City Council President Arnie Fielkow has issued a newsletter on the taxpayer-financed city website that urges readers to vote for an upcoming ballot initiative, but he says his actions don’t violate state laws against using public funds to influence an election. Fielkow That’s because the newsletter, written by his communications director, didn’t cost anything beyond […]
Posted inEnvironment
Council wants city to get rid of remaining FEMA trailers
More than five years after Hurricane Katrina forced thousands of New Orleanians to take up temporary residence in FEMA trailers, City Council members say it’s time for Mayor Mitch Landrieu to enforce pre-Katrina laws barring mobile homes and remove the last remaining trailers from the city. “People don’t like having these trailers right next to […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Consultants at first questioned “urgent” tag of new hospital
Consultants who helped former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin secure $75 million in federal Katrina recovery grants for the construction of a new Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lower Mid-City initially questioned the legality of using federal disaster recovery grants for a project that would not be complete until seven to 10 years after the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Garden District Assocation criticizes citizen-input plan
One of the city’s better-organized neighborhood associations is opposing a proposed citizen-participation program, saying it is too bureaucratic, too expensive and too restrictive. The Garden District Association took issue in a letter last week with a draft of the Citizen Participation Project, which seeks to give voice to residents throughout the city by establishing a […]
Posted inLand Use
HANO closes applications to redevelop Iberville complex
The first round of a competition for the redevelopment rights of the city’s last major pre-Katrina public housing complex – the Iberville development – closed today. Interested developers had until 2 p.m. to present their qualifications to work with the Housing Authority of New Orleans. About 40 developers attended a pre-submission conference held Aug. 25 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Landrieu relents, and opens jail-advisory meetings
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has decided to open previously secret meetings that could decide the fate of controversial jail expansion plans. Landrieu convened a stakeholders group in July, responding to concerns about Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s proposals to rebuild and expand the Orleans Parish Prison complex. But the meetings would be closed to the public, his […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
A ripple runs ahead of a wave
Matt Davis in his recent story on The Lens gave a shallow interpretation of the ongoing campaign by a diverse group of New Orleanians who understand that a bigger jail has not and will not make our city safer.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
We’ll have to find another way to burn the Vikings tonight
Inspired by WhoDat mania and current events, I decided that today was the day to begin a new tradition. I’m calling it “Burn a Viking at the Stake Day.” My plan was to go to a nearby Capital One bank and grab one of those dirty Vikings they have on their commercials and burn him […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Major ad causes minor ripple
A full-page ad in today’s Times-Picayune urging the public to call elected city officials to protest jail-expansion plans had generated just 33 calls by 3 p.m. The ad, which cost $12,000, was paid for by a group of like-minded criminal justice reform advocates unhappy about a plan by Sheriff Marlin Gusman to expand the Orleans […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Iberville redevelopment quietly gets underway
With little fanfare or public conversation, the Housing Authority of New Orleans has begun the redevelopment process of the city’s last major pre-Katrina public housing complex — the Iberville development. Sitting on the fringe of the French Quarter, Iberville has long attracted interest from developers. Earlier this month, the housing authority issued a request to […]