a day later I received this announcement
Unified Indian Practice
featuring
The Pinettes (All Female) Brass Band to kick things off.

Come out, help us to preserve our culture.
Come have some fun with TAMBOURINES AND DRUMS

Pinettes start at 6:30pm sharp

Indians start immediately after The Pinettes

Feel free to bring a cow bell, tambourine, drum
or sing along and join in on the fun!

YIA Cafe’
2401 Danneel St
(corner of First & Danneel)

I was glad to see that someone came and argued this house off the list. It is always a victory when people have been afforded the ability to fight their own battles.

here

Last week when the I received the agenda for the November 17th meeting I didn’t have a lot of time to take the photos. So it was late in the game before I realized this building was on the agenda.

Who was Samuel Green and where were the people who cared about this building, this monument?

Would anyone show up at the hearing? Would we have another Gilbert Hall , one that the Neighbors fought to save? But in the end lost.

While looking for some history of this Church I stumbled upon this article written by Coleman Warner Growth, Identity, and Loss in a New Orleans Neighborhood this is only a small portion of the article but the theme resonates. Especially when you see where this Church is located.

When I went to view the building I was struck with the location. Smack dab in the middle of the Guste Housing project. Between the newly constructed row houses and the unbearable ugly stacks of bricks and steel.

This Church and the Freedoms Hall continue to exist here, but do they serve? The Church is boarded shut and people move around the building not through it. There seems to be no connection to this Neighborhood. When I go out to look at the buildings I usually try and find someone to talk to about the impending demolition. But in the case of this building there was no one to talk to. It made me think abut the function of the Church within a neighborhood. What would that function be if the residents of the houses were transient as is suggested by the new attitude towards public housing residents. Would a person form attachments to the neighborhood and the institutions within the neighborhood such as this Church if the ideas about public housing being that they were built to serve a population who was not going to stay. So much has been written about public housing and I still am unsatisfied by the argument that public housing serves those who are on the way to an upward mobility instead of the working poor. With a City economy based on tourism the need for an uneducated population is greater than a need for skilled well paid workers. Maybe that will change but in the meantime public housing is not a lifestyle choice but a fact of life.

So many of the Churches in Central City serve people who live outside of the Neighborhood so the need becomes a need for parking a need for places to put cars, not people.

So the Church will continue to stand but the Freedom Hall will fall. The contractor presented his plans which I was unable to see, but according to his verbal presentation Phase 1 is demolition and Phase 2 is unknown.

When I bought my house I was glad to see this beautiful Church across the street. Something so grand and so permanent. I never thought I would see the day when it was closed. Unlike the parishioners of Our Lady of Good Counsel the parishioners of Incarnate Word said a sad farewell, with a whimper they allowed the Archdiocese to close the facility.

So what was left was the School, a half block long building that had educated many in this Neighborhood. And served as a community gathering spot, daycare and poll location before the storm.

Last month the School reopened. The kids can be heard now and again life returns to part of the block. But the Church remains silent.

Communities all over the United States are feeling the loss of congregations and the centralized notion of mega churches is now the norm. Churches as political machines and influence. Has the Church lost sight of it’s mission? and decided that the community where it is located is no more than a literal parking lot? The parking lot functioning as the place where influenced is exerted And now the Catholic Church spends more time, money and effort on housing than it does on ministering

Lots to digest in a small post about one piece of history. More questions than answers. Who will save a Church if no one is there? Who will save a City if no one cares?

2:00 p.m. Safety & Permits Conference Room

City Hall

1300 Perdido Street, Room 7E07

This property is on the agenda as a voluntary demolition

Looking forward to the reasoning.

To see the rest of the agenda….
AGENDA

Those promises were made in Council Chambers. When Walter Gallas from the National Trust went to the podium to offer some clarity on FEMA regulations he was chastised by Dr. Ed Blakley and after that exchange Veronica White applauded. Her actions I would consider to be unacceptable. When City employees pack the Council Chambers and jeer the public and Council the opportunity for an open exchange is lost. And those of us who question the Administration are painted into a corner.

These last few days have illustrated the lengths that Ms White will go to to avoid revealing information about actions taken with public monies.

In this case the owner wanted the house demolished. They own the adjacent wrecking company and the areas surrounding it. Their industrial operation is surrounded by residential homes, which is always a delicate balance. In this case even more so because they have never reopened the wrecking yard and the brickyard has become an illegal dumping ground.

The owner was able to obtain a demolition permit during the Executive Order issued by the Mayor Post Gustav, this action was an abuse of power or an act of ignorance. There is no other explanation.

Kate Schneiderman, a spokesman for Councilman Arnie Fielkow, said the City Council needs to approve the expenditure of the entire $79 million. The money comes from several sources in the city budget, including the mayor’s office and the Office of Recovery and Development Administration, and she said a taxpayer perusing the budget for a lump sum will not find it.

entire article here

This house has seen a slow decline.

The above photo was taken about a year and a half ago ago. We had heard that the house had been through the administrative adjudication process. As we understood it the owner had been declared guilty. The next step would have been a signed order and then the process of expropriation. That, in theory is what should have happened.

But what happened is..nothing. The City never signed the papers and the owner continued to let it fester.

Until New Years Eve..when there was a fire at the house.

I would also like to add here that a number of Neighbors approached the owner and made offers on the house. The offers exceeded the value of the lot. And at the same time the homeowner was trying to get a Free Fema funded demolition. And when I say Free I mean free to him, “we” the taxpayers pay for it.

He was denied the free demo because the damage to the house was a direct result of pre Katrina negligence, and the agreement between the City and FEMA is theoretically to only fund Katrina damaged demolitions.

So to recap..he is trying to create a vacant lot, is pretending to sell the house to avoid a blight judgment but when offered money for it he declines.

Last week he started to destroy the house to demolish it.

As you can see all the windows have been removed and the chimneys demolished in order to further the destruction. The contents which have sat there for 3 years discarded and left on the lawn. Now I would like to add the house next door is occupied by a very elderly couple. Does this seem criminal to you? It does to me. Would you want to live on this block?

We have asked Winston Reid the director of Code Enforcement and Dr. Ed Blakley our recovery Czar. We have asked our Councilperson and our our At Large Council people. And no one responds. Not a polite “we will look into it” or even “thanks for your concern” nothing, nothing, nothing….

Our frustration with the City increases daily. I have sat in the Code Enforcement hearings where they have fined people who have missing pieces of weatherboard or unpainted exterior surfaces on their houses. This selective and farcical code enforcement ignores the larger issues we have here. This owner has been warned and it meant nothing. I challenge any of our elected officials to look us in the eye and say that this house is acceptable and or that there is nothing they can do about it. The excuses of the past 3 years continue on as many wonder what our own personal breaking point will be.

The City has abandoned us and forgot the basic tenants of governance. And the scary news is that this same owner has 2 other non gutted houses just down the block. He continues unabated. And we continue to be ignored.

We continue to fight the endless arrogance of those who suggest we can “demolish” our way out of this problem.

link

why I changed my mind

One of the best live performances I ever saw back in the dark ages of the early 70’s

Born in Lafayette, Alabama, Gertrude Morgan heard a voice in 1937 that told her, “Go and Preach, tell it to the world.” Two years later, she moved to New Orleans and became a street preacher. With Mother Margaret Parker and Sister Cora Williams, she opened an orphanage and built a chapel and a childcare center in Gentilly. Music was an intricate part of Morgan’s religious activities. She sang as well as played the piano, guitar, and tambourine. Around 1957, the Holy Ghost came to her in a vision and chose her to become a bride of Christ. At this time, she began to dress only in white, furnished her home in white, and began to paint. An untrained artist, Sister Gertrude Morgan”s paintings were an extension of her religious devotion. Combining text and images, she created compelling artwork. Intended to educate, the written areas often refer to the scripture illustrated and are an integral part of the image.

Sister Gertrude died long before the flood.. but you can still hear her sing here

And here is one of her paintings.

When I started Squandered Heritage one of the first posts I wrote was about The Quotidian I was using the term to describe a run of the mill house the kind that fill the City of New Orleans, the shotgun, the bungalow, the raised sidehall..and on and on. These houses in other cities would be treasured here there are so many they are not really SEEN.

So today there will be a hearing to discuss the demolition of this house. I know that a production company from Boston has been working on a documentary which would include this house. It’s passing will not go unnoticed but I fear the attention paid to it will come from far away and not from the community that Sister Gertrude Ministered to. Another unseen treasure of New Orleans.

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We reported it before it burned. But nothing happened. We reported it after it burnt, and nothing happened.

The owner went before the City for an Administrative Ajudication hearing, and I guess nothing happened. Cause now he has taken a sledge hammer to the chimney’s which will cause the house to eventually collapse and the City will probably do nothing about that either.

This same owner has 2 other houses he is intent on destroying..

So why has this house been allowed to be built at a height which is out of scale with the rest of the Neighborhood? Cause there is no review process.

After yesterday’s ruling by Judge Martin Feldman in Federal Court it would seem that the bulk of the houses on the agenda will not be allowed to be heard. But of course there has been no official word by the City as to the suspension or deletion of properties not officially noticed as mandated by the consent decree.

So I will be taking more photos today and adding them to the list.

Here is what I learned about Federal Court. No cameras but cell phones are ok. The first time we went in about a year ago they confiscated our cell phones cause they thought there was going to be a riot.

Whatever

Here is the AP article.

and then a follow up after the Judge made a ruling

“Although one cannot wholeheartedly say that the city has acted with an abundance of sensitivity to the concerns of its citizens, or has even acted reliably when leadership has encountered challenges, the court is not persuaded by clear and convincing evidence that the city or the mayor have shown contempt, as opposed to incomplete compliance, for the constitutional responsibilities imposed by the consent decree,” he wrote.

more

Of course I beg to differ the City cry’s “this is hard” as an excuse for everything. They have handed over the process to a demolition contractor who would seem to have a conflict of interest.

The Demolition policy or lack there of is just a reinforcement of the disinvestment in the City that the leadership seems to embrace. I see no one in the Mayor’s office or the Office of Dr. Ed Blakley discussing what we can do to repopulate and reinvigorate the City, instead we have an ad hoc policy of incompetence and ignorance.

This house has a number of issues. first the pavement, and then the front yard parking. But what is worse is that this guy is building these same style houses all over the City here is another one

I reported this over a year ago and nothing happens. Why? Because the City decides the priority lies elsewhere. So developers and contractors build however and whatever they like. Why should we have faith in a City administration that has no respect for our Neighborhoods and allows the rules to be broken with total disregard for the wishes and desires of law abiding citizens.

This house IS

Here is an interior shot

I don’t have a photo of the Central City Demolition

As I type this I am watching the Historic District Landmarks Special Meeting to review demolitions. One owner got up and said he does not want this demolition and was shocked to see the house on the list with the “Gas Off” sign spray painted.

I wonder why he was not notified, Veronica White is in charge of these demolitions, our Sanitation Director aka trash. It makes you realize what the City thinks of it’s citizen’s and the historic housing stock.

I do not wake up easily in the morning. I have a pained ritual which includes trying to figure out where the newspaper delivery guy threw the newspaper, and looking at my watch to see if it is late enough to have missed the much diminished crowd that walks to school each day from down the street. I always hope I have missed them so they don’t suffer the trauma of watching the barefoot half dressed lady searching for her paper.

Then I career down the hall to the kitchen and make my coffee which is another needlessly complex ritual of grinds and steam and frothing. Then I read the paper..it ain’t pretty but it works for me.

Today I knew I had to get out of here by 7 to watch the Delta come down. Driving up onto the Interstate in what amounts to a New Orleans rush hour and finally bumping down Florida Avenue I kept asking myself what the hell I was doing. It was early, it was raining and I didn’t know much about the Delta.

Some people fall in love with grand buildings and some fall in love with history. Sometimes something just grabs you and won’t let you go. On my ride up to the Delta I thought about how much I don’t know about history, and then I thought I don’t know much about my liver and I depend on that every day. So maybe you don’t have to know much about history to feel it programmed in your body like some somatic impulse. At any rate if you follow my line of reasoning going to see the Delta torn down was like a salmon swimming upstream I was pleased to find out at least 2 other people. felt compelled enough to get up and go watch the Delta come down at dawn.

When I first fell in love with it it was because of the soaring sign, and the wonderful paintings of Lester Carey at first I didn’t realize that it was on the same block as Club Desire.
Club Desire has recently been nominated by Francine Stock to the Cornerstones Project

Between the Club Desire and The Delta there isn’t much. And what there is will be coming down soon perhaps O’Lee’s is next

Then where do we get our boneless liquor?

So another chapter closes, the music at Club Desire has long been silenced and the only music left, this painting of Louis by Lester is now long gone.

There is a group trying to save Club Desire and I wish them luck.

Halfway gone.

From the outside it is a perfect rendition of the vernacular song of a Corner Store. The tension between the overhang and the house made you wonder if the awning was pulling at the house and telling it that it was time to come down, or was the house letting the awning just have a little break from the decades of work it had done providing shade.

Lionel told me that they used to have beaucoup candy in that store, but I think that candy existed in his imagination of what the store should have had, or could have had. The kind of stuff you want it to have if you are 8 years old and you live across the street.

The first time I visited the house he told me that he was hoping I would buy it and fix it and give him beaucoup candy when he came to visit me. It sounded tempting, and at the very least interesting. So with the help of some of my more intrepid and dogged research friends we found out a bit more about this house. It has been vacant for about 15 years, it was a ceramic studio and the owner had a number of other properties all in the same sorry state or worse.

One of these properties is called “Termite and Vine” a name derived from the architectural fabric of the house, that is, the only thing holding it up seemed to be the congress of termites and the canopy of vines. Here is a podcast where you can see a photo of the house and hear the saga of the 2 year fight to save that house.

I have long been interested in the idea of homesteading in New Orleans. We have a great number of unoccupied houses in fair to great shape. The homes that were vacant before Katrina stand an even slimmer chance of surviving the wrecking ball. And could be brought back with some sweat equity. It seems ironic that we are fussing about affordable housing when there are people who would work to bring back a vacant and viable house.

Well I spent some time yesterday discussing the House on New Orleans Street with the Termite and Vine residents. They were pretty sure that it was damaged beyond repair and suggested I go in and look.

So I did and here is what I discovered.

First, the owners could not spell

Second, the could not spell and had a prudish streak or I guess Rodin was not a favorite.

Third, they liked the Lord and they like hollow eyed owls.

and last, but not least I got to lay to rest the sadness that the house on New Orleans Street gave me cause I know that someone gave it up for dead a longtime ago.

Jesus told me it was all gonna be ok on my way out. The house had been approved for demolition it should be gone in a month.

Here is a snippet of an article about the fun they are having in Texas

Another worker playfully balanced on the hood of his truck, emulating a surfer. Two other workers were captured in a play fight, one pretending to swing a branch as a weapon. The other man threw a chunk of debris at a co-worker operating a front-end loader. He then playfully ran away.

There was this

and now this

I have been trying to figure out who owns this property It is an irreplaceable corner store, and I thought perhaps if the owner did not care that it was demolished they may want to sell it.

And that is where the City database becomes an incomprehensible mess. The owner information is incorrect. It seems to be owned by an individual but looking closer it seems that it may be owned by NORA

This property should be flagged and investigated.

2109 Alvar Street New Orleans, Louisiana October 18, 1939 - Spring 1940

This first appeared on an agenda in 2007. Most likely demolished by now

Cause it matters