As state officials ratified Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to transfer $30 million from myriad local projects to a new steel and iron factory in St. James Parish, New Orleans legislators joined their colleagues statewide in a simple chorus: We were bamboozled.
Author Archives: Ariella Cohen
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Marigny grocery’s state money diverted to new iron factory
A New Orleans food cooperative building a grocery store on St. Claude Avenue is among the many projects statewide that stand to lose money as the state shifts funds to a North Carolina steelmaker’s new St. James Parish operation.
The New Orleans Food Cooperative got $375,000 in the capital outlay budget signed by Gov. Jindal in July. But now the Jindal administration wants to steer $30 million in state outlay funds to Nucor because the company says the subsidy is needed for it to build a new iron factory in St. James Parish – and the grocery store is one of dozens of projects getting axed as state officials juggle the numbers.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
$2 million will let city explore demo of Claiborne overpass
New Orleans was awarded a $2 million federal grant today to study revitalizing Claiborne Avenue, including possibilities for removing a portion of the elevated Interstate 10 expressway.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
HANO chief says he’ll show areas where vouchers are used
The Housing Authority of New Orleans will provide the public with information on where recipients of Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers live, HANO chief David Gilmore said today.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
HANO official: Agency not analyzing voucher locations
Despite spending millions to tear down public housing complexes and to implement a voucher program that would end the concentration of poor households, a Housing Authority of New Orleans official admitted Monday that the agency doesn’t analyze voucher use to determine whether new pockets of poverty may be forming elsewhere.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Mayor wants to create office for citizen-engagement
Citizen engagement got its own line in the 2011 budget brought before the City Council today by Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Among the items funded within the $126 million proposed budget for the Mayor’s Office is $483,950 for the creation of an Office of Neighborhood and Citizen Engagement. If funded, the office would be the city’s […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Landrieu wants city to measure up, literally, using Comstat-like metrics
In a budget address given this morning at Gallier Hall, Mayor Mitch Landrieu stressed his administration’s commitment to higher performance standards for city government. “For too long, the citizens of New Orleans have not gotten their money’s worth,” he said. “Because it’s not just about money, it’s leadership and results. I’m serious about performance, and […]
Posted inSchools
Charter schools not required to comply with proposal to help special ed students
Without a change in policy, the state can’t require New Orleans charter schools to participate in a centralized enrollment system and other reforms proposed Tuesday to help schools better serve New Orleans’ special-needs students. Among the changes proposed by State Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek is that all schools use a common application form, and that […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City agency makes changes in face of federal threat
A deadline passed today for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to prove that it could finish projects in an “effective and timely” way, or else lose $28 million in federal recovery money. The threat of losing money was spelled out in correspondence between the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s Office of the Inspector General […]
Posted inLand Use
HRI and C.J. Peete developer chosen for Iberville work
The Housing Authority of New Orleans today selected a proposed partnership between prominent local developer and a national company to lead efforts to redevelop the Iberville public housing development on the fringe of the French Quarter. The partnership is between HRI Properties and McCormack Baron Salazar. McCormack Baron Salazar is based in St. Louis, but […]