Help Holy Cross

Life in the Nine, August 28, 20015

Mardi Gras Indians in the Neighborhood from Help Holy Cross on Vimeo.

Mardi Gras Indians, Lower 9th Ward Hunters, prepare for their Second Line up Caffin Avenue for Katrina 10 Anniversary.

Life in the Nine, August 26, 2015

Are newcomers a mixed blessing for the Lower Ninth Ward? (via PBS)

Compelling news story on rebuilding and recovery in the Lower 9: gentrification, politics, homeownership, Make It Right, Kim Ford of Holy Cross, and the struggle over redeveloping the Holy Cross School campus.

From PBS: "With so many residents gone since Hurricane Katrina, can the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans ever bounce back? William Brangham reports on the historically black neighborhood’s struggle to sustain and rebuild community while lacking sources of economic development and facing signs of gentrification."

Lower 9th Ward: Rightfully Returned [VIDEO]

Pam Dashiell: What Climate Justice Means to Me (via RAN.org)

“With the support of good people and the resilience of brave people, it seems like anything can be accomplished. Sustain the Nine.”

— the late Pamela Dashiell, climate justice leader based in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward

With the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina around the corner — August 29th — I’ve been thinking about justice. What do environmental justice, and climate justice, mean to me? Who are my environmental justice and climate justice (s)heroes?   

When I think about justice, I think about communities living on the front lines. People living on the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Miami. People living near industrial facilities — mines, refineries, and power plants. Too many of these people are sick. They are physically ill with diseases like asthma, COPD, cancer, reproductive and neurological challenges. As weather patterns drastically change, these sick people are also bearing the brunt of climate disasters.

From those suffering from the recent flooding in Houston, to the farm workers in California’s drought-hit Central Valley, to the families still living with  the horror of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — these people face injustice  every day. They live in the shadows of large industry and are excluded from political debates.

These are people that are directly impacted by the horrors of corporate greed and climate change. On top of the life challenges that everyone faces — finding a decent place to live and putting food on the table — they also carry the burden of possibly having to evacuate their home and/or a higher incidence of suffering from long-term disease. And they have fewer resources for support.

The odds are against these communities. However, in the wake of disaster and sickness, some leaders rise above the odds.

When I think of climate justice (s)heroes, I think first of a powerful ally I was lucky enough to work with, whom we’ve now sadly lost: Pam Dashiell. Just after Hurricane Katrina, Pam returned to New Orleans and fought for the right to bring people home — to have people rebuild in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the city’s hardest hit areas, even though many in power wanted to condemn it.

Pam founded the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), which helped returning residents get building materials and trained them to construct more sustainable and energy-efficient houses. Pam’s tenacity and influence grew quickly. She was involved in White House meetings about rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward and collaborated with Brad Pitt on the Make it Right project. Pitt raised funds to build 100 green certified homes in the Lower Ninth Ward with regular community input.

I met Pam through her work with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Pam had an uncanny awareness about the racial and environmental injustices in the Ninth Ward and had put her whole self into changing them.

Pam passed in December 2009 at age 61. Pam was one person that had a strong impact on her community. In the midst of devastation, this woman rose above the destruction and the politics and continued the work for justice.

Ahead of the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I think about climate justice  leaders, like Pam, that I have had the opportunity to meet and stand beside in their struggles — our struggles. Despite their own personal suffering, many of these leaders were able to rise to the occasion, relentlessly driving forward in pursuit of something bigger. Knowing their community deserved better.

They were ordinary people, that were able to do something extraordinary. When reflecting, it is in these moments, often filled with sadness, anger, rage and fear, that I remember that to stand in solidarity means to stand strong with climate justice communities. In reflecting on lessons from leaders, like Pam, it reminds me that I have a duty and responsibility to support communities in need. 

These communities are on the front lines of climate injustice, and they should be at the forefront of the environmental and social justice movements. When we are able to support children to breathe freely, find renewable jobs for low income communities and to stop industrial waste from being released into the air, land and water, then we have started to do our job as a movement. READ MORE >>

 

A Family Brought a White-Tablecloth Restaurant to the Lower Ninth Ward

Café Dauphine co-proprietor and chef Tia Henry. (Photo: Mary Grace McKernan)

When the Henrys returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, they brought something different to the neighborhood most impacted by the storm.

NEW ORLEANS—On Café Dauphine’s opening day, at the end of June 2012, no one knew what to expect. The restaurant, in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, was packed. People ordered not from the restaurant’s test menu but from its full menu: gumbo, steaks, and shrimp po’boys—the city’s answer to submarine sandwiches. The owners—Tia and Fred Henry Jr. and his sister, Keisha—had never worked in the restaurant business. They’d never used heat lamps. They didn’t know the importance of timing and pacing in a restaurant—how to keep red beans hot, for example, while grilling hamburgers and frying fish. It was a disaster. “Thankfully,” Tia Henry says, “we have a very forgiving crowd.”

Even for seasoned restaurant professionals, it would have been an audacious undertaking to open the only full-service, white-tablecloth restaurant in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood that Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures had devastated seven years earlier.

New Orleans has one of America’s most robust and peculiar culinary traditions, with roots in France, Spain, Africa and, lately, Vietnam and Honduras. It is a city that literally lives to eat, and proudly supports its indigenous restaurants. But if a restaurant with Café Dauphine’s ambitions ever existed in the Lower Ninth Ward, evidence is buried deep. Older residents recall small family- or church-run places, but none seemed to last more than a few years. New Orleans restaurant critic Tom Fitzmorris doesn’t remember any fine dining restaurants in that area during his lifetime.

The Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly African American neighborhood roughly four miles down the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, doesn’t figure prominently in Fitzmorris’ tally of metropolitan New Orleans’ 1,406 restaurants. (Café Dauphine, however, is on his “400 Most Essential New Orleans Restaurants” list.) The neighborhood is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers a food desert: a low-income area with at least 500 people living more than a mile from a supermarket or a large grocery store. For decades before Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward had been one of New Orleans’ most economically disinvested neighborhoods. Yet it was a relatively stable community of homeowners, with several corner grocery stores and small businesses, many of them locally owned. READ MORE>>

Robert Green of the L9: I Was There: Hurricane Katrina: Rooftop Rider

Why the Lower Ninth Ward Looks Like the Hurricane Just Hit

In the Lower Ninth, empty lots remain a common sight. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

A block and a half separate Henry Irvin’s 
house from the bayou that serves as the northern border of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Modest single-family homes used to line both sides of the street, before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Today, it’s all but empty. Irvin, a 79-year-old widower with two bad knees, has no neighbors between him and the bayou. Facing in the other direction, Irvin stares into a similar solitude: There’s a falling-down house two lots away and a small Baptist church at the end of his block, but otherwise Irvin—a man often called the “mayor of the Lower Ninth Ward,” even by the city’s current mayor—lives here alone. One block over, on Tricou Street, there are six occupied homes, a veritable metropolis in this corner of the community. In whatever direction Irvin points his red truck, he traverses entire blocks choked with vegetation, devoid of both houses and people. READ MORE >>

NPR: Ghosts Of Katrina Still Haunt New Orleans' Shattered Lower Ninth Ward

Sobering reminder of the work that remains:

"The flooded streets and destroyed homes of the New Orleans neighborhood known as the Lower Ninth Ward were among the most powerful and iconic images from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath 10 years ago.

Now, much of New Orleans is back — more than half of the city's neighborhoods have recovered some 90 percent of their pre-storm population.

That's not the case for the Lower Ninth." READ MORE>>

Holy Cross Voices: Pam Dashiell, Part 1

Pam Dashiell, past President of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and co-founder of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development (CSED), was an uncommon force in the community even before Hurricane Katrina and the almost insurmountable recovery that followed flooding in New Orleans 10 years ago. But she was unstoppable, a fierce advocate for all people in the Lower 9 and their right to return and rebuild.

Pam passed away on December 1, 2009 at age 61.

This interview, conducted on June 2, 2006, explores her passion for moving to New Orleans, and then to the Holy Cross Neighborhood 15 years earlier. She remained a community activist and leader during her time in New Orleans, as well as an amazing catalyst to renew her hometown post-Katrina as a sustainable model for the world.

How did you first discover New Orleans?

My great-grandmother was here during the Civil War and the first part of Reconstruction; she left from here to go to Boston. My grandmother, her mother, used to tell me stories about her adventures here. I don’t know whether she was making it up or whether she really did have all these adventures, right? And I just thought it was the most wonderful thing: she used to tell me about the French Quarter, the French Market, Congo Square, and all of that. It just captured my imagination, I started reading everything I could read on New Orleans, and I loved movies that featured New Orleans… So I came to New Orleans with my daughter, enrolled her in kindergarten, got a job the first week I was here at the Welfare Office – and I’ve been here ever since.

What is it about Holy Cross that you have always been so fond of?

The people. Really, the people, because there’s a spirit here: if you feel like being left alone, you can be, and you can just kinda go your own way – on the one hand. But on the other hand, there’s this grit to people down here; it’s like, just plain working people without a bunch of pretensions who are stubborn and who are knowledgeable and smart and just wonderful people; not rich people much, but just great people. And then the lay of the land, I like that, I like the way it’s laid out, I love the houses… I really like the levee. I even like the industry, and I like the commerce on the river…there’s so much here and there’s so much potential.

What do you mean by that?

There’s been a lot of blight, no question about it, and a lot of ignoring of the whole Lower Nine, including Holy Cross. And there’s a potential for change to upgrade the houses, make some of the ones that have deteriorated beautiful again, and to live in a lovely village, with services. It was a village, or suburb, without services for many years. It’s just a great place with a lot of potential and a lot to offer. And wonderful, wonderful, friendly people!

Sunday Reading: Is New Orleans Safe?

Thoughtful piece about the future of New Orleans - its cultural and geopolitical future at the foot of the Mississippi - by Kohn Barry (via NY Times) author of Rising Tide:

THIS city always had a different rhythm. It was the opposite of New York: After a stevedore was overheard saying, “If you can’t make it in the Big Easy, you can’t make it anywhere,” the phrase “The Big Easy” made its way from the African-American community into Newsweek, and spread. For decades, the city’s ambitious young men and women loved it yet fled, while those who did move here found places for themselves in existing spaces, slipping into its crevices, embracing it.

Hurricane Katrina, 10 years ago this month, changed much of that. The essence of the city — its rhythms and smells — survived the storm, even if it seems more like Disneyland than ever. But it has also become a dynamic place. After the storm, tens of thousands of volunteers flocked here to rebuild; thousands, many in their 20s, stayed. They did not seek to slip into existing space; they came determined to make, not find, spaces for themselves and to create a new American city. READ MORE >>

Holy Cross Voices: Warrenetta Banks

Holy Cross Voices: Warrenetta from Help Holy Cross on Vimeo.

Warrenetta Banks, of New Orleans' Holy Cross Neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward, recalls her experiences during Hurricane Katrina leading up to the 10th Anniversary of the storm and flooding that destroyed her community.

Welcome Back to the Nine, American Baptist Home Mission Societies!

Passionaries Serving in New Orleans: CSED's Warrenetta Banks, Arthur Johnson

The staff of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, including Arthur Johnson (in back with dark shirt and glasses) and Warrenetta Banks (middle row, third from left), volunteer coordinator

American Baptists who volunteer with American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ (ABHMS) “Home Mission: ’Til the Work is Done” in New Orleans are familiar with the welcoming faces of personnel from the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED). Volunteers have particularly grown to know CSED’s Warrenetta Banks, volunteer coordinator, and Arthur Johnson, CEO. As residents of and tireless advocates for the Lower 9th Ward, both Banks and Johnson are heroes in their own right.

Banks has spent 50-plus years in the Lower 9th Ward, where she was born and raised. CSED’s offices are housed within Banks’ more-than-a-century-old church, just down the street from her residence. Banks regularly shares her personal story with volunteers and encourages other residents to do likewise.

“Volunteers keep coming back not only because there is so much work to be done but because they get to work directly with a homeowner that is either back in the home or trying to get back in the home. Here, in New Orleans, people are very friendly. We are laid back. We love to eat, but we love to talk as well,” she says. “Volunteers realize, ‘You’re no different from me— you had children, you a had a job, and [after the hurricanes] everything in your life changed.’" READ MORE>>

Shooting in Holy Cross

NOPD officer shoots and kills suspect in Lower Ninth Ward

New Orleans Police are investigating a fatal, officer-involved shooting in the Lower 9th ward.

According to the NOPD, a suspect was shot and killed near Caffin and Chartres Street, in the Holy Cross neighborhood.

Police say the shooting happened about 9:30 Saturday morning.

The unidentified white male suspect died on the scene. READ MORE AT WWL>>

Pharmacy in the Lower Nine (finally)? It Could Happen

Site of the proposed new CVS pharmacy

In "CVS seeks a tax break to open in Lower 9th Ward", Nola.com looks at the possibility of a major chain pharmacy to open in the Lower Ninth Ward at 5000 N Claiborne Ave.:

"Developers of a planned CVS Pharmacy in the Lower 9th Ward are asking for a property tax break as part of financing the project, which would be the first major retail project in the neighborhood since Hurricane Katrina. 

The New Orleans Industrial Development Board, which negotiates incentives with private developers to lure new projects, gave approval Thursday (July 23) to begin talks with the CVS developer, First Hartford Corp. 

The proposed $6 million store would sit on an entire city block at 5000 N. Claiborne Ave. Developers have already received city approval to build there. The store is expected to open in 2016." READ MORE>>

Perez will Host Holy Cross School Site Meeting - July 29

Perez, APC will host an outreach meeting to introduce the Holy Cross site project. The meeting will take place Wednesday, July 29, 10 a.m. - noon in the Multi-Purpose 1 room on the second floor of the Sanchez Center, 1616 Caffin Ave. READ MORE>>

All neighborhood residents are encouraged to attend!

Touring the Nine w/ Devin Vine, Barber

This is a one shot video with the voice of Barber, Devin Vine. A resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, he is working towards completing a Barber's License and eventually opening up his own shop that caters to naturally styled hair.

Touring the Nine w/ Burnell Cotlon, founder of the Lower 9th Ward Grocery

This is a one shot video with the voice of Burnell Cotlon, founder of the Lower 9th Ward Grocery. He currently operated the only grocery in the Lower 9th Ward since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Sunday Read: Jenga Mwendo in "Food Democracy"

The Lower 9's Jenga Mwendo, a longtime food activist and founder of the Backyard Gardeners Network and the Guerilla Garden in Holy Cross, is featured in this great Sunday read in Natural Awakenings, "Food Democracy: By the People, for the People and Toward a Stronger Nation":

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Jenga Mwendo knew she had to leave her high-powered job in New York City and return to her hometown in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward. “My parents raised me to contribute,” Mwendo explains. “My first name means ‘to build’ and my last name means ‘always progressing’.”

In 2009, Mwendo founded the Backyard Gardeners Network (BGN), a local nonprofit organization that restores and strengthens what had once been a thriving, closely knit, self-reliant community, rich with backyard gardens and citizen engagement. Residents went to work, recognizing the potential of community gardens to revitalize their neighborhood and bring affordable healthful food to residents, many of them suffering from obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The BGN both revitalized a community garden and converted a blighted lot into a Guerrilla Garden, where people of all ages gather to grow food, share stories, embrace their cultural heritage and learn how to become responsible citizens.

“We bring people together and make decisions collectively,” says Mwendo. “The garden is for our community, by our community.” Understanding the value of involving children and teens, she adds, “Kids know they will be loved here. This is a nurturing environment.”

READ MORE >>

Pre-Construction Community Meeting: N. Claiborne Ave, Thursday, June 18

The City of New Orleans, Department of Public Works and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, will host a pre-construction community meeting to discuss upcoming  construction projects on N. Claiborne Ave. from Reynes to Andry streets and ramps between Tennessee and Delery streets. 

The meeting will take place at Andrew P. Sanchez Community Center, 1616 Caffin Ave., Thursday, June 18, at 6:00 p.m

(via Lower 9 CSED News)

Congrats to the Cotlon's on PitchNOLA Living Well Award

Congrats to to Burnell and Keasha Cotlon for the Lower 9th Ward Market, the first food store to open in the area in the 10 years since Hurricane Katrina, winning the $5,000 first-place prize in last month’s Propeller’s PitchNOLA: Living Well competition.

"The market is currently in operation at the corner of Caffin Avenue and North Galvez Street. Prior to the market’s opening last November, many nearby residents were traveling five miles or three bus lines to reach the nearest grocery store. The Cotlons will use the seed money to expand inventory and to purchase a second truck for local deliveries. "READ MORE>>

'10' Exhibition Relays Hurricane Katrina Experiences

In the few short months leading up to Katrina's 10th Anniversary, this exhibit in Slidell is worth checking out (opening June 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m at the Slidell Cultural Center):

Hurricane Katrina experiences relayed in '10' exhibition at OTAC in Slidell

"This year, the importance of the number "10" is not lost on any of us who were Louisiana residents on August 29, 2005. On that day ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving each of us with our own stories about how the storm changed our lives." READ MORE >>

Growing Fast in the Nine

Check out these amazing shots from the new raised bed planters back of Lower 9 CSED's Sustainable Demonstration House at 5227 Chartres! Great crop of fresh veggies growing fast and strong as part of the sustainable landscaping and garden in the backyard. Looking good!

These planters were designed and constructed by the neighborhood's friends Historic Green in March as part of their Spring Greening week - longtime partners of CSED and the Lower 9th Ward. The raised planters make it easier for our elderly and handicapped folks to garden. Thanks to everyone!

Sunday Photo: The Old Semmes School

"The Old Semmes School". Photo by Marna David

Lower 9th Ward Creative Arts Festival - August 4th @ Sam Bonart Park

T-P Features Calvin Alexander and his Backyard Farm

Congrats to Holy Cross resident and farmer (and past HCNA president) Calvin Alexander, featured in yesterday's Times-Picayune feature, "Cornucopia of vegetables, herbs grows in Ninth Ward back yard":

By Annette Sisco

When Calvin Alexander parks in front of his home on Caffin Avenue, Helen comes running. Helen is a blond hen, one of about 20 that lay eggs for Alexander’s booth at the Sankofa Farmer’s Market on St. Claude Avenue.

With his salt-and-pepper beard and salesman’s manner, Alexander, 60, is a fixture at the Lower Ninth Ward market every Saturday, peddling not just fresh eggs but also vegetables, herbs and half a dozen varieties of fiery pepper plants, all grown right in the neighborhood.

Alexander and his wife, Natalie, squeeze the most out of every corner of their back yard, plus the patch of ground at a rental they own and a couple of rows at a local community garden.

“All total, I probably have about 50 by 60 feet,” Alexander said. “That’s not even a quarter of an acre.”

Alexander started earning his backyard green thumb when he was 6 years old, living in Memphis.

“My granddad was a master farmer,” he said. “He was great with animals, as well as agriculture. And my mom and dad had a garden. We had about half an acre. We had peaches, figs, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, okra, all sorts of green vegetables, carrots, potatoes and peanuts.”

There were also chickens, ducks and geese. “And we had dozens of pigs.” READ FULL ARTICLE >>

via blog.nola.com

Support Tekrema's 4th Annual Fundraiser, Saturday, July 21

Come out and support the Tekrema Center's 4th annual fundraiser "A Night in Dakar" Saturday July 21st at 7 p.m. at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music Performance Hall, 1901 Bartholomew Street, New Orleans.

Street Work Begins in 9th Ward: Forstall, Tupelo and Alvar

The state is set to begin reconstruction work today on several New Orleans streets in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

All are in the city’s 9th Ward.

Barrier Construction Co. is the contractor for the $2.4 million project, which involves segments of Forstall, Tupelo and Alvar streets.

The state Department of Transportation and Development said the work will include resurfacing, repairing curbs and installing handicap-compliant ramps. Completion is expected by October.

The project is part of the Paths to Progress program targeting more than 60 roadway segments in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish.

via neworleanscitybusiness.com

Fireworks! Another Great Holy Cross Neighborhood 4th of July Party!

Another wonderful Holy Cross Neighborhood Assn. 4th of July Party - and the best view of the city's fireworks display on the Mississippi River Levee! Thanks to our friend Darryl Malek-Wiley for these terrific photos!

Sunday Photo: House in Need of a Homeowner

"House in Need of a Homeowner". Photo by Dave Macaulay.

Red X sign on the front of this abandoned property along Dauphine Street was placed there by the New Orleans Fire Department - indicates the building poses a fire hazard.

New Lower 9 Health Clinic Will Open along St. Claude/Holy Cross School Property

The Holy Cross School has sold and donated a portion of its former campus to New Orleans Baptist Ministries, which plans to open a health clinic there by the end of the year. The primary-care clinic, Christ Community Health Services-NOLA, will be the only medical facility serving the Lower 9th Ward.

Charles DiGange, headmaster of the school, which moved to Gentilly after Hurricane Katrina, said the school is delighted that it has been able to find a partial re-use of the campus that will benefit the Holy Cross neighborhood. The Holy Cross neighborhood is named after the school, which was founded in 1859.

"The health clinic is really, really needed in the Lower 9. I'm glad we can continue our service to the neighborhood even though we're not there physically," DiGange said. "We're dedicated to making sure that whatever entity bought the property would be a good fit for the neighborhood."

Since announcing its intention to move in December 2005, the boys Catholic middle school and high school has struggled to find a new use for its 15-acre campus. The school went through a master planning process with the neighborhood a few years ago, which came up with high-rise condominiums along the river, shopping, and mixed-income housing further inland, among other things.

...

Under the new deal, New Orleans Baptist Ministries will take over 3.5 acres of the school's land.

The faith-based non-profit bought the school's former baseball field in the square bounded by Reynes, North Rampart, Deslonde and Burgundy for $405,000. READ MORE >>

via www.nola.com

Tomorrow at Tekrema Center: A Community Health Fair!

Join Us for the Annual HCNA 4th of July Celebration!

For Sale: Global Green's Holy Cross Project Homes!

At last, the sustainably-designed and -built homes at Global Green's Holy Cross Project (corner of Douglass & Andry) are on the market! Holy Cross Neighborhood resident and realtor Marna David is working with the non-profit organization to sell these wonderful properties on the levee. Here's what she says:

"Four of Global Green's 21st Century Shotgun Homes are ready for sale and you could call one of them home. Two are single story, two are two-storied and all are economical in their use of space and energy. The open floor plans provide a feel of spaciousness. Give yourself the double pleasure of living in one of the first LEED Platinum rated homes in New Orleans, and, at the same time, take in the park-like levee every time you look out your front window. With solar panels, ENERGY STAR appliances and applied green building techniques, these unique homes offer some of the most affordable and enjoyable living to be had. Come sit in one of these houses for 10 minutes and feel the difference that a people-friendly, non-toxic environment can offer. And. Call the energetic Historic Holy Cross Neighborhood home!"

Sunday Photo: The Guerrilla Garden

"The Guerrilla Garden" (Chartres & Charbonnet). Photo by Dave Macaulay.

April News from Tekrema Center for Art and Culture

On WGNO, Mack McClendon Speaks Out: "Activist Says Very Little Progress In Lower Ninth Ward"

LOWER NINTH WARD – While some neighborhoods are starting to re-populate in the Lower Ninth Ward, the Executive Director of the Lower 9th Ward Village took our cameras to places where much work still needs to be done.

via www.abc26.com

Times-Picayune: Holy Cross' Lower 9th Ward campus makeover comes up short

By Frank Donze, The Times-Picayune

Citing their inability to line up financing, developers have scrapped a proposal to buy the shuttered Holy Cross School campus and bring a full-service supermarket and affordable housing for teachers to the Lower 9th Ward site. A team led by New Orleans-based Green Coast Enterprises signed an agreement to buy the 16-acre tract last year. But the group notified the school's real estate agent recently that it would not be able to meet a late January deadline to finalize the purchase.

David da Cunha, the Property One broker representing Holy Cross, said Friday that the developers were attempting to cobble together several sources of funding, including a loan from a City Hall-administered program set up to provide residents with greater access to healthful food choices.

"It proved to be too slow of a process for them, " da Cunha said, "so they decided to pull out. It was a business decision they had to make.''

Green Coast officials couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

Holy Cross officials, who moved the school to a new home in Gentilly two-and-a-half years ago, announced last spring that they were looking for a buyer for the old campus.

Property One established an asking price of $2.1 million for the entire site, including several parcels adjacent to or near the campus.

Site may be broken up

While the school still would prefer a single transaction, da Cunha said there now "may be an opportunity to carve out some of the pieces and sell it less than whole." READ MORE >>

via www.nola.com

L9 Residents Please Oppose Alcohol Permit for Gas Station in our Community!

To: Residents and Friends of the Lower 9th Ward

Re: Public Hearing Opposing Alcohol Permit Application for 5202 North Claiborne Avenue (Gas station at Lizardi and North Claiborne).

We are requesting your presence at this public hearing on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber (Room 1EO7), City Hall, 1300 Perdido Street. WE DO NOT NEED MORE LIQUOR STORES IN OUR LOWER 9TH WARD COMMUNITY.

Residents and friends of the Lower 9th ward community, let’s ban together in great numbers and oppose this alcohol permit. Your presence is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

William P. Waiters
President, HCNA

Louisiana Green Corps is Hiring!

Louisiana Green Corps is looking for Orleans and Jefferson Parish residents, ages 18 to 21 to enroll in its three month job training program.

This three-month job training program prepares individuals to enter the workforce focusing on construction and green industries. Throughout the program participants will have the opportunity to receive a variety of nationally recognized certifications and will be eligible for incentive payments, as well as an AmeriCorps Education Award of $1,250! In Addition, the program provides participants with field experience in deconstruction and salvage, basic weatherization practices and carpentry skills.

Certifications include:

• Roots of success environmental literacy
• CPR/First Aid
• NCCER Multi-Craft Core Construction
• 10 Hour OSHA Safety
• 8 hour lead rennovation, repair, and painting
• Asbestos Awareness
• Forklift operator training

Be a part of Session 9! Call: 504-613-4661

PRC Properties for Sale in the Holy Cross Neighborhood

The Preservation Resource Center's Operation Comeback renovates and sells blighted and adjudicated properties. All OC properties are carefully restored using historically sensitive materials and designs to retain the character of the home and neighborhood. OC has a revolving inventory of properties in various stages of renovation available to interested buyers. Several financing incentives are available for first-time homebuyers and first responders of Orleans Parish.

5450-52 Dauphine St.
Please contact the realtor for more information.
Raised Arts and Crafts Shotgun Double
2 Bedrooms / 1 Bathroom on each side
Approx. 1,890 square feet
30' x 159' lot

 

5204 Burgundy St.
$99,000
3 Bedroom / 2 Bathroom
1,162 square feet
32' x 64' lot
Original wood flooring

6215 Dauphine St.

$164,900

2 Bedroom / 2 Bathroom
1,331 square feet
Front porch, back porch, and side gallery
30' x 113' lot

405 St. Maurice St.
Please contact the realtor for more information.

2 Bedroom / 2 Bathroom
1,200 square feet
Private Courtyard
30' x 104' lot
Built c. 1900's

For more information on available properties, please contact Lisa Ross, Real Estate Marketing Manager, at 504.636.3078 or [email protected].

Holiday Events: Toy Give Aways and Tree Lighting!

December 17th at 10 a.m.

USA Mail and Parcel is hosting its annual Toy Give Away at 5000 St. Claude Ave. Toys for boys and girls between the ages of 6 months and 12 years will be available. If you are interested in donating you can drop of new toys at the address above or give a monetary gift.

For more information please call (504) 944-8052

December 19th from 5 - 7:30 p.m.: "Celebration on St. Claude Avenue"

Toy Give Away at 1001 Charbonnet St.

• Live Stageplay!
• Refreshments
• Photo with Santa Claus

Christmas Tree Lighting at 5909 St. Claude Ave.

The Leona Tate Foundation for Change, INC., The Lower 9th Ward Village, Plessy & Ferguson Foundation, The Renaissance Project & A Desire for Change are sponsoring a "Celebration on St. Claude Avenue."

For more information please call: (504) 304-7868 

Lower 9 Business Info Session at All Soul's - Today @ 5 pm

City’s 5th ‘Fight the Blight’ Happens Saturday (12/10) @ Sam Bonart Playground

This Saturday, December 10, 2011, we are hosting our 5th “Fight the Blight” Volunteer Day from 9:00am– 1:00pm. This effort is being coordinated through ServeNOLA, the Mayor’s service and volunteerism initiative.

With the holiday season upon us and a slate of big events coming to the City, this is a great time for the community to once again take a few hours to assist in cleaning our neighborhoods, improving parks and playgrounds, and litter abatement. We have seen progress in the past year addressing our city’s pressing blight and cleanliness problem, but the battle continues. And again, to be successful, this must be a partnership between the City, local neighborhood organizations, local non-profits and volunteers from throughout New Orleans.

Our efforts will be targeted within a five-block radius of open schools, playgrounds and high-traffic commercial corridors. The five locations for the upcoming “Fight the Blight” Volunteer Day will include:

Sam Bonart Playground, 1200 Forstall Street (District E)

Activities will include litter abatement, cleaning of catch basins, improvements to parks and playgrounds, neighborhood beautification, code citing, and painting. Volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves.

Please join us in our efforts. To volunteer for this Saturday’s effort, sign up online at www.nola.gov.

We hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Mitchell J. Landrieu
Mayor

via nolahoods.com

Work to begin in January on Lower 9 streetscape improvements

By Christian Moises

Two five-month streetscape improvement projects in the Lower 9th Ward are expected to start by January.

Plus Concrete Inc. of New Haven, Mich., was the apparent low bidder earlier this month on the projects that will improve North Claiborne Avenue from Andry to Lamanche streets and St. Claude Avenue from the St. Claude Bridge to Egania Street.

Work will include adding a walking path to the neutral ground, replacing concrete sidewalk panels, repairing drainage and improving landscaping. READ MORE >>

via neworleanscitybusiness.com

Holy Cross Project on the Art Home Tour - Today!

Global Green's Holy Cross Project is on the 3rd Annual New Orleans Art Home tour! Be sure to stop be sure to stop by the Visitor Center at Douglass & Andry streets between 12 and 5:30 pm today to see the amazing collection of local art and photography.

Art Home New Orleans is a program from the Creative Alliance of New Orleans that introduces participants to the depth and quality of art collectors in New Orleans. On November 19^th and 20^th from 12 to 5.30pm, selected homes will open up to the public to exhibit their local collections. Art Home’s true mission is to have art collectors educate participants on the individuality of art collections and encourage them to go one step beyond appreciation, to the actual purchase of art.CANO has also paired young professionals with some of these emerging artists by staging pop up exhibitions of affordable artwork for sale. Art Home New Orleans ticket holders can also attend a lecture November 19th at 11am led by New Orleans' most knowledgeable curators, collectors, and art dealers. CANO has designed the series to explore local trends in art, demystify the practice of art collecting, and inspire confidence in a new generation of local collectors and arts patrons.

Art Home New Orleans is part of the 3^nd annual arts+gardens+new orleans fall festival.arts+gardens+new orleans is a four-month long festival of events that highlights parks, gardens, and cultural venues, performances and exhibitions all over town, including major museums, theater groups, musical venues, neighborhood cultural venues and sites.

For more information and to register, go here.

Help Us Monitor Blighted and Abandoned Properties

The New Orleans Fire Department is asking the New Orleans Police Department and the citizens of the community, to assist them in locating blighted and abandoned properties that are inhabited by unauthorized occupants (i.e. squatters). They are concerned about these individuals creating/using unsafe heating sources to keep themselves warm in the cold weather. NOFD would like to install smoke detectors in these properties in order to minimize the loss of life during cold weather and to hopefully reduce the impact of such fires.

NOFD would appreciate our help with gathering the addresses of these properties. We will also be sharing the list with the Director of Homelessness Services for the City of New Orleans, and those individuals identified as homeless and want assistance, will be offered services.

Please, reply to Officer Matthew L. Alsina Sr. with any addresses you are aware of by Monday, November 14th. We will consolidate the lists and share them with NOFD and Homelessness Services. Thank you very much for your time and help.

Common Ground Relief Party, Sunday, November 20th

Please join Common Ground Relief on Sunday, November 20th, from 1 to 4 p.m., for a party – with refreshments, great music including Irma Thomas and the Youth Orchestra of the Lower Ninth Ward, and hip, new tennis shoes by Civic Duty Shoes!

What: November 20th Party at Common Ground Relief
Where: Common Ground Relief, 1800 Deslonde Street, New Orleans, LA in the Lower 9th Ward
When: November 20th, 2011, 1pm - 4pm

Come to Second Saturday at Sankofa Farmers Market, Nov. 12

Holy Cross resident Calvin Alexander is one of many local growers (and canners) who participate in the Sankofa Farmers Market at nearby Holy Angels.

PHOTO: Rashida Ferdinand. And thanks to CSED Lower 9 News for sharing!

In a continuing monthly tradition, the Sankofa Farmers Market will host its Second Saturday event on November 12th during regular market hours from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.  
 
Second Saturday will feature the following activities and events:

• Health Screenings with the LSU School of Medicine 
• Healthy cooking demonstration with an LSU Ag. Center nutritionist from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Live Music from Coup de Fire from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• A Children's Farmers Market Scavenger Hunt Activity

 

Strategic Plan for Community Wellness - to be announced today!

Strategic Plan for Community Wellness to be Released by the Lower Ninth Ward Community Wellness Consortium on Monday, November 7th

The Strategic Plan for Community Wellness will be announced at an open meeting scheduled for 6:15 PM on Monday, November 7, 2011 at the Caffin Avenue International Seventh Day Adventist Church, 1019 Caffin Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward. Dr. John Ruffin, Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health will attend the meeting to discuss the Plan withcommunity members and representatives from institutions that participated in the strategic planning.

The Strategic Plan for Community Wellness contains specificaction pathways and recommendations from the Lower Ninth Ward Community Wellness Consortium in the areas of Health and Wellness, Education and Schools, Social and Recreational, Economic Development and Jobs, Neighborhood Housing and Environment, and Community Infrastructure. Representatives from the community are clear to point out that the recommendations will become a reality through the active involvement of members of the community to promote their own well being and through partnerships with non-governmental and governmental agencies.

The Plan is the result of a one year strategic planning process conducted by leaders of community organizations and citizens of the Lower Ninth Ward in collaboration with the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center, a partnership between Dillard University and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center at the University of Alabamaat Birmingham also provided assistance to the effort. The community engagement effort was successful in recruiting and retaining a consistent number of participants that were highly committed and attended 21 meetings. These meetings were open to all members of the community. Eighteen organizations were represented throughout this processand came together to form the Lower Ninth Ward Community Wellness Consortium that will continue promoting the development of the Plan and the implementation of its recommendations.

Six years after Hurricane Katrina, the devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward community and its residents are still very evident in the physical environment and the psyche of the individuals who live there. "Despite the prolonged trauma and the disproportional impact to this vulnerable population, the community is resilient in its efforts to rebuild and persistent in its pursuit for justice and equity in the rebuilding process" said Dr. Shelia Webb who lead the survey research and the community focus groups that informed the Strategic Plan for Community Wellness.