By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | The New Orleans City Council voted unanimously this afternoon in support of an ordinance granting permission for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman to build a 1,438-bed jail. Gusman will have to demolish most of his other jail facilities as soon as possible once the new facility is […]
Posted inLand Use
New HANO site lets Section 8 residents, landlords better find and manage apartments
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | Three months after The Lens reported that Section 8 units managed by the Housing Authority of New Orleans remain primarily clustered in the poor neighborhoods the program intends to deconcentrate, HANO has introduced a new system that officials believe will help solve the problem. The new Housing […]
Posted inOpinion
Like healthcare repeal, Vitter's math-challenged pitch is dead on arrival
By Jed Horne, The Lens contributing opinion writer | With Louisiana’s David Vitter in faithful lockstep, U.S. Senate Republicans made good on their promise to put repeal of “Obamacare” to a vote and just as predictably have been defeated. The party-line vote came amid Democrats’ accusations that the GOP had no alternative, no meaningful plan […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Commenter’s mookery is of Biblical proportion
I miss Ashley Morris in all sorts of ways, but oh lord do I miss his responses to outsiders who casually blamed New Orleanians and Gulf Coastal residents for being so… afflicted by calamity. Morris popularized a special term for these nimrods, which immediately came to mind when I read a stunning example of heartlessness […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Director struggles to recover seed money owed her for blight-to-gardens program
Story updated, One week after this story ran, the city cut the vendor a check. By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | With her worn straw hat and tiny home office, 33-year-old landscape architect Abby Feldman is an unlikely benefactor for the city of New Orleans. Yet she has become essentially that over the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Investigations
Jail construction manager lacked license, gave money
Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman overruled his chief deputy three years ago to award a $23 million construction-management contract for his new jail complex to a company the deputy rated lower.
Posted inOpinion
How about real choice for neighborhoods close to Colton campus
By Chris O’Neill, The Lens contributing opinion writer | Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas is undeniably a busy man. Reorganizing the New Orleans public school system after Katrina and all the years of pre-Katrina neglect is a Herculean task. There’s so much to do, it leaves little time to pause and listen to suggestions, […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
It’s "The Jungle" out there, but we can feast on fresh local food
In ninth grade, I asked my classmate Ted why he didn’t eat hot dogs. He claimed he had worked in a hot dog factory the previous summer. “So?” I asked. Imagine being shirtless in a stinking hot warehouse, Ted said. You’re knee-deep in strange meat, and have to pitch it into a vat with a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Despite reservations, Gusman wants council to consider ordinance to let him build new jail
By Steve Beatty, The Lens staff writer | Despite being opposed to some requirements that could be imposed on him, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman said Friday that he wants the City Council to vote next week on whether to grant him a building permit for a new 1,438-bed jail. Gusman sent a point-by-point critique […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Jail advisory ripped by sheriff is scheduled to meet with him this afternoon at City Hall
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer The committee established by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to advise him on issues regarding the city’s jail complex meets today at 2, less than a day after Sheriff Marlin Gusman blasted the group’s work in a letter to the City Council. The Council is to consider Thursday a long-tabled […]