I look forward to working with Lee again when he comes back on air in the spring. In the meantime the first joint reporting effort of WVUE and The Lens will air Tuesday Jan 19th.

Work will begin this week on the resurfacing and sidewalk replacement on South Carrollton Avenue from Interstate 10 to St. Charles Avenue, a project expected to finish by August.

The project also will bring a bike lane, handicapped-accessible curb cuts at each cross street, and new curbs along the 2.2-mile stretch of road.

Though the project likely will create dreadful temporary traffic problems - down to one lane in work areas -it’s set to smooth out what has become a series of undercarriage-scraping asphalt hills and valleys.

The program is being paid for with federal relief money funneled through the South Louisiana Submerged Road Program.

In spite of the short notice and spotty notification, a number of interested residents attended a public meeting at Notre Dame Seminary Tuesday night to hear what the project manager had to say.

The tenor went from informative to incensed.

Four crews each working on a four-block segment are expected to take seven months to complete the street and sidewalk repair program, said Larry Blazek of HTNB.

The crowd expressed the greatest concern for the oak trees, which line a large portion of Carrollton Avenue. Part of the identity of the neighborhood lies in the sweeping canopy along the avenue, and residents have always been protective of their signature trees.

That concern was heightened with the distress suffered from Katrina’s floodwaters and subsequent power-line crews that made repairs.

With that in mind Barry Kohl, professor of earth sciences at Tulane University asked a number of detailed questions about the plan to safeguard the oaks.

After a few minutes of persistent questioning, Carl Panebiango from Hard Rock construction, the on-the-ground contractor, broke out of presentation style and went on the defensive. His assertion was that they were on a tight deadline and had met all the requirements. A heated discussion followed, with a number of residents trying to impress upon Panebiango the value of protecting the oaks.

A smaller, less intense discussion followed regarding the new bike lanes. Most of the residents seemed enthusiastic about the bike lanes and resigned to the general disruption to come.

What remains to be seen is how this will affect the heavily trafficked Carrollton area and the 3 schools along this stretch.

Click here for a copy of the plans

In a cost-cutting move, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared that all city buildings will be closed on Fridays. Supposedly, this will cut the city’s light bill and help the city meet its budget goals.
Hizzoner’s announcement led to more than one wisecrack about the level of service available at City Hall even when it is open. So the disillusioned were not paying close attention to what other city-owned buildings were affected, and some were surprised to find out the move shut down libraries, health clinics, recreation centers and other oft-visited city buildings far from 1300 Perdido St.
Wondering what other surprises were in store, I set off on today’s quest, a quest to obtain a simple piece of public information: the complete list of the shuttered facilities.
1. I made the initial call to the City of New Orleans property-management office and spoke with Adrianne. Yes, she had a full list, but no, she couldn’t give it to me. She wasn’t authorized to give that out. She told me to call the Public Advocacy office.
2. I had a quick chat with Vanity in the Public Advocacy office who told me that there was no comprehensive list and suggested I call the mayor’s office.
3. I then made a call to the city’s Office of Communications and left a message.
4. After that I called the mayor’s office and was told that there wasn’t a list at the mayors office, but if one existed, it would be at human resources and that she would transfer me.
5. The transfer instead led me to the Civil Service Department, where a worker asked me why I thought she would have that information and maybe I should call property management. (see step 1)
I pressed a little harder and was given a name of someone in the know in the mayor’s office. I could almost smell victory.
6. When I got back to the mayor’s office, with a different person than the first call there, I was told that the list I sought may be on the city Web site, but if it was, it wasn’t easy to find.
So as I sit here typing this, I have been informed that somewhere in one of those City Hall buildings someone is putting together a list of the buildings that were closed last Friday and will continue to be closed every Friday for the foreseeable future.
As soon as I figure this out, I’ll make the list available here, or link to the right Web page. If they can find it.

I will be posting here for a little bit longer as we iron out the kinks at The Lens site.

The neighborhoods where these houses are located are

Bywater

Carrollton aka Northwest Carrollton

Edgewood Park

and Broadmoor

You are encouraged to leave comments at this site as well as view the full list

Some of these properties may not end up being demolished but assume the worst.

I am having a lot of trouble with the comments on this site. If you have left a comment and do not see it then most likely I can not access the moderation panel. I am digging some of them out of the Spam folder.

UPDATE

This e mail just went out to bbadinger@crt.state.la.us from one of our Squandered Heritage readers.

To whom it may concern:

After a careful inspection of all properties (#s 1-50) in batch 1,

In my professional opinion, the only properties which should be permitted to be demolished are the following:

7816 PANOLA ST - Property is structurally deficient
2465 GLADIOLUS ST - Although repairable, property is non-conforming to the neighborhood streetscape
2554 VERBENA ST - Property is serious disrepair and the integrity of the structure has been compromised

All other properties should not be demolished. Each of these properties is integral to the streetscape of the neighborhoods and should not be torn down. The 47 properties are able to be rehabilitated with minimum effort and require no major structural improvements to facilitate occupancy. I am STRONGLY against demolishing these properties, as although the majority have not been renovated since Katrina, there is no reason they should be precluded from being renovated and rehabilitated.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanking you in advance, I am

Z. Dieterich

The structure was a substantial Church bldg and generated a large amount of dust and debris.

Here is the Church just before demolition.

When I arrived on site yesterday they were well on the way to finished with no water on site to keep the dust particles from drifting out to the surrounding areas.

The contractor claimed he was going to hook up the water hoses but he has none. After about half an hour of discussion the entire crew jumped into their trucks and left the site.

This morning I called the State DEQ offices to see what the proper procedure is for determining what precautions should be taken. The State had no permit application on file for this particular property so there is no way to tell what hazard materials were in the many many truckloads that left this site.

This morning when I passed by the site they were back at work this time with water hoses dampening down the site.. One unanswered question is this, if they did not determine the status of contaminants in the structure itself were they just washing all those contaminants into the drainage system and out to the lake?

She spent much of her life both pre Katrina and especially post Katrina fighting to save our wetlands as well as the closure of the MrGo and the rebirth of the Lower 9.

Pam and I schlepped through Washington D.C as well as New York together. She had some stories to tell.

Earlier this year I went to New York to attend The Peabody Awards, I wrote a little bit about it here, including a scene with Jeanne- Claude and Christo.

I had first seen her in the elevator at the Waldorf while I was heading up to my room, it was like being in a box with a lit match. And it wasn’t just her hair, it was her very being. I was too intimidated to ask to take her photo and she seemed busy directing folks around. So I just kind of stewed in the happiness of seeing someone I respected, not just for the work that she has done but for the fact that she had claimed her rights to be credited for the work that she and her husband had done together, but had always been known as just his work.

When you saw her in person it was obvious that he was the internal and she was the external.

It made me sad to see that she had passed away.

For the last year Ariella Cohen and I have been working on the creation of a new investigative news site. The name, the design, the funding, the staff, the office, the endless meetings, the brick walls and the open doors, it all came together.

We eventually were able to bring on Brentin Mock to work on issues related to the environment, housing and social justice issues. I can’t remember exactly when I met Brentin but it took me sometime before I realized he was writing about New Orleans regularly while commuting between D.C and New Orleans. He never let New Orleans fall off the map in terms of national exposure and he will continue to keep New Orleans in the national spotlight but this time he will be doing it from the Upper 9th ward where he has relocated.

We christened it The Lens and here it is right here

I will be eventually be posting most of my own work over at The Lens so keep looking while we iron out the kinks, add staff as well as a few other surprises we are working on.

Feel free to email me tips and story ideas

karen.gadbois@gmail.com

See you there, and here sometimes too.

What: Blogging 101 Class: An Introduction to Blogging for the Utter Novice

When: Thursday, Nov. 12; 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Where: The Bridge Lounge, 1201 Magazine St

Why: To Learn About Blogging and for Free Beer.

Who: Rising Tide

This class will be taught by two local bloggers and will focus on blogging platforms, hosting, getting started, a walk-through of basic blog software, posting, adding media, blogrolls, linking, commenting and more. Laptops are encouraged.

This property is located at the corner of Claiborne and Martin Luther King and was a Church’s before the flood. On April 28, 2009 their representative Justin Schmidt appeared before the BZA requesting a conditional use to allow a fast food restaurant at that location.

So it comes as a surprise to see this property on the Code Enforcement demolition agenda.

These demolitions which are funded by CBDG funding have been making their way on to the agenda, this isn’t the only property scheduled for demolition review that also has a building permit. Once again it makes you wonder how these City agencies communicate with each other.

9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

- Budget Overview by Chief Administrative Officer
- Tax Levy
- Capital Budget
- Revenue Budget

- Panel Discussion: Judicial & Parochial Offices, Part 1:
Municipal Court
Traffic Court

2 p.m. - 5 p.m.

- Panel Discussion: Judicial & Parochial Offices, Part 2:
Criminal Sheriff
Criminal District Court
Criminal District Court, Clerk’s Office
District Attorney
Coroner

- N.O. Museum of Art

Let’s hope Ida does not steal the show.

photo credit: Mark Folse

SHAMARR ALLEN
STOOGES BRASS BAND
FREE BOWLING
$15
…and all proceeds benefit the peace efforts of SilenceIsViolence and the Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force!