Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

We installed three more signs Saturday. All the signs are now up — a grand total of six. See if you can spot them all around the neighborhood.

From left: Ben, Mike, Jac and Goofball

More sign photos here.

The first signs have gone up. There will be six at various points around the neighborhood. See if you can spot them all!

These signs are coming soon to the Mid-City neighborhood.

Thanks to Mercy Corps for underwriting this project, to Ben Claassen for taking over from Bart Everson (who’s busy with a newborn child) and also to Madeline Faust for the design and Grafitti Graphics for fabrication.

Thanks to Dr. Giovani H. Graziosi and students at UNO, we now have site plans for locating six neighborhood signs throughout Mid-City.

You can download these maps here as a 5.7 MB PDF.

Your comments are welcome.

The Communications Committee will meet tonight for the final time under my tenure as Communications Director for Mid-City Neighborhood Organization. That’s tonight (Monday Dec. 17) 6:30 PM at Bayou Coffeehouse. Our main agenda item will be to discuss this document. Please join us.

Mid-City residents are familiar with the work of local artist Madeleine Faust. She made the distinctive “Mid-City” sculpture at the corner of Carrollton and Canal.

Now Mid-City Neighborhood Organization has commissioned Madeleine to design a neighborhood sign utilizing some of the elements from her sculpture. In collaboration with neighborhood volunteers on the Communications Committee, Madeleine worked through several iterations and finally came up with this bold and beautiful design:

With grant money from Mercy Corps, we hope eventually to fabricate several signs. Then we will need to call for more volunteers to help install them at key locations around the neighborhood.

We had many wonderful submissions to the Mid-City poster contest. I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who contributed a submission. It was a real pleasure to receive your work.

I’m pleased to announce that we have chosen our first place winner: Jane Brewster.

Her entry captures the spirit of the Mid-City neighborhood beautifully. You can learn more about Jane at her website.

We’re also awarding a second place prize to Karen Ocker’s elegant entry.

You may be familiar with Karen’s work from the George W. Bush Coloring Book.

Congratulations to Jane and Karen both. And thanks again to all who submitted designs.

We’re extending the deadline for the Mid-City poster contest. Electronic submissions must be received by noon on July 23. Anyone wishing to submit physical artwork should call Lili at 481-6263.

Don’t forget there’s a $500 prize.

Read the complete rules here.

We are gearing up for our big free community BBQ on Monday, July 2 (6:30 PM at Grace Episcopal, 3700 Canal). I hope you’ll be able to make it. The main idea behind this event is to broaden the circle of inclusion, to foster a sense of community in the Mid-City neighborhood.

Our goal is to get a flyer to every occupied household in Mid-City. However, our Block Captains do not yet provide coverage for all of the Mid-City neighborhood. Therefore we are organizing a brigade of volunteers to distribute flyers in the areas we don’t cover too well yet.

In short, WE NEED YOUR HELP to distribute these flyers around Mid-City. Mostly we will focus on the area between Banks and Pontchartrain Expressway.

TIME: Saturday June 30, 10 AM
PLACE: Banks and Jeff Davis, by the statue of Jose Marti

We will spend a couple hours distributing flyers. If people are interested, we may meet again for lunch afterward.

The Mid-City Neighborhood Organization is hosting a poster contest to promote unity in the community.

The winning design will be printed and posted around Mid-City. In addition, a $500 prize will be awarded to the winner.

Guidelines

Design a poster that fosters a sense of community and builds neighborhood identity. Imagery should be inclusive, welcoming and positive, promoting the notion of neighbors working together to rebuild.

Each design must include the following blocks of text.

1. Mid-City identity. This should be prominent.

Mid-City
The Heart of New Orleans
El Corazón de Nueva Orleans

2. Meeting information. This can be smaller but should be easily legible.

Community meetings are held on the first Monday of each month
6:30 PM at Grace Episcopal Church (3700 Canal Street)

Conferencia de la comunidad el primer lunes de cada mes
6:30 PM en la iglesia Grace Episcopal (3700 calle Canal)
Benvenidos vecinos hispanos: traducción en español disponible

3. Contact information. This can be small.

Mid-City Neighborhood Organization - 486-MCNO - mcno.org

Poster designs should be 11″x17″ or smaller and may be full color.

Designs may be submitted physically or electronically. Physical designs may be mailed to MCNO, P.O. Box 791023, New Orleans, LA 70179. Electronic designs may be e-mailed to [redacted]

Each entry must include the artist’s name, address, phone number and a valid e-mail address. For physical submissions this information should be on the back of each poster.

Each artist may submit up to three designs.

Only original artwork will be considered.

The winner will be selected by the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization (MCNO) through its Communications Committee.

Winning artwork becomes the property of MCNO and may be used for commercial purposes.

Entries will be not be returned.

MCNO reserves the right to alter the final poster design or to reject all submissions for the final poster design.

Deadline: Postmarked June 21 or by June 25 for electronic submissions.

Funded by a grant from Mercy Corps.

The Mid-City Communications Committee is getting a boost in the form of an $11,000 grant from Mercy Corps. These funds will be dedicated to broadening the circle of inclusion within the Mid-City community. Remember, a healthy and safe community is one in which residents feel engaged. We will attempt to foster a sense of engagement through three projects:

1. Flyers for distribution to all occupied Mid-City households.
2. Posters to post at specific locations advertising monthly community meetings.
3. Design, fabricate and install 10 small and 2 large “Welcome to Mid-City” signs. These would be located at key entry points to the neighborhood.

The proposal is available as a PDF [68 KB].

We’d like to thank MCNO VP Jennifer Weishaupt for her assistance with the grant proposal, and of course a big thanks to Mercy Corps for investing in our neighborhood.

Now we need a few Mid-Citizens to step up and help implement. If you’re interested, please try to make the next meeting of the Communications Committee which is Monday May 21, 6:30 PM at Bayou Coffee House (326 N Jeff Davis Pkwy). If you can’t make the meeting but would like to help, please leave a comment.

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.