Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

Mid-City Recovery Planning Meeting
Agenda for Monday, June 26th, 6:30 PM at the Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street

I. Introduction (5 minutes)
Wendy Laker will briefly summarize why we’re here, what we’ve done, and where we’re going.

II. Discussion of Proposed Land Use (55 minutes)
Cliff James will discuss proposed use of land in Mid-City with a map. This will also serve as the Questions and Answers period, and relevant announcements are welcomed.

III. Committee Breakout Groups (as long as each committee chooses)
Each committee will meet and work on their portion of the Mid-City Recovery Plan. The goal this evening is to make a preliminary action plan. Each committee will present this action plan at next Monday’s meeting. Some of the committees, such as Governance, Green Space/Public Space, and Transportation, might have fallen through the cracks and might need some help.

The committees and their updated recovery plans can be seen here.

Saturday June 24, 2006, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon, Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal St.

We will be meeting with Clifton James to discuss issues and ideas developed by planning committees. All Mid-City residents welcome. Please join us. Tell your neighbors!

Afterwards, head over to City Park for the Mid-City Art Market and the first-ever Festival of Neighborhoods.

Mid-City Art Market, Art in the Heart of New Orleans returns to its home in City Park’s Botanical Gardens on Saturday, June 24th from 10:00am-4:00pm.  Come support local and regional artists selling pottery, painting, jewelry, glass, textiles, accessories and photography in an urban Eden. This market you’ll find many of your favorites and some exciting new additions.  Support local, buy local!

 Bayou Coffee House and Juan’s Flying Burrito will be selling coffee, iced coffee, delicious food, margaritas and beer.  The market will sell icy cold water, gatorade and soft drinks to keep you cool. 

Check out the Children’s Activity Tent for your little ones, visit the new Botanical Gardens Giftshop filled with art work by artists from the market, and enjoy music and the beautiful gardens.  The Botanical Garden will also have a plant sale.  Bring home a botanical to brighten your home, garden or patio and help support the Garden. 

Visit Mid-City Neighborhood Organization’s table at the Festival of Neighborhoods and find out what’s going on in our neighborhood and how you can be a part of the excitement.  Together we can make a difference.

  T shirts and yard signs will be sold at the MCNO table.

Sponsored by Mid-City Neighborhood Organization and GambitWeekly.

www.midcityartmarket.org

Please join us in the City Park Botanical Gardens this Saturday, June 24th, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM for the first-ever Festival of Neighborhoods.

The Mid-City Art Market will also be there. Jane Brewster will be among the many local artists there, which means you still have a chance to get your own signed and numbered copy of the official Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo poster. Jane will have posters for sale in her tent. Of course, you can also buy them online while they last.

Sunday, June 25
2:00 pm
1440 Canal Street
Room 1210

FREE PARKING at the Lasalle Parking Garage on Lasalle St. betwee Cleveland and Tulane, right across from the entrance to the Tulane University Emergency Room

Everyone is welcome, ESPECIALLY residents and business owners in the neighborhoods close to the corridor such as Treme, Mid City and Bayou St. John
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Mid-City Recovery Planning Meeting

Agenda for Monday, June 19th, 6:30 PM at the Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street [map]
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Here’s a handy number: (504) 589-1691. That will connect you to Larry Leehans, who is a “Postal Ambassador.” He can help you with specific problems you may be having with delivery of your mail.

We’ve published a list of Mid-City Recovery Committees. Please join one!

Opening quality schools is fundamental to the rebuilding of New Orleans. The Mid-City Neighborhood Organization is sponsoring the charter of Dibert Elementary School to begin to meet this end. After a great deal of work by some very gifted and committed volunteers, we had provisional approval and everything looked in order to open this much needed school in September of 2006. However, in a shocking turn of events, we learned late Friday that our application was denied. There seems to be quite a bit of evidence that something fishy is going on. Charter applications far inferior to ours were approved. We’re worried that it’s state politics as usual, and that perhaps another neighborhood’s school is slotted to use the now vacant Dibert property. We’re currently doing some research on how we appeal this process and we will be sure to keep you posted on events as they unfold. Also, people need to know that because of legislation in the Special Session of the Fall 2005, the Recovery School District pledged [Word document, 1.1 MB] that it “is committed to developing a strong model of parental and community collaboration” and “The RSD is committed to ensuring transparency regarding its processes and practices and accountability (at all levels).” Neither of these things has happened with the RSD, nor did the National Association of Charter School Authorizers help as they were supposed to.

Right now we need your help. Please email the people below and let them know why you think opening Dibert is important, and why Mid-City needs our own school. Use as the subject “Mid-City Needs Dibert Elementary.” Also please leave a copy of your email as a comment to this post. We had hoped that by creating a model school in the neighborhood that we would attract families, increase community involvement, and simply better educate our children. It was a vital and necessary piece of the puzzle for us to move forward. All of this is tragically on hold for the moment. Not opening Dibert simply makes no sense.

The following are members of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. They can all be reached at:
sbese@la.gov
Mr. Dale Bayard, Ms. Polly Broussard, Ms. Glenny Lee Buquet, Mr. Edgar Chase, Ms. Penny Dastugue, Ms. Louella Givens, Ms. Leslie Jacobs, Ms. Linda Johnson, Mr. Walter Lee, Dr. James Stafford, Ms. Mary Washington

Cecil Picard, the state superintendent of Education
SuperintendentPicard@la.gov

The following are City Council Members who could potentially help us:
Shelley Midura
smidura@cityofno.com)
Stacy Head
shead@cityofno.com
Oliver Thomas
OMThomas@cityofno.com
Arnie Fielkow
arniefielkowcoun@bellsouth.net

Thank you, and here’s hoping this can make a difference.

Unfortunately, Gigi’s closed, but in its place there is a great neighborhood sandwich shop. Is-a’s is open daily 11AM until Midnight at Banks and S. Alexander, and they have fantastic po-boys. In fact, their catfish po-boy for $4.99 was the best I’ve ever had. Fries are a dollar more, and sodas are only 50 cents. Even better, get a beer at the Banks Street Bar next door and bring it inside. Also, they have boiled crawfish on Fridays.

Through the MCNO discussion group, a coalition of concerned and frustrated neighbors has emerged. If you live on a street that butts up to Conti Street between Carrollton Ave. and City Park or if you’ve driven by, you can’t help but notice the large piles of trash that have continued to grow, in addition to overgrown lots, abandoned, flooded cars and large amounts of trash. A few individuals had a meeting on the issue. It was very productive. We have a plan for cleaning and removing trash, holding businesses accountable and making Conti a beautiful place to be.

The first step will be an informal gathering this Sunday evening, June 11th at 6:30 p.m., in order to walk down Conti from City Park Ave. to Carrollton Ave., in order to document, photographically and in written form, the problems with each particular property. Then we will determine who owns/maintains the property and which violations are being committed.

Next week we plan to walk with Shelley Midura down the street, in order to see the problem for herself. We will then contact each offending property in person and in writing and inform them of the consequences of continuing to trash our neighborhood, as well as extend an offer to help. Once we have succeeded in cleaning an area, we will then post “No Dumping/Neighborhood in Recovery” signs to discourage further dumping.

When the area is cleaned up, we will have ZERO tolerance for violators. We can also use what we’ve learned to help other areas with similar problems. Join your neighbors in a social event/planning session at Conti and N. Olympia, at the concrete square, by the perpetual sofa. We’ll try to have some beverages available. Come and bring your neighbors.

Update, June 12: Check out these photos of the Conti Street Walk of Shame posted by Allen Frost:

See More pictures.

The botanical gardens has invited the Mid-City Art Market to partnership with its gift shop outside of the Pavillion of Two Sisters. Painting will start Friday, June 9th and continue until the work is done. Although artists will help to paint the shop, due to the opening date set for June 24th, in conjunction with the next art market and the Festival of Neighborhoods, we could use all the help we can get. If you are interested, e-mail me at wlaker@eatel.net or call 905-9713.

The Mid-City Neighborhood Organization’s newsletter for Summer 2006 is available as a PDF file [download -- 372 KB]. Thanks to the authors and to Natalie for putting it together.

Board meeting - June 6, 2006 at Bayou Coffee House
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Update: There are a limited number of Bayou Boogaloo posters left over from the festival. You can buy one direct from the artist, Jane Brewster, for $20 plus $4 shipping. The posters are 11″x17″ and each one is signed & numbered. Just use the “Buy Now” button below to purchase via PayPal.

Sorry, sold out!

Or you can see Jane at Wednesday on the Square. This week, Mid-Citizens Tommy Malone will be there with the subdudes and Jim McCormick will also be there with the legendary Bingemen.

This Saturday, June 10, at 10am, the Mid-City planning session will be held at Grace Episcopal Church on Canal St. this is the church on the downtown side of Mandina’s. There is a parking lot in the back on Cleveland. This is the session with Sheila Danzey and the Lambert Group who were hired by the city council for $3,000,000. Let’s make sure we get our money’s worth.

Bart Everson, Michael Homan, Wendy Laker and Jim Taylor have put together a preliminary vision to guide the discussion. I know there is no need to invite criticism but let’s try to keep it constructive. Maybe Bart can turn it into a link so it won’t clog the blog.
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