After the announcement earlier this week that New Orleans won a $45 million federal stimulus program grant to build a new streetcar line on Loyola Avenue, I reminisced about the role of citizen watchdogs in ensuring that the Regional Transit Authority didn’t capitulate to tourism industry interests that wanted only to apply for a route […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Streetcar expansion earned through public cooperation
New Orleans is on a rail! Mardi Gras is over and the Super Bowl celebrations are retracting from their peak but the good news keeps on sliding down the track. On Wednesday, New Orleans was awarded one of 51 grants made eligible for the expansion of public transportation under last year’s stimulus program. The city […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Judge approves pact requiring city, School Board improve juvenile hall
A federal judge gave final approval Friday to two agreements for broad reform at the New Orleans juvenile detention center. Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle’s approval of the consent decrees legally obligates the city and Orleans Parish School Board to improve conditions and increase educational resources at the jail-like facility, a holding center for juvenile offenders […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City running months behind in paying architects
If you build it, they will pay. Or so the architects thought. Government is fondly seen by architects as a source of sizable and reliable, if often unglamorous, work. In a recession, a contract for a public school, library or community center could sustain a small firm for months – or so said industry lore. […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Catching up: Reports and ruminations from The Lens
A weekly review of our interesting, thought-provoking and original writing.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Distracted or disillusioned?
The Mardi Gras run-up and the Super Bowl celebrations were routinely described as diversions that kept residents of New Orleans from participating in municipal elections. Indeed, only about a third of registered voters cast ballots.However, I would argue that neither Carnival parades nor the Super Bowl distracted citizens from exercising the vote. Election Day was […]
Posted inEnvironment
The toxic numbers game
In my recent article about the slow release of money from the state for a program to address lead contamination across New Orleans, I wrote about arsenic levels in soil that are supposed to trigger a clean-up under state Department of Environmental Quality policy. In a document sent to me from DEQ entitled “Arsenic sampling […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
What IS going on at City Hall?
The past few weeks have been a distillation of what New Orleans is, and what we do best. Throwing off the yoke of the past few years and celebrating in the streets with ad-hoc parades as well as those that have been more carefully orchestrated, we all felt a renewed pride in our recovering Crescent […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Mitch’s Mandate
Mitch Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans on Saturday by a much larger margin than even the latest polls predicted, with a convincing 65 percent of the vote. Landrieu’s easy victory seemed unlikely given the city’s reputation for racial polarization and the wide field of opponents, but the mayor-elect’s campaign and get-out-the-vote strategies yielded […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Rebate for new appliances comes with a financial catch
Louisiana has been awarded $4.2 million by the U.S. Energy Department as part of the Energy Star rebate program, otherwise known as the Cash for Appliances program. Modeled after the Cash for Clunkers program that increased sales of fuel-efficient cars, and was heralded by the White House as a success, homeowners can get rebates for new […]