Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

MCNO Members, Residents & Friends:

Please attend our next neighborhood-wide meeting on Mon Feb 5, 6:30 to 8pm at Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street. I challenge each of you to tell at least 2 neighbors about this meeting so we can spread the word and increase involvement.

Our current agenda includes:

• Brief Introduction of all Committee Chairs
• Final results of our Community Center wish list to provide to DNA Creative Media
• Update on Crime from our 1st & 3rd District Captains
• Introduction to the 94th Congressional District Candidates

If there is any additional item that you feel should be covered, please leave a comment!

Finally, a few persons have expressed a need for babysitting in order to attend the meetings. Please contact me if you need babysitting in order to attend. Include the number of kids & their ages. I will try to have some volunteers if a need is expressed.

On Feb. 6, 7, 12 & 13, volunteers are needed to prepare the site and install Kaboom playground equipment at Dibert Elementary on Orleans Avenue, the only elementary school open in Mid City. The work day starts at 8:30 a.m. and lasts until approximately 3:00 p.m. If you can volunteer a few hours during that time, you are welcome to
join in the effort.

I know that the dates are weekdays, but those are the dates in which Kaboom selected. If you can make it or have any questions, please email Phil Costa at zbigez - yahoo - com.

Today the new non-profit entity Mid-City Charter Schools met with four persons hired by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to review our application. The interview went very well in my opinion. We should hear about their decision February 13th, and then the BESE board votes on February 15th.
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Throughout the planning process, thousands of hours and hundreds of Mid-City residents continually pointed to a community center as one of the top priorities for our area. Both the Lambert Plan and the UNOP plan showed the same, with residents giving complete
assent.

Mid-City has been approached by a private group offering to cover the cost of building a new center on the Comiskey Park site. The donor’s contractual obligation with the city requires them to maintain and maximize the green space at the park.

Our second community input meeting is set for this Monday. All neighbors are encouraged to attend to give input.

• Monday, January 29nd, 6:30 p.m.
• Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street

At today’s City Council meeting, the council unanimously voted to approve the following resolution:

KREWE OF ENDYMION. NO. R-07-43 – BY: COUNCILMEMBER CARTER, FIELKOW, HEAD, AND MIDURA
Submitted in brief. – Strongly endorsing the return of the Krewe of Endymion to its traditional Mid-City parade route beginning in the Year 2008 and going forward into perpetuity.

This is good news for Mid-City and for the Krewe of Endymion. Please pass it on to your friends and neighbors. Councilmember Midura also stated that she spoke to Chief Riley and he gave a personal commitment to make this happen.

Communication is the lifeblood of any community organization. Scratch that — it’s the lifeblood of a healthy community.

MCNO is committed to building a robust communications network for Mid-City neighbors. We want to help people share information about what’s going on in Mid-City and how they can get involved. We need to get the word out and engage all members of our community, not just a select few.

You can help. We’re forming a Communications Committee. This committee will be chaired by MCNO Board Member Bart Everson (hey, that’s me!) but it will be made up of volunteers from the community (that’s you).

Projects include this website, the “Heart of the City” newsletter, our online discussion group, the Mid-City TV show, flyers and leaflets, phone trees, block captains, kiosks, whispering campaigns, tin cans on a string and anything else we can cook up.

If you are interested in community outreach, talking to neighbors, writing, citizen journalism, web design, video production, radio programming, public relations or just about anything else relating to the field of communications — please join us!

The Mid-City Communications Committee will meet Thursday, January 18, 7-8:30 PM, at Bayou Coffeehouse.

The task is big, and our goals are lofty, but by working together we can make good things happen.

Please bring your ideas.

At Thursday’s march on New Orleans City Hall, organizers asked MCNO Communications Director Bart Everson to speak on behalf of the neighborhood. Herein, a copy of Bart’s speech, as posted on his own website, given before thousands.

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Mid-City is organizing to start our march against violence beginning from Helen Hill’s home at 3438 Cleveland Avenue. The details follow. We will meet the larger group, which is starting at the Aquarium, at City Hall.

Please invite all neighbors, friends, business owners & employees to join us in this effort.

• What: March Against Violence
• When: Thursday January 11
  Meet between 10:30 and 10:45am
  March at 11:00am
• Where: 3438 Cleveland Avenue (corner of S. Clark)
  March to City Hall

Feel free to join us along the route. [map] or meet us at City Hall at noon.

This march is not just about Helen Hill. It is about all of us.

• Wear a white shirt
• Carry a photo or sign with name of anyone in your life who has been a victim of violent crime.

Questions? Contact MJ Sauer mjcs [at] bellsouth [period] net or Bart Everson at 812-391-0818

It would be great if Central City would march in from one direction, Uptown / Garden District from another, Algiers yet another etc., all converging on City Hall. If your neighborhood can’t put an individual march together, please join in the march from the aquarium, but bring signs representing your neighborhood.

Update: Here is a flyer you can print out. (It is a 1MB PDF.) Remember most people in Mid-City don’t look at this website. Please print out this flyer and make sure everyone on your block sees it!

Update #2: Here is a Spanish version of the flyer. (Thanks to the Molinas for translating.) Please print it out for your Spanish-speaking neighbors!

District A & B council reps will provide an update on the status of the Good Neighbor Program.

NOPD 3rd District (confirmed) and 1st District(we hope) police captain’s will talk about escalating crime across the city and what we can do to stop it. Bring your questions and concerns.

These are both important issues that greatly affect our lives and businesses. Let’s have a big turnout and show our council members and police captains that we care about our neighborhood. I encourage you to bring a neighbor! Children are welcome!

Grace Episcopal Church
3700 Canal Street
6:30 - 8pm

I’m posting this picture to help decode the new trash pickup schedule. The published maps have been small and hard-to-read. This detail clarifies (hopefully) the most confusing portion of Mid-City.

Basically, if you’re in this map below the blue line, you get trash pickup Monday and Thursday. If you’re in this map in the wedge on the left side, you get pickup Wednesday and Saturday. If you’re in this map above the blue line on the right side, or above that green line on the left, you get pickup on Tuesday and Friday. Clear as mud?

This map is taken from
www.metrodisposalservice.com/trashpickupdays.html
Go there to get the full, interactive version.

The Mid-City neighborhood is being serviced by Richard’s Disposal. You can contact them by phone: (504) 241-2142 or fax: (504) 244-9773. You can also call the City at 311 to report problems with garbage.

Don’t forget to sign up for your new cart. According to the Times-Picayune:

The new contracts call for semiautomated trash collection, meaning that trucks with robotic arms will empty waste from specialized trash cans that will be provided free to residents. A registration drive for the wheeled, lidded garbage carts did not begin until last month, and only about a quarter of the nearly 100,000 households and businesses that will be served under the deals have signed up so far.

Residents can register for the carts online at the city’s Web site, www.cityofno.com, or at the vendors’ Web sites [see link above]. In-person registration is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the City Hall lobby and at all New Orleans public libraries. The community organizing group ACORN offers registration for Upper and Lower 9th Ward residents at its office at 1024 Elysian Fields Ave.

At the January 2, 2007 meeting of the newly elected MCNO Board of Directors, various positions were filled, including committee chairs. Click on the link MCNO Board to learn more.

We are giving a presentation at tomorrow’s City Council Meeting, and again need the support of as many Mid-City residents and business owners. Please arrive at City Council Chambers at Noon.

There is no guarantee of what time we will present, but if we can have a large MC presence at noon, even if folks have to head back to work before the presentation, the point will be made.

What: City Council Endymion Presentation
Where: City Council Chambers (Loyola Avenue side of City Hall, ground floor)
When: Thursday Jan 6 at Noon

Please try to carpool with other folks to make parking easier.

Please wear your Mid-City gear and bring your Endymion sign or MC lawn sign.

We’re pleased to share the following press release from the Phunny Phorty Phellows.

Phunny Phorty Phellows To Take Different Streetcar Route to Announce Start of 2007 Carnival Season

The Heralds of Carnival !!!!!

With Endymion having been once again been assigned to the St. Charles Avenue route, the Phunny Phorty Phellows will provide the only organized Carnival activity along the traditional Canal Street route this year.

[Note: The final decision on Endymion has not yet been made. -- Editor]

Because the Phellows’ traditional St. Charles streetcar path is still undergoing repair, the group will break precedent this Saturday Night January 6 and begin their ride on N. Carrollton near City Park.

The costumed and masked krewe will assemble on the neutral ground in front of City Park (at North Carrollton next to Beaureguard Circle) at 6:30pm and will board the streetcar at 7pm sharp.

“We are so pleased to be riding through Historic Mid-City.” states the Captain of the Phellows. ” We’ll proceed down Carrollton, turn left on Canal Street, arrive at the Mississippi Riverfront terminus and retrace the route, ending back at City Park. Mid-City is a neighborhood that is working very hard to bounce back from Katrina and we applaud the progress its residents are making. We also appreciate the cooperation of the Regional Transit Authority in this endeavor. Many folks may not realize that the RTA headquarters is located in Mid-City.”

The Phellows will be accompanied by the Storyville Stompers Brass Band.

The Phellows are an historic Mardi Gras organization that first took to the streets 1878 through 1898. They were known for their satirical parades and today’s krewe members’ costumes often reflect topical themes. The group was revived in 1981.

One Carnival historian has referred to the organization as the “Dessert of Carnival.”

The Louisiana Recovery Authority and Office of Community Development published an action plan amendment for public comment Friday. Among the stuff they’re proposing is the the construction of the “Medical Center of Louisiana - New Orleans,” also called MCLNO — not to be confused with MCNO of course! The MCLNO is the BIG hospital planned for the Tulane/Gravier neighborhood. We all know this is a part of Mid-City, which just happens to be on the other side of Broad. The construction of the MCLNO is an important issue all Mid-Citizens should care about. Let’s see it done right.

The public comment period will conclude at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 8. That gives us a week to voice any concerns. Public comments appear to be taken over the internet.

You can find the actual proposal here:

http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/cdbg/dractionplans.htm

It’s the “Proposed Action Plan Amendment No. 1 for Disaster Recovery Funds Allocated by P.L. 109-234″ which is available as a PDF.

There’s also a link for public comment:

http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/cdbg/dramend1-2comment.htm

So… What to say? Well, say what you like of course, but the people who live closest to the site have thought about it the most. The Phoenix of New Orleans group (aka PNOLA) has been mighty active in this area since the levee failures of 2005. I’ve consulted with Paul Ikemire of PNOLA to craft the following five points which I am pasting below. Please feel free to use any or all of these points when you make your comment. It only takes a minute!

1. The housing and community facilities between Galvez - S. Roman - Palmyra and Cleveland should be preserved. This includes the school for health careers and Deutches Haus on Galvez.
2. The community should be involved through direct participation and through dialog with two organizations in particular that are active in the neighborhood: Phoenix of New Orleans and Tulane/Canal Neighborhood Development Corporation. There should be housing, security and economic incentives for attracting staff and students to the neighborhood area.
3. Green infrastructure should be incorporated into land use plan in order to absorb and improve flood control issues in the Tulane/Gravier neighborhood.
4. The preferred location of main hospital towers and ER should be along Poydras OR proper sound barrier and design measures should be used to buffer the activity between the main hospitals and the housing units within the footprint area and the Galvez Promenande cultural and open space corridor (along Galvez St).
5. Urgent Care and Primary Care facilities should be available to low-income and uninsured residents, in coordination with community clinics and advocacy centers within the surrounding downtown area.