New Orleans Master Plan - July 2009 by Neighborhoods Partnership Network

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Community Voices Orchestrating Change July 2009

Issue #2 Volume 3

Neighborhoods Partnership Network’s (NPN) mission is to improve our quality of life by engaging New Orleanians in neighborhood revitalization and civic process. 4902 Canal Street, Room 301, New Orleans, LA 70119 • Office 504-267-4672, Fax 504-940-2208 • thetrumpet@npnnola.com

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

Letter from the Executive Director My parents always told me I was their most rebellious child. I never wanted to do anything without an explanation. Why couldn’t I go to my sister’s senior prom? Why can’t I ride on the Ragin Cajun at Pontchatrain Beach? Why can’t I wear make-up to school? Why do I have to wear a dress to church? Why, why, why? They may have complained about my lack of obedience, but I think they were secretly pleased. As a child, my parents would always repeat the same old proverb. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he grows old, he should not depart from it. If my parents didn’t have the answer to one of the questions I asked, they didn’t simplify the issue or dismiss me. They didn’t say that’s just the way it is. They encouraged me to seek out an answer on my own. In doing so, they “trained” me to understand that questions have value. They empowered me to seek justification for others’ actions, and taught me to hold those justifications to high standards. Earlier in my career, I was a teacher in the public education system. As teachers -- and as parents -- we often claim, “No question is a dumb question”; we talk about valuing curiosity and inquisitiveness. But in practice, more often than not, when a child questions an adult’s directive -- “Why do I have to do my homework?” -- we shut him down. “Because I said so,” or, “because I’m the boss.” We don’t dignify their questions with any real explanation -- even though we could givemany valid reasons for encouraging them to do their schoolwork. Answering a child’s question with yet another command makes asking questions seem futile. It trains the child to accept dictums without thinking; it discourages them from becoming active and engaged citizens. Unfortunately, the relationship between citizens and their government is not always so different from that between children and dismissive teachers. Instead of dignifying questions about the system with a thoughtful response, politicians cite laws. “That’s just the way it works; this is how it’s always been.” But the fault doesn’t lie only with the government: often, if we are dissatisfied with a politician’s answers, we don’t seek out something more substantial. Instead, we fall back on surface explanations. When someone questions garbage contracts, we chalk it up to racism. Dissatisfied with the governing structure of schools? Poverty’s to blame. Perhaps unfair garbage contracts are partially due to racism. Maybe school leadership suffers in part because of inadequate funding. But this isn’t the whole story -- it can’t be. Relying solely on these simplistic “answers” only fuels division and hinders our attempts to work toward concrete understandings of problems and real solutions. Why are we so fearful of seeking meaningful answers to tough questions? We might claim its because we can’t answer them, that the questions are too complicated, that there are too many factors in play. I don’t buy it. Perhaps it’s true that we are not yet equipped to answer the questions. But when we make the effort to educate ourselves, engage in civic activity, and connect with other knowledgeable citizens, we empower ourselves to be able to answer these tough questions -- about city government, poverty, race, environmental threats -- with more depth and sincerity. And in doing so, we take the first step to arriving at a solution. With programs such as the Capacity College and publications like The Trumpet, NPN hopes to encourage you as citizens to ask questions of your city. What is more, we hope to help equip you to find the answers to those questions, complex as they may be. This is not a passive pursuit, or an easy one, but it is a crucial one if are going to continue to effect change in our neighborhoods and our city.

Timolynn Timolynn Sams Executive Director, Neighborhoods Partnership Network

July 2009

Letter from the Editor Summer internships often have the unfortunate reputation of familiarizing interns with the intricacies of the office printer rather than giving them any real job experience. When I signed on as Communications Intern at Neighborhoods Partnership Network, I was not entirely sure what to expect out of my two month stay in New Orleans. As it turns out, I walked away with newfound knowledge of not only NPN, but of the surrounding city. NPN offered me the unique lense of looking at New Orleans through its myriad community organizations. I was able to sit in on Capacity College classes, listen to neighborhood leaders discuss the issues affecting their communities, and attend a Master Plan meeting where groups brainstormed improvements to city planning. At each event, I was consistently surprised and impressed by the amount of energy dedicated to civic involvement. When we were gathering articles for this issue of The Trumpet, we focused on stories that described citizen participation in the development of New Orleans. Whether it be public school students offering suggestions for better school lunches, or young professionals gathering to discuss the various components of the Master Plan, the public’s voice can be heard in the important topics shaping the growth of the city. A component of having that voice is being updated on current events, which is why we also found it important to keep the community informed on municipal issues such as Senate Bill 75. I loved having the opportunity to edit The Trumpet and read your stories. Eight weeks is not enough to experience the many textures of New Orleans, but it has provided me with appreciation and respect for the city and especially its people. Tiffany Chen Editor-in-Chief

When I interviewed for the position of Trumpet Editor-in-Chief nearly two years ago, I had no idea that I would stay involved with the production and management of this newspaper beyond my ten-month Americorps commitment. A few months into working on the paper, I felt like I would never want to edit anything again, ever. However, when I reﬂect on the 22 months I spent with NPN, the overriding feeling is one of accomplishment. That, and amazement that we pulled it off (just kidding). A big “Thank you” is overdue to everyone, in and out of New Orleans, who submitted materials to us. Editing and printing your works was a valuable experience and it means a great deal to me that you entrusted us with them. Thanks also to the staff and board of NPN, past and present, for their continuing support of the Trumpet.Thank you to Alethia. A final thanks to our readers, who, if you haven’t submitted yet, are encouraged to do so. It takes several people working together to make a newspaper. The endeavor requires coordinating articles, photos and ideas into a cohesive whole while maintaining the highest standards of reporting and honesty. I do not doubt that those standards will be maintained in the future, and am eager to see how both our little paper and all of New Orleans will grow and change. One of the goals NPN founded The Trumpet on was recording the news and events of New Orleans as a kind of time capsule, so that people could learn more about New Orleans from its own residents and their daily efforts. To that end, I encourage you to write and record what you’re doing here. Your stories, just as much as your work in New Orleans, are a perfect legacy. Ted Hornick

I would like to commend Representative Avon Honey for putting people’s interest first. The unemployed need this money in this recession. The State Legislators have voted against Health Care that help the elderly and the poor, they voted against keeping assault weapons off the streets and crime is out the box, they did selective voting for certain retirees to get up to $120,000 pensions per month and we have retirees with 18 and 20 years credit with 20 years in retirement and over 70 years old with less than $800 a month pension and they could not find money to cover the short fall for the State Retirement pension because of the failed investments to help all retirees but they found 50 millions dollars for a chicken farm. Who are more important, people or chickens? Representative Honey, your Amendment proves two things. You are interested in people in this recession and the second thing is this proves that politicians do not read and understand everything they vote for. Thanks for trying to help the least of GOD’S PEOPLE. Ruby C. Sumler Opininos? Comments? Send your letters to the editor at thetrumpet@npnnola.com or mail to 4902 Canal St., Room 301 New Orleans, LA 70119

Find out more at NPNnola.com EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Timolynn Sams COMMUNITY PROGRAMS MANAGER Gill Benedek COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR Meghan Daniels

From the Departing Editor

Letters to the Editor

NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans.

The Trumpet

Staff

Tiffany Chen Editor-in-Chief Tiffany Chen Graphic Design Gill Benedek Meghan Daniels Laura Pryor Editorial Staff

/BOARD MEMBERS Julius Lee, Board Chair River Timbers Victor Gordon, Vice President Pontilly Neighborhood Association Patricia Jones, Board Treasurer NENA Lower 9th Ward Nikki Najiolia, Secretary Oak Park Neighborhood Association Megan Langhoff Lake Vista Neighborhood Association Benjamin Diggins, Melia Subdivision Dorian Hastings Central City Renaissance Alliance Tilman Hardy Leonidas/Pensiontown Neighborhood Association Sylvia McKenzie Rosedale Subdivision Latoya Cantrell, Board Secretary Broadmoor Improvement Association Katherine Prevost Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association Bill Waiters Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Wendy Laker Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Board

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

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Letter from the Executive Director More Letters Table of Contents New Orleans Actors Resource Center St. Claude Healing Center New Orleans Citizen Participation Project Resource Center in St. Claude Opens LSU’s Controversial Health Center Josh Charles: Buy a Song, Help Build a Home Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools’ Press Conference The Truth About Affordable Housing New Orleans Master Plan Special 17: City Planning in New Orleans 20: An Evening with the Master Plan 21: The Debate Over Senate Bill 75 22: City Charter Amendment Catch Dat Beat: Bounce Music On Stage NCV’s New Healthcare Database Ask City Hill: Code Enforcement Community Events

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Third Party Submission Issues Physical submissions on paper, CD, etc. cannot be returned unless an arrangement is made. Submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise reused in any medium. By submitting any notes, information or material, or otherwise providing any material for publication in the newspaper, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission with the consent of the owner of the material, all information you provide is true, accurate, current and complete. Non-Liability Disclaimers The Trumpet may contain facts, views, opinions, statements and recommendations of third party individuals and organizations. The Trumpet does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information in the publication and use of or reliance on such advice, opinion, statement or other information is at your own risk. Copyright Copyright 2008/2009 Neighborhoods Partnership Network. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Neighborhoods Partnership Network is expressly prohibited.

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NEIGHBORHOODS

PARTNERSHIP NETWORK

www.NPNnola.com

July 2009

Neighborhood Partnership Network

Capacity College Spring ‘09 Thank you to our civic leaders for committing their time and talent to the neighborhood and community groups of New Orleans 2009 Neighborhood Educator Fellows

Audrey Browder

Kevin Brown

Davida Finger

Tilman Hardy

Leroy Crawford

Barbara Lacen Keller

Pam Dashiell

Kysha Brown Robinson

Enrolled Neighborhoods & Groups • Bunny Friends Neighborhood Assoc. • Carrollton Hollygrove CDC • Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Assoc. • Central City Renaissance Alliance • Edgelake • Gentilly Heights East Neighborhood Assoc. • Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Assoc. • Melia Subdivision • Mid-City Neighborhood Org. • NENA • New Orleans Food and Farm Network • New Orleans Womens Artists Collective • Oak Park Civic Assoc. • Paris Oaks/Bayou Vista Neighborhood Assoc. • Providence Community Housing • Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross • Trinity Christian Community • Tunisburg Square Homeowners Civic Assoc. • Values United • Virgil Park

With Support From

Department of Sociology

If interested in Fall semester, email capacitycollege@npnnola.com

Jennifer Farwell

Valerie Robinson

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

New Orleans Actors Resource Center Takes Center Stage Shanda Quintal Sundays at The Backyard Ballroom in the Bywater, the New Orleans Actors Resource Center (NOARC) holds The Actors’ Co-Op. These are weekly meeting where actors of all skill levels get together to help each other hone their craft and develop their own business. At The Co-Op, actors work on scenes, polish monologues and stretch out in improvs to keep themselves in shape. Because an actor’s physical being is the tool with which he works, that tool must stay well-oiled and in great working condition, and working out at The Co-Op allows members the opportunity to do just that. Acting is a business. Actors are their own product and they themselves provide a specific service. This is the basis of their business, and as business people, they must know how to develop and market their own business. So during the weekly Co-Op meeting, members also learn about and discuss various aspects of the business of acting: headshots, photographers, agents, getting an agent, auditioning techniques, and the film industry and theater community in general. NOARC, “Home for New

Orleans Actors,” is dedicated to the advancement, exposure, and education of actors in the New Orleans Metropolitan area, and enhancing the good of the community through the dramatic arts. Novice as well as veteran actors benefit from joining NOARC. Novice actors learn various techniques and approaches to acting and veteran actors will benefit from continuing to hone their skills. Currently, NOARC’s programming includes The Actors’ Co-Op and The Workshop Series, which kicked off the first workshop in June, “Police Tactics and Combat Workshop,” facilitated by Detective Troy Smith, Technical Advisor for police tactics on the FOX series “K-Ville.”

New Orleans The Crescent City, Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot.

The city of good food, good music and good times, now has two new monikers to add to that list: “Hollywood South” and “Broadway South.” We have always had a thriving theater community and a cutting edge independent film scene, but these days, big budget film productions are looking to New Orleans to shoot their next big blockbuster and investors

are planning on developing Canal Street into the hotspot of the South for Broadway theater productions. With these two developments come progress in the form of economic growth and employment opportunities. New Orleans could use a lot of both. The film industry and the professional theater community both rely on highly skilled labor crews to produce their productions. In film there are Gaffers, Grips, Prop Masters, Set Designers, Camera Operators; the list goes on and on. In theater production, there are Master Carpenters, Master Electricians, Lighting Designers, and Lighting Board Operators. In addition to these jobs, and a whole host of others, most of these people have assistants, and sometimes even second assistants. There are training programs almost everywhere where people can spend anywhere from a few intensive weeks to a few grueling years developing and polishing their skills. So, in both professional theater and film productions highly skilled, and usually highly trained, people to perform these jobs. Now, with NOARC, actors have a one-stop shop where they also can develop their skills and learn how to advance their

careers. In New Orleans, there are acting schools and coaches popping up all over the place. As someone who is new to acting, how do you do find out which classes are really good for you to take? How do you know that your hard-earned money is going to be well spent? How do you know if it will help you become the actor you have always dreamed of being? You must do your research. Talk with other actors who have studied with any of the coaches here in the area. Find out what these coaches’ approaches to acting and to teaching acting are. Find out who is teaching real techniques that will help you learn how to act or hone your craft. Get your hands on as much information as you can so you can make a wellinformed decision. NOARC members are working on developing their own theater and independent film projects. Connecting with other actors will not only help you learn more about your craft, but it may also provide the vehicle that can help you advance in your career. NOARC is there to help actors do what they want to do. For more information, please visit our website at http://neworleansactors.

July 2009

October 2005. I stood atop

the neutral ground on St. Claude Avenue. An RTA bus half-covered in black cloth was stranded there, like a beached whale. Each intersection was marked by a temporary stop sign because all of the traffic lights in the city were broken. Behind me, the St. Roch Market remained. Even tattered and wind-swept, it served as a reminder that, at one time, life ﬂourished here. A month after that awful storm arrived, NOLA was broken into fragments of its former self. Our wounds were fresh; no one knew how we would heal or how long it would take. When I first heard about the New Orleans Healing Center (NOHC), I was intrigued, not only because it sounded interesting, but also because I learned that it would be located on the corner of St. Claude and St. Roch, the very place where, four years ago, the absurdity and chaos of post-K life revealed itself to me. The NOHC grew out of a salon think tank whose members met to explore creative solutions to New Orleans’ vast recovery challenges following Hurricane Katrina. The center’s mission is to provide a holistic, safe, sustainable center that heals, fulfills, and empowers the individual and the community by providing services and programs that promote physical, nutritional, emotional, cultural, social, environmental, economic, intellectual and spiritual well-being. The services, products, and programs to be provided at the NOHC will include an organic grocery store,

View from St. Roch market, 2007.

the new Wild Lotus Downtown yoga studio, a hydroponic garden, an Internet café and juice bar, alternative healing, a “street university,” retail outlets, an arts and crafts bazaar, art therapy and galleries, a community center/performance hall/theater in the round, child care, a Woman’s Infants and Children (WIC) program, an environmental office, a woman’s center, and a spiritual space. The center will be housed in the now abandoned 55,000 square foot Universal Furniture building adjacent to the Upper Ninth Ward. The St. Claude/St. Roch Corridor neighborhood was chosen as the home of the NOHC because of its geography and the culture of its people. On the lake side of St. Claude is a neighborhood that is predominantly poor, racially homogenous and severely damaged from the ﬂoodwaters following

Katrina. Riverside of St. Claude is the Bywater, Marigny, and French Quarter, neighborhoods which are racially diverse, eclectic in character and economically far healthier than the lakeside neighborhoods. The creators of the NOHC hope to create from these polarized neighborhoods one cohesive and balanced community. The NOHC, together with the planned revitalization of the St. Roch Market, has implications far beyond the immediate neighborhood. Intense development in this area, including the adjacent and vacant Colton School, will catalyze the revitalization of the entire district. If the new proposals being considered by the RTA, which call for laying street car tracks along the North Rampart Street and St. Claude Avenue corridor, are given the green light, then St Claude Ave. can become as eclectic and as

vibrant as Magazine St., which 25 years ago was in the abandoned and underutilized condition that St Claude is today. Pres Kabacoff, a well-known real estate developer in New Orleans, and his partner, Sallie Ann Glassman, a Vodou priest, who was recently featured on the cover of New Orleans Magazine, have been instrumental in the conception of the NOHC. In fact, Sallie Ann originated the idea for the NOHC and is serving as its interim director. Kabacoff owns the former Universal Furniture building and plans to renovate it to house the NOHC. Their combined strengths in finance, development, management, and spirituality are the engine driving this project. The NOHC is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2010. That’s a little more than a year from now. Until then, people can get more information and become involved with the center by visiting its website at http://www. neworleanshealingcenter.org. In the meantime, Wild Lotus Yoga, one of the NOHC partners, will be offering drop-in community classes six days a week by donation in a temporary community space on the first ﬂoor of the building at 2372 St. Claude (corner of St. Roch). These open-level classes will be guided by recent graduates of Soul School, Wild Lotus Yoga’s interdisciplinary teacher training program. For more information about these classes or the Wild Lotus Yoga studio in Uptown, call 899-0047 or visit its website at www.wildlotusyoga.com.

New Orleans Healing Center Coming to St. Claude By Marcia Wall

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

New Orleans Citizen Participation Project Executive Summary: Draft Guidelines and Standards

of the New Orleans Citizen Participation Program (CPP) is to enable citizens to effectively participate Tinhecitymission government’s priority-setting and decision-making, and to give government officials a clearly defined way to communicate with the people. CPP is a tool to establish a continuing dialog between communities, neighborhoods, and city government, taking into account the rights and needs of all communities and striving toward a consensusbased decision-making structure that benefits the city as a whole.

Since 2002, the Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee (CBNO/MAC), in concert with partners including the City Planning Commission and the Neighborhood Partnership Network, has worked to develop a model CPP for our city. In 2007, the process was reestablished to get broader feedback from residents in hopes that collectively they would improve upon the success of the original proposal. Particularly since Hurricane Katrina, city residents have expressed a renewed desire to be more engaged and involved in the decisions they care about most. For the past year a dedicated group of city residents has led an effort to design a formal citizen participation system. The process is based on input gathered from public meetings, surveys and individual conversations with community leaders and national experts.

What is a CPP?

The essence of what a CPP is and does is simple: It allows citizens to have a greater say in city government decision-making and priority setting, and it gives government officials an effective means for communicating with the people. A CPP does not replace existing aspects of government, nor does it replace existing neighborhood networks or community groups. It simply offers an additional tool for both citizens and city officials to communicate with each other and work together.

What is the mandate and scope of the CPP? In November 2008 the city charter was amended to include a new mandate for the establishment or adoption of a New Orleans Citizen Participation Program following a similar recommendation made in the final Unified New Orleans Plan Document. Implementation of the CPP will require passage of a city ordinance by the City Council followed by Mayoral approval. Once approved and funded, the CPP could address any issues facing the city.

Key Components of the New Orleans Citizen Participation Program The CPP will help to organize our public input processes to ensure clear rules of decision-making and input are followed. Residents decided upon a simple two tiered structure that builds on two types of organization: geographically defined –Neighborhood Associations and social or interest defined – Communities of Interest. Each of these bodies are governed by a system of guidelines and standards that ensures accountability between them and the people they are mandated to represent. These standards are an important protection for all people involved in the CPP to ensure that input provide through public forums is valid as a representation of a neighborhood or community of interest. The CPP standards particularly focus on supporting efforts at outreach and inclusion in neighborhood and community groups. These standards will be backed by the necessary financial and technical resources to needed for groups to live up to them.

KEEPING THE PEOPLE’S VOICES STRONG...

July 2009

Community of Interest Councils Thematic grouping of various non-profit and community based organizations devoted to the promotion of specific issue theme, socio-cultural, faith or political interest on a city-wide basis.

CPP City Hub Office This will be the administrative office for the CPP. Located within the City administration or a similar stand alone city department, it will coordinate activities between the Community and Neighborhood Councils and the City. The CPP hub will also house the city-wide Community Advisory Group [CAG]. The CAG will be made of representatives chosen from each District Neighborhood Council and the Community of Interest councils. The purpose of this CAG will be to hear grievances within the CPP system, provide annual reviews of its functions and suggest reforms to its operation.

Neighborhood Associations Independent organizations formed by people of a neighborhood for the purpose of considering and acting on issues affecting the quality of life, human development and sustainability of that Neighborhood. Once registered with the CPP system, the Association will be subject to the benefits and standards of participation. All existing neighborhood associations in New Orleans will be invited to qualify and join the CPP system. Areas without active neighborhood associations will be given the financial and technical assistance necessary to establish new associations.

District Neighborhood Councils Grouping of multiple geographically proximate neighborhoods into a regional organization based on City Planning Commission Districts that supports the participation of Neighborhood Associations and residents within a geographically defined area, and is subject to these benefits and standards.

Scope of Activities Defines the points of entry for residents into city policy, budgets and public service delivery. The Scope of Activities helps to clarify exactly what the boundaries to the program are – what can really be achieved in practice and what powers the system actually gives to resident participants. Residents in New Orleans have suggested that they would not like to see their CPP system limiting their involvement to issues of land use and zoning, with this in mind they decided to broaden the scope to include the following: • Land use/zoning • Participatory City budgeting and finance • Public service program review

Community of Interest Organizations

Independent organization formed for the purpose of considering and acting on issues affecting the quality of life, human development and sustainability of communities of interest by providing services to, organizing with or advocating the interest of people with common interests. Once registered with the CPP, Community of Interest Organizations and individuals will be invited to participate in thematic councils and be subject to the benefits and standards of participation. Inclusion of “Community of Interest” organizations is done in recognition of the fact that many of the city’s diverse populations do not Capacity Building for Civic Engagement necessarily define their communities in geographic (i.e. neighborhood-based) To ensure that all people, community groups and neighborhood associations terms. For many, the “community” most important to them is based on their are enabled to participate effectively and equitably, the CPP system supports shared identity or shared interests with others. a process for broad public Civic Education and Capacity Building. Capacity Building must address both the need for training and education of residents, public official and civil servants as well as confronting the existence of structural barriers to participation.

Implementing the CPP - A Citizen Driven Process Why Now? With citizen engagement at an all-time high in New Orleans, this is the ideal time to implement a formal CPP. The implementation process will build on the momentum generated by our recent planning processes and the expansion of knowledge across the city.

What’s Next? Final design of the CPP will be completed by the end of May 2009. Residents are now being asked to help resolve key questions surrounding the implementation and operation of the CPP, such as locating a permanent, dedicated funding source for it. We are also working to form a team who will help usher in the new system by setting up implementation demonstration projects. This team will consist membership from CBNO/MAC, ORDA, CPC, City Council and other relevant city agencies working in partnership with local neighborhood and community of interest groups. CBNO/MAC, with financial support from philanthropic sources, will provide the staff to perform the implementation work, supported by volunteer resources and other stakeholders. It is anticipated that implementation will require twelve to eighteen months.

...FOR OUR RECOVERY AND OUR FUTURE

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

St. Claude Community Welcomes Opening of New Resource Center By Jermaine Smith

From left to right: Mignhon Tourné, CEO of A Shared Initiative, Inc. & President/CEO of ASI Federal Credit Union, Jeffrey Dekro, Sr. VP of Jewish Funds for Justice, Katie Triplett, Community Development Director of A Shared Initiative, Inc., Sarah Taylor, Sr. VP of Marketing & Community Development for ASI Federal Credit Union and Executive Director of A Shared Initiative, Inc., James Ross, Management Consultant for NeighborWorks America, Clifford N. Rosenthal, President & CEO of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions

On May 5, 2009, the St. Claude community, A Shared Initiative, Inc. (ASII) and community partners celebrated the realization of a community’s dream: the Clifford N. Rosenthal Community Resource Center, which had begun as an ambitious goal in 2006. ASII is a relatively new non-profit, having received its 501©3 non-profit status in January 2006, only months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf region. That humble beginning keeps the organization grounded and connected to the community, but has never prevented ASII from creating lofty aspirations. Upon returning to New Orleans, ASII met with neighborhood associations, city council members and community leaders in an effort to determine which area in the city had the greatest immediate need for ASII’s redevelopment projects. St. Claude, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, became a leading a candidate for their work. “I am a resident of Bywater,” says Sister Clarita Bourque of Marianite Holy Cross, who serves as President of the ASII Board of Directors. “This is a wonderful New Orleans neighborhood. It contains a great variety of people and it has more artists and musicians than any area in a city filled with artists and musicians.” In September 2006, ASII received its first community center funding to begin renovation at 3401 St. Claude Ave. Despite early funding from several sources, construction of the center by means of grants and donations proved difficult in the long-term. As the national economy approached a recession, projectfunding opportunities disappeared rapidly. Originally, the center was to host not only service group space and a credit union branch, but also a lunch café and a rooftop garden. However, funding setbacks prevented some of these amenities’ construction, much to the disappointment of ASII and its community partners. Each funding rejection seemed to suggest external apathy regarding St. Claude’s recovery; would-be investors often met the community’s resiliency, which hinged on the possibility of recovery, with cynicism. Both residents and ASII grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of resources allocated to this historical and valuable element of New Orleans’ culture. Regardless, both were determined for St. Claude to remain a part of New Orleans’ future, not just its history. “This building to me,” said ASII CEO and ASI Federal Credit Union President & CEO Mignhon Tourné at

the community center grand opening, “represents three very simple things that tie us together: partnership, sharing and possibilities.” These three simple principles began with Harahan-based ASI Federal Credit Union, a certified Community Development Financial Institution, which initially created ASII in 2005 to augment the community development programs designed by the credit union. ASII was an enormous project for the credit union and experienced alterations along the way to reﬂect the ever-changing needs of the individuals and families it served. ASII grew from an extension of the credit union’s development arm to a recovery partner in the Ninth Ward, a low-income homeownership and financial education advocate, and now a community center steward. Throughout these transformations, ASII remained true to its mission of assisting the rebuilding efforts of families and communities by providing affordable homeownership opportunities and expanding access to vital community services. ASII redeveloped and then sold a blighted Ninth Ward property to the Baptist Crossroad Ministries for use as a volunteer staging area; proceeds of the sale benefited the co-development of six new homes in the Musicians’ Village. In October 2006, the city of New Orleans awarded ASII with 10 adjudicated lots for redevelopment. Still, even with numerous projects and successful financial education and homeownership programs, ASII aspired to become a long-term development partner in the Ninth Ward with a larger, more permanent undertaking. Despite delays, ASII broke ground on the community center on May 12, 2008, nearly two years after receiving the first funding to purchase and renovate the building. Now less than one year later, the community center is finally complete. It is the result of a partnership between the St. Claude community and ASII, who both share a dedication to restoring the vibrant spirit of one of New Orleans’ most culturally distinctive neighborhoods. Investment in community development measures neighborhood value and the commitment to preserving a neighborhood’s worth. Sister Clarita told the grand opening crowd “there is always great satisfaction in knowing a goal has been accomplished.” The Clifford N. Rosenthal Community Resource Center represents a goal greater than just an investment in St. Claude by its residents, ASII and community center partners: it represents a commitment to begin re-inventing St. Claude street-by-street, family-by-family and home-by-home.

July 2009

Decisions from Above John Koeferl Recently LSU announced they had the money, authority, and decision to build a major health center with the VA in lower Mid City. This would be an economic engine and breakthrough quantum leap for a worldclass medical and research industry. We could see the lines of builders and contractors waiting in the wings, ready to convert this marginal area into cash ﬂow. The concept had been endorsed by cash-starved New Orleans through its City Council before anyone realized it. So what was the problem? The proposal received immediate criticism from constituencies that had not been consulted about the deal, and who objected to both the plan and the process of decision. Many were fed up with the delay in getting a public hospital back up almost four years after Katrina. Many thought, and proved, that old art nouveau Charity could be redone for a fraction of the cost and time of a new one. Many were outraged that decision-makers laid claim to too much of the city with a suburban scheme that took down a neighborhood and its houses on spec. Some were just tired of the same old top-down money centered decisions that cut through the cherished urban fabric with crude knives and little sense or sensibility. Some folks plain didn’t like the arrogance of authority used arbitrarily. Downtown a similar scenario is taking place that hasn’t yet received much media attention. The Corps of Engineers is attempting to dig by force a MR-GO-type deeper industrial canal and new lock, for speculated growth to the Port by ignoring real trends, in spite of risk and hardship for everyone else. The $1.3 billion project shows little regard for community health, safety, or consent. Corps hearings have been just show, with widespread community opposition merely noted. The City Council is too mesmerized by the Port and big money projects to stand up for its neighborhoods or perceive the insanity that invites in more of the sea. It is our money and our government that ignores the public over Charity and over the Lock Project. We would do well to reﬂect, and remind our elected officials, that the power to govern comes only from one source--the consent of the governed.

Singer/songwriter Josh Charles has developed a new and revolutionary partnership with Amazon.com to generate donations to the Preservation Resource Center for the organization’s post-Katrina rebuilding efforts. Charles and Amazon.com will donate 100% of the revenue from downloads of his post-Katrina song; “Healing Time” to the PRC. It’s the first time that Amazon is not taking the company’s customary 30% commission, but instead allowing Josh to give the entire $.99 download to help the PRC continue its efforts to rebuild New Orleans. Charles, a musician mentored by Dr. John with a love for New Orleans, was in the process of making New Orleans his home when Katrina devastated the city. Three months after the storm, Josh returned to begin his scheduled recording with Dr. John’s blessing and members of his band. He found people displaced, heartbroken, and hungry. Troubled by images that will never leave him, he wrote “Healing Time.” “I had to do something,” says Charles. “The spirit of New Orleans is with me wherever I go. Times are still very hard down here, but together we can make a difference. For less than

for Historic Preservation has restored 200 homes, invested $4,356,000 in renovations and generated $3,000,000 in volunteer value. The total value of the restoration projects is over $7,000,000. In addition, the PRC has assisted 546 homeowners through preservation grants and counseled more than 7000 people via workshops and

piece on the endearment of the soul has weight behind it that the national media isn’t ignoring.” And Dr. John has commented, “He can really play them keys.” Josh was a performer at the 2009

Healing Time

Download a song, Help build a home in New Orleans. By Mary V. Hewes

a cup of coffee you get a song, and all of the money goes to rebuilding homes through the Preservation Resource Center. It’s a win –win.”The Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans was founded in 1974 as a non-profit organization to promote the preservation, restoration and revitalization of New Orleans’ historic architecture and neighborhoods. They have helped renovate more than 1,000 homes citywide by involving citizens in preservation projects and services that enhance living in New Orleans. The PRC provides resources and education to convey the economic, cultural and aesthetic importance of historic preservation in New Orleans and throughout the world. Just since August of 2005 when Katrina destroyed or damaged much of the city’s housing stock, the Preservation Resource Center, through its Operation Comeback and Rebuilding Together New Orleans programs and in partnership with the National Trust

Communications & Special Projects Preservation Resource Center

other events. For more information about the PRC’s hurricane recovery efforts, including the homeowner assistance program, visit www. prcno.org or call 504-581-7032. The national media has recognized his efforts. USA Today ran a story on June 15th, ABC’s Good Morning America featured the debut of “Healing Time” with Josh performing the song accompanied by the Girls and Boys Choir of Harlem at The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. CNN has produced a story that will air over this July 4th weekend. “With this type of coverage, we should be able to increase awareness of the song and reach my goal of one million downloads,” says Charles. Local media has reviewed Charles’ music as well. Offbeat Magazine says of “Healing Time”, “Josh’s

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and also performed as a headliner at WWOZ Piano Night in 2009. In July, he will be touring with Cyril Neville in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

You can check out live videos of Josh Charles on http://www.youtube.com For additional information about Josh Charles, visit http://www.joshcharlesmusic.com

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A series of monthly segments with Kids Rethink New Orleans’ Schools, or Rethink By Joshua Cella Brown stumbled out of Adrian bed just before 9:00AM and,

half asleep, he was driven to meet with 5 other New Orleans students. While most children in the city were fast asleep on this second Thursday of the summer, Brown and his 5 colleagues were determined to change the public school system as we know it. Each of the 6 early-rising students are members of Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools that woke to set up for a 10:00AM press conference where they would highlight problems with, and offer viable solutions to, public school lunches. Victoria Carter [14; Science and Math High School], describes Rethink as, “a non-profit organization that is youthbased. We are a group of kids that

wants to put our voices and other students voices into the rebuilding of our New Orleans schools.” And with that daunting, yet noble goal, the Rethinkers presented their plan to the community as well as Recovery School District (RSD) Superintendent Paul Vallas, New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, and Fannie C. Williams Elementary School Principal Kelly Batiste. The news conference was the culmination of a year’s worth of food justice work since Rethinkers identified cafeterias as one of the main problems in public schools in the summer of 2007. Isaiah Simms [14, Miller-McCoy Academy], reminded those in attendance that a good cafeteria was not very useful

Rethinker Victoria Carter kicks off the news conference.

unless it was accompanied by good food. To these students good food is not fast food or junk food, but it was tastier, fresher, healthier, and more local. But healthy food and local produce are not exactly the type of food most adults expect students to eat, let alone demand in their lunches. In fact, last year Sandra Booker, head nutritionist at the RSD, told students that in order to get schools to purchase local food, vegetables, and shrimp, the Rethinkers would have to prove that students would eat it. In response, the Rethinkers along with about 30 other students tested 18 healthy recipes. After a series of taste tests, the students narrowed the Recipes down to a top 10 that they presented at the press conference.

The final recipes included a fruit smoothie, a cucumber and tomato salad, and peanut pasta and shrimp. The Rethinkers described how each recipe was not only healthy, but made with locally grown ingredients that they purchased at local farmers markets. During the conference, community representative were invited to taste and comment on the selection of recipes provided by the Rethinkers. Representatives tried the food and wondered where it had been 30 years ago as well as predicting that the food is so good the plates would not have to be wiped clean by staff since students would do it themselves at the lunch tables. The Rethinkers recipes were inarguably healthy and tasty.

The room was filled with community members and reporters gathered to listen.

July 2009

Rethinkers Renee Smith and Jada Cooper describe the recipe tastings.

Having proven that students would eat healthy, local foods, the students continued to press the RSD for changes by outlining the success of such local, healthy gardening programs in New Orleans and give examples of success in Portland, Oregon. First, Adrian Brown [Craig Elementary School], described what Rethink’s rooftop garden taught him: “The garden is not just plants, it’s fresh foods that we need in our environment because if you cant find it at Winn-Dixie or in your neighborhood then you can get it from your garden.” Next, Lucy Tucker [Lusher Charter School], recounted the Rethinker’s experiences at the 4th Annual Farm to Cafeteria Conference held in Portland. Tucker proudly explained how honored the Rethinkers were to speak at the opening of the conference, but also

outlined Abernathy Elementary School’s success with incorporating healthy, local foods into school lunches. “It’s as if our ideas have come to life in Portland, Oregon, and it shows that this can actually happen,” Tucker said with a hint of challenge in her voice. If anything was clear from their press conference, it was clear that these students have identified a problem in the school system, proposed a solution, and proven it can be successful. Whether or not that program is implemented now seems to be in the hands of the community and the Recovery School District, but do not expect the Rethinkers to remain quiet in the meanwhile. In fact, this press conference did not just present a solution to cafeteria problems; it also followed up with

A sampling of the menu Rethinkers suggested for local public schools.

Rethink’s prior work. Vallas took the plant-pot shaped podium to describe how much impact the Rethinkers had on his decisions and outline the contractual changes made in the RSD’s food service provider contract that were in response to last year’s press conference. These changes include the elimination of sporks (that spoon-fork-plastic combination that functions as neither a spoon nor a fork) and goals to bring local food into the schools. Victoria Carter, ended the news conference by announcing that “the movie star Matt Damon gave us $10,000 over a two-year period to get our garden up and going again.” The Rethinkers need a new location for the Garden and Clubhouse because the building that housed it, the Studio at Colton, is going to be converted back into a school in the coming years. Carter launched the “Can You Match Matt?” campaign to secure funding for a new garden and meeting place (clubhouse). Both spaces are vital to the organizations goals and donations or suggestions for locations of the garden and clubhouse are gratefully accepted at therethinkers.com. By the end of the conference, the six Rethinkers were far more energized and optimistic than most any other student that had to wake up early on a summer morning. But these students are not just any other student. Its 10AM on a Thursday morning and this group of young students is starting to change this city.

CAFETERIA WINNERS Fruit Smoothie Chicken Pot Pie Zucchini Bread Cucumber and Tomato Salad 5. Sweet Potato Biscuit 6. Vegetable Strata 7. Banana Bread 8. Peanut Pasta and Shrimp 9. Cauliflower Rice 10. Beet and Strawberry Salad 1. 2. 3. 4.

Public school officials, including RSD superintendent Paul Vallas, do a taste test conducted by Rethinker Isaiah Simms.

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The Truth About Affordable Housing

GNOFHAC Works to Combat “Not in My Backyard” Attitudes in New Orleans By Hannah Adams and Jane Scott

the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) won another battle against St. Bernard Parish over a series of discriminatory R ecently, housing ordinances that have largely barred non-whites from renting in the Parish since Hurricane Katrina. Federal Judge Helen Berrigan ordered the

Parish to repeal its latest moratorium on multi-family housing, finding that it was discriminatory in both intent and impact. The moratorium also violated a previous settlement over St Bernard’s blood-relative ordinance, which stated that owners of single-family homes could only rent to their blood relatives. Officials in St. Bernard claim to be maintaining the “character” of the Parish. However, because 93% of single-family homeowners in St. Bernard are white, and because statistically African Americans rely on multi-family rental housing more than other groups, such ordinances have a discriminatory impact on African Americans.

St. Bernard’s actions to prevent the development of multi-family and rental housing are indicative of a larger regional problem- Not in My Backyard (NIMBYism) sentiment. NIMBYism prevents equal housing opportunity throughout the Greater New Orleans area. Despite the fact that Katrina impacted affordable housing more than other types of housing, NIMBYism on the part of local governments and neighborhood associations has made it very difficult, if not impossible, to replenish the affordable housing stock in the area. For example, neighborhood associations and local governments have led the way in successful opposition to affordable housing development in Jefferson Parish, the City of Kenner, the Lower Garden District, New Orleans East, and most recently, Treme/Esplanade Ridge. NIMBY sentiment tends to surface over changes to the status quo. Neighborhood residents assert that multi-family housing will cause more traffic, buildings that don’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood, increased crime, or decreased property values. Many times, however, these assertions are rooted in myths about affordable housing and stereotypes about people who rely on it that are simply not true. Here are a few myths and facts about affordable housing in our community:

MYTH • People who live in affordable housing don’t work, and anyone working full-time should be able to afford housing anyway

• Affordable housing causes crime and drug use

• Affordable housing depresses neighboring property values

FACT • Most affordable housing programs require residents to work, unless they are elderly or have a disability. Furthermore, the economy of New Orleans is based largely on the tourism industry, which pays notoriously low wages. Our culture and economy depend on service industry workers having affordable places to live. Although renters in New Orleans make an average of $14/hour, statistics from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition show that a person needs to make at least $19/hour to afford rent at a market-rate two bedroom apartment in our community. Working a

minimum wage job, someone would need to work 130 hours a week to afford that apartment! • In post-Katrina New Orleans we’ve seen just the opposite: a decrease in affordable housing stock has corresponded with a significant increase in crime. High rents may bar families from neighborhoods with good schools, jobs, transportation, childcare and grocery stores. Lack of access to these essential resources lead to crime and drug use, not well-maintained affordable housing. In fact affordable housing can help raise families out of poverty, and provide access to opportunities that prevent crime.

• Most recent studies show that affordable housing subsidized by LowIncome Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) has a positive or neutral effect on neighboring property values when built in higher income neighborhoods. Several factors may explain this trend. First, developers and property owners who receive government subsidies for low-income housing must comply with certain HUD quality standards or risk loss of funding. So, neighbors can expect high maintenance standards. Second, some multifamily developments that contain affordable units replace vacant lots, provide ground ﬂoor space for businesses and/or bring with them other amenities. We might expect that this factor will mean even more in a city with as much vacant and blighted housing as New Orleans. Finally, anyone is more likely to make a positive investment in their communities if neighborhoods offer resources and opportunities that benefit them like good schools, jobs and transportation, or a lack of environmental hazards. These resources and opportunities tend to cluster around moderate to higher income neighborhoods. The bottom line is that higher-income residents who stay put when decent, well-designed affordable housing is built nearby may reap the benefits of increased property values as well as the benefit of a richer diversity of neighbors.

GNOFHAC hopes to work with neighborhood associations and concerned residents to combat NIMBY attitudes while protecting and encouraging neighborhood investment. We believe that information is a powerful tool. For more myths and facts about affordable housing or to find out what you can do to get involved, visit www.gnofairhousing.org or call (504) 596-2100.

July 2009

Master Plan

A History of City Planning in New Orleans Public Input: An Evening with the Master Plan The Debate Over Senate Bill 75

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Right now, New Orleanians are reviewing our draft Master Plan with critical eyes. Pressing debates about the 30-year Master Plan are occuring throughout the city. In the following pages, NPN offers three different articles that delve deeper into the Master Plan. In the first, Dorian Hastings from the Central City neighborhood writes about New Orleans’ rich, complex history of planning. As we chart our city’s future, it behooves us to look back at past generations’ successes and challenges. Inside the next two articles, we look at the ways in which citizens are responding to the Master Plan. Recapping a spirited discussion between Goody Clancy and young professionals at Broadmoor’s Moishe House, we bring you varying perspectives on the controversial Senate Bill 75. Regardless of the final content of the Master Plan, we hope that these articles illustrate the importance of advocating for the interests of your greater neighborhood and community. The Neighborhoods Partnership Network wants to hear your thoughts, challenges, and suggestions about the New Orleans Master Plan as the process continues in the coming weeks and months. Get Involved: • Have Goody Clancy & Associates meet with your community residents if they have not done so. Contact Goody Clancy at: nolamasterplan@goodyclancy.com ;david.dixon@ goodyclancy.com or call at 617.262.2760 (main) • Review the Land Use Plans for your community. Land Use Plans will be used to create the zoning for your neighborhood in the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. Make sure to review your areas Land Use Plans. It can be downloaded at http://www.nolamasterplan.org/documentsandrresources.asp • Stay tuned for the New Orleans Citizens’ Guide to the Master Plan • Come to NPN and review the first Draft of the Master Plan: 4902 Canal Street, Room 301 New Orleans, LA 70119 504-940-2207

July 2009

City Planning in New Orleans, 1718-2009 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29 None us of will forget the stone in the pit of the stomach, the weight on the chest as we watched our city drown. I was in a shelter in Tallulah, Louisiana, and saw the face of the woman sitting next to me crumble at the footage of water lapping at the second floor of the St. Bernard sheriff’s complex. “My house is next to that,” she whispered and looked for her two toddlers. Then the return. I came back in that first week of October 2005. Our house was relatively unscathed, but I came in on Hwy 11 through Slidell, and mile after stinking mile of New Orleans East. Most of the city’s 180 square miles—an area 7 times larger than Manhattan—had been underwater for weeks, freed by the valiant efforts of city workers, especially the Sewerage and Water Board. A heavy brown stain lay over the city for months. Over the next 6 months, we experienced terrifying violent weather—never a gentle rain, but apocalyptic thunder and tornadic winds. The streets were virtually empty, more armed guards than citizens. At night there were no lights—anywhere. No streetlights, no traffic lights, no porch lights or city lights. Slowly, people began to return, but no birds, no children. It was like sitting at the bedside of a gravely ill beloved. Slowly neighborhoods began to stir. The bones of the city began to knit back together. The recovery has been long, slow, painful, difficult. There are two silver linings to this sad picture, however. First are the thousands of volunteers who have flooded into the city, opening their hands and hearts to us in hundreds of different ways. The second is the strength we have found in our neighbors. We have come back from the brink. We have the opportunity to do more than rebuild a city. We have an historic opportunity to rebuild our civic infrastructure, which was broken before Katrina and in many respects compounded the disaster. Over the centuries, New Orleanians have acted to create a beautiful, vibrant city. We must do it again, together.

By Dorian Hastings

factors have always driven the T wo development of New Orleans: its

position as a port on one of the planet’s major waterways, the Mississippi River; and its geography—at sea level and surrounded by swamp and marshland, what geographer Peirce Lewis calls “the inevitable city on an impossible site.” A third factor, race, has permeated city development in myriad subtle and not so subtle ways. In the early 20th century, when other Southern cities were segregating by race, development in New Orleans was determined more by limits of the drainage system. While other factors, topography in particular, affected the city’s segregation patterns, what sets the city apart from Atlanta, Houston, Memphis, Birmingham, or Dallas is its unique culture and history of race relations. Complaints about New Orleans’s problems are long and legendary, ranging from corruption and potholes to bad streets and dilapidated housing. But the city has also long been known by those, black and white, who have lived here and loved it as a haven of liberality, generosity, and easy-going spirit. Development has generally been driven by economic and political factors rather than by a comprehensive vision, and can be broken down into four phases: Colonial outpost (17181803); expansion as an American city (1803-1899); building the modern city (1900-2005); and Hurricane Katrina and beyond. Through each phase, the city developed and grew in response to the great events of the age. With the coming of the railroads, western expansion, and the competition of cities such as Chicago, San Francisco,

and Houston, however, New Orleans steadily lost ground. In 1840, New Orleans was the 3rd largest city in the U.S. Though it grew steadily, increasing its population by nearly 300% by 1900, it had fallen to 12th, behind St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. By 1960, at its peak, it had fallen behind Houston and Dallas. Now, in addition to falling behind economically and in population (in 2000, New Orleans ranked 31st), its existence is threatened by diminishing coastline and inadequate levee protection. The city has long needed a master plan for proactive economic development that would provide efficiency, predictability, and continuity in order to sustain itself. More than ever, citizens need to come together to preserve our city, our culture, and our way of life with a comprehensive vision for the future. With its rich diversity and complex social and civic structures, New Orleans has never easily come together in common cause. But there are notable successes in the past that mark the way for the future.

The city was established as an outpost of the French Empire, guarding the major trade route that connected the Canadian fur and Caribbean sugar trades to European markets. The site had been considered for decades by the French Canadian brothers, Iberville and Bienville, but 1718 marked the year Bienville commissioned engineers to lay out the town. According to one report, there were only four houses built by

1719, when a terrible hurricane wiped out the settlement. French engineer Adrien de Pauger created the first city plan, illustrated by a map dated 1724, and labored to lay out the French Quarter as we know it today. Engineers then as now struggled with vested commercial interests, the distaste of citizens for new directions, and inefficient or insufficiently powerful local officials—not to mention hurricanes and the inhospitable climate. De Pauger complained, “The engineering profession has been so neglected since the founding of the Company of the Indies in this country, that an infantry captain who requested to be employed as such in the Colony was thought to be some sort of madman.” De Pauger was schooled in the design of French and Spanish military camps of the 17th and 18th century,

codified by King Philip II of Spain in the governing handbook for the New World, The Law of the Indies. While the design of villages were usually established by cows, that is to say, twisty paths that followed the terrain, military towns were laid out in grids, usually on a central square, with a church ﬂanked by buildings for military, civil, and spiritual governance, and a parade ground for practicing military maneuvers— such as Jackson Square, with its cathedral, Cabildo and Presbytere. A grid provided maximum ease of movement, visibility, and defensibility. Well throughout the colonial period, whether French and later Spanish, New Orleans was a military camp with one purpose— keep the trade lines open. While the design of the French Quarter is not unique, the fact that (Continues next page)

Plan of the city and suburbs of New Orleans: 1815.

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official Spanish position was that freedom was the natural condition of all human beings and offered enslaved peoples the option of eventually purchasing themselves and their families from their owners. (In fact, one of the main points of J.W. Hill: “New Orleans From the Lower Cotton Press. 1852.” revolt against Spain by the French were the it still exists nearly intact is quite more liberal Spanish laws governing remarkable, and is due to citizens led slaves.) These policies created a large by, among others, William Borah, population of free people of color, who rallied together to save it from who amassed wealth, were educated becoming a Robert Moses expressway in Europe, and created a significant in the 1960s. As the city’s importance culture that exists in New Orleans as a port and agricultural dynamo today. has diminished, the French Quarter Often interposed between free and has become a powerful economic slave populations, as in other colonized driver, and a model for new urban countries throughout world history, design. In the end, however, Moses this unique population would become moved the expressway to Claiborne a thorn in the side of Anglo-American Avenue, effectively wiping out the African-American businesses and homes—and oak trees. This is still an open wound in the black community today and a major source of mistrust of “progress” and “planning.”. Because the colony produced no wealth in and of itself and because it was situated at the borders of the French, Spanish and British empires, it was neglected throughout the colonial era. Everyone wanted to possess it in theory, but no one wanted to provide it with the attention it needed to thrive. With the seats of empire thousands of dangerous miles away, day-to-day governance devolved to those who were on the ground and had the means, muscle, and will to satisfy their own needs. One notable exception was the suppression of a revolt of French leadership against transfer to Spain. Thomy Lafon. In October 1768, French inhabitants governance when Louisiana joined forced the expulsion of Spanish the United States. While the power of governor Don Antonio de Ulloa. the free people of color was not overt, This goaded the Spanish Crown to their wealth, family connections (often send in its naturalized commander, to leading white families), and other Irishman Alexander O’Reilly, who factors such as education mitigated quickly rounded up and executed the the effects of racism in subtle but ringleaders. (Why an Irishman? The telling ways. For example, two free Irish, rebelling against the English, men of color, Arnold Bertonneau and found common cause with Spain— Jean Baptiste Roudanez, met with the enemy of my enemy is my friend.) Abraham Lincoln in March 1864 to Though six of the rebels were executed, press for the black vote, and made creole planters instituted a pattern of enough of an impression on him that protest that would continue through he suggested opening the Louisiana the Civil War and Reconstruction. state constitutional convention to The rebels who survived, moreover, African Americans. It was certainly established a more successful if this element that ruled Louisiana less ﬂashy tradition of buying into during Reconstruction and, in New city government: Many lower-level Orleans, presided over the only soldiers took commissions in the desegregated public school system in Spanish army, and changed their the South until the 1960s. names to Pedro, Carlos, and Juan. The military hamlet grew very slowly Another Spanish legacy was the over its first 75 years into a small manumission of enslaved Africans. town. By 1791, the total population Unlike in the British colonies, the of 5,037 included 2,386 whites, 1,789

slaves, and 862 free people of color. There was little planning beyond De Pauger’s design. The original street grid of the military camp was generally extended, mostly up or down river; expansion toward the lake was greatly hampered by thick cypress swamps and marshland—the “trembling prairies,” as they were poetically called by the French. Because the terrain was so low, every city administration since Bienville has wrestled with drainage and passable streets. With the transfer to the Americans in 1803, the Louisiana territory and its capital was freed from the leaden economic policies of the Spanish Crown, which controlled and heavily taxed all trade. The port really began to bustle and Americans—and every other conceivable nationality— poured in. In 1806, French landscape architect and engineer Barthelemy Lafon was commissioned to create an extension of the old quarter of the city, which today is the lower Garden District and Central City, from the river to Rampart, ending at Felicity. This quite beautiful design, one of the great successes of urban design, created both Coliseum Square and the Dryades Market (now the intersection of Oretha Castle Haley and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards). Lafon’s son, Thomy Lafon, and two other children were born from his lifelong union with free woman of color Modeste Foucher. Eventually Thomy inherited the property Barthelemy received from the Spanish governor prior to the Louisiana Purchase, including much of what is today the Central Business District. Not coincidently, Thomy (who never married) lived into his 80s and donated much of his wealth to establish an old folks home for black and white elderly, and a school for black youth. Native son George Washington Cable, writing a précis of the city’s social and economic history for the U.S. Census Report on the Social Statistics of Cities in 1881, commented on the commercial, rather than manufacturing or even social, function of the city in the first half of the nineteenth century. As Cable describes it, all the city’s energy and ingenuity focused on “the mere marketing of crops” rather than on “the removal of obstacles and the placing of their city in an advantageous light before the intelligent world.”

Descriptions of the period lead one to believe it was little more than a cash cow, with much money to be made in cotton, sugar, and the domestic slave market. By 1836, the city was so politically divided by fights over access to the riverfront, rail connections, and other economic factors that it broke apart into three municipalities that did not reunite until 1850. Though it had streetcars and gaslights, it still did not have a water and sewerage system. In the worst weather, punt or rowboat provided the only transportation. Fresh water, sanitary facilities, streets, even port facilities on which the city’s economic life depended—all were left to be patched together as crises demanded. Also visited by periodic yellow fever epidemics, it was a miserable place to live. Still, the population grew— by more than 120 percent between 1830 and 1840—all squeezed into the “sliver by the river.” Population pressures in the 1850s caused state and city officials to look to expansion to Lake Pontchartrain, but primitive drainage machines could not handle the volume needed to drain the swamps. In 1858, P. G. T. Beauregard was elected chief engineer of the city’s First Drainage District (which encompassed currentday Lakeview), though little was accomplished, apparently due to lack of funds. Any advances were halted by the advent of the Civil War. In January 1861, Louisiana seceded from the Union, though the movement was short-lived. By May of the following year, General Benjamin Butler and his troops occupied the city. Under Union occupation, public works projects continued, including clearing drainage ditches and canals (efforts often sabotaged by Confederate sympathizers), improving streets, and

Major General Benjamin Butler.

July 2009

cleaning decades of accumulated offal from behind the public markets. Drainage efforts continued through the 1880s and in 1893, the state commissioned a $17,500 study—to little avail. Progress was hindered by continual scandals: In 1894, 10 councilmen and the city engineer were indicted on a variety of charges ranging from perjury to extortion. But from these ashes rose the Sewerage and Water Board, which could finally begin to provide the “trinity of civic salvation”: drainage, sewerage, and fresh water supply. The water treatment plant and pumping station was opened at its current location on S. Claiborne Avenue in 1907. Lines were slowly extended up and down river to the parish boundaries. Not until 1915, when A. Baldwin Wood perfected his massive pumps that could move 47,000 cubic feet of water and debris per second, could the city begin to gain the upper hand in developing the marshes between Claiborne and the lake. Like other American cities, by the early 20th century, New Orleans began to move from a system of distributive policy making (in short, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours) to proactive urban planning that could support complex economic development and serve an interdependent citizenry with better coordination of resources. These early years saw creation of the Sewerage and Water Board, the Levee Board, the Dock Board, and the Public Belt Railroad.

As early as 1916, Charles Allen Favrot, a prominent architect and scion of one of the city’s oldest white creole families, proposed to the New Orleans Association of Commerce creation of a city planning

Central Power Station, 1904.

commission. Acknowledging the successful creation of modern infrastructure moved goods between the river and railroads, he emphasized “the necessity of coordinating them and linking them to the other branches of City Planning” that would be in keeping “with the development of a great city.” The role that planning commissions played in residential segregation, especially in the South, is well documented; but that role in New Orleans is not as clear cut as in Atlanta and other cities of the New South. Though by the mid-1920s, some homeowners and realtors in New Orleans raised loud and persistent calls for racial segregation, and pressures were certainly brought to bear on what became the City Planning and Zoning Commission (CPZC), the commission never offered any encouragement to proponents of segregation. In fact, as chair of the Association of Commerce’s race relations committee, Charles Favrot often seemed to act in order to mitigate hostility and to seek to leave openings for black advancement and, ultimately, racial integration. Favrot negotiated a minefield of potential resistance, from realtors and developers, staunch racists, homeowners concerned about property values, the city government itself, and the myriad factions that so often derailed the city’s progress in times past. The CPZC also exhibited differences from other planning bodies of this era, north or south, in its apparent commitment to democracy and civic dialogue. The planning commissions of Chicago, St. Louis, and Atlanta expended little effort to disseminate information and educate the general public on planning and its effects prior to presenting a finished ordinance to city government. By contrast, while

the CPZC had devised a zoning plan based on land uses at the current time, it conducted three separate series of public meetings — in February 1924, in November 1927 through January 1928, and finally in September 1928 through January 1929, each reﬂecting changes discerned from previous input. These were widely advertised in the newspaper, accompanied by large maps for each district. And they were well and vociferously attended, as revealed in over a thousand pages of testimony and discussion, housed in the City Archives of the New Orleans Public Library. Contributing to the more liberal stance on race relations was the presence of a strong black civic culture. And not just the black creoles, generally Catholic, who had exhibited their independence from the colonial era. Now, Protestant African Americans, often the descendants of enslaved Africans, also began to form civic associations. A move by the Louisiana legislature in 1924 to segregate the city by a zoning law was met with a united front. The statute stated that “it shall be unlawful for any white person to hereafter establish a home residence on any property located in a negro community except on the written consent of a majority of the negroes inhabiting said community” and vice versa. Response in the black community was swift. In 1915, New Orleans was the home of one of the earliest chapters of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1910). It was also home to a large chapter of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association). Even so, Dr. George W.

Louisiana Club for Segregation, notice of meeting, 1924.

Lucas, who was the president of the NAACP chapter at the time, noted that for the first time (in his knowledge), the downtown black Creoles worked in concert with the black Protestants. He also warned in his closing address as he retired from his position, “We may as well stop fooling ourselves; if we are ever to enjoy full citizenship as a race, we will have to unite our forces and fight for it. There is no white man on earth, going to face the cannon of criticism and fight alone for our freedom. There are numbers who will help if they see we are earnest about our own condition.” Through a united front, the legislation went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and was defeated in 1927. Meanwhile, Favrot was fighting (Continues next page)

Map showing places & dates of the public hearings for the comprehensive zoning ordinance.

20 battles of his own to get legislation passed that would create a planning commission and a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Those who opposed the effort ranged from politicians who would lose the power to grant variances; to developers and homeowners who did not want to be subject to regulation; to those who favored the exclusively racial zoning statute. The City Zoning and Planning Commission (CPZC) operated primarily on money Favrot himself fronted, with some funding occasionally coming from the Association of Commerce. It was not fully funded and able to hire planner Harland Bartholomew until 1926. The CPZC held over fifty community meetings between 1927 and 1929. Maps were published in the Times-Picayune, dividing the city into districts. Bartholomew and his team of engineers presented their plan to the city council, which adopted it June 6, 1929. Though it was derailed by market collapse and the Great Depression to some degree, it continues to be the plan the city operates under today. Favrot’s fully realized “good city” may have been sidetracked, but it was not derailed. Given the outcome of his highly democratic process, Favrot could at least be satisfied that New Orleanians got what they asked for.

Since Katrina struck and the levees failed in August 2005, the city once again has been convulsed by city planning. Perhaps nowhere on earth has there been so much planning by so many. From Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back Committee, to the City Council’s Lambert-Danzy team, to the Unified New Orleans Plan, to individual neighborhood plans, and now through the City’s Master Plan and new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, thousands of citizens have participated in reviewing the city’s physical, cultural, social, economic and even spiritual situation. But just as pregnancy is only the opening act of a life-long relationship, we must now prepare for implementation of all our planning. In order to do that, we need the transparency and predictability of a citywide master plan. But above all, we need to recognize what an opportunity we have to secure our civic infrastructure and civic culture—the shared recognition of our commonality and our fragility in this city we love. Unlike most places, we have all in one great upheaval been cast out. If we are here, it is because we have made a commitment to return, to rebuild better than ever. Let us hold fast to that vision in the crucial months ahead.

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

An Evening with the Master Plan By Gill Benedek On June 18th, a group of young professionals gathered at the Moishe House, a Broadmoor home and space that offers events to enrich the local Jewish and non-Jewish New Orleans community, to review the New Orleans Master Plan. The Moishe House invited planners David Dixon and Raphael Rabalais from GoodyClancy & Associates to facilitate the Master Plan review session. Earlier this year, New Orleans voted on a Charter Amendment that would give the Master Plan the “force-of-law” - thus making it a legally binding document that will greatly inﬂuence zoning and policy decisions for the next twenty years. A Master Plan is a document that articulates through policy recommendations, maps and other data an overall vision for a city’s future development. The master plan is used to coordinate the preparation of more detailed plans or may be a collection of other plans. Currently weighing in at over 500 pages, the Master Plan is packed with data, historical analysis, land use maps and sweeping policy suggestions. The evening offered an opportunity for in-depth discussion of the current Master Plan draft. Out of the approximately 40 people in attendance, only a handful of the evening’s participants were raised in New Orleans. While this bolstered Goody Clancy’s hope and belief that the 2335 age demographic will migrate to New Orleans, it also highlighted the existing divisions among New Orleans’ Generation Y residents. After a 40 minute overview of the Master Plan, the participants broke out into 3 groups to discuss these areas of greatest common interest: land use, economic development and housing. Every table engaged in a lively discussion of the issues and were tasked with identifying the Master Plan policies they supported, challenging the Master Plan’s assumptions and suggesting new strategies. As one participant that evening noted, “The master plan meeting was an incredible opportunity to meet directly with David Dixon and Raphael Rabalais who have worked on the master plan as well as other planning efforts in New Orleans.”

The following is a summary of points concluded by the breakout groups:

Land Use

Housing

The land use maps, ultimately one of the most important elements due to its inﬂuence on zoning, did not reﬂect the forwardthinking, bold revitalization suggestions discussed in other chapters. By suggesting more of the same, the land use maps only re-enforce a “status quo”for development rather than leading the coordinated, innovative and sustainable urban growth that the Master Plan recommends. •

Being such a large issue, this group spent a good deal of time in detailed conversation with David Dixon about housing policy in New Orleans. Common points that were echoed by the participants included strategic suggestions such as: • New city agency positions to interact as liaisons to neighborhoods. • Increase funding to important housing departments like NORA. • Raising city salaries to attract talented people to work in city hall.

Economic Development Participants in the Economic Development acknowledged the interdisciplinary nature of improving New Orleans’ economy. Increasing investment in New Orleans’ public schools and university infrastructure was also acknowledged as a primary drive for a establishing a strong economic base for any city. Companies seek city’s that have reliable public education systems and a highly trained workforce . Participants felt that not enough funding serves alternative or vocational programs.

July 2009

Note: NPN contacted Senator Ed Murray, author of SB-75, but his office did not provide a response.

On June 24th the Louisiana State House of Representatives failed to pass SB75 by Senator Ed Murray. This bill would have given the citizens of New Orleans the right to vote on the Master Plan after it is finally written, adopted, and approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council. I strongly supported SB75 and the right of our citizens to vote on our new Master Plan. Unfortunately, we missed another opportunity to support real and meaningful transparency and democracy in city government. The future, and yet unwritten, Master Plan will determine the future growth and development of our neighborhoods and our city. Now the plan has the “Force of Law” of our Home Rule Charter. Cynthia Willard-Lewis This was done by a vote of the people in the election of November 2008 on an amendment to our Home Rule Charter. But the November vote was not a vote on the Master Plan. No Master Plan Councilmember existed then, or now. And other documents essential to the planning process are still unwritten. District E They are the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) and the city ordinance which will define and require citizen input into the planning process. In November of 2008 we voted blindly and without the benefit of transparency. Yet contrary to the arguments of the opponents of SB75, the bill would not have done anything to undo, undermine, or contradict the results of the November vote or any provisions of our Home Rule Charter. These were part of a scare tactic which has no basis in the facts of the law. The truth is that SB75 was in keeping with the principle of transparency and the intent and spirit of the Home Rule Charter which requires voter approval on all substantive issues affecting our city. SB75 would have empowered the people of New Orleans to determine our own future. But apparently those who opposed and killed SB75 didn’t trust the wisdom or judgment of the people of our city. I trust that the citizens of New Orleans and I will continue to support the right of our citizens to vote. That’s why I supported SB75.

YES

S EN ATE B IL L

NO James Perry 2010 Mayoral Candidate

Many people in New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief when Senator Ed Murray’s special interestbacked effort to kill the city’s master plan died in the Louisiana House of Representatives. His proposal, Senate Bill 75, would have required a citywide referendum for both adoption, and any subsequent changes to the master plan. With municipal elections just around the corner, the process itself, was perhaps a teachable moment for people of New Orleans. Successful cities across the United States rely on master plans. They are land use and investment frameworks that guide development and growth in communities. A solid master plan would help to orchestrate successful development in New Orleans’ recovery. As a legislator, Murray had the power to educate residents about the benefits of a master plan. However, instead, of providing leadership on a difficult issue, he made a political calculation. Following the status quo has prevented our leadership from making the tough decisions that would have helped our city make progress on any number of fronts. In this case, without a coherent plan where all citizens and developers have to follow the same rules, the result, confusion and mismanagement rein. The miscalculation regarding SB 75 is evidenced by the fact that no American City has ever used a citywide referendum to adopt or update its master plan. Instead, cities across the nation have relied on electoral representation and/or appointed planning commissions to approve master plans. This process has afforded successful cities a complex but effective balance of values and policies that ultimately make up a city’s master plan and guide growth and development. The bottom line is simple. New Orleans needs a strong, community driven master plan ﬂexible enough to adapt to investment patterns. It is essential to spur development in investment-deprived communities. Neighborhoods that need the most reinvestment would benefit the most from a master plan. Ironically, communities like New Orleans East that struggle with vast tracts of poorly built affordable housing are doing so because of a lack of the very master plan Murray and the old guard worked so hard to stop. With a master plan in place, it will be far more difficult, if not impossible, to fast-track cheaply built multi-family housing through the council. I applaud those involved in the defeat of Senate Bill 75 and the rejection of the old political status quo. For too long, we have allowed progress to be derailed by politics-as-usual. Time and again our fears have been exploited as a tool to consolidate power and defeat efforts that would have bettered our City. From the effort to consolidate New Orleans’ assessors, to the establishment of the office of Inspector General, and on to the push for desperately needed criminal justice reforms – attempts to move forward on efforts essential to New Orleans’ success have devolved into divisive and polarizing debates. This failure comes down to leadership. New Orleans needs a new vision committed to progress. No more roadblocks. No more detours. No more ignoring the people of New Orleans. The public has spoken and approved the master plan process. New Orleans’ duly elected representatives have twice reaffirmed the master plan vote. It is time that we put progress above politics once and for all.

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

The Powers That Be:

Understanding the New Orleans Master Plan’s Power and Purpose The New Orleans Master Plan is no small task. Questions about the plan abound. What does it do? How is it created? Who is responsible for drafting and implementing it? In order to participate effectively in this process, it is important to understand where the Master Plan derives its power and purpose. The City Charter Amendment, narrowly passed by New Orleans voters in November 2008 by a margin of 52% to 48%, “specifies the type of city master plan that the City Planning Commission must create, the plan’s legal relationship to the zoning ordinance and to the city’s capital improvement plan, and creation of a neighborhood participation system for land use decision making.” The following two pages highlight the modified sections of the city charter. After reading the excerpt, spend extra time reviewing the draft Master Plan land use maps. These maps will strongly influence the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, which will affect all aspects of land use, such as commercial development, building heights, and residential density. Contact the City Planning Commission if there are terms or concepts that are unclear. It is their job to assist you. NPN is interested in your thoughts on the Master Planning process and all issues related to New Orleans. Don’t forget to submit your stories to The Trumpet (thetrumpet@npnnola.com) and/or post your group’s opinions on your npnnola.com profile.

Section 5-402. Functions The City Planning Commission must prepare, adopt, amend, and recommend to the Council a twenty year Master Plan for the physical development of the City. The Master Plan at a minimum must include: •

A statement of development goals, objectives, and policies for the physical growth and development of the City,

•

Maps and a text setting forth principles, standards, and proposals

•

Six interrelated elements providing overall guidance for city policy and priorities: > Vision, Goals, and Policy > Land Use, including issues and policies and a Future Land Use Map with allowable uses and densities > Transportation > Housing > Community Facilities and Infrastructure > Historic Preservation

The City Planning Commission will prepare and recommend to the Council plats, the Official Map, and the zoning ordinance that are consistent with the Master Plan. •

The zoning ordinance will have as one of its purposes the implementation of the

•

Master Plan. The zoning ordinance and map may be amended by the City Council as long as amendments are consistent with the Master Plan.

•

The text, diagrams and maps in the Land Use Element of the Master Plan that address the location and extent of future land uses, and the zoning ordinance that implements those provisions, may also address urban form and design. They may differentiate neighborhoods, districts, and corridors, provide for a mixture of land uses and building types within each, and provide specific measures for regulating relationships between buildings, and between buildings and outdoor public areas, including streets, sidewalks, and other right of ways.

The City Planning Commission will prepare the capital improvement plan and assist the Chief Administrative Officer in the preparation of the annual capital budget. The capital improvement plan and the capital budget shall be consistent with the Master Plan.

Section 5-404. Master Plan Public participation in preparation of the Master Plan will include at a minimum: •

One public meeting for each planning district or other designated neighborhood planning unit

•

One public hearing to solicit the opinions of citizens from throughout the community

•

Affirmative steps to involve neighborhoods in master planning activities and comply with the requirements of any neighborhood participation program that the City, pursuant to Section 5-411, shall adopt by ordinance.

•

Each public hearing or meeting shall be duly advertised in a newspaper of general circulation at least fifteen (15) but not more than (45) forty-five days in advance.

Adoption of the plan •

The Commission adopts the plan by resolution

•

After adoption, the Commission sends the plan to the City Council for adoption by ordinance.

•

Within 90 days, the Council must, adopt, reject or propose modification in the plan

July 2009 •

If the plan is rejected or modifications proposed, the plan is referred back to the Commission for a public hearing and comment.

•

Within 60 days, the Commission must provide a recommendation to the Council on the rejection or modification.

•

Within 45 days, the Council will adopt the plan with or without modification.

Legal effects of the Master Plan •

New and significantly altered public projects and public utilities must conform to the adopted Master plan.

•

The Land Use Element must include a table specifying the relationship between the land use designations on the Future Land Use Map and zoning classifications

•

The Zoning Ordinance will also include this table and will be amended or updated to accommodate amendments or revisions to the zoning ordinance or the Land Use element of the Master Plan.

•

All land development regulations and amendments and all land use actions must be consistent with the Master Plan. Land use actions include zoning; subdivision plans; site plans; planned unit developments or similar site-specific plans; conditional uses; variances; or local government capital improvements, land or facility acquisition, including transportation facilities.

Land use action consistency with the Master Plan means •

The land use action furthers or does not interfere with goals, policies, and guidelines in the Land Use Element of the Master Plan

•

Is compatible with proposed future land uses, densities and intensities designated in the Land Use Element

Mandatory review of the Master Plan by the Commission •

At least once every five years but not more than once a year

•

Any time in response to disaster or declared emergency

•

Public hearings to determine if the plan needs amendments or comprehensive revision

•

If amendments or comprehensive revision are required, the Commission will go through the preparation, public meeting, and adoption process.

Adoption by the City Council •

Adoption of amendments or a comprehensive revision to take place with the same procedures as for initial adoption of the Master Plan.

Resources for master planning •

The City shall make adequate appropriations to the Commission to implement the mandate to prepare and adopt the master plan.

Section 5-405. Planned Street Lines and the Ofﬁcial Map •

Adoption and amendment of plats and the Official Map must be consistent with the Master Plan.

Section 5-406. Zoning Ordinance •

All zoning ordinances and amendments must be consistent with the Master Plan.

•

When the Commission amends the Master Plan, it will review the zoning ordinance for potential revision and amendment, with one or more public hearings.

Section 5-409. Orientation and Continuous Education Training for Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustments Members •

Six hours of training on duties and responsibilities for Commission and Board members within one year of taking office.

•

Six hours of training annually for Commission and Board members on topics such as land use, land use planning, land use law, zoning, transportation, community facilities, historic preservation, ethics, public utilities, parliamentary procedure, public hearing procedure, economic development, housing, public buildings, land subdivision, and powers and duties of the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustments.

Section 5-411. Neighborhood Participation •

Establishment of a system for organized and effective neighborhood participation in land use decisions and other issues that affect quality of life.

•

Timely notification to a neighborhood of any proposed Land Use Action affecting the neighborhood

•

Meaningful neighborhood review of and comment on such proposals

•

Meaningful neighborhood participation in the formulation of the Master Plan or Master Plan amendment

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

Catch Dat Beat

the opening weekend, the crowd rose cheering to their feet as stars including Ms. Tee, Gotti Boy Chris and Katey Red took over the stage. Lucky wants Catch Dat Beat to A New Play Celebrates Bounce Music help popularize bounce and New and New Orleans’ Culture Orleans. He structured the play around a block party to show that New Orleans Jordan Flaherty celebrations are really about Editor of Left Turn Magazine building community and supporting your neighbors. Catch Dat Beat, a unique, only-in“Growing up in less New-Orleans theatrical event, played fortunate neighborhoods, for the first weekends in April and your parents would have card June last month at Ashe Cultural Arts games, or suppers,” explains Center. It sold out its several hundred Lucky. “Say Miss Carol seats every night and will re-open in across the street’s light bill June at a bigger venue, a 900-plus seat was due. Miss Carol would auditorium at Walter L. Cohen High have a supper. Everyone in School. The play, directed by music the neighborhood would producer Lucky Johnson, features buy a plate to help her pay several local Hip-Hop performers and the light bill.” In other has left crowds screaming for more. words, continued Lucky, the An up-and-coming rapper named Big block party comes from this Big Freedia, A Gay Rapper who is one of the city’s Freedia steals the show in the lead role. rising stars, leaves the crowd screaming for more. tradition, and is ultimately Tall and self-assured, Freedia is a about “how a people are able some of New Orleans’ most popular powerful performer and brings an to come together in a time of need.” musicians. undeniable energy to the play. During Lucky has produced many of rehearsals, says Lucky, “when Freedia New Orleans bounce hits, and sees comes in, the cast lights up, and Spreading New Orleans producing as a way to support everyone does their best.” Freedia is Culture positive work. “I can’t sign a hip hop best known as part of a community Catch Dat Beat attempts to gangster rapper,” he says. “I don’t of gay rappers self-identified as sissy spread the love of bounce, and it advocate killing and drugs or slap bounce artists. She rejects that label, proves infectious. The play advertises that bitch. I’m not into that. I’m not saying, “I’m a gay rapper, don’t get that it has no profanity or “obscene gonna put my money behind it. If me wrong. But there’s no such thing as body gestures,” (a challenge, when you come to me with something that separating it into straight bounce and capturing the bounce experience, says ‘get on the dance ﬂoor and have sissy bounce. It’s all bounce music.” which often involves a lot of both). a good time,’ then I can support it.” Bounce is the name given to the style He is excited about all of the play’s Lucky Johnson is a cousin of popular of New Orleans Hip-Hop recognized director/actor Tyler Perry, and like a actors, heaping praise on the long for a distinctive beat and call-andTyler Perry script, Catch Dat Beat has history of great work Tenth Ward Buck response lyrical style that owes much positive characters and an accessible and Freedia have produced. “Buck was to Mardi Gras Indians and other story. The basic story follows a hair the first in so many ways,” he says of local cultural traditions. Although stylist (played by Freedia) who throws his star, listing his accomplishments. not widely listened to outside of the a block party to show a visiting cousin “The first to speed up bounce, the first south, bounce dominates New Orleans how New Orleans gets down. There are to take an R&B track and Bounce it

he didn’t care about what they said, he kept moving forward. I don’t care if you straight or what, everyone is bouncing to Freedia’s music.” In fact, the sissy bounce community that Katey Red birthed ten years ago with her album Melpomene Block Party has rejuvenated the form, and gay rappers like Freedia have gone from a novelty to a central part of bounce culture.

Conquering Obstacles Bounce music faces many obstacles on the way to national popularity. It is in many ways so distinctly New Orleans, with most songs featuring neighborhood-specific references, that it’s hard to imagine a bounce party in any other city. However, elements of bounce have appeared in songs by national acts like David Banner, Mike Jones and Beyonce. Here in New Orleans, bounce artists bring lines around the corner when they perform. Freedia believes bounce will keep growing, and isn’t worried about any potential obstacles. She has struggled in a sometimeshomophobic music scene and become one of the leading stars – gay or straight – in New Orleans. “We been working really hard all these years of getting people to accept us,” she says. “Maybe get throwed at and screamed at, but over time all that has changed. All the hard work has finally paid off.” With a show at this year’s Jazz Fest by Big Freedia, Katey Red and Sissy Nobby, as well as a photo spread in hipster music magazine XLR8R, the music form is clearly reaching new audiences. “For me it was the determination to change the people and make them love what we do,” says Freedia. “And that’s what

“When you hear bounce,” says Lucky, people in the club go wild...

“They throw their hands up in the air, they catch the wall.”

clubs, and is so identified with the poor neighborhoods of the city, it’s sometimes called “project music.” “When you hear bounce,” says Lucky, people in a club go wild. “They just forget about it. They throw their hands up in the air, they catch the wall.” However you label Freedia’s music, she is one of several gay rappers who have broken down barrier after barrier to become

moments of conﬂicts (will Freedia’s grandfather, played by Lucky, accept her sexuality? Will police break up the block party?) but the show is really about celebrating local culture. Lucky also acts in the play, along with bounce trendsetter Tenth Ward Buck The second act of the show recreates a block party on stage, and features short appearances by many of the biggest names in bounce. During

out.” Through more than ten years of albums, plus a film, an upcoming book, and his dedication to working with youth, Buck has earned the praise. As for the star of the show, “Freedia is outstanding,” says Lucky. “Every time he’d get the mic, he’d just light up the room.” Buck also is quick to praise Freedia. “As Freedia was coming up, a lot of people tried to drag him down,” Buck says. “And

my job was. When I became a gay bounce rapper I said that I was going to change it and make people love me, and make them love gay people.” “People say negative things,” about gay rap stars, acknowledges Lucky. “I don’t care, at the end of the day it’s about the message. People who are homophobic, it tells me about that person’s character, because god loves us all no matter what.”

}

N A T I O N A L CO L L E G I AT E V O L U N T E E R S Nikhil Gopal

Almost four years after Katrina, health care in New Orleans remains an obstacle for many New Orleanians. The closing of Charity Hospital caused many to lose their primary care provider. For many people now, the emergency room is the primary source of care, which means overcrowding of the already limited number of hospital beds. The trip to the emergency room for many could have been prevented if they had simply visited a health care provider regularly. Many free and low-cost clinics provide primary care that would reduce the amount of people that need to visit the emergency room. However, information about these clinics sometimes cannot be found easily, and many resources are outdated and lacking. In the New Orleans area, there still is not a universal resource for health care provider information. It is this very gap in health care access that National Collegiate Volunteers, a group of student volunteers from Tufts and Brandeis Universities, wants to fill. In January of 2010, our health care database, A Healthy Nola (www.ahealthynola.org), will be online to the public. Many existing health care resources have only a selection of clinics with mostly contact information present, a far cry from the level of information present on our database. Over 160 primary-care, mental health, and reproductive clinics, over 70 hospitals, and hundreds of doctors from the Orleans and Jefferson Parishes will be on the website. Information on each health care provider will include the essential such as location and timings, the important such as types of services offered, languages spoken, payments and insurances accepted, and the nitty-gritty such as whether or not walk-ins are available and the doctors and other staff members present. All the information that one would ever need to make a decision about which health care provider to choose will be right on the site. There’s no question that some health care resource guides are just hard to find. Once the person finds the guide, it is also difficult and frustrating to find anything. Many are packets of information that require the person to scroll down until he or she finds the right health care provider. Our health care database will, of course, have its own website, but it will also have a search engine that allows the person to find the health care provider

July 2009

Building the Bridge to a Healthy New Orleans, One Community at a Time

quickly and easily, especially since we have so many health care providers on our website. For example, if the person has diabetes, he or she can reduce the number of search results by specifying that only those clinics that offer diabetic services (insulin) come up. That person can further reduce the results by only allowing those clinics within 15 miles of his/ her house or those clinics that speak Spanish or those clinics that are free,

for National Collegiate Volunteers; it is for the community of New Orleans. Maybe the first step, though, of involving the community is making sure that the entire community can use our resource because online access for many is not easy. To address this problem, a telephone hotline will be set up in spring 2010 that will be staffed by volunteers. The same information as on the database will be provided through the hotline.

A sample homepage showing the different levels of searching One can type the name of the clinic or hospital if he/she knows it, can search by type (whether they want a primary-care clinic, reproductive clinic, mental health clinic, or hospital), search by speciﬁcs (condition, location, etc.), or search the entire list of health care providers.

Searching by condition will be in the form of checkboxes. There will be more ways of searching for a health care provider on the real database; this is just an example template.

to show up. So, people can simplify searches based on the condition they have, the distance from their home, the languages spoken, the amount of money they are willing to pay, and more. While we have created a database with enough information and userfriendliness to be a powerful and useful resource, there is no point in releasing it to the public if we do not get their help first. Health care in New Orleans will be saved not by one organization but with the joint work of the community. We want to involve New Orleans in every step of our database. After all, our database is not

For the online database, we want the community involved in its development. We want to make sure the health care needs of the community are satisfied completely with the database, so there will be no need for another health care resource. For this reason, from August 10th to 24th, National Collegiate Volunteers will be hosting focus group sessions in community centers and charter schools across the New Orleans area. Participants will get a first-hand look at our health care database and will be able to browse and use many of the promised features. After some time, participants will meet in a

group to discuss their impressions of our database. The opinions raised during this group session will be used to modify the database towards the community’s interests when it is released in 2010. The community will also be involved in the operation of our telephone hotline. For those in the community unable to find employment or hoping to earn extra income, a part-time job of staffing the hotline will be available to them. After being trained, the employees will be responsible for answering calls and helping their fellow New Orleanians find the right health care provider. Not only will these employees impact the lives of many through helping them receive affordable care, but these members will gain income and also the skills to compete in a competitive job market, which will lead to more success in life. It is this combination of thorough information on all health care providers, simple and efficient searching, and a community involved creation and operation that makes our health care database, ahealthynola, so unique and much more ambitious than the health care resources that already exist. We want our database to be the health care resource for the Greater New Orleans area that people can easily use to find those providers that give low-cost and free primary care. Since people are more likely to get affordable primary care, the number of people going to the emergency rooms will be reduced. The overall cost of health care will fall. Furthermore, the database could serve as a job opportunity for many and increase their quality of life by offering them skills highly valuable in the job market. By involving the community so closely, we can ensure that the database will ﬂourish long after its release. We truly care about improving the lives of all New Orleanians. To make this a reality, we need people from New Orleans to provide opinions of our database at the focus group sessions as a start. These opinions will help better health care in New Orleans. Join us in August for the chance to make a difference that counts in the lives of many in the community. For more information about our database (ahealthynola), please visit our website at http://www. nationalcollegiatevolunteers.org or contact us at ngopal12@gmail.com. With the help of the community, our ambitious goal of creating a healthier, happier, and more prosperous New Orleans will become a reality.

NPN’s THE TRUMPET

Ask City Hall: Code Enforcement

This month, Neighborhoods Partnership Network asked the New Orleans community for their questions pertaining to Code Enforcement. City Hall provided some answers.

I live in a neighborhood where the telephone poles are bristling with plastic signs. Is there a city ordinance that says they’re OK and can stay there? Since they’re plastic, some of them have been up there for 3+ years. Can I take them down? Plastic signs placed on telephone poles and right of ways are not legal or protected by the City Code. Citizens can take them down, or report the locations and company names to the Safety and Permits Department’s Zoning division at 658-7125.

When inspectors cite a homeowner for “High grass or weeds” (I believe 18” or more) does the inspector have a percentage guideline, or does the code insist on 100% perfection? For example, if the homeowner has apparently cut 90% of the grass, but about 10% still needs to be cut (the mower broke or the cutter was overcome by heat, or the 10% was just overlooked for any reason) is the inspector instructed to be reasonable, or is perfection insisted upon? Property owners must cut and maintain all of the grass on their property. We believe that owners have a responsibility to neighbors to do so.

Why does it take so long for code enforcement to do something about blighted houses in neighborhoods? The simple answer is that Code Enforcement is prosecuting a large volume of blight, but given the amount of blight in the City and the Department’s staff levels, it is taking time to get to every property. In the past year Code Enforcement has initiated cases against over 8,000 blighted structures under the City’s newly increased housing standards. Over 2,000 of those cases have come from 311 complaints; others have come from “sweeps” aimed at stabilizing entire areas of the city. The Department is also working to signiﬁcantly increase the number of cases it processes annually be creating a “Bureau of Administrative Hearings”. We hope that property owners will begin to clean their properties without being cited by Code Enforcement as they realize that they can no longer get away with owning blighted properties and can face heavy ﬁnes.

Announcements Common Ground Relief’s “free” Legal Clinic will now be open on Saturdays from 12 to 3 p.m. beginning June 6. The Legal Clinic will also be open on Wednesdays from 9 am to 3 pm. The Legal Clinic is located at 1800 Deslonde Street in the Lower Ninth Ward. Free notary services are also available. The Legal Clinic phone number is (504) 717-7324

July 2009

Community Events

Neighborhood Meetings Broadmoor Improvement Assoc. Thursday, July 9 @ 7 p.m. St. Matthias Church, 4230 South Broad Street www.broadmoorimprovement.com Bywater Neighborhood Assoc. Tuesday, July 14 @ 7 p.m. Holy Angels Concert Hall, 3500 St. Claude Ave. www.bywaterneighbors.com Bunny Friends Neighborhood Assoc. Saturday, July 11 @ noon Greater Mt. Carmel 3721 N. Claiborne Ave Central City Partnership Friday, July 31 @ 1 p.m. 2020 Jackson Avenue, second ﬂoor www.centralcitypartnership.org DeSaix Neighborhood Assoc. Saturday, July 11 @ 10 a.m. St. Leo the Great 2916 Paris Ave District 6 Community Council Every other Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. University of New Orleans, Old Business Administrator Building, Room 211 Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Assoc. Thursday, July 9 @ 6 p.m. True Vine Baptist Church 2008 Marigny Street www.fsria.org Pontilly Neighborhood Assoc. Saturday, July 11 @ 1 p.m. St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church www.pontilly.com Filmore Gardens Neighborhood Assoc. Thursday, July 23 @ 6:30 p.m. Rouses Lakefront

Gentilly Civic Improvement Assoc. Saturday, Jul 18 @ 10 a.m. Edgewater Baptist Church 5900 Paris Ave. www.gcia.us Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Assoc. Monday, July 20 @ 6 p.m. VOA 2900 St. Anthony Avenue Gentilly Terrace and Gardens Wednesday, July 8 @ 7 p.m. Gentilly Terrace School www.gentillyterrace.org Hollygrove Neighbors Every Thursday @ 5:30 p.m. 3030 Hamilton Street Holy Cross Neighborhood Assoc. Every Thursday @ 5:30 p.m. Center for Sustainability, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 5130 Chartres, Lizardi and Chartres www.helpholycross.org Lake Bullard Homeowners Assoc. Every Saturdays @ 3 p.m. Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave.

Lake Catherine Civic Assoc. Tuesday, July 14 @ 7 p.m. George’s (last house on Hospital Road) (985) 259-1204 Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Monday, July 6 @ 6:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church 3700 Canal St. Milan Neighborhood Asso. Tuesday, July 28 @ 7 p.m. Junior League HQ, 4319 Carondelet Lake Bullard Homeowners Assoc. Every Saturday @ 3 p.m. Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave.

Local Events Greater New Orleans Housing Fair Provides valuable information on mortgage ﬁnancing, pre-purchase counseling, housing insurance, and many more topics. The Finance Authority of New Orleans will screen, pre-qualify, and provide attendees with information regarding the $65,000 Pathways to Homeownership Program. Saturday, July 18 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Dillard University FREE Admission

Ask City Hall District A

Shelley Midura City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1010 Fax: (504) 658-1016 Email:smidura@cityofno.com

District B

Stacy Head City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658 -1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 Email:shead@cityofno.com

District C

James Carter City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 Email: jcarter@cityofno.com

District D

Cynthia Hedge-Morrell City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 E-mail: chmorrell@cityofno.com

District E

Cynthia Willard-Lewis City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 E-mail: cwlewis@cityofno.com

Council Member-At-Large

The Trumpet Blog http://npntrumpet.blogspot.com Visit our blog for updates on community events happening throughout New Orleans

Arnie Fielkow City Hall, Room 2W40 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068 Email: afielkow@cityofno.com

Council Member-At-Large Jacquelyn Clarkson City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077 E-mail: jbclarkson@cityofno.com

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