By Naomi Martin, The Lens staff writer | All education majors at the University of New Orleans would take on teaching roles in the four Capital One-UNO charter schools, under a new plan presented to the charters’ governing board. The New Beginnings School Foundation oversees 1,640 students in four schools: P.A. Capdau Elementary, Gentilly Terrace […]
Author Archives: The Editors
Posted inGovernment & Politics
David Simon tosses bead
Even the “Treme” boss himself had to work the Muses parade shoot. David Simon joined others in tossing beads to the actors, who were pretending to be looking up at a passing float. And they weren’t even great beads.
Posted inOpinion
Coastal residents report oil spill's lasting effects
By Shannon Dosemagen, The Lens contributing opinion writer | Ten months after the Deepwater Horizon sank into the Gulf of Mexico, the long-term impacts of the oil spill continue to surface in coastal communities, and the developing picture is not a pretty one. Since 2000, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) has trained communities affected by […]
Posted inOpinion
Confederacy's 150th: High time we honored the scalawags
By C.W. Cannon, The Lens contributing opinion writer | As we trudge into the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Confederacy, we can take heart that commemorations of the four-year fight to preserve slavery are paltry—especially when compared with the centennial in 1961. The cult-like adoration of all things Confederate seems to have dwindled to “a niche […]
Posted inOpinion
Don't bulldoze blight. Use it as bait to lure newcomers
By Brad Vogel, The Lens contributing opinion writer | Even if New Orleans wanted to destroy so rich an architectural heritage, it could not bulldoze all the blighted buildings within city limits. We simply don’t have the money, as Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center made clear at a recent BlightStat […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
PAR warns against redistricting abuses
By Naomi Martin, The Lens contributing writer | Louisiana politicians could use their control over the upcoming congressional redistricting process to keep themselves—and their parties—in power for the next decade, according to a new report by the Public Affairs Research Council, an independent non-profit based in Baton Rouge. In the study, PAR repeats its 2009 […]
Posted inOpinion
Formula for recovery: New Orleans needs a population explosion
Eli Ackerman & Alan Williams, The Lens contributing opinion writers | The census numbers are in and they’re troubling, but they suggest New Orleans’ only strategy for full post-Katrina revitalization. We need to grow the city’s population enormously and strategically. New Orleans is now home to 343,829 of us, meaning that close to 100,000 people […]
Posted inOpinion
KIPPsters vs. Hipsters: Why so little choice in Downtown schools?
By C.W. Cannon, The Lens contributing opinion writer| The post-Katrina era in New Orleans has been marked by an oddly familiar mix of promise and disappointment, of rising above historic obstacles and of continuing an almost masochistic submission to them. The terms of the dialectic are continuity and change, and its fabric is skin color. […]
Posted inOpinion
Interested in a program for energy efficiency? Tell city with this survey
By Beth Galante, The Lens contributing opinion writer | New Orleans is working to reduce the energy consumption of our city’s households, and city officials want your help to determine how interested homeowners are in a loan program to improve energy and water efficiency. The Office of Environmental Affairs has received a $220,000 Recovery Act […]
Posted inOpinion
Like healthcare repeal, Vitter's math-challenged pitch is dead on arrival
By Jed Horne, The Lens contributing opinion writer | With Louisiana’s David Vitter in faithful lockstep, U.S. Senate Republicans made good on their promise to put repeal of “Obamacare” to a vote and just as predictably have been defeated. The party-line vote came amid Democrats’ accusations that the GOP had no alternative, no meaningful plan […]