The MCNO Board voted this month to support a traffic crossing of the proposed Lafitte Greenway at St. Louis Street just above S. Carrollton Ave. This site is currently under design, but in order to sign Winn-Dixie as an anchor, the developers needed a consolation from the Neighborhood and the City to create a traffic crossing of the Lafitte Greenway. While MCNO has been a significant advocate of the Greenway and the rights of pedestrians and cyclists, the potential of losing the long awaited redevelopment of this parcel in Mid-City would have been a greater detriment to the neighborhood. MCNO continues to work with the developer, Stirling Properties, to ensure safe crossing of the Greenway
For more information please read the MCNO Letter of Support Mid-City Market and Greenway Crossing which was sent last week to City Council and the Mayor’s Office. at this location.

According to Stirling, all financing is in place for the redevelopment of this area. Stirling is eploring every opportunity to minimize the impact of cars crossing the Greenway, including:

• Flashing lights
• Signage stating that pedestrians have the right of way
• A large gateway arch like that used at the pedestrian entrance to signal cars are leaving the project
• A dip in the road as they leave, so when they go onto the greenway it becomes like a large speed bump
• Patterned concrete that will create the effect of a rumble strip on either side of the greenway so cars are jogged a bit as they enter and leave the greenway crossing. (Think: Magazine through-street over the Audubon Park running trail.)

The project will generate 300-340 new jobs and bring the city millions of dollars in tax revenue each year. It is the largest multi-tenant retail project in New Orleans since Katrina, and it is in Mid-City. This unequivocally pronounces that “Mid-City has arrived.”    This project has been so well-received that Panera Bread  is making this its commissary store for the other Paneras in the metro area. So, they will be filling the air with the aroma of fresh baked bread and Mid-Citizens will get the freshest soups and sandwiches possible. Ruby Slipper is likely coming in, as well.

Please bring your comments and concerns to the next MCNO Neighborhood Meeting or leave them below.

The event will be held at the corner of Banks St. and Rocheblave. Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 5:00pm.

For more information download the BBQ Event Flyer.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT REPORT
& BUSINESS FAIR!
A Business & Commercial Vitality Event No One Will Want to Miss!

Monday, September 12, 6:00pm-8:00pm
3700 Canal Street, Grace Episcopal Chapel

Whether you are a business owner or operator, a budding entrepreneur, or a resident of Mid-City,
you won’t want to miss this month’s MCNO meeting. At this meeting, we will:

• Kick off the Mid-City Business Association, an advocacy and networking group especially for Mid-City area businesses and merchants
• Have a “Meet and Greet” event where Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Businesses* can offer residents information on goods and services
• Announce exciting progress updates on the Tulane Avenue corridor and our efforts to make it a thriving, quality business corridor
• Provide information on valuable financial and promotional opportunities for both existing and start-up businesses
  …and much more

6:00-7:00pm – Meet and Greet and Networking Event
With Businesses, Economic Development Representatives, and NOPD.
Obtain information while enjoying snacks and drinks.

7:00pm – Program begins. Planned participants/speakers include:
NOPD and/or city representatives working to improve the Tulane Avenue corridor
New Orleans Chamber of Commerce
New Orleans Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
Small Business Association representatives

*All qualifying Mid-City businesses are invited to offer information at our tables. To qualify, you must be a business-level member of MCNO, a member of the Mid-City Business Association, or have sponsored or be scheduled to sponsor an MCNO event. Business owners and operators can join the MCBA on the night of the event to qualify. MCNO reserves the right to exclude businesses that are currently in violation of city ordinances or have other outstanding issues with the neighborhood. To sign up for table space or for information on sponsoring an event, please email events@mcno.org.

Download Flyer for the Sept 12 meeting

In the August 21, 2011 Times Picayune, an article about data from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors painted a sobering portrait. The average price per square foot (psf) of homes in the New Orleans area fell 5% in the first half of this year. The sole exceptions were a few areas in Orleans parish itself. Among these, only Mid-City stood out from the pack, with prices per square foot for undamaged properties rising from $118 to $136 in the first six months of 2011.

Per the article, Orleans Parish was the bright spot—the only place that has continued appreciating since Hurricane Katrina, with per-square foot prices rising 24% since the storm. “Within Orleans parish, Mid-City was the star, with prices appreciating 15% in the first half of the year,” the article stated. That is far more than any other area of any parish. Prices for damaged properties went up even more in Mid-City—20% from $26 to $31 psf.

Parishwide, prices gained just 1% in the first half of the year. The next area in line after Mid-City is an area of Uptown, zip code 70118, where values for undamaged properties rose 9%. Even the French Quarter, which commands the highest per-square-foot prices in the city, fell 5% in value.

District “A”

Thursday, July 28, 2011

5-6:30pm

JOB1, 3400 Tulane Ave.

District “B”

Thursday, July 14, 2011

5-6:30pm

Rhodes Pavilion, 3933 Washington Ave.

Several City departments and external partners are participating including the NOLA Business Alliance, the Office of Supplier Diversity, the Office of Cultural Economy, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, the Small Business Administration, JOB1 Business and Career Solutions, the New Orleans Fresh Food Retailer Initiative, and the World Trade Center.

Residents or businesses seeking additional information should contact Margaret Frazier, Office of Economic Development at 504-658-4237 or mmfrazier@nola.gov

MCNO’s formal position will play a large role in the future negotiations with the developer as MCNO advocates for priority principles that were recommended by residents and business owners of Mid-City.  These principles are listed below as Absolutes, items that are of highest priority, and Preferred, items that MCNO will suggest.

Absolutes:

1. The Mid-City Market must accord Greenway users equal respect with vehicular visitors. The most fundamental expression of this respect is that there will be NO crossing of the Greenway at St. Louis Street to enter the market. MCNO is advocating with the City of New Orleans to restrict St. Louis access and is polling the businesses along St. Louis to determine how far it can be restricted.

2. The design must reflect the industrial history of the site and the urban ambiance of Mid-City. The current design is unacceptably suburban. Facade treatments on the renovated 301 N. Carrollton, the new Pei Wei building, the two new retail buildings, and the Winn-Dixie must be consistent with one another.

• Facade materials will be split-face CMU (rock-textured concrete block), corrugated metal, along with ample glass for display and other windows. Brick is an alternate option, but only with the approval of MCNO.
• Functional awnings must be used to provide shade for visitors rather than the faux awnings currently pictured. Preferred material for awnings is metal either hung from anchor wires or supported by simple wooden trusses. Windows are required above awnings.
• There will be no faux towers or other vertical treatments extending above the roofline. Parapets are acceptable provided they are simple and consistent in height across the entire structure.
• Windows or other openings, whether real or faux, will be used to break up the facade along all blank walls.

3. Parking must not be more than is required. MCNO will categorically oppose any variance requests for parking that exceeds the maximum allowable per zoning code for big-box development.

4. Delivery trucks must travel only down Carrollton from the direction of I-10 and then onto Conti for final approach.

5. Stirling will provide bike parking for 100 bicycles. The row of parking in front of Winn-Dixie that abuts the greenway shall be removed and used for bike parking. Some form of decorative treatment will be use to screen the parking lot from the view of the Greenway.

6. Stirling will give equal consideration to local and national tenants.

7. Stirling will use functional shade trees in its landscaping plan for the parking lot. Bald Cypress is preferred. Also, Stirling shall use at least 50% native Louisiana plants in its landscape plan.

Preferred:

1. St. Louis will not be a continuous vehicular throughway, but rather will start and stop, existing as a street only when absolutely necessary, and end before the last two blocks of Carrollton. MCNO also prefers (and I discovered today has District A Council support for) no left turns off Carrollton onto St. Louis. (We are discussing this with the City but want to make Stirling aware.)

2. Stirling will commit to using the lot behind Massey’s for retail and community uses on a schedule to be contracted in writing with MCNO. Any vehicle parking allowed there will be either to service the activities occurring on this lot or as part of the activities themselves (e.g. vendors for an artists market). Note that this is a preferred location for bicycle parking. MCNO will consider a portion of this lot to be set aside for AFVs, as well. Paving, if any, will be a permeable material conducive to foot traffic. Stirling will consider erecting a permanent roofed structure over the majority of the lot.

3. Stirling will provide at least 25 covered or indoor bike parking spaces adjacent to the greenway and host a BikeStation.

4. Stirling will build a covered structure for bike parking and pedestrians along the front of Carrollton to obscure the parking lot at 301 N. Carrollton.

5. Cars will be prohibited from driving past the point where the pedestrian walkway travels from Carrollton to the Winn-Dixie. Only trucks making deliveries during specified hours will be allowed to access this drive, and such access shall end at the loading dock behind the building closest to the greenway.

6. The awnings used on the smaller retail buildings will wrap the Winn-Dixie, preferably on all four sides.

7. The corners of the retail buildings will either be rounded or have an angled entrance to create the sense of an historic corner store.

8. Stirling will actively solicit local businesses (and not just local franchisees) and will give highly qualified local merchants the same price per square foot as smaller national retailers.

MCNO commits that it will work with the City to see what incentives might be available to help local retainers achieve parity with the national chains, in terms of rent expense, for the center.  MCNO representatives will be meeting with Stirling Properties, the developer, to discuss these principles on Thursday, June 23, 2011. Updates will be forth coming.

MAYOR LANDRIEU, CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS & BUSINESS LEADERS TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Thursday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, City Council members and New Orleans regional business leaders will hold a press conference regarding the University Medical Center and biomedical corridor.

WHO:              Mayor Mitch LandrieuCity Council membersNew Orleans regional business leaders

WHEN:           Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 3:15 pm CST

WHERE:        Mayor’s Press Room1300 Perdido Street, 2nd Floor

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Charity Hospital on Tulane Ave 1951, Times Picayune

MCNO has been hearing rumors for years that the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) plans to put the neutral ground back on Tulane Ave. The Times Picayune even did some “Blast from the Past” photo coverage of Tulane Ave in the 1950′s when the neutral ground was first removed. But recent discussions stemming from the VA Hospital have resurfaced the idea of rejuvenating Mid-City’s ”Miracle Mile”.

MCNO contacted the RPC with some questions and received a very helpful response from Chris Aghayan, Transportation Planner. Our questions and his responses are below:

1. Is it realistic to expect that a neutral ground will be reinstalled on Tulane, between Carrollton and Broad? Yes, The Stage 0 Planning Study calls for the project to be divided into three phases [1. Claiborne to Broad 2.Broad to Jefferson Davis 3. Jefferson Davis to Carrollton], by and large resulting in a 15’ landscaped median with two 10.5’ travel lanes and a 5’ bike lane along the corridor.
2. Will members of the community be invited to participate in the design process? Yes, a minimum of two public meetings will occur during the environmental phase.
3. What, if any, plans are being made to accommodate left turns from Tulane onto side streets? Is this goal part of the project? An initiative of the project is to improve the access along the corridor and alleviate the current no left scenario.
4. Can you give us any ROUGH sense of a timeline for moving the Tulane project through the design and construction phases? The Stage 0 feasibility study is complete.  The Stage 1 Environmental Study will soon be underway, and is expected to take approximately 1 year or less.  The Design phase will follow, and could take approximately 1 year.  Therefore, the project is potentially approximately 2 to 3 years from construction.
5. Have you established benchmarks for landscaping and curb cuts for parking along Tulane? Preliminary landscape and curb cut plans are outlined in the attached planning study.
6. Does the Tulane project also include in its scope possible changes to be made to contributing thoroughfares, especially Jefferson Davis Parkway and Broad St.? The major focus of the study is Tulane Ave, though other thoroughfare may be impacted.
7. What, if any, influence are the needs of University Medical Center, the new VA Hospital and other BioDistrict Projects exerting on this reconsideration of Tulane Ave? The needs of the Medical facilities were considered during this study, as they applied to the scope of this project.  Therefore, the facilities’ parking needs, emergency access points, security issues, and other traffic related concerns were evaluated.
8. Are plans for improved transit being considered for Tulane Ave., and if so, what are these plans? RPC and DOTD coordinated with RTA throughout the planning process and will continue to do so as the project advances.  Details are provided in the attached study.

This is a few years away from fruition, but it is information like this that will begin to spark positive development on the Tulane Corridor. Already MCNO, with the assistance of Council Representative Stacy Head, has accomplished an inner city urban design corridor overlay on Tulane Ave that requires all Alcoholic Beverage Outlets to be approved through a public hearing process and also requires design review requirements.

If you would like to receive updates from the RPC on this project, send your information to secretary@mcno.org. If you want to contact RPC directly, send an email to caghayan@norpc.org and ask to be added to the stakeholders list.

Hooray for left turns on Tulane!