Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

Thanks to everyone who attended last night’s Mid-City neighborhood meeting. For those who were unable to attend, here is a brief summary. The next meeting is Monday October 6th, 6:30pm at Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street.

Lt. Cambiotti and Sgt Davillier of the First District reported on their efforts during Gustav — evacuation through re-entry– and the results. There were only 2 instances of Looting, 4 Auto thefts, 5 Business Burglaries and 10 residence burglaries from Sunday Aug 31 - Sat Sep 6th. There were NO persons crimes in the First District during this time. The First District numbers were very low compared to other districts, which they attribute to the manner in which they utilized their national guard and NOPD patrols. They also made a number of successful arrests related to these crimes. Lt. Cambiotti also reported that their clearance rate for armed robberies is 50% (compared to a national average of less than 30%) and is 28% for business burglaries (again, higher than national average).

Due to the 12-hour shifts and shift change time of 7pm, Major Elder was not able to attend, but did provide some info which was delivered by MCNO Crime Prevention Chair Angie Brenneke.

Angie also spoke about the Mid-City Security District, which comes up for a vote on November 4th. Detailed info on the district can be found at the website. Free Yard signs supporting the creation of the District will be available at the October meeting.

Matt Schwartz of Domain Companies discussed their planned retail development in the 3001 block of Tulane Avenue (across from the Crescent Club apartment development which is under construction). He showed renderings and plans to the group. The development is single-story construction fronting Tulane Avenue with 70 parking spaces in the back (there are houses between the end of the parking lot and Baudin street, so the streetscape on Baudin will not change). Capitol One Bank is one of the anchor tenants, with a Restaurant or Restaurant/Gourmet Market combo sought for the other Corner Anchor. The smaller tenants will include a nail salon and dry cleaner. They are seeking other “neighborhood convenience” retailers to finish out the space. They expect to begin construction in November.

Kris Potthurst of New Orleans Food and Farm Network announced their new home at 4840 Banks Street. They will hold their first “Grow Mo’ Better” training session — Getting Started on a Vegetable Garden at this location on Saturday Sep 20. You can find details and sign up (there is a $3 fee) on their website. Also, Kris announced that they are developing a sustainable farmers market and urban training farm at the former Guillot’s Nursery on Olive Street in Holly grove (behind the Carrollton Ave Post Office). This is spitting distance from Mid-City and will be a great amenity to the City!

Tracy Hamlin of MCNO discussed the Block Captain program which still needs a number of volunteers from all areas of Mid-City to fully establish a complete communication network. Were you contacting your neighbors to inform them when power came back after Gustav, or perhaps to let them know what businesses were open? If so, you were an impromptu Block Captain. This is the type of communication network we are trying to establish! Please contact Tracy at hamlinhs@bellsouth.net and provide your name, email, phone and address to become a Block Captain.

Jeannette Thompson of MCNO discussed the recently released School Facilities Master Plan which poses some serious changes for Mid-City. If you are able to volunteer in the next two weeks to help read and write comments on the Mid-City aspects of the plan, please contact Jeannette at library@mcno.org. The Public Comment period ends Sept 20, so this is urgent.

I gave a brief update on the Housing Survey. A detailed update will be provided by Jennifer Farwell at the October Meeting.

The Zoning Committee announced a Zoning Meeting to be held Thursday Sept 18th, 6:30pm at Grace Episcopal to hear a presentation by Jesuit regarding the square bounded by Baudin, D’Hemecourt, Alexander, Hennessey. Jesuit would like to convert this square into a practice field.

Finally, we heard from 2 candidates for School Board District 3 (Downtown side of Canal). These were Davin Boldissar and Amy Lafont. We also heard from Hunter Harris, Candidate for Criminal Court Section F Judge.

As you can see, we covered a lot of ground and some very important issues. Make plans now to attend the October 6th meeting!

From Virginia Blanque:

Thanks to everyone who attended the public scoping meeting hosted by the VA on Monday August 11th. The purpose of this meeting was to seek public input on VA’s consideration of the Lindy Boggs site for their new Medical Center. There were more than 300 people in attendance (by my estimate), and approximately 30 people made comments or asked questions. I continue to be impressed by the insight, engagement and passion that Mid-City residents and business owners bring to the table regarding issues of recovery.

Presentations were made by VA, Victory Real Estate Investors, Dr. Ed Blakely, Councilmember Midura and Councilmember Head. This was followed by more than 90 minutes of comments and questions from the audience.

Some of the facts that were established:

* The Lindy Boggs site as offered by Victory is 39.8 acres, spanning from Jeff Davis to Carrollton, and from Bienville Avenue to Toulouse Street which is a light industrial and medical use zone.

*The Lindy Boggs site was offered as a response to the Section 106 meetings, in which any viable alternative sites can be proposed.

*The Victory offering excludes the city block that Mid-City Center sits on. It excludes the properties that Victory owns south of Bienville and West of Carrollton Avenue.

*The VA’s premise for the project is a 1.1 million square foot medical complex including a hospital and outpatient clinics spread over the ~17 block area. The tallest building would be the hospital at 6-7 stories. The VA refers to the design of the medical center as “campus-style”.

*The existing Lindy Boggs Hospital and office building is approximately 500,000 square feet on 2 city blocks.

*The total square footage of existing buildings (hospital, offices, warehouses, retail) on the proposed site is 980,000 square feet.

* Dr. Ed Blakely stated that the City will not assist VA in any way if they choose the Lindy Boggs site. The package of CDBG funds and other incentives offered by the City would not be offered for this site.

*Residents of Mid-City/Lower Mid-City who spoke at the meeting were overwhelmingly in favor of the Lindy Boggs site.

*Veterans who spoke at the meeting are in favor of whatever decision will get them quality healthcare in New Orleans faster. They are suffering from the lack of available quality care at this time.

Some additional information that was not presented in the Scoping Meeting but has been discussed either directly with Victory/VA or in the Section 106 meetings:

*VA is aware of the plans for the Lafitte Corridor Greenway. They have invited Friends of Lafitte Corridor to join the Section 106 process as a Consulting Party. There initial response was that they liked the idea of this planned greenspace and could work with it in their design.

*Victory has stated that if the project goes through at the Lindy Boggs site, they have arranged for Rouse’s to move across the street to the Bohn Ford site with new construction. We have not yet independently confirmed this with Rouse’s.

*VA confirmed that they are able to move forward with the project without funding from the City.

*LSU confirmed that they will move forward with their plans for a downtown location even if VA chooses the Lindy Boggs site.

*National Trust stated the Lindy Boggs site would NOT require the more extensive EIS (environmental impact study) that the RPC site.

*Lindy Boggs site would not require the demolition of a single home because there none in the footprint.

*Aside from the Downtown site and the Lindy Boggs site, there are two other options that VA is considering: Ochsner site in Jefferson Parish and No Action (meaning they would not build a large Medical Center in the area).

Latest articles:
TP: Letter to the editor in today’s paper
TP: Hearing tackles VA med center location
Advocate: N.O. crowd protests VA hospital site
for maps and additional information: www.valsumedcenters.com

Again, thank you for participating in the Federal process of a public hearing on the topic. It aligns with our Mid-City Plan which is why we support it for healthcare and economics.

Virginia Blanque
VP, Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

Thanks to everybody who attended last night’s Mid-City Recovery Action Meeting. We had a very productive discussion about Victory Real Estate Investments plans for Mid-City. The comments made at this meeting will guide MCNO going forward. MCNO will also be conducting a survey to collect further input from the community.

For those who couldn’t make it, we will be posting minutes soon, and we hope to have video of the meeting online as well. Check back for updates.

• We have about 30 minutes of video thanks to Joe Laura and family
• Slideshow presentation in PDF format [300KB]
• Meeting minutes in Microsoft Word format and PDF format
• Victory Real Estate Investments’ website: vrei.net
• Article about meeting on Blogging New Orleans
• Article about meeting on WWLTV.com
• Article about meeting in Times-Picayune

(Regarding that article: What Jennifer Weishaupt really said was “If we can get it in Metairie or the West Bank, we don’t need it here” and the context of the discussion was chain restaurants, not shopping.)

Over two dozen attended the Palmyra Area Partners meeting on Wednesday, December 13 at Bayou Coffee House. District B councilwoman Stacy Head was in attendance, as well as DNA Media, the group putting together the multi-million dollar community center at Comiskey Park for Mid-City. The group was encouraged to attend the MCNO Membership meeting Sunday, December 17 at Rock N Bowl.

Brief notes are included here for your perusal. (more…)

At the request of our neighbors who are out of town, and for those who couldn’t make it, here are brief minutes for the Mid-City Recovery Action Meeting of 12/4/2006:

1. Alice-Anne spoke about the historic building grants.
2. Unfortunately, we were unable to get representatives from 1st & 3rd District. Some items that were discussed:
   • NONPAC meetings are third Tuesday of every month at every precinct. Angela Brenneke attends the 1st District Meeting and has agreed to post the handouts. Can someone volunteer to do this for 3rd District?
   • Talked about the detrimental effect of unsecured houses in our neighborhood, as contributing to crime. Strong consensus that an update on the Good Neighbor Program is needed. Will invite reps from councilemembers offices to next meeting to speak on this topic.
3. We are pleased to announce that Mid-City has been selected as the home to the community center project that has been posted about previously. The donors are working with the city to secure the site, and will be hosting Town Hall Meetings with all interested neighbors to discuss exactly what functions the community center will have. The Green Space committee will be leading this effort.

   One neighbor from the direct area of Comiskey Park voiced that there is strong opposition from the direct neighbors to the project. Therefore, the Green Space committee is planning to launch a door-to-door effort in the immediate surrounding blocks to engage neighbors, provide them with facts about the project and find out what the specific concerns are, so these can be addressed. If you would like to help with this effort, please contact Brenda Napolitano

The next meeting will be Monday January 8 at Grace Episcopal Church.

Minutes of MCNO Board Meeting
Tuesday 9/5/06 at Bayou Coffeehouse (Jeff Davis Pkwy)
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MCNO Board Meeting
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006
Bayou Coffeehouse
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Neighborhoods from District 4 of the Unified New Orleans Plan met August 3rd at Grace Episcopal to give the pros and cons on the five planners to be voted upon for district planning.  These are the minutes (incomplete as they may be) from that gathering.

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Board meeting - June 6, 2006 at Bayou Coffee House
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