With owners claiming Katrina damage, this architecturally eclectic structure on Prytania Street near Touro Hospital was demolished on Thanksgiving Day 2006. While people were basting turkeys or gussying up for a racetrack repast, bulldozers gassed up and tore into a lunch of timbers and cornices, a few blocks uptown of the Garden District. The same […]
Tag: New Orleans Master Plan
Posted inLand Use
Tulane quest to rezone 'peripheral' properties dominates Master Plan hearing
The former Pike frat house on Broadway is among Tulane properties the university seeks to rezone from “residential” to “institutional”. (Photo by Matt Davis) The Planning Commission as well as the general public logged late hours at City Hall Tuesday night. The occasion was an Amendments to the Master Plan meeting, and while it kicked […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Neighbors prevail as city strips permit from Treme mansion's oversized pool house
Treme resident Stephen Kennedy built the fence to keep construction workers off his property as an illegally large pool house rose in a neighbor’s yard. Photo by Karen Gadbois By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | The last thing Treme resident Stephen Kennedy expected was to be handcuffed by the police in his own […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Plans for Central City reception hall pit cousin against cousin at hearing on zone change
Construction of a reception hall was already under way when city officials rescinded permission to build. Photo by Karen Gadbois. By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | An after-the-fact request for a zoning change pitted cousin against cousin this week at the City Planning Commission meeting. The property is in the middle of the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Blight worsened by housing preservation program, Hoffman Triangle residents say
The process of transplanting this house to 3332 First St. created an intermittent pond that has become a mosquito breeding ground. Photos by Karen Gadbois. By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Hoffman Triangle residents thought they were getting a handle on the blight problem that has gripped their community since Hurricane Katrina. A […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Grocer forging ahead with plans to resurrect Seventh Ward's iconic Circle Food Store
Seventh Ward Neighborhood Center director J. Samuel Cook delights in the revived interest in the curved-front shopping center at Claiborne and St. Bernard avenues. Photo by Ariella Cohen. By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer It was the place to go if you wanted to put food on the table, a uniform on your child […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Neighborhood Participation Plan cranking up after three years stuck in neutral
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Three years after New Orleans voters approved a necessary charter change, City Hall is finally getting around to implementing the so-called Neighborhood Participation Program to give disparate communities all across the city a more direct voice in the governance process. According to a just-released “Scope of Work,” […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Star turn for Central City bar – but can it still operate legally as the joint it's long been?
Bean Bros. Corner, as captured in a drive-by for Google Maps, is a neighborhood hangout that has operated for years, but without proper licensure. By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | And this week the award for most creative argument in support of a zoning decision goes to attorney Ed Washington. Washington’s mission was […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Flap over Magazine Street Pilates center prompts city to shape up notification rules
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Once it opens, the new Romney Pilate Center on upper Magazine Street promises to help the workout crowd shape up. But because of neighborly unhappiness over the way the building itself bulked up after original designs were approved, the development has already begun reshaping the way the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Wilhelm Schnitzel Fallacy (?) cited by tea shop proprietor seeking 'opportunity to fail'
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Many, varied – and sometimes imaginative — are the arguments raised on behalf of zoning variances sought from the City Planning Commission. Konbini, in the 2100 block of S. Carrollton, will require a zoning variance to reopen. There’s the economic development argument: i.e. Let me put 200 […]