect was wearing an ankle monitor, they were initially hopeful that its data would allow the to determine whether the teen was also involved in a carjacking at Camp and Delachaise that in which a local attorney was shot in the chest. On Thursday morning, however, Sheriff Marlin Gusman issued a statement saying that the device had “ceased to communicate with the central monitoring office, which resulted in the Sheriff’s Office viewing old data,” according to our reporting partners at WWL-TV. The statement goes on to promise an internal investigation of both the device and the officer in charge of it.

flood protection and drainage

Ballfields, park areas of The Fly at Audubon Park to remain open during year-long project to raise levee

By |

The ballfields and gazebos at Audubon’s riverfront recreation area and even the trees that hang over the Mississippi River will all remain undisturbed and accessible during the year-long project to raise the Carrollton levee, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assured residents Thursday night, and although the “unofficial” dog park nearby will be closed off during construction, it may emerge as an official dog park after the project. For about a year starting in November, the federal project will raise the levee by about two feet for the two-mile stretch from the Jefferson Parish line at Eagle Street down to the southern vehicle exit at the park known as The Fly, the engineers said. The construction area, however, will be right around the levee itself, which runs along the railroad track at the park, far enough away that it will not affect many of the most-used amenities there. “We are not shutting down the Fly for any amount of time,” said project manager Nick Sims. “The only thing that will be restricted is the access.” The bike path along the levee will be restricted during the project, but will be fully restored afterward, officials said.

business

Mellow Mushroom on Oak Street, Mais Arepas in Central City both get enthusiastic green lights from City Council

By |

Two new restaurants planned for opposite ends of Uptown — the Mellow Mushroom pizzeria on Oak Street, and Mais Arepas Colombian diner on Carondelet in Central City — both passed the City Council with flying colors Thursday morning, as council members lined up to express their enthusiasm for both projects. Mellow Mushroom developer James Son told the council that his restaurant will fill a void for pizza on Oak Street, and will do so with healthier ingredients and gluten-free options that area relatively new to the area. Though the restaurant is a chain, he said, the effect of that will largely be limited to his operational plans — ingredients such as produce will be locally sourced, and even his countertops and signage are being designed by craftsmen on Oak Street. “Whatever is good for Oak street and the neighborhood of Carrollton is also good for us and our property values,” Son said. City Councilwoman Susan Guidry praised Son’s presentation and his many hours of conversations with the Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association, leading to a good-neighbor agreement with them.

business

State agents, city attorneys sweep more bars, corner stores for alcohol violations

By |

Three more Uptown bars — Cooter Brown’s, Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge and Dos Jefes — and corner stores on Oak Street and in Central City have all been added to the docket before the city’s Alcohol Beverage Control board following sweeps by state agents, and will get their first public hearing at a meeting Tuesday. The establishments were visited by agents with the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control as part of a citywide series of sweeps, not just in Uptown, said Sherri Wilder, a community liaison in City Councilwoman Susan Guidry’s office. The ATC was checking sales of tobacco to minors, or allowing people younger than 18 into establishments that primarily sell alcohol, Wilder said. All three bars are charged with maintaining a public nuisance, allowing minors (under 18) to enter, and selling tobacco to minors — as does Wit’s Inn in Mid-City (TJ’s Bar in Gentilly, another new addition to the docket, faces only the public nuisance charges). Oak Super Discounts is charged with public nuisance and allowing minors in, and Uptown Food Market on Seventh Street also faces the public nuisance charge, as does Nia’s Half Time bar in New Orleans East.

business

New Japanese bistro to open this month on Maple in location of former bar

By |

A new Japanese bistro is looking forward to opening later this month on Maple Street after winning City Council’s enthusiastic approval Thursday for its transformation of a previously problematic college bar. Kakkoii Japanese Bistreaux, in the building at the corner of Hillary Street that was formerly the Doors bar, will offer a traditional Japanese menu of sushi, sashimi and hot dishes, said Toan Tran, one of its owners. The name is a Japanese term for something “awesome” or “cool,” he said. “What makes us different from everyone else is a few of our designer rolls,” said James Vu, another co-owner, in a brief interview inside the restaurant Thursday afternoon. When the location was still the Doors, it was one of four bars at that corner that have become the subject of intense enforcement efforts over the last year or so by the NOPD Second District and City Councilwoman Susan Guidry.