1038 Louisa

While driving around the City taking photos of houses on the agenda for Mondays demolition hearings, I began to notice that the utilities were cut off BEFORE approval and that the subcontractor was defacing the property by spray painting the initials of the company, AJM.

There were a couple of things that struck me about this house,
1. it was structurally sound
2. it appeared to have been not just stripped of it’s utilities but also the entire old brick sidewalk had been ripped up
3. It is in the Bywater District covered by the Historic District Landmark Commission.
4. It was and never had been on an agenda to be considered for demolition.

I tracked down the owner and he was shocked to find out that the demolition contractors had made the bold and most likely illegal move to disconnect his utilities while he, the owner was preparing the house for renovation.

So what have we here? An eager beaver contractor defacing property and causing more problems than they solve.

Karen Gadbois co-founded The Lens. She now covers New Orleans government issues and writes about land use. With television reporter Lee Zurik she exposed widespread misuse of city recovery funds and led...

10 replies on “Ready, Set ….. DON"T DEMO”

  1. NO, we have to keep demolishing homes! How else will we stabilize rent so that it remains prohibitively high?

  2. Pingback: Suspect Device: The Blog » Ready, Set DON’T DEMO | Squandered Heritage

  3. please give the full name of “AJM” so we can spread the news and tell EVERYONE to watch out.

  4. Louisiana Secretary of State
    Detailed Record

    Charter/Organization ID: 36068358D

    Name: AJM DEMOLITION, INC.

    Type Entity: Business Corporation

    Status: Active

    Annual Report Status: Not In Good Standing for failure to file current Annual Report

    2007 Annual Report is required at this time Print Annual Report Form For Filing

    Mailing Address: C/O ANDREA J. MONTEROSSO, 821 NASHVILLE AVE., NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115

    Domicile Address: 821 NASHVILLE AVE., NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115

    File Date: 12/09/2005

    Registered Agent (Appointed 12/09/2005): ANDREA J. MONTEROSSO, 821 NASHVILLE AVE., NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115

    Director: ANDREA J. MONTEROSSO, 821 NASHVILLE AVE., NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115

  6. Ok..is this his home address cuz I do not think it is a business address…..add to that, he’s only been in business since 2005????? and he is not in good standing…

    Great job city of NO and State of LA…another great hire in our recovery.

  8. Having a busy schedule all Spring and getting sidetracked by national politics has kept me from knowing as much about this as I should. In an earlier post, you mentioned DRC (which somehow went from not being able to get its foot in the door to being a player) seeming to be a major contractor in the demolition process. Do you know anything about the city has contracted this out, is there one prime and several subcontractors? Are there numerous small contracts? Has the city placed a bounty on houses in certain neighborhoods?

  10. this is insane! is this still going on? with this type of activity, blakely will definitely meet his goal of knocking down 10,000 houses.

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