The ballot measure authorizing the tax gave control to the unelected FQMD board, which city officials have criticized.
Author Archives: Michael Isaac Stein
Michael Isaac Stein covers New Orleans' cultural economy and local government for The Lens. Before joining the staff, he freelanced for The Lens as well as The Intercept, CityLab, The New Republic, and Pacific Standard. He was recently awarded a fellowship from the Heinrich Boll Foundation, which he used to report on water scarcity, division, and colonialism in Cyprus.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City Council to return to in-person meetings this month
The change comes as vaccine demand has started to wane.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City presents short-term rental adjudication numbers and process
The presentation came days after The Lens retracted a story, based on flawed documents provided by the city, that severely underrepresented the number of STR fines the city had actually collected since 2019.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Convention Center board votes to sue RTA over millions in recurring tax revenue
The dispute involves millions of dollars in contested hotel taxes that the transit agency previously passed on to the tourism industry.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Nearly $300,000 in short-term rental fines levied from early 2019 through early 2021, new records show
Nearly $200,000 of that has been collected, far more than previously reported. City officials told The Lens on Monday that previous records provided to The Lens were incomplete and provided additional information.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
New Orleans Convention Center selects developer to build new riverfront neighborhood
The Convention Center and development team now enter a year-long negotiating period for the massive new development.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Convention Center moving forward with ambitious plan to build new neighborhood on vacant riverfront land
The plan had previously been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City Council president wants to launch independent audit into Entergy New Orleans after ‘cascade of failures’
The request for the audit came after the utility unnecessarily cut power to thousands of customers during a freezing Mardi Gras night.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Taxi regulation moved from Dept. of Safety and Permits to Dept. of Public Works
Lawyers for the city say the move doesn’t conflict with the Home Rule Charter.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Last year’s controversial library campaign could hurt chances of funding renewal, national expert says
A campaign for a full renewal of an expiring library tax will have to be clear and honest in order to win voters’ trust back, the director of a national library group told the NOPL board.