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 […]
Posted inSchools
Most charter schools continue to flout open-meetings laws by ignoring requests
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer Despite an October story by The Lens that highlighted charter school boards’ failure to comply with open-meetings laws, only some boards have consistently offered information in the past few months in response to standing requests. Our previous story showed that only 10 of 35 New Orleans public charter […]
Posted inSchools
Independent schoolhouse authority proposed
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas is talking up a plan to transfer control of Orleans Parish School Board facilities to a new authority that would build all the city’s public schools, whether operated by the school board, the state-run RSD or a charter board. Speaking Tuesday on […]
Posted inOpinion
Streetcars should bypass Elysian Fields connection for now
By Jeff Schwartz, guest opinion writer and founding member of Transport for Nola Streetcars once served communities throughout New Orleans. Today, for very good reasons, they’re coming back. That’s grounds for celebration, but also for concern that we don’t make some simple mistakes. This week, the RTA board made an important commitment to invest local […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Shepherd needs to pull up his big-boy britches
In August 2007, after City Councilmember Oliver Thomas resigned and admitted to taking bribes, his attorney was asked about the possibility of Thomas providing helpful testimony to Federal prosecutors. Shepherd ultimately confessed, and assumed total responsibility, but