In addition to The Times-Picayune’s story on FEMA’s massive lump sum compensation to battered New Orleans Schools, Bayou Buzz shared this good news: New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu will join Oscar-winning actress, Sandra Bullock, to announce the opening of the Warren Easton High School health clinic on Sunday, August 29. … The Warren Easton school-based health […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Investigations, Land Use
At K+5, recovery plan becoming clearer; Lens maps mayor-backed projects
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s list of 100 sure-fire projects as welcome news. But there’s a long list of projects to which Landrieu hasn’t committed.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Landrieu cool to money for Citizen Participation Project
In his final meeting to get public input on next year’s budget priorities, Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Tuesday questioned whether the city should pay for a new program to encourage public input. David Welch of the Gentilly Civic Improvement Association asked the mayor to fund the Citizen Participation Project, an effort included in the city’s […]
Posted inEnvironment, Land Use
City posts contracts for Joe Brown, riverfront park work
Less than a week after announcing his administration’s plans for more than 100 projects, Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Monday signed a contract for another recreation effort. The $1.7 million contract to renovate the Joe Brown Park was posted to the city’s website today. Also posted was the $23 million contract for a new riverfront park […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Forget wars, oil and economy; we’ve got a mosque alert!
The Park51 Muslim community center and mosque complex should not be built near Ground Zero because I heard it will contain a birthing pool for terrorist babies. Seriously, can this manufactured story twist further into the absurd? It’s an election year, and we’re dealing with two wars, a lingering recession, and an environmental catastrophe in […]
Posted inLand Use, Opinion
Katrina shorthand fatigue
It’s a shame Ray Lang stopped blogging at On Levee Failures & A Weather Event. Ray’s posts were a recurring reminder to defend against “Katrina Shorthand” – the tendency to describe 8/29 as a hurricane, and obscure the fact that poorly designed levee walls flooded most of New Orleans. For us, “Katrina” was a devastating […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Don’t waste a good disaster: Spill could help The Hoff
Saints fans carefully appraised my suggestion to play “Glee” songs on game days, and they decided the idea had less merit than an unflushed toilet. After such a blogging debacle, you’d think I’d be disinclined to use my platform at The Lens to make additional pop culture proposals. But when I get into a hole, […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City begins new era with approval of master plan
In a long-anticipated final step for a winding process that began shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the City Council unanimously approved a new citywide master plan Thursday City officials hope the new plan will reduce conflict over development in neighborhoods and help attract new investment by setting clear and consistent rules for building. “It tells investors […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Master plan moving forward with no clear source of funding for citizen participation element
The City Council will vote Thursday on whether to give final approval to a citywide master plan establishing new guidelines for land use and civic participation. The vote is largely symbolic because of an amendment to the City Charter approved by voters in 2008 that legally enshrined the plan even before consultants completed it in […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Fresh-food, investment plan may be in list of 100 projects
The 100 fully funded projects that Mayor Mitch Landrieu plans to unveil Friday, on his 103rd day in office, may include neighborhood-based recovery programs, as well as bricks-and-mortar projects. Designed by the staff of former recovery czar Ed Blakely and financed out of a $411 million pot of federal Disaster Community Development Block Grants given […]