Squandered Heritage

I have know for a few weeks that the series of reports done by Lee Zurik had been awarded the duPont award but it was nice to see it announced today. I heard the announcment via Twitter via @The_Gambit Nice to see new media spreading the news of old media around.

I look forward to working […]

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 […]

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 […]

Here are the first 50 of the 300 houses going through 106 review before they are eligible to be demolished.

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 […]

Yesterday while driving down Earhart Blvd. I came across a demolition which was being performed with no dust mitigation.

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 […]

I can’t even put into words now deeply saddened I was to hear of Pam’s passing.

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 […]

I have been really fortunate over the last few years to have gone places I normally would not have gone.

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 […]

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 […]

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.
[…]

I have been following the administrative adjudication process for many of our blighted and abandoned properties here in New Orleans, on March 31 2009 the property at 1600 S. Claiborne owned by FRIW CHKN LLC. was on the docket.

This property is located at the corner of Claiborne and Martin Luther King and was a […]

Today marks the first day of the hearings on the Council budget:

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.

- […]

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!

Please join us on Sunday, November 8 after the Saints game to celebrate community-based peace efforts at the beautiful new Rock-N-Bowl! Learn more about all current SilenceIsViolence programming, and sign up […]

The role that Ed Blakely played in the role of the demolition of the Rosedale Baptist Church was an interesting one. According to one of the members of the Church the former Recovery Czar had admonished the Church with the statement that God was angry at them for not repairing the church in a more […]

This past Monday and Tuesday the case of The Rosedale Baptist Church vs C. Ray Nagin was heard in federal court in front of the Honorable Judge Martin Feldman.

The 6 person jury, oddly none of which reside in Orleans Parish heard 2 days of testimony about the post Gustav demolition of the Rosedale Baptist […]

Well not really. It is actually City Budget Time.

CITY COUNCIL HEARINGS ON 2010 PROPOSED BUDGET

The Council will hold hearings on the Mayor’s proposed 2010 budget, beginning on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. in the City Council Chamber. Hearing dates for individual departments and agencies are:

[…]

Many of you have heard of Stay Local a great initiative that enables you to find a multitude of goods and services close to home.

Stay Local isn’t just a local directory it is a database of all our local home grown businesses as well as a project of the Urban Conservancy which celebrates and […]

The Times-Picayune is a daily newspaper

Established as The Picayune in 1837, the paper’s initial price was one picayune

A picayune was a Spanish coin worth half a Spanish real. Its name derives from the French language picaillon, which is itself from the Provencall language picaioun, meaning “small coin.” By extension,picayune can mean “trivial” or “of little […]

This week famous foreclosure “LaLaurie is adding a new chapter in it’s place in history.

Nicholas Cage’s French Quarter home is on the foreclosure chopping block. I guess New Orleans is through bucking the trends, that or Nick Cage needs to make more movies.

A recent article in The Salisbury Journal began this way:

Nicolas Cage has alluded […]

Please go to Regional Modernism for details

In late 2006 Jesuit applied to demolish 3 houses on S Solomon and Banks. I wrote about those demolitions at the time. link

And this one which they used as an office.

Eventually they were granted permission to demolish these homes but were told they needed to present a plan to create a parking lot and could […]

Today’s NCDC meeting included 4 structures which were on the agenda to be demolished for a CVS Pharmacy. One of the structures caught my attention for a number of reasons one of which is it’s past use as a synagogue.

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Chevra Thilim Synagogue was built in June 1948 at South Claiborne Avenue and Jena […]

Thanks to Francine and Sergio

link

Hoffman School is no longer threatened but approved for demolition.

The RSD said they would look for some money to rebuild. Check your sofa cushions for spare change. I can’t imagine a school will ever be rebuilt there in my lifetime.

“We are now treating medicine as an industrial product.”

Listening to this podcast that line stuck out as just a pretty apt definition of what is wrong with our attitude towards the LSU/VA hospital. The lack of planning and transparency is on a par with the lack of transparency when it comes to health care.

The audio […]