January/February 2011 Trumpet by Neighborhoods Partnership Network

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January/February 2011 • Community Voices Orchestrating Change • Issue 5 Volume 1

INSIDE • Old Algiers Housing Program • Sankofa Farmers Market • From Poverty to Promise: Does Public Housing in New Orleans Deliver? • LPHI Neighborhood Website Preview • Why Should You Care About The Jail Size?

OOD H R O HTS IG GHB I L E N POT ROSS &RD S A C W Y HOL R 9TH E LOW

Neighborhoods Partnership Network’s (NPN) mission is to improve our quality of life by engaging New Orleanians in neighborhood revitalization and civic process.

Letter From The Executive Director Preserving the Dreams of My Family Every family has a dream. A “dream” as a goal in life, not just dreams experienced during sleep.

he American Dream has become the mantra and meaning of our nation and hope that our ancestors gave birth to when building this country. Whether our ancestors were slaves or slaveholders, dreaming constituted everything they desired for their children and for the future generations. Their dreams encompassed a better life than what they had in the past. Those dreams emerged as simple thoughts of owning property or having the freedom to opportunities much more complex and sometimes controversial as obtaining a quality education or building a Fortune 500 company. No matter how glamorous or simple the dream, it all gave a vision of what was to come and an expectation that greatness was in your genes. The dream or life goal of a human being is central to what makes the human a valuable member of society. But suppose that person with the dream is told that the dream cannot be fulfill in order to obtain the goal just yet, but the dream must wait until society changes? Or the dream must be put on hold until the institutions and laws change to acquire the constitutional right to peruse happiness? Over the course of 200 years, the American Dream has changed drastically. The dreams of my family are no different from the dreams of your families, but it is the road that is less traveled that makes the altitude of what is achievable so much greater. In the summer of 1977, I was three years old and I distinctly remember my parents establishing the beginnings of their dream. It was during a warm summer day that we were moving into our current family home in the Broadmoor neighborhood. That double shotgun house would serve as the concrete evidence of me witnessing a dream becoming a reality. This would serve as a lesson that my parents indirectly taught me about establishing a goal and believing that it can happen. It is upon this foundation that our family was placing a stake in what we believe would be a stitch into the fabric of the American Dream quilt. Our quilt became unraveled in the summer of 2005 at the destructive hands of Hurricane Katrina. For many families in our neighborhoods like ours, this dream deferred, causing our community to shrivel and drawing us inward as hope became less and less visible. The distance of the American Dream for a New Orleanian created frustration and anger---corrupting the soul and eventually creating an explosion of action or emotion. That was five years ago. We are now at the moment where we will begin to engage those dreams and turn them into realities for the future generations. No longer are we accepting our dreams to be ignored. This treasure, our city, must be protected not just for us, but for our children and their children’s children. Katrina, a catastrophic natural disaster turned into a manmade event was a galvanizing moment in the city’s history when our residents, workers, businesses and institutions proved they have the will and determination to take charge of the city’s destiny. Today, we are establishing the dreams of equality, prosperity, health and safety. We are invested with purpose and passion. We are equipped with knowledge and power. We are a community that will continue to recognize our flaws, but will build on our strengths of differences and similarities. We are a resilient city. We are New Orleans.

NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans.

Find Out More at NPNnola.com

NPN Board Members Victor Gordon, Board Chair, Pontilly Neighborhood Association Tilman Hardy, Secretary, Leonidas/Pensiontown Neighborhood Association Angela Daliet, Treasurer, Parkview Neighborhood Association Leslie Ellison, Tunisburg Square Civic Homeowners Improvement Association Vaughn Fauria, Downtown Neighborhoods Improvement Association Sylvia Scineaux-Richards, ENONAC Benjamin Diggins, Melia Subdivision Sylvia McKenzie, Rosedale Subdivision Katherine Prevost, Upper Ninth Ward Bunny Friend Neighborhood Association Wendy Laker, Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Third Party Submission Issues Physical submissions on paper, CD, etc. cannot be returned unless an arrangement is made. Submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise reused in any medium. By submitting any notes, information or material, or otherwise providing any material for publication in the newspaper, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission with the consent of the owner of the material, all information you provide is true, accurate, current and complete. Non-Liability Disclaimers The Trumpet may contain facts, views, opinions, statements and recommendations of third party individuals and organizations. The Trumpet does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information in the publication and use of or reliance on such advice, opinion, statement or other information is at your own risk. Copyright Copyright 2010 Neighborhoods Partnership Network. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Neighborhoods Partnership Network is expressly prohibited.

Timolynn Sams 2

THE TRUMPET | January/February

N E I G H B O R H O O D S

P A R T N E R S H I P

The Trumpet 4 Old Algiers Housing Program 6 What’s Going on in Jefferson Parish

N E T W O R K

CONTENTS

Why Should You Care About the Jail Size?

8 Shared Housing Companionship Program 9 Green Light New Orleans 10 Recovery School District 11 AARP’s Universal Housing Program 12 Sankofa Farmers Market 13 Town Hall Forum for Jail Size 14 From Poverty to Promise NEIGHBORHOOD SPOTLIGHT, p 16 Holy Cross District & Lower Ninth Ward

Advice 7 Weatherization Made Simple

18 A Foundation of Hope: A History of the Lower Ninth Ward 19 LPHI Neighborhood Website Preview 20 Neighborhood Spotlight: Organizations 22 The Lens 27 Diabetes: A Challenge for New Orleans Neighborhoods 28 City Hall News 30 Neighborhood Meetings

Enroll Now for Capacity College

Neighborhood Spotlight: Holy Cross & Lower Ninth Ward (pictured: Fats Domino’s House in the Lower Ninth Ward)

O N T H E C OV E R : C o n s t r u c t i o n w o r k e rs a t t h e Lo w e r N i n t h Wa rd , t a k e n J a n u a r y 6 , 2 011

The Trumpet Editorial Board

The Trumpet Editorial Staff

Barbara Blackwell Gentilly Sugar-Hill Neighborhood bblackwell@lajao.org

Jeff Kugler American Red Cross Liaison JKugler@arcno.org

Brian Opert Mid-City Neighborhood bopert@sterlingcommercialcapital.com

Jermaine Smith Uptown Neighborhood jermaine.lejuane@gmail.com

Aretha Frison, Editor Scott Bicking, Design Editor Nora McGunnigle, Local History Editor Lakshmi Sridaran, Policy & Advocacy Editor Patricia A. Davis & Tia Vice, Associate Neighborhoods Editors

John Koeferl Holy Cross Neighborhood judicekoef@cox.net

Ray Nichols Carrollton Neighborhood raynichols@cox.net

4902 Canal Street • #301 New Orleans, LA 70119 504.940.2207 • FX 504.940.2208 TheTrumpet@npnnola.com

Linedda McIver AARP Louisiana lmciver@aarp.org

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Old Algiers to Get New Lease on Life with Housing Program By Valerie Robinson, Trumpet Contributor

EnviRenew model home and sales office at 523 Diana Street

Old Algiers ferry terminal

One of the first-settled and often-neglected areas of New Orleans is ready for a comeback thanks to the citizen-driven planning and support from the Algiers Redevelopment Foundation and the Salvation Army.

lgiers Riverview, which is part of the Old Algiers community settled in 1718, will begin revitalization efforts this month as the Salvation Army’s EnviRenew program offers up to $75,000 in mortgage assistance to qualified buyers for 25 LEED-certified, energy efficient homes built by the Algiers Redevelopment Foundation. The Jaeger Foundation cleared the titles on 68 properties in the Riverview community through the city’s giveaway of blighted and abandoned properties shortly after Hurricane Katrina and turned them over to the Algiers Redevelopment Foundation to put them back in commerce. The group plans to construct workforce housing on most of the properties. However, they are working with the community to identify parcels that are suitable for open spaces, such as pocket parks and community gardens. “This project is the culmination of a planning process that was initiated by the community and paid for through private donations,” said Beryl Ragas, founder and long-time president of Algiers Riverview Association. “We were not provided with a neighborhood planner in the UNOP process, so we worked together to determine what we wanted for our community and presented it to the planners. Most of it was integrated into the city’s rebuilding plan.” Old Algiers was the only area that did not receive any dedicated money from the city’s rebuilding funds because its level of abandoned and blighted property has only worsened. There are no funds available for rehabilitation of the many historic properties at this time, Ragas said. The Algiers Redevelopment Foundation partnered with Algiers Riverview Association, Old Algiers Main Street Corporation and the Preserving Historic Algiers Community Corporation to spur redevelopment in the area that once was a middle-class neighborhood with historic homes, thriving retail along Newton and Teche streets and sweeping views of the river.

“We have an opportunity to recreate a version of what was once here -- a self-sufficient community where people live, work and play,” Ragas said. “We once had movie theatres, jazz clubs, groceries, bakeries and shops of all kinds to serve the people who live and work here.” Ragas also said the Federal City project is an impetus to redevelop the Algiers Riverview area. The former Naval Support Activity property sits on Newton Street, and will provide up to 10,000 jobs over a period of 15 years. The hope is that people will want to live near their place of employment and enjoy shopping and activities outside the base property. Long-time Old Algiers resident David Giglio, who recently purchased a home in Riverview, cites the historic ambience near the river and the friendly neighbors as two reasons for his decision to reside in the area. “Having participated in the planning process for the community and recognizing the energy put forth by both the residents and planners, I became confident that my home purchase would place me in a safe neighborhood that was clearly moving in a positive direction,” Giglio said. “The activity level, in the way of remodeling and renovation within Algiers Riverview is contagious and has encouraged me to invest further in the community by beginning a major home remodeling effort this spring.” He sees the Salvation Army housing initiative in Riverview as one component of reinvigorating the area. By providing the $75,000 subsidy to low-middle income buyers who qualify, the organization hopes to stabilize neighborhoods with affordable, new energy-efficient homes. According to Captain Ethan Frizell of the Salvation Army, the EnviRenew program was developed to help New Orleans neighborhoods stabilize after Hurricane Katrina. Algiers Riverview is one of five neighborhoods where the EnviRenew program was initiated. He said that Riverview was selected from applicants because it had a solid renewal plan in place, and that its historical

THE TRUMPET | January/February

EnviRenew Kickoff Party This Saturday, Jan. 22nd a street party at 523 Diana Street, the site of the model unit and sales office, will kick off the EnviRenew program at 1pm Potential buyers, neighbors and the general public are invited to attend to view the newly constructed homes, as well as view the general plans for the neighborhood. The event will feature live music, food and prizes. For more information about the event, visit www.algiersredevelopmentfoundation.org

About EnviRenew Homes L.B. Landry High School in Algiers and foundational strength make it a good choice for revitalization. It also has one of the highest percentages of church-goers of any neighborhood in New Orleans, he said. “The faith of the people and the historical significance of the area make Riverview a bright spot for the future of New Orleans.” Algiers Redevelopment Foundation sees these homes being attractive to teachers, first responders and cultural workers -- from waiters and chefs to performing and visual artists -- who would be assets to any neighborhood. The three-bedroom, two-bath houses are LEED-certified with high efficiency heat pumps, solar hot water systems and double-insulated windows. They also feature 10-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, solid wood cabinetry and granite countertops. After seven years in the home, the loan will be forgiven. “These are homes that a family can enjoy for many years. This program offers assistance so people can live in quality homes at affordable prices, and the neighborhood gains stability and better quality of life, so it’s a win-win situation,” Ragas said.

For more info. visit www.algiersredevelopmentfoundation.org

Old Algiers: A Cultural Gem A large portion of Old Algiers is also a state-recognized cultural district, which offers tax incentives for renovation of structures and for cultural businesses that are established in any of the 20-odd cultural districts throughout the city. The Main Street program was initiated in 1996, which was 10 years before Louisiana established the urban Main Street program to revitalize neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina. Old Algiers Main Street Corporation has a plan to redevelop Newton Street and Teche Street as primary commercial corridors, and the group sees the housing initiative as an incentive to its revitalization efforts. Additionally, Old Algiers is the home to the state-of-the-art L.B. Landry High School, top-rated charter school Behrman Elementary and the soon-to-open International School. Its proximity to the river makes for easy access to downtown when using the ferry or the Crescent City Connection bridge. The rich culture and the access to the river bring jazz enthusiasts and history buffs from around the world to the Old Algiers RiverFest, which is scheduled for this April 2nd and 3rd.

1350 to 1400 Square Feet Living Area 3 Bedrooms, 2 Full Bathrooms Cherry Wood Kitchen Cabinets Granite Countertops in Kitchen & Baths Ceramic Floor Tile in Kitchen & Baths Wood Floors in Living and Dining Rooms Carpeted Bedrooms 10 Foot Ceilings Hardy Plank Exterior Siding Termite Resistant Blue Wood Foundation and Side Wall Construction Energy Efficient Silver LEED Certified High Efficiency Split System Heat Pump, so no need for Supplemental Electric Heating Solar Hot Water System & Gas Back-Up Double Insulated Windows with Low UV

EnviRenew Grant Up to $75,000 available to eligible homebuyers 100% of grant is forgiven after seven (7) years living in home as primary residence Gap funding source to provide first cost financial assistance for home purchase First-come, first-served, up to 25 grantees

Eligibility Pre-Katrina Gulf Coast Resident living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Texas Applicant was physically, economically or otherwise impacted by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita 70%-120% area median income household Pre-qualified by lending institution 12-hour homebuyer education encouraged

Potential Applicants First Responders Educators Artists, Musicians & Cultural Workers Riverview Neighborhood Referrals

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Next Door News

What’s Going On In Jefferson Parish

2011 Schedule

For First Time Homebuyer Program Recently, the Jefferson Parish First-Time Homebuyers Program has partnered with MetLife Home Loans to offer eligible participants to apply for its Reverse Mortgage Program. If you are a senior citizen and at least age 62, contact Greg Manion at MetLife Home Loans by calling 504-259-4734. Register today for the program by contacting the Jefferson Parish Housing Coordinator, Bianka Cornish, at 504.736.6158 or bcornish@jeffparish.net. Please find listed below the schedule for our First-Time Homebuyer Educational Workshop for the year 2011. The First-Time Homebuyer Program will be held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the hours of 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM on the Westbank at the Marrero Community Center and on the Eastbank at the Hazel R. Hurst Community Center.

WEST BANK MARRERO COMMUNITY CENTER

EAST BANK HAZEL R. HURST COMMUNITY CENTER

Monday, February 07, 2011 Tuesday, February 08, 2011 Wednesday, February 09, 2011 Monday, February 14, 2011 Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Monday, March 14, 2011 Tuesday, March 15, 2011 Wednesday, March 16, 2011 Monday, March 21, 2011 Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Global Green’s Build it Back Green Program Presents

A Green-It-Yourself Workshop: Hands-On Weatherization Take part in this hands-on workshop and learn how to perform small-scale weatherizations. This workshop will teach you the step-by-step process of sealing duct work and sealing cracks around window and doors. Technical experts will use materials and props to guide you through the weatherization process. Come one, come all, get hands-on experience. Learn how to make your home more energy efficient!

Monday, April 04, 2011 Tuesday, April 05, 2011 Wednesday, April 06, 2011 Monday, April 11, 2011 Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Wednesday, April 13, 2011

When: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Time: 6pm - 8pm Where: Global Green’s Green Building Resource Center 841 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Contact: 504.525.2122 Monday, May 02, 2011 Check out our new GREEN DAT t-shirts, with 100% Tuesday, May 03, 2011 proceeds benefiting our work in New Orleans. Wednesday, May 04, 2011 Become a fan - check our Build it Back Green on Monday, May 09, 2011 BIBG Facebook! Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011 Tuesday, July12, 2011 Wednesday, July 13, 2011 Monday, July 18, 2011 Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Monday, August 01, 2011 Tuesday, August 02, 2011 Wednesday, August 03, 2011 Monday, August 08, 2011 Tuesday, August 09, 2011 Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011 Tuesday, September 13, 2011 Wednesday, September 14, 2011 Monday, September 19, 2011 Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Monday, October 03, 2011 Tuesday, October 04, 2011 Wednesday, October 05, 2011 Monday, October 10, 2011 Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Monday, November 07, 2011 Tuesday, November 08, 2011 Wednesday, November 09, 2011 Monday, November 14, 2011 Tuesday, November 15, 2011 Wednesday, November 16, 2011

GreeNOLA Survey

New Orleans is working to “green” our neighborhoods. There are several programs coming online in the coming months and years that will help homeowners retrofit their homes through rebate programs and affordable financing options. Now, please help the city understand your household energy profile by filling out a brief online survey at: nolaenergysurvey.com. This information Monday, December 05, 2011 will help create programs that meet the city’s need Tuesday, December 06, 2011 most effectively. To learn more about the energy Wednesday, December 07, 2011 efficiency and renewable energy efforts of the city, Monday, December 12, 2011 please visit their website at http://www.nola.gov/ Tuesday, December 13, 2011 RESIDENTS/GreeNOLASite/GreeNOLA/ Wednesday, December 14, 2011

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Weatherization Advice Made Simple

Global Green’s “Build It Back Green” Program Provides Info on How to Lower Utility Bills By Vincent Fedeli, Trumpet Contributor, Global Green

amela Painia always used energy wisely. “I have a problem giving Entergy my money unnecessarily,” she said. Painia’s house is a typical New Orleans-style double shotgun. Her sister owns one half of the house and she owns the other. The 7th Ward neighborhood is quiet and the people are friendly. Painia is proud of her house. She raised her daughter in it, and she enjoys having her sister next door. But one winter, Painia had a $250 electric bill that raised some serious questions. Painia said her house was so cold that her furnace ran all night and jacked up her utility bill. “I’d been in my house for so many years and never had a $250 dollar electric bill. I was ready to chew nails,” she said. Painia saw a Global Green’s Build It Back Green, (BIBG) program advertised on TV and decided to call and see if they would evaluate her house and give her advice on how to lower her utility bill. Global Green’s BIBG program works to empower New Orleanians by providing them with free and trustworthy technical assistance and energy efficiency education that enables them to reduce their energy consumption. Global Green’s BIBG team members responded to Painia’s call. They performed a comprehensive home energy assessment on her house and

Pamela Painia in front of her newly weatherized home. found that her attic stair cover lacked insulation, her floor was not insulated and her closet needed a barrier to close the cavity above her electric furnace that allowed hot and cool air to escape into the attic. Painia knew that her floor was drafty, but was surprised to learn that her attic would benefit from installing a barrier. She was also surprised that her attic stair cover needed to be insulated. Acting on BIBG’s recommendations, Painia paid a contractor to complete some of the weatherization upgrades, and had BIBG complete the rest. The BIBG team offered to install foam board insulation under Painia’s floor, using the materials she purchased. Painia said the green advice she received from BIBG made a difference. “When I called BIBG it was a big door opener for me,” she said. “The team members provided me with a lot of information that I did not know about. Since I made the improvements suggested, my utility bill has leveled out and it has been comfortable in my house, especially in the winter time.” For information on Global Green or the BIBG program, please call 504-525-2121 or visit www.globalgreen.org

Global Green BIBG Team Project: Guillen House Just down river from the French Quarter in the Faubourg Marigny district of New Orleans, Carlos Guillen lives with his family in a historic house he purchased over 15 years ago. Guillen’s has a full house. He lives with his daughter Devin and his three sons, Carlos, Carlos Jr., and Ramón. Ramón is handicapped and needs constant attention. On a typical day in the Guillen house, you will find Carlos Jr., Guillen’s youngest son running around in stocking feet, sliding from one room to the next, occasionally checking in on his brother Ramón. Gullien found out about Global Green’s Build it Back Green (BIBG) program through his sister Theresa because his home is a work in progress. He recently installed a new roof and a new HVAC system in order to create a home that maintains its historical beauty while being efficient and affordable. BIBG technical team members Myron Warden and Andrew Spaulding went to Guillen’s house and performed a home energy assessment and diagnostics test (which included a blower door and duct blaster).

The “blower door” and “depressurization” tests through the whole house, revealed the amount of air leaking in and out of the home and enabled the technical team to pinpoint the leaks. The BIBG technical team decided to seal Guillen’s HVAC ducts, install a radiant barrier in his attic and install donated spray foam insulation under his second-story cantilevered floor. Now with these selected weatherization upgrades, Guillen could reduce his utility bill by as much as $337 a year, while increasing the comfort level in his home, and making it energy efficient. When asked about his experience with Global Green, Guillen said, “The house is more comfortable now. And I know it’s because of the ducts that were sealed and floor that was insulated. With Global Green’s help, I’ve improved the house for my family, and learned a lot about green building.” To learn more about Global Green New Orleans and the BIBG program, visit www.globalgreen.org/bibg

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Shared Housing

Companionship Program Shared Housing of New Orleans is a preventative program which encourages elderly and disabled individuals to remain in their homes rather than residing in nursing homes by matching a homeowner with a homeseeker. The homeseeker provides light housekeeping and companionship for the homeowner. In return, the homeowner provides room and board for the homeseeker. 1) Who are the homeseekers? How do you select reliable homeseekers for your program? The homeseekers are generally people who are at risk of homelessness and need temporary housing. They are usually individuals who are concerned that they will not be able to pay the next month’s rent. Typically, women have applied to us as homeseekers more than men. We conduct background checks on all applicants. Careful screenings and interviews are done by our program coordinator and registered nurses. Our program director is an experienced occupational therapist with extensive mental health experience. 2) What do you provide to the participants in the program? By Marion Strauss Trumpet Contributor, Shared Housing of New Orleans

n 1988, while working at Charity Hospital on the psychiatric wards, I realized that many elderly patients who were hospitalized because of depression were sent to stay in nursing homes and eventually lost their homes. Later, I learned these patients were depressed because they either experienced the death of a loved one, they were living with a chronic illness, they entertained suicidal thoughts or they were disabled. As a result, the patients were unable to properly care or stay in their own homes. Shared Housing of New Orleans, Inc. is a non-profit program created to keep elderly patients in their homes and providing temporary housing for people facing hard times. It seemed logical for me to provide this program to these particular individuals because it promotes self-sufficiency and independence while they face tough times together. We match elderly patients, (homeowners) with people who need temporary housing, (homeseekers). This option allows many elderly patients who are facing institutionalization to stay in their own homes. These homeowners who participate in our program usually do not eat properly, do not sleep well, unable to keep their house clean and suffer from depression and extreme loneliness. I strongly believe when individuals are not suffering from dementia and desire to stay in their own homes, they should be allowed to go home. In order to participate in this program, we interview all homeowners and homeseekers. This free program involves background checks and thorough home inspections.

Homeowners provide room and board for homeseekers. Homeseekers provide light housekeeping and companionship for homeowners. All program services and arrangements are free to the homeowners and homeseekers. 3) How can I refer people to submit an application for the program? You are free to refer people to apply to Shared Housing, such as a friend or relative. But, the referred person must be willing to participate in the program. We do not admit people to the program without the participant’s permission. 4) How can I learn more about your program? Visit www.sharedhousingofneworleans.org Our telephone number is: 504-896-2575 Our mailing address is: Shared Housing of New Orleans P.O. Box 15316 New Orleans, Louisiana, 70175-5316

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Reserve Your

Free Smart Meter By Bernnel January, Jr., Trumpet Contributor, Green Light New Orleans

Green Light New Orleans invests energy in people and personally assists New Orleans residents, one household at a time. Green Light volunteers install free energy efficient light bulbs to demonstrate that a mass movement of individual actions creates a significant impact on our environment and community.

reen Light New Orleans connects New Orleans residents to relevant, local opportunities and encourages individual actions so that everyone can benefit from a vibrant, resilient, and sustainable community. Green Light New Orleans is now signing local residents up for Smart View, which is a free program co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Entergy New Orleans. We are very excited about this program because it puts the power to conserve energy in your hands. If you sign up to participate in SmartView, you will receive a SmartMeter along with the tools and training necessary to make smarter energy decisions that will reduce wasted energy and lower your utility costs. The SmartView pilot program is based on income and is only open to Entergy customers who have lived in their current residence for at least one year. If you choose to participate, Green Light New Orleans will complete your application. All you will need to do is sign the application by coming to our office or we can bring it to you. Then, you will send Entergy a form of income verification in our pre-paid addressed envelope, so all you have to do is mail it. All program participants will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis and registration is limited. Call us, email us or drop by our headquarters on Jeannette Street to learn more about the SmartView program and to see if you qualify. For more information about Green Light New Orleans, contact SmartView by calling 504-324-2429, emailing smartview@greenlightneworleans.org or by visiting the office at 8203 Jeannette St. in New Orleans.

Visit Green Light New Orleans on the web: www.greenlightneworleans.org Twitter: @GreenlightNOLA

Check Out NPN Social Media Facebook Neighborhoods Partnership Network Twitter @NPNnola Blog www.npntrumpet.blogspot.com

THE TRUMPET | January/February

RSD Seeks Public Input On

School Building Assignments The Recovery School District (RSD) is holding public meetings in January, one in each New Orleans City Council district, to seek public input on long-term building assignments for RSD direct-run and charter school programs. All meetings begin at 6PM. The public will have an opportunity to discuss preliminary recommendations and provide input that will inform the final building assignments for new and renovated school buildings listed in the school facilities master plan.

he initial list of school building assignment recommendations were based on such criteria as current school location, whether school programs are currently occupying a temporary facility, school grade configuration, and the preference of school programs. The RSD released its initial draft of school building assignments in August 2010. The RSD will review public comments and develop a final list of school facility assignments by January 31, 2011. The final facility assignments will be presented as an information item to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in February. The objective of the school facilities master plan was to determine the final use of the 128 school campuses in New Orleans. It was developed during an 18-month process that included demographic and enrollment projections through 2016, building assessments of all public school facilities in the city, education design standards and nearly 300 community meetings. Additionally, the plan was informed by a vast amount of public input from school leaders, teachers, community members and elected officials. The plan was approved by BESE and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) in November 2008. The master plan right-sizes the city’s public school buildings with the replacement or total renovation of 87 campuses and the “land-banking” of 48 campuses. If a campus is scheduled for land-banking, the campus is expected to be repurposed for another future use. Additionally, if an RSD campus is scheduled for landbanking and it is currently occupied by an existing school program, the RSD will only relocate the school if a campus of equal or better condition becomes available. The RSD will postpone the land-banking of a campus should the student seats be needed and a better campus is unavailable.

DATE

LOCATION

TIME

COUNCIL DISTRICT

1/4/2011

Langston Hughes School 3919 Trafalgar Street

6 PM

1/12/2011

Andrew Wilson School 3617 General Pershing St.

6 PM

Joseph Craig School 1/18/2011 1423 St. Philip Street

6 PM

Lake Area School 1/25/2011 (Greater Gentilly) 6026 Paris Avenue

6 PM

H.C. Schaumburg School 1/27/2011 9501 Grant Street

6 PM

Final building assignments for RSD-controlled facilities will be posted in February on www.rebuildingnolaschools.com and www.rsdla.net.

Trumpet Release Party

March/April Issue Theme: Neighborhood Revitalization Neighborhood Spotlight: Melia

March 3rd, 5:30pm 10

THE TRUMPET | January/February

A Home to Last a Lifetime By Denise Bottcher, Trumpet Contributor, AARP Louisiana

ave you ever had your arms full of grocery bags and tried to hold on to them and open your front door at the same time? Or maybe you’ve had difficultly climbing the stairs to your bedroom after spraining your ankle playing a pick-up game of basketball? Or you couldn’t reach the top kitchen pantry shelf to put away the turkey platter? If you have found yourself in situations similar to these in your home, you might consider incorporating universal design features and products into your house or apartment. “Universal design is about creating a home that not only is attractive and stylish, but also more comfortable, convenient, safer and easier to use,” said Jason Tudor, AARP Louisiana Associate State Director of Outreach. “Universal design is particularly important for people to consider as they get older. Installing a lever door knob makes sense if you have a hard time gripping a ball door knob, and it’s relatively easy to do.” Eighty-nine percent of older Americans have told AARP they want to stay in their current homes and communities as they age. Universallydesigned features and products in a home enhance a resident’s ability to remain independent and can make a home for friends and family with reduced mobility easier to visit. “Incorporating universal design features into a home in the pre-construction stage adds little cost and is usually much cheaper than remodeling after a house has been built with traditional design features. The immediate lifestyle dividends for homeowners who have made investments in universal design are great,” Tudor said.

If you live in an older home, there are many relatively simple universal design changes you or a handyman can make to your home that don’t cost very much, but can greatly increase its comfort and safety. Most of the products needed for these modifications can be purchased at your local hardware or home supply store. Projects include installation of: Handrails on both sides of all steps Easy-to-grasp “D” shaped handles on all drawers an cabinets Lever-style handles, instead of knobs, on all doors Anti-scald, single lever handle faucets on sinks, tubs, and showers Adjustable-height closet rods and shelves Rocker light switches Off-set hinges on doors to add 2 inches of width for easy access Grab bars by toilets, bathtubs, and showers Adjustable hand-held showerhead “Universal design is about creating an attractive, stylish space that everyone, regardless of age, size, or ability, can live in or visit,” Tudor said. “When done well, universal design is practically an invisible part of a home’s design and features. To learn more about Universal Design, visit aarp.org/housing design or call your local AARP Louisiana office at 1-866-448-3620. Denise Bottcher is the Communications Director for AARP Louisiana. She can be reached at dbottcher@aarp.org.

Universal Design Features in Homes No-Step Entry

Wide Doorways

The house and main living area can be entered from the driveway, sidewalk, or garage without using any steps and avoiding the use of ramps whenever possible.

Thirty-six inch wide doorways allow wheelchairs, large pieces of furniture, big screen TV’s, and appliances to pass through easily.

One-Story Living

Hallways that are 42 inches wide and free of hazards let everyone move easily from room to room.

Kitchen facilities, bedroom and full bathroom are all located on the main floor, which is accessible via a step-free entrance.

Wide Hallways

Extra Floor Space

Everyone feels less cramped and people who use wheelchairs, walkers, or scooters have more space to maneuver. Lever Door Knobs and Rocker Panel Light Switches Lever-style knobs and rocker panel light switches let people of all ages and abilities enter a room and turn off and on light switches easily.

Reachable Switches and Controls Light switches 42-48 inches above floor level, thermostats no higher than 48 inches above floor level, and electrical outlets 18-24 inches above floor level make it easier for everyone to reach them while standing or seated.

Trumpet Blog Preview Read These Stories NOW at∆ www.npntrumpet.blogspot.com • Why Should You Care About The Jail Size? Part Three • Recovery School District Seeks Public Input on School Building Assignments, Plans for the Future • City Council Hosts Town Hall Meeting to Discuss Partnerships Between Neighborhoods and NOPD • NORD Commission’s First Public Meeting Results

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Promotes Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Rebuilding efforts in the historic Ninth Ward have taken an important step forward with the November 2010 launch of the Sankofa Farmers Market.

pen every Saturday, rain or shine from 10AM to 2PM at 5500 St. Claude Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward, the market offers fresh produce and seafood from local farmers and fishermen. Also, special events like the recent demonstration of collard greens soup with sweet potato dumplings by Chef Anne Churchill will be featured at the Sankofa market. “Despite all of the advances we have made since Katrina, grocery stores have yet to return to the area, with a lack of availability of good healthy food for residents” says Rashida Ferdinand, Lower Ninth Ward resident and executive director of the Sankofa Community Development Corporation (Sankofa CDC). “When having discussions with community members, we learned that weekly access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other produce was a pressing need. What was also clear was that they wanted it to be food that they knew and loved, so a farmers market was an easy decision.” Sankofa CDC secured funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to launch the farmers market. It was one of two organizations in Louisiana awarded a USDA Farmers Market Promotions Program (FMPP) grant. Additional support has also been provided in the form of technical assistance from marketumbrella.org, which operates weekly farmers markets around the city and works to build the field of public markets through its marketshare project. “This is an important step for a neighborhood to make and we were glad to be asked to assist,” said Darlene Wolnik, director of the marketshare project at marketumbrella.org. “We are excited about having another farmers market organization that can share ideas and programs.” In addition to promoting healthy lifestyles through fresh produce, the Sankofa Farmers Market team aspires to provide a regular stream of income to farmers in the region by having “producer-only” rules for their farmers market. Farmers such as Melvin Jones, a member of the Indian Springs Farmers Cooperative of southern Mississippi, will benefit from that decision. Jones grows a variety of herbs and vegetables including mustard and collard greens, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, green onions, turnips, peas, lettuce on land that has been farmed since the 1880s. Indian Springs Farmers Association was formed in 1979 and works as a cooperative for Mississippi farmers to market their goods directly to area markets, stores and institutions. The task of recruiting farmers like Jones falls to Market Coordinator Megan Burns. Burns works in the field of Public Health and Nutrition

related to food access and community capacity. She brings extensive experience working on urban and rural farms, community gardens and farmers markets. Burns developed a community-based garden program with school and community members in the Pension/Pigeon Town neighborhood. Burns also served on the planning committee for the Johnson Community Schoolyard Garden to create a garden space where community members are empowered to grow healthy food for themselves and their, and where students have the opportunity for experiential learning and confidence building by designing, constructing, and maintaining a project which contributes to the welfare of the community. The Sankofa Farmers Market has become a regular Saturday shopping experience for not just Ninth Ward residents, but members of nearby neighborhoods such as Gentilly, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater and Mid-City residents. The Sankofa Farmers Market accepts cash and credit, debit and EBT cards and also has farmers who will accept the Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons. Free family fun is offered at the Project Ujamaa tent, where children can learn about healthful eating and participate in art and crafts activities. Occassionally, special events such as live music performances and cooking demonstrations will be featured at the market.

About Sankofa Farmers Market The Sankofa Farmers Market is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, Milagro Foundation, marketumbrella.org, NewCorp, and the All Souls Episcopal Church. The Sankofa Community Development Corporation is a 501c3 non-profit organization which supports the sustainability and development of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood through projects that advance economic viability, community collaboration, health, education, job skills, business infrastructure, and housing. The Sankofa Community Development Corporation considers these quality of life resources as vehicles for economic development within the Lower Ninth Ward area, and addresses these community needs through a number of diverse projects including the Sankofa Farmers Market and Project Ujamaa.

For more information, including a complete list of vendors and calendar of events, call 504-875-4268 or visit sankofafarmersmarket.org

THE TRUMPET | January/February

We help everyone get the exact same thing out of life: more. With AARP you can get so much more out of life. Not only do we provide information on how you can be healthier and more active, but we also help you save money on everything from restaurants to travel. Plus we fight for your rights on the issues that matter most to you and your family, as well as help you improve your community through volunteer opportunities. So let AARP help you discover the best of what’s next. Learn more at the new aarp.org.

City Jail Work Group Members to Hold Town Hall Forum on Jail Size

Community leaders share their insights about the meaning and impact of different jail sizes.

eighborhood Partnership Network, a nonprofit, 501c3 organization consisting of a citywide network of neighborhoods that was established after the Hurricane Katrina disaster to facilitate neighborhood collaboration, increase access to government and information, and strengthen the voices of communities across New Orleans, is pleased to sponsor this Town Hall Forum on the size of the city jail. One of the most significant decisions that we will make as a community about our future centers directly around the city jail. At stake is more than the size of the jail, as you will hear from our guest panelists. But, what is truly at stake is the potential to make a bold statement about who we are as a community and what values we hold dear. With the size of the jail as a catalyst, we could potentially end wasteful and inefficient practices and policies that have failed for decades. Join us as we give each panelist the opportunity to explain what each has learned from their experience as members of the mayor’s jail working group and what they believe are some of the critical issues that need to be resolved as we move forward.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Mark Your Calendar For The Town Hall Forum WHO: Timolynn Sams, Executive Director of Neighborhood Partnership Network Dr. Michael Cowan, Director of Common Good and Chairman of the New Orleans Crime Coalition Flozell Daniels, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Disaster & Recovery Foundation Lucas Diaz, Executive Director of Puentes New Orleans WHAT:

Connect the community to the complex issues affecting the city’s jail size decision

WHEN:

January 19, 2011

TIME:

6PM-8PM

WHERE:

St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church, 7300 Crowder Blvd., New Orleans

CONTACT: Aretha Frison, Neighborhood Liaison Coordinator for Neighborhood Partnership Network 504-940-2207

From Poverty to Promise

PUBLIC POLICY

Does Public Housing in New Orleans Deliver? By Lakshmi Sridaran, Public Policy and Advocacy Editor

FIRST KATRINA

NOW THE GOVERNMENT

In its early days, public housing around the nation gathered the poor into crowded, tight, poorly maintained and mostly segregated developments. Since the1990s, public housing has gone from isolating the poor to a focus on creating “mixed-income” utopias.

owever, the promise is vague: Does simply having poor people living near those with higher incomes automatically lead to better opportunities? What happened to the actual plans that would create pathways for better jobs, schools and access to transportation? The first experiment in mixed-income housing was Hope VI, a federal program started in the early 1990s aimed at building public housing developments that included people from multiple income levels in hopes of breaking up clusters of poverty. The St. Thomas redevelopment, now known as River Gardens, was a Hope VI project that took 1,600 units of public housing and transformed them into mixed-income units, which left less than 200 units available to low-income residents. So, what happened to the rest of those residents? What happened to the promise of providing decent, affordable, and dignified housing for the poor?

Displaced Residents

What does all this mean for New Orleans today? We have seen the demolition of the Big 4 housing developments: such as St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete and Lafitte. These will all be renamed and replaced with mixed-income units. The 4,500 units that made up the Big 4 developments will be replaced with less than 3,000 units. Each development will generally include a breakdown of one-third market rate units, one-third subsidized units and one-third affordable units. Currently, there is no formal commitment to former residents of the Big 4 housing developments guaranteeing them a space in the new, mixed-income version of their old neighborhoods. As we speak, the same thing is happening in Chicago with the demolition of the famous Cabrini-Green. It is the “lucky ones” that will get a spot in the new mixed-income version of the old Cabrini-Green and the rest are simply left to fend for themselves.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Only the Iberville redevelopment in New Orleans will maintain a commitment to developing and replacing of all affordable units. This means for each resident removed from the original development, a space will be held for them to return to the new development. With such a decrease in the number of affordable units, the city will serve a much smaller number of low-income residents. Does this mean we have reduced poverty or are we just playing musical chairs with our poorest residents? Does poverty become less concentrated or are the poor simply displaced?

Choice Neighborhoods: The New Solution?

Will Choice Neighborhoods, the new and improved version of Hope VI, be the answer to our housing woes? This is a new federal program intended to address the mistakes of Hope VI. The program will provide funding for social services, schools and transportation. It will also attempt to meet other needs of public housing residents that were not met by Hope VI. Although this is a step in the right direction, who will determine what those needs are? Will the residents have a chance to provide their input toward these decisions?

Who Defines Opportunity?

HRI properties (developers of River Gardens) and McCormack Baron Salazar (developers of Harmony Oaks), the developers chosen for the Iberville redevelopment and the Housing Authority of New Orleans are hoping to be awarded a Choice Neighborhoods grant that could help revitalize downtown as a part of redeveloping Iberville. The plans include mixing the housing units with retail shops that will create a diverse area in downtown New Orleans. Both Iberville and Lafitte are located within blocks of major city investments, including eight schools, three theaters and museums and two hospitals. There is great potential for giving residents access to these benefits. How can we be sure that this will happen? It will only happen if those who will live in these new housing developments are engaged in the planning process, have the tools and the pathways to participate in decision-making conversations and are able to access these benefits both physically and financially. This is the gap between the promise of federal programs like Hope VI, the Choice Neighborhoods and the reality of making it happen.

Policy vs. Design

For too long, the policy behind public housing has been confused with the physical design of public housing. Housing policies have failed the

poor, but we often blame the poor and the housing built for them. And, we continue to design and redesign each new housing development hoping to find the answer. But, maybe it is the process that is flawed. When the design of public housing is not planned with the needs of people who will be living there in mind, there can be no promise of providing people better access to opportunities. What is really driving the development of public housing in New Orleans today? Low-income housing tax credits provide huge breaks for developers who commit to setting aside a certain portion of affordable housing units in each development. However, if these financial incentives for design are not combined with incentives for a process that considers the needs of those affected, we will keep missing the boat on addressing poverty through housing policy.

Citizen Engagement for Decision-Making

New City is a coalition of community members who meet monthly to exchange ideas on key development and recovery issues in the Treme-Lafitte area. At the December New City meeting, an attendee pointed out that residents in River Gardens are not interacting with neighbors as expected just because people from all income levels are living together there. He also said that racial divisions remain strong in the neighborhood. Another attendee, a former resident of Lafitte, pointed out that it was irresponsible to tear down Iberville when Lafitte remains to be rebuilt because it would only result in more displaced people. The placed in service date for the new Lafitte was extended from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2013. This is acceptable for the city of New Orleans because it stood to lose millions in tax credits and federal dollars by missing the deadline. On the other hand, it increases the time period that former residents remain displaced from their homes. The unexpected economic crisis of 2008 is a major reason that the developers of Lafitte could not meet this deadline, according to the representative from the development team. This is the kind of dialogue that the City of New Orleans must facilitate between residents and developers. While New City represents one successful forum for people to stay updated on the development of Lafitte, ask questions and provide feedback on surrounding development, it is not a formal decision-making group. If residents are not equipped and allowed to participate in the formal decision-making process, the only promise we can surely count on is that there will be a new federal program intended to fix the problems we are creating today.

Orleans Parish Education Network (OPEN)

Resolve to Get Involved in 2011 Are you interested in public education? Wondering how you can get involved?

Recommendations for New Orleans: Best Practices in Kindergarten through Eight Grade School Reform

Join the only community campaign that is aiming to build a vision for the Orleans Parish Education Network with the One Step Campaign!

Don’t miss this conversation. National, state and local experts will join us in a roundtable discussion.

In January, the One Step Campaign will take on one of its most challenging topics to date: K-8 Reform!

THE TOPICS ON THE AGENDA WILL INCLUDE New National Academic Standards: The Common Core and What They Will Mean For New Orleans

Did you know our greatest opportunity to improve the high school graduation rates start in the middle schools with grades 6-8? Yet, while we’ve seen significant improvements in the early grades, such as K-5, the student achievement gains have decreased and are almost stagnant in grades 6-8. What can we do to change this trend? How do better support the critical middle years? Join OPEN and the ONE STEP Campaign during this important discussion. January 20, 2010, 6 PM – 8 PM at the American Red Cross 2640 Canal Street, New Orleans Refreshments will be served.

The Importance of Reading by Third Grade Addressing the Crisis of the Invisible Middle: Building Strong Middle Grades Programs LEARN MORE ABOUT ONE STEP CAMPAIGN For more information about the ONE STEP Campaign, visit our website at www.onestepnola.org. If you have questions or would like to confirm your attendance, call us today at 504-523-9800.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Holy Cross & Lower Ninth Ward – photos taken January 5, 2011

History of the Holy Cross District and the Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhoods Nora McGunnigle, Local History Editor

eographically, the Holy Cross District is within the Lower Ninth Ward boundaries---cut off from the rest of Orleans Parish by the Industrial Canal, which was built between 1912 and 1923, but many outsiders do not differentiate between the community above St. Claude Avenue and the community below it. However, this historical fact and the residents in these communities can tell you the differences between the two neighborhoods easily.

Searching for Identity

The New Orleans Public Library contains reports compiled in 1978 by the City of New Orleans’ Office of Policy Planning and Neighborhood Planning Program Coordinator. These reports contain the history and census data for the neighborhoods of New Orleans. While Holy Cross is represented in these planning reports as a subset of the Lower Riv-

erside area, along with the Marigny and Bywater, the Lower Ninth Ward is not. There are no subset neighborhoods in the Lower Ninth, and the Lower Ninth is not considered to be a neighborhood in its own right. This omission by the city’s Neighborhood Planning Program Coordinator indicates the historical tendency to marginalize all who live down the river from St. Claude Avenue. Holy Cross got its name from the Holy Cross private school that was chartered within its boundaries in 1890. The boundaries are defined from the Mississippi River to St. Claude Avenue, traveling to the Orleans Parish and the St. Bernard Parish border line and ending at the Industrial Canal. Its access to the river was an important reason why plantations were developed in this area, as the early 19 th century maps show the land parcels as long and narrow, which were typical of plantation society and economy.

Many of the original plantation owners are now memorialized as street names: Deslonde Street, Caffin Avenue, Forestall Street and Delery Street. By 1834, however, the plantation lots began to be cut up into smaller lots allowing for residential development which increased steadily through the 19 th century. This transition to a residential community was also encouraged by the construction of the Jackson Barracks in 1832. Holy Cross School was originally located on the Reyes Farm, a former riverfront plantation. After Katrina, Holy Cross School relocated to Gentilly, where it still remains. The Order of the Holy Cross is not the only religious order to establish institutions in the Holy Cross neighborhood. The Ursulines order of nuns owned 80 acres at one time, while building a convent, an orphanage and a girl’s school there in the early to mid-19 th century. However, it was all demolished in 1912 to make way for the Industrial Canal.

Although hard hit by Katrina, presently there are still vestiges of the beautiful “Steamboat Gothic” architecture typical of the neighborhood. Those influences draw from steamboat, plantation and Japanese architectural design. On the other side of St. Claude Avenue is the Lower Ninth Ward. A former cypress swamp, it was one of the last areas in the city to be developed, thereby attracting only the poorest residents who risked flooding and disease to make their homes in an area that had no drainage or sewage systems in place. Although the city passed legislation to install these systems in 1899, it wasn’t until preparations for the Industrial Canal were underway that the most rudimentary systems were implemented to specifically benefit that construction between 1910 and 1920. In fact, basic residential services were not introduced to the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward until after World War II.

Moving from the Past, Fighting for the Future After the 1950s, fueled by the examples and perceptions of neglect by the City of New Orleans, the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward began to organize into community activist groups. These groups fought for not only city services and recognition but also desegregation. McDonogh #19 on St. Claude Avenue in the Lower Ninth was one of the very first schools to desegregate not only in New Orleans, but in the entire deep South. This was due in part to the activism that existed in the Lower Ninth Ward. After desegregation, many white residents of the Lower Ninth Ward and Holy Cross fled to St. Bernard Parish. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – now more than five years later – has inspired the current activism surrounding the rebuilding of

the Lower Ninth Ward. The historical disconnect from City government affected, once again, the reinstatement of basic services - especially schools, playgrounds, and local businesses. This has slowed the number of people moving back into their homes significantly. The Lower Ninth Ward is in the lowest category of ranking, about 49 percent, of a demographic survey that tracked the percentage of June 2005 addresses that were actively receiving mail in June 2010. The population recovery is 24 percent. That is the lowest repopulation percentage in the city by far. The Holy Cross repopulation rate is 55 percent. Through local community efforts, as well as work being done by local and national non-profit organizations, the rebuilding in the Lower Ninth Ward and Holy Cross has been moving forward. But driving through the streets north of St. Claude Avenue, there are still many more vacant lots and blighted properties than rebuilt homes.

A Foundation of Hope

OPINION

A History of the Lower Ninth Ward By J. Samuel Cook, Trumpet Contributor

New Orleans, the great melting pot of society, has often been called the ‘city that care forgot.’ While the phrase has obscure origins and appears contrary to the image of the city as a haven of Parisian gaiety, such a sobriquet might better be applied to the area of the city referred to by locals as ‘across the Canal,’ the section of New Orleans known as the Lower Ninth Ward.

t’s not exactly that the Lower Ninth Ward has been entirely invisible throughout history; quite the contrary. The area was described in 1993 by the Los Angeles Times as ‘poverty stricken’ and ‘crime infested.’ Its rippled and potholed thoroughfares were lambasted in a 1998 op-ed in the Washington Post. Another newspaper ripped the area as having an ‘atmosphere of hopelessness and despair.’ And while a stagnant economy and escalating crime have certainly contributed to decline in the area, such biased generalizations ignore the rich economic, social and cultural fabric of a neighborhood that is experiencing a contemporary revival.

Lower Ninth Renaissance

Though less infamous than Hurricane Katrina, 1965’s Hurricane Betsy was an odd parallel to the storm in 2005 that is the nation’s costliest natural disaster. ‘Billion-Dollar Betsy’ devastated the Lower Ninth Ward, creating between $10-12 billion dollars in damages to a neighborhood already suffering greatly from decades of structural neglect. Similar to the government responses experienced during Katrina, former President Lyndon B. Johnson toured the area and promised federal aid, creating the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in order to build man-made levees in the city. Victor Schiro, former mayor of the city of New Orleans, informed distraught and displaced residents The Third Municipality of the Lower Ninth Ward that there was What is today known as the Upper nothing the city could do to assist them in and Lower Ninth Wards began as planrepairing their homes and rebuilding their tation land in Louisiana’s Colonial area, lives. And while former President George and remained cypress swamp and small W. Bush was certainly not so brazen in his farmland as late as the 1870s. Between 2005 Hurricane Katrina rebuff of Lower 1810 and 1840, Creoles moved out of Ninth Ward residents, the snail’s pace the French Quarters and began to popugovernmental response only served to late what became known as the ‘Third reinforce the notion that the people ‘across The Lower Ninth Ward, photo taken January 5, 2011 Municipality’ of New Orleans, (extendthe Canal’ were again forgotten. ing from Esplanade and Elysian Fields The socio-economic quagmire facing to the St. Bernard Parish border line). Known as the ‘Creole Faubourgs,’ they residents across the Canal was, and is still very real today, is the result of occupied Tremé and the 7th, 8th and parts of the 9th Wards. Comprised of decades of systemic neglect, lack of commercial development, industrial job skilled artisans, musicians and entrepreneurs, Creole residents of the ‘Third training programs and overall stagnant economic diversification. Yet, the Municipality’ were often wealthier, more secure and better-established than Lower Ninth Ward is by no means the ‘poorest’ neighborhood in the city, Blacks elsewhere in the state and laid the foundation for New Orleans’ but it is a tribute to the resilience of a neighborhood which continues to be a present-day Black middle class. Though generally known as a working and center of social, political and cultural activity. middle-class area, the neighborhood known today as the Lower ninth Ward Today, the neighborhood boasts a higher homeownership rate than any suffered greatly from the erection of a stockyard and slaughterhouse in the other neighborhood in New Orleans. In addition, the Lower Ninth Ward is Lower Ninth Ward in what is now Arabi, Louisiana—a move born of the experiencing a renaissance of sorts with new home construction throughout bi-racial Reconstruction-era state legislature’s decision to consolidate slaughthe area by organizations such as Global Green USA and actor Brad Pitt’s tering activity into the hands of a monopoly–resulting in declining property ‘Make It Right Foundation.’ Second-lines abound as Lower Ninth Wardvalues and accelerating middle-class flight from the area into the Upper ers celebrate life, death and rebirth in the neighborhood that care nearly Ninth Ward and nearby 8th Ward. The construction of the Industrial Canal in forgot—yet is forever an example of the strength and tenacity of those first 1923 separated the Lower Ninth Ward indefinitely from the rest of the city. settlers of New Orleans, who upon the foundation of cypress swamps, built Despite the malodorous presence of the slaughterhouse, the resilient the liveliest and liberated city of the land, and whose legacy lives on in those area continued to thrive as a racially-diverse working class neighborhood. people across the Canal who are rebuilding lives upon the foundation of hope. It was not until the 1940s with the advent of public school integration that the Lower Ninth Ward became predominately working poor and predominately Black. Not only did Whites, upset over the prospect of their children attending schools with Blacks, flee the Lower Ninth Ward for nearby St. Ber- J. Samuel Cook is a Ph.D. student at the Nelson Mandela School of Public nard Parish, but the development of the Lake Forest subdivision, (now known Policy at Southern University in Baton Rouge. He serves as director of the as New Orleans East) created massive Black middle class flight to the area, 7th Ward Neighborhood Center, and hails from the Upper Ninth Ward. attracting middle and upper-class Blacks from every sector of the city.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Let the Good Time Roll and... Live Longer to Tell About It! A new website, Healthy Neighborhoods—New Orleans, will be available this spring. It will empower residents to better know and understand their neighborhood while also providing the tools to make change. By Tia Vice, Associate Neighborhood Editor & Ashley Burg, Trumpet Contributor, LPHI How healthy is your neighborhood? How many people struggle with diabetes, cancer, obesity or asthma? Are there well-placed clinics and doctors in the community to help them? Is there access to public transportation? Are there quality schools for children? Are there enough grocery stores, businesses and jobs? If not, what can you do about it? Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) with partners Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN) and Concordia, LLC is creating the new Healthy Neighborhoods–New Orleans Website and an online toolkit that will help you answer these questions. The website will be a one-stop resource for data, tools and guidance in planning for the future of your neighborhood. It will help you identify community issues, build upon community assets and push for change. The new website will be online and ready for use in spring 2011. It will show neighborhood-level data on disease rates, health access, employment, income levels, schools, housing and more. It will also let you see how your neighborhood is doing in comparison with others in the City and will give you resources and best practices to improve your community. New Orleans is going to be the first city in the nation to have a website like this. Eric Baumgartner, director of Policy and Program Development at LPHI, said this is the first time in history much of this data has been available at the neighborhood level for residents to use. People will have the data and tools to help them create the change they want to see in their communities. With the ability to compare one neighborhood to another and with the toolkit resources in hand, all New Orleanians will be able to point to specific examples of inequality and push for change. For example, a neighborhood resident may notice that most of the doctors and clinics specializing in asthma treatment are all in one part of the city while the majority of residents with asthma live far away and do not have sufficient transportation to get to those clinics and doctors. With the toolkit examples of how other communities dealt with asthma, they could create successful health outreach plans and push for services to be brought to their neighborhoods. Since 2008 LPHI, NPN and Concordia have collected feedback from New Orleanians on what they would like to see in the website and toolkit as it is being developed. LPHI will continue to ask residents for their opinion to make sure the website is a useful and effective tool for tackling community issues, planning and keeping residents happy. “We all know that New Orleans is a fun city,” Baumgartner said. “We believe in the power of people in post-Katrina New Orleans to create a fun loving but vital city.” That way, New Orleanians can still have fun while living healthier and longer lives.

We Want to Know What You Think! Would you like to be involved in the process of improving the website and toolkits to make sure they work for you and your neighborhood when the website is ready in the spring? Call Ashley Burg at 504-301-9811 or send an email to aburg@lphi.org to learn how you can be involved.

A sample page of the upcoming Healthy Neighborhoods–New Orleans website.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Tennessee and Prieur street signs in the Lower Ninth Ward

Lower Ninth & Holy Cross

Spotlight Organizations NENA

Lower 9th Ward NENA, 1120 Lamanche Street New Orleans, LA 70117 (504) 373-6483 http://www.9thwardnena.org NENA’s mission is to play a vital role in our neighborhood’s redevelopment. The organization implements sustainable projects and programs in decent and affordable housing, economic development and education with clear community involvement and direction. NENA utilizes an innovative resident-based approach to the comprehensive rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward, providing services and implementing sustainable programs in community outreach, case management, design and construction administration, home and school rebuilding and economic development. NENA has 17 staff members, in the areas of management and administration, Outreach, Case Management, Economic Development, Volunteer Services and the Design Studio. Its Board of Directors includes seven members, all of whom live, work, or worship in the Lower Ninth Ward.

In addition, NENA has ongoing partnerships the Loyola School of Law, Tulane University, Crescent City Alliance Recovery Effort (CARE), and numerous local and national organizations and supporters. NENA is also a member of the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership.

NENA Community Story Juliette Allen’s face lights up when she speaks about her new home. But at times, it hasn’t always been so joyful! A life-long resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, Ms. Allen is the second generation to live in her home. Like so many others, she lost all of her possessions when Hurricane Katrina flooded our community. At the time of the storm, Ms. Allen was at Touro hospital with her sick husband. The couple was rescued and sent to Texas, and then Idaho. The couple came to NENA with hopes of finding assistance to rebuild their home...and their lives. With NENA’s help, Ms. Allen was able to get her home rebuilt and totally furnished! Unfortunately, Ms. Allen is now a widow. But she is happy to be back in the neighborhood she loves, and looks forward to the day when the Galvez bus will stop in front of her house again!

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Make It Right

P.O. Box 58009, New Orleans, LA 70158 1 (888)-MIR-NOLA or 1 (888)-647-6652 www.makeitrightnola.org More than 4,000 homes in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Two years later, when actor Brad Pitt toured the city, the neighborhood was still deserted and devastated. Pitt promised the families he met that he would help make it right. He founded Make It Right to build 150 affordable, green storm resistant homes for families living in the Lower 9th Ward when the storm hit. In the Lower 9th Ward today, home by home, family by family, a neighborhood is coming to life. The landscape changes every day. Another family comes home. A community garden is planted. There are more kids on the playground. Right now, 14 families live in Make It Right homes. Another 19 are under construction. More than homes are needed to build a vibrant, sustainable community. In addition to helping 150 families come home, Make It Right is helping to rebuild the community – complete with native landscaping, microfarms, rain gardens and even building new streets. Make it Right gardens are going up right now at the Martin Luther King school, at the Tekrema Community Center and the Village.

Make It Right Community Stories Diedra M. Taylor Diedra Taylor, a single mother of four, moved to the Lower 9th Ward in 2004. The first-time homeowner and her family had only lived in their newly constructed home for 14 months before it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, forcing her to evacuate to Weatherford, Texas. Roderick Rick Mr. Rick remembers his neighborhood as being “nice and quiet.” He was one of the newer members of the neighborhood, moving there in 1993 with his family. He knew some of his neighbors and recalled that they kept to themselves, for the most part, and diligently maintained their property. Ann R. Parfaite Ann R. Parfaite grew up in New Orleans and purchased a home in the Lower 9th Ward in the late 1960’s. She and many of her neighbors moved to what Ms. Parfaite fondly refers to as “tree-lined Tennessee Street” following Hurricane Betsy.

Holy Cross Project Holy Cross Project Visitor Center Mondays and Fridays, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturdays 10 a.m.–1 p.m. 409 Andry Street, New Orleans, LA www.globalgreen.org/neworleans/holycross/

Global Green has assembled a highly skilled and dedicated project team of national experts paired with local professionals with the goal of transferring knowledge to ultimately make green expertise indigenous to New Orleans. Through the Holy Cross Project, Global Green is committed to: Creating a green model or showcase for development and rebuilding for New Orleans, and green affordable housing in the US; Ensuring the sustainability and long term affordability of the Project’s housing units for residents, and socioeconomic fabric of the neighborhood through the center; Educating NOLA residents, the Gulf Coast and broader American public through the Project’s visitors center, NOLA resource center, and website about the benefits of green building.

Advancing smart solutions to global warming that both benefit communities and engage stakeholders in building will for action The Holy Cross Project consists of 5 single-family homes, an 18-unit apartment building, and a community center/sustainable design and climate action center. The goal of the project is to achieve LEED Platinum standards (LEED for Home for the single family homes and LEED NC for the other buildings). In addition, the goal is to be both net zero energy and carbon neutral. By using solar panels, high performance building design, HVAC systems, energy and resource monitoring systems (Building Dashboard(R) pictured at right), and energy efficient appliances, the buildings in the Holy Cross Project will use at least 75% less energy than typical buildings. Global Green is also exploring the use of river turbines in the adjacent Mississippi River.

Single Family Homes The first home, finished in May 2008, currently serves as a visitor center for developers, contractors and residents to learn how to rebuild green. Two other single family homes are currently for sale, and the two are nearing completion. Global Green has worked with the Holy Cross Neighborhood to create homeowner selection criteria, and identify and select qualified homebuyers. The two homes on sale are listed at $175,000 and Global Green plans to create a soft second mortgage financing option to help prospective buyers to bring the equivalent price to $150,000 or lower. The homes will save the residents an estimated $1200 to $2400 a year in utility bills, allowing lower income families to qualify for the mortgage as well. Using advanced monitoring systems in the home, residents can see their energy and resource consumption in real time, and if they choose, modify their behavior to further lower energy costs. Modest homeowner association fees will allow for residents to turn to the project manager to ensure the rain water harvesting, geothermal, solar and other systems are maintained properly and will continue to maximize savings.

The Lower 9th Ward Village Community Center

1001 Charbonnet Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70117 (504) 304-7868 www.lower9thwardvillage.org The Lower 9th Ward Village is a community-driven, community-led, nonprofit 501©3 organization and neighborhood center based in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. The main goal of the Village is to bring together the entire Lower 9th Ward and to empower community members to be self-sufficient and to sustain an equitable quality of life. The Village focuses on connecting the elderly and youth, with services and providing care and guidance from the community as a whole. The Lower Ninth Ward Village was the vision of Ward “Mack” McClendon. After looking to distract himself from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in his Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, McClendon looked into leasing or buying an old building a few blocks away from his old home to work on old cars. But when the former telephone technician walked into the building at 1001 Charbonnet Street, he envisioned more than just a garage. Through the center, McClendon hopes to “bring the community back, make it whole.” McClendon healed after the storm by listening to other people’s stories, including tales of losing loved ones during Katrina. He realized that his problems – red tape with insurance and the Road Home program – were small compared with those of others he knew. The Village is working toward holding a permanent after school/ summer program as well as permanent adult and elderly programming on-site.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Investigates City Housing By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer

Empty since Katrina, 233 HANO units to be torn down

ecently, the Housing Authority of New Orleans approved a deal to demolish 233 empty scattered public housing units moldering since Hurricane Katrina. But while neighbors applauded progress in the battle against blight, questions remain about what HANO will do with its properties once the 99 doomed buildings are cleared. “These things have been a scourge for a long time,” HANO Administrative Receiver David Gilmore said after the meeting held at HANO’s Gentilly headquarters. “Everyone is happy the demolitions are moving forward but the big issue is yet to come – how to reuse these properties.” The 99 properties are largely concentrated in the Lower 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans, most of them in low-income neighborhoods. One or two-story with only a few apartments per building, these properties were developed in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a federal policy shift away from the larger public housing developments built earlier. Like traditional public housing, these smaller developments were managed by housing authorities and occupied exclusively by low-income tenants with heavily subsidized rents. While some of the scattered sites consist of a single building, many span several lots and or entire blocks, making HANO’s next step important to people living nearby. In eastern New Orleans, for instance, one of the teardown sites covers a five-block swath of America Street between Dwyer Road and Chef Menteur Highway, east of Interstate 10. The conditions in the HANO-managed area bothered neighbors before the storm, said Deborah Gordon, secretary for Eastern New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission, a coalition of nonprofits and neighborhood associations representing homeowners in the east. The group opposes multi-family development in the east and is fighting several proposed projects in court. “If HANO demolishes and then tries to rebuild something similar or even multi-family at all, there will be opposition,” Gordon said. Before Katrina, HANO counted 773 scattered site units in its public housing inventory. These days, only 38 of these units are occupied with the remaining awaiting demolition or rehabilitation, HANO records from October 2010 show. After demolishing the 233 units to be torn down under the deal approved Tuesday, HANO plans to move forward with a second round of teardowns likely to include about the same amount of units, Gilmore said. He expects the demolitions to begin in the first half of this year, and around June, plans to have a strategic plan for reuse of the sites complete. The teardowns come at a time when federal housing policy is again shifting, moving away from low-income housing that is managed by a public agency to a model dependent on Section 8 vouchers used by tenants on the open market, and mixed-income housing operated by a private company on property leased from a housing authority. In post-Katrina New Orleans, the trend is very much evident with 17,000 tenants using vouchers compared to 1,841 households living in public housing, including the 38 in scattered site developments. For comparison, before Hurricane Katrina, HANO had 5,100 occupied housing-development units and 8,500 vouchers, for a total of 13,600 units, 6,000 less than the current total. Gilmore said that more outreach to the community and analysis of need must be done before the authority can decide how to best use its vacant land. He said that the redevelopment is just a piece of an agency-

wide strategic plan that must be complete in 2011 under order of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We have to decide whether we want to be in the scattered-site business, Gilmore said. “Are we good at it? Do we know how to manage these properties and if this housing authority is going to be providing an increasing amount of affordable housing, is this the best way to do it?” Gilmore said that there is “no way” HANO won’t be expanding its Section 8 program further. HUD appointed Gilmore — a well-respected housing bureaucrat from Washington, D.C. — in 2008 as part of a federally enforced reform of the long-troubled agency. He has in recent months focused much energy on streamlining the authority’s voucher program. In the next few months, he plans to unveil an online registration system to make it simpler for voucher users and landlords to find each other, he said. “We don’t have a sexy name yet, but you wait,” Gilmore said.

2 council members frustrated with tear-down tendencies By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority should be developing houses not demolishing them, said two City Council members recently, as they considered a demolition request from the agency and a potential new owner. “I thought you were the Redevelopment Authority not the Bulldozer Authority,” Councilwoman Stacy Head told two top officials of the agency during a contentious exchange at a council meeting. Council members usually consider a passel of zoning matters at each regular meeting, most of them mundane and minor to the general public. But Head and Councilwoman Kristen Gisleson Palmer seized on the demolition request during a recent meeting to release some frustration with NORA, the quasi-city agency tasked with moving state-purchased, Katrinadamaged properties back into commerce. Two top NORA officials explained that the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee – the first line of review for demolitions in most of the city – denied the request to raze the house, and they asked the council to overturn that decision. Jasmine Haralson, a NORA liaison to other government agencies, was joined by the authority’s chief, Executive Director Joyce Wilkerson, in making the pitch. They said their successful Lot Next Door program, which gives right of first refusal to adjacent property owners, had a buyer for the property at 2529-31 Marengo St. However, the buyer didn’t want to be saddled with the building and its significant renovation costs. Head insisted that there must be other options. The house is in her district, and she said she’s familiar with the area, which she said is on an “intact block full of beautiful houses. She suggested the cost of demolition be given to the new owner to help with renovations. The potential buyer, Annette Vaandrager, said she was given a $200,000 estimate to renovate the house, which she called “ugly and huge.” Even if she received the $8,000 set to pay for demolition – an unusual move that would require state approval, Haralson said – the money wouldn’t go very far. Vaandrager said she signed a contract with NORA in September 2009 but has had to nag the authority to move on the sale. The pre-Katrina owners took advantage of the state’s Road Home program, selling it to the state for $84,000. Vaandrager is set to buy it for $30,000, which Haralson said is the value of the land.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

The council voted 5-0 to deny the demolition, with two members absent. Gisleson Palmer, who has a background in preservation, joined Head in asking for a list of unsold properties under NORA’s control. Gisleson Palmer said she asked for such a list 90 days ago and has still not received it, despite assurances that she would have it in 30 days. Gisleson Palmer asked whether NORA could auction these properties, and no one had an answer. In a recent council Disaster and Recovery Committee meeting, Gisleson Palmer asked NORA “to explore the possibilities of auctioning a small control group,” a move she characterized as “a great start in the overall effort to provide methods of home ownership while strengthening our communities.” She said constituents in her Algiers neighborhood were clamoring for an auction of the 20 or so NORA properties in the area.

A report issued last year by the state’s Legislative Auditor said NORA is struggling to move these properties and, as a result, the state wouldn’t be able to close down a portion of the Road Home program by the May 31, 2011 deadline. The report said NORA wasn’t alone, though, with the similar agency in St. Bernard Parish moving slowly as well. The two parishes account for more than 99 percent of the properties still in the state program. In an e-mail exchange after the meeting, Ommeed Sathe, NORA’s director of real estate strategy and redevelopment, said the agency has closed on about 800 properties, with 655 pending. Most are in the council districts that include hard-hit areas of Lakeview, Gentilly, eastern New Orleans and the 9th Ward, he said. The state has more than 3,000 more Orleans Parish properties to send to NORA.

EDUCATION

RSD superintendent Vallas not working full schedule because of disaster work Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer

rom February through October 2010, any regular, year-round employee of the Recovery School District was scheduled to work 179 days. But Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas is no regular employee, and his reputation as a frenetic go-getter may cause someone to think he’s worked a multiple of those days. Because of his work rebuilding the educational systems in disaster-stricken Haiti and Chile, Vallas worked a full day only 131 of those days, or not quite three-quarters of the time. During 26 of his days out of the country, Vallas was paid by the RSD for the time he took to call into the office. Vallas said it’s his nature and role to provide aid where needed. “That’s what I do,” Vallas said in a phone interview with The Lens. “If something is broken, I’m usually invited in to fix it. That’s my function.” But education officials and advocates said that while other school

THE TRUMPET | January/February

systems may need help, the main function of a Recovery School District superintendent is to work within the RSD. “I think it was a misuse of his services,” Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Linda Johnson said. “We pay him to do work in New Orleans. Until New Orleans no longer needed help, he should have stayed in New Orleans.” After Vallas used his vacation time working for the two countries’ school systems, he was not paid for times when he was not on the job for RSD, according to school system payroll documents provided to The Lens in response to a public-records request. His outside work does not affect his $4,000 monthly housing allowance, which is included in his biweekly paycheck, or his RSD-paid vehicle. Vallas tracked his time meticulously, down to the fractions of an hour. His hourly rate is just over $121.

OPINION A three-part series

Why should you care about the jail size? Part I

IN $

L I A

If the jail doesn’t matter to you, it might be time to rethink this because the jail size affects the public safety and the overall expenses for the city budget. • • • •

The jail size affects arrests. The jail size affects the court system. The jail size affects who stays in jail and who doesn’t stay there. The jail size affects how much money is available to the city for general needs. • The jail size affects every aspect of city life. • In short, it affects every aspect of your life. Whether you agree or not, this is the bottom line. The more money you spend on a jail, the less money you have for the priorities in your community. What might be some priorities for your community, you ask? How about street repair? How about more money for playgrounds? How about services for young men so they can become productive instead of destructive? The list goes on and on.

The Jail Expansion

At the heart of these questions is one of the most significant decisions our city officials will make for the next 30 to 40 years: Will the public safety in New Orleans improve whether there is a jail size increase or decrease in the number of beds? Think about it. Despite more than 30 years of trying to build safer communities, we have not done a very good job. The truth is we have accomplished the opposite. That’s right. We are not very good at keeping the public safe. Yet, we spend more than $1,000 per household for jail and other criminal justice expenses than any other major urban city. Did you get that?

Again, we spend more on crime and jails than most other urban cities in the United States. Yet, despite all of this spending, we still have the same violent crimes issues we had almost 30 years ago. Something is clearly not working. This isn’t the opinion of anyone at The Trumpet. In fact, everything you will read here isn’t an opinion of The Trumpet. The only opinion that we are offering in this three-part series is that our decision on this jail is one of the single most important decisions of this decade. As you read further, you will understand why we make this statement. It’s also important for you to know that everything we are offering in this piece is information we gathered from many people who know much more than we do. What we have tried to do here is interpret for you, as best we could, incredibly complex issues that we had dismissed as being too difficult to handle. From our learning we hope we have understood just enough to share with you something that makes sense and that is meaningful. We listened to community advocates, researchers and people who work in the system. We talked to the politicians, funders, teachers and police officers. We watched the proceedings on the jail and listened to the community advocates that showed up. We listened to federal experts, national experts, and all sorts of people who claim to know what works and doesn’t work and who all say the same thing: our city can do better.

What’s Really at Stake?

From all these conversations, we also learned that the average person don’t really understand what is at stake. Like you, we didn’t understand the difference between the jail decreasing its beds from 5,000 to 3,600

THE TRUMPET | January/February

or to 1,438 beds. If the current Sheriff says he needs at least 3,600 beds, then shouldn’t we be okay with that? After all, the previous Sheriff had over 7,000 beds before Katrina. So if we’re going from more than 7,000 to 3,600 beds, then aren’t we doing a good job? The current Sheriff says he needs at least 3,600 beds to keep our community safe. To most of us, at first, this request sounds reasonable. Who are we to contradict the Sheriff? But after our many conversations we learned that we can do even better than just meeting the Sheriff’s request. Why? How? Because there is more at stake that we need to talk about. As we said earlier, the issue is not so simple, and the right answer to this question will surprise you. We were so taken aback by how critical this single decision will be for our city that we felt it was important to find a way to extend the conversation to you, our readers. Why? Because we were deeply concerned that too few of our neighbors understood what is truly at stake on this jail issue. And worse, we felt that the few who knew something about it just weren’t making a good connection with you. We hope to do that here. If we succeed, we hope you will participate in some way by expressing yourselves to all of our decision makers. Our intention isn’t to sway you to agree on one decision over another, or to convince you to go out and push for a particular jail size. Our purpose is to help you have a better appreciation about this issue, and we hope that from this appreciation you decide to learn more on your own and get more involved. Remember, our elected and appointed officials will be deciding on the future of the jail’s size---one of the most critical policy decisions for the City of New Orleans for decades to come. If you want to play a role in this process, read on and consider how you might get more involved. After all, it is your neighborhood that will be affected most by the size of our jail.

Part Two: What are the key points to consider?

Much has been written, reported, and aired on TV and radio about the jail working group and the debate about the total size of the jail. Experts gave many opinions about what needs to be taken into account when deciding on a jail. Yet, there is still confusion out there about how a decision will be made. However, if the public will gain an understanding the items which will determine the jail size such as government trends, current jail policies, state and parish laws and available city services, we can move forward to make intelligent decisions about the future jail size for our city.

The Bottom Line

The jail size is directly related to the following items:

•Analytical understanding of local, state and national crime trends •Comprehensive and analytical understanding of current practices and policies by all agencies that affect the jail (such as the District Attorney, NOPD, and the Public Defender) •Analytical understanding of current state and parish laws (that affect who goes to jail for what reason and for how long) •City general budget allocations, state funds, and federal grant opportunitie •Available city services for people at risk for ending up in jail

Analytical understanding of local, state and national crime trends

Of all the items listed above, this is the easiest to deal with. We say this because the city hired Dr. James Austin, who conducted an analysis of crime trends and uncovered that our crime rate was trending down. His report is available on the mayor’s website. In it, you will find that he clearly finds that overall New Orleans crime (both violent and non violent offenses) is trending down over a ten-year period. So, if crime rate is trending down, the question to ask is: What is the appropriate jail size to decrease the crime rate in New Orleans? And, we also need to know how much do we consider and prepare for any trends upward in the future? Clearly, the data shows that we need fewer beds than we needed pre-Katrina. Everyone agrees there. No one wants to return to having over 7,000 beds. Yet, according to the same Dr. Austin, parishes with comparable populations to New Orleans have less than 2,000 beds.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

So the question gets more complicated now. If parishes of similar size to New Orleans have less than 2,000 beds today, then shouldn’t we be good with less than 2,000 beds? The Sheriff says we need 3,600 beds and some members of the jail working group say that we’re good with 1,438 beds. What’s the right answer?

Comprehensive and analytical understanding of current practices and policies by all agencies that affect the jail

This item that requires much more conversation than we can offer here. But we hope to start it. First, imagine running a business that has five arms. Each arm is responsible for a critical piece of the business. Each arm knows its part of the business very well. Somehow, someway, these five highly-specialized arms make up one whole business. And somehow, someway, this business manages to chug along. It isn’t terribly successful or efficient, but somehow it stays afloat. It stays afloat while it wastes dollars, harms the community, takes many wrong turns, and even fights itself for control of the whole. If you can stick with this crude analogy, then you will understand our current criminal justice system.

Understanding Our Current Criminal Justice System

Basically, the system is a set of independent agencies that rely on each other to keep us safe. The Sheriff is just one agency of this system. These agencies have its own set of policies and procedures to meet its respective needs:

•The District Attorney •The Public Defender •The New Orleans Police Department •The Municipal Judges •The Criminal Judges •The Juvenile Judges •The Civil Judges These agencies, the District Attorney, the Public Defender, the New Orleans Police Department, the Municipal Judges, the Criminal Judges, the Juvenile Judges and the Civil Judges, which make up the criminal justice system for the City of New Orleans, have little history of coordinating services over their entire existence. Did you miss that? We’ll say it again: the listed agencies don’t play well together. In fact, they are like our five-arm example above—always trying to wrestle control from each other so as to have control over the whole. What is the result of all this lack of coordination? For us, the taxpayers, it’s a whole lot of waste and inefficiency. Its bad business practices and bad results. It’s bad government on many levels. Continuted on page 26

Again, this is not our opinion, but information shared with us by many experts. Unfortunately, what we have learned about this item makes it clear that a jail size should not be decided by any one single agency. Do you see why not? Because if a single agency makes this decision in the current environment, which is an environment of poor coordination, then one agency is making a decision that does not take the fullest consideration of all the issues that the other agencies face. In any business, this is inefficient, wasteful and bad practice. Should we make an exception for the criminal justice system? We don’t think so. We should care about this because under the current structure it is more than possible that people who don’t need to be in jail end up in jail. We believe that this item needs to be addressed, not only now, but over the long haul. We applaud the mayor for creating a working group that at least begins to look at these hard questions. It’s just the beginning, but it’s a step in the right direction. If we can somehow get to a functioning structure that coordinates better, we open the door for a better criminal justice system in the future.

Analytical understanding of current state and parish laws

How does the city have a unified understanding of laws if the arms don’t play well together? From our recent observations during the jail work group meetings, it is clear that the judges alone don’t agree with each other on how to interpret laws. One judge says that he is ordered by the Louisiana Supreme Court to collect fees from poor people in the system or send them to jail if they can’t pay. Yet another judge points out that it is against the state and federal constitution to put people in jail for being unable to pay. How do we make sense of this? Well, we have learned that you don’t have to be a lawyer or a judge to understand the laws. We also learned that even when you are judge or lawyer, there is no agreement. So why should we care about this? Let the judges and lawyers argue these things out, right? Not so fast. That’s been the problem now for over thirty years. We have a bad system because there is no central space for agreement. There is no space where these different leaders can listen to each other. Right now, if one judge puts people in jail for minor offenses, such as disturbing the peace, it is highly possible these people will stay in jail much longer than they need to be. Why? Because they can’t make bail, or can’t pay the court fees, or can’t get a private lawyer, or can’t see the public defender because of backlogs. We end up getting a system in which people who are neither a threat to themselves or to you spend too much time in jail. Imagine the experience of working class people who live paycheck to paycheck ending up in jail for a minor offense. It can happen to any of us. If we don’t have enough money, we can end up staying inside the jail for weeks. This is the sort of problem that happens daily in the current system that needs fixing. The judges, the Sheriff, City Council and the District Attorney have all begun looking at solutions for these problems, but they move very slowly. They have developed some promising new programs that will allow the system to focus on violent, dangerous offenses. If somehow we can get all of these arms to coordinate better, examine the laws together, agree on how to apply them, we might get even better results. We might even stop the practice of filling up the jail with nonviolent, non-dangerous people.

City general budget allocations, state funds, and federal grant opportunities

Now, this is a very interesting item. Right now, every agency in the criminal justice system receives money to operate from several sources. The main sources are: • The city general budget • dedicated millages (from city property tax assessments) • State general funding • Federal formula grant funding • Federal competitive grant funding • Private grant funding

We won’t go into detail about each one of these money sources because it would take too much time. But we will highlight that the two major sources of funding for most local agencies is the city’s general budget, millages and state funding. So, the jail, as it currently exists, and as it will exist tomorrow, is funded by all of the above. Now, what is important for us to know is that the majority of the budget for the jail is covered by you, the taxpayer. That’s right, you pay for the jail. Of course, you knew that. However, we would like to point out that sometimes there is information out there that says different. In fact, you may have heard that our jail houses state prisoners and that they pay for themselves. This means that the state pays for them and we don’t. This might sound right and true, but is it? Is it possible that you pay for state prisoners, as well? Of course it’s possible. The questions that we need to explore when we look at how the jail is funded, is what is the actual cost to the city for housing more than local prisoners? This is a serious question that should be asked by each of you, as taxpayers who are footing the bill for the jail. Why? Because if we agree with the Sheriff that 3,600 beds is what we need, then we also agree that we will pay for the extra cost that comes with having more beds.

Available city services for people at risk for ending up in jail

This is one of the most interesting and poorly understood pieces to this complicated puzzle. Why so? Because it truly depends on how much you, as a taxpayer, understand this and how much you demand for such services. Right now, our system relies on an old formula for keeping us safe: arrest everybody and punish people harshly for making mistakes and throw them in the system. This is basically the hard line on crime. It hasn’t worked. Don’t take our word for it. You can research it yourself. Look up information from folks like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Vera Institute, even our Chief Serpas. You’ll hear from our mayor that we need to be smart on crime, not just tough on crime. What does this mean? In its simplest form, it means we need to spend less time on putting and keeping nonviolent, non-dangerous, non-threatening offenders in jail. Sounds good, right? If we do this, then the police, the judges, the DA and the public defender can focus on the really violent offenders that make us all less safe. But there’s a problem. So much money is spent today on an ineffective system that it’s hard to change a bad habit. To make the switch successful would mean creating and supporting services for people so that they stay out of jail. What are these services? They are typically called alternatives to incarceration, such as mental health and substance abuse centers, halfway homes, after-school programs, family services programs, GED programs, workforce training programs, and so on. All of these programs in our community are more effective at keeping people out of jail than jail itself. Did you get that? We’ll repeat it: community based programs have been proven to be more effective in keeping people out of jail than has jail time. What does this mean? It means that if a judge has to decide between jail time and a community based services for a first-time offender, he should give the community based service a first chance. Our current system does this sometimes, but it could improve. Why should we care? Because if we keep not caring, and keep letting the current system operate the way it has operated for decades, then we never give ourselves a chance to create a better system for you and your neighbors. If what we have hasn’t worked, then why should we keep paying for the same old thing? We should look at practices that are different. We should ask how it can be done better. We should find out how other cities do it better. The single most important opportunity to pose all of these questions exists right now, at this very moment, around the size of our jail, as you will soon see when we finish this conversation.

Read Part Three: How Do We Move Forward? The Trumpet Blog http://npntrumpet.blogspot.com/

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM)

A Challenge For New Orleans Neighborhoods By Patricia A. Davis, Neighborhoods Editior

Repair. Build. Restore. Tear down. Improve. These are the phrases often spoken among New Orleans residents as they continue to meet housing deadlines and return to permanent residents from across the country. Housing is a priority. However, often one important variable that residents seem to forget in their everyday surroundings is their health.

Louisiana and Diabetes

One of the most chronic diseases attacking the residents of New Orleans is Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal – resulting in problems with converting food into energy. For instance, after a meal, food is broken down into a sugar called glucose, which is carried by the blood to the cells throughout the body. Cells use the hormone insulin, made in the pancreas, to help process blood glucose into energy. According to the National Institute of Health, Type II Diabetes occurs when the cells in the muscles, liver and fat do not use insulin properly resulting in the pancreas not making enough insulin for the body’s needs, resulting in the amount of glucose in the blood increases while the cells are starved of energy.

According to Louisiana Health Statistics, about 7 out of every 100 adults in Louisiana has diabetes which ranks Louisiana as the 10th highest in the nation, compared to the people with diabetes in the general population. Diabetes causes approximately 42 out of every 100,000 adult deaths in Louisiana – making it the number-one state with the highest rate of deaths from the disease. And even though this statistic is true, many New Orleans residents are aware they are at risk. In addition, the Center of Disease Control reports that African-Americans have the highest prevalence of diabetes, with a 13.7 percent diagnosis rate, compared to 8.2 percent of Hispanics and 8.9 percent of the White population.

next Trumpet realease part

Children Living with Diabetes

While the emphasis and research have targeted adults with diagnoses of Type II Diabetes, let us not forget our children whose lifestyles have changed over the decades. Irregular physical activity in children has contributed to obesity, which is a high risk for Diabetes Type II. Therefore, research is now addressing children diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

A Healthy People, Healthy Neighborhoods As New Orleanians continue to revitalize their neighborhoods, it is quite easy to become preoccupied in rebuilding projects. Residents are still struggling to seek adequate housing since this great city was declared a disaster area five years ago after Hurricane Katrina. However, as we continue to improve our neighborhood we must improve our physical health. Risk factors and solutions can be addressed with prevention and management by working towards a common goal for a healthier quality of life.

Exploring the Risk Factors of Type II Diabetes: Prevention and Management Problem: Lack of physical activity may result in becoming overweight, which in turn may result in the body not utilizing the glucose produced. This may result in the body’s cells being less sensitive to insulin. Family history of parents or siblings is another risk factor. Solution: Inform your medical provider of family history. Consume healthy meals. Engage in or increase your physical activity.

FREE web training for NPN members January 18, 5:30 pm–8 pm at NPN office. R.S.V.P. at: info@npnnola.com

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Interfaith Understanding During MLK Weekend

City Hall News

In an effort to enable interfaith discussion and understanding, the congregations of the Touro Synagogue and Masjidur Raheem will come together during the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend for the 4th Weekend of Peace.

he weekend’s events will also include a community service event for the needy on January 15 co-hosted by both congregations. Volunteers will serve a hot meal, distribute canned goods and clothing and offer primary health screenings, including dental screenings. Entertainment for both children and adults, including participation from the New Orleans Hornets as well as music by the Hot 8 Brass Band, will also be available. The first Weekend of Peace took place in 2005, when Touro Synagogue and Masjidur Raheem began developing and nurturing a relationship to facilitate interfaith understanding. This initial effort was led by Touro Synagogue congregant and then New Orleans Saints Executive Vice President, now Councilman-at-Large Arnie Fielkow, with the support of clergy Rabbi David Goldstein of Touro Synagogue and Imam Rafeeq Nu’man of Masjidur Raheem. The event was recreated in 2007 and 2008. In mid-2010, both congregations, at the request of Fielkow, decided to rekindle and expand the relationship. Chairpersons for the 2011 Weekend of Peace include synagogue congregants Lisa Herman and Larry Orlansky, along with masjid congregants Musheer Abdul-Jabbaar and Safiyullah Yusuf, and clergy Imam Rafeeq Nu’man and Rabbi Alexis Berk. On November 15, 2010, Touro hosted “Living Our Faith,” an evening of dinner and dialogue for members of both congregations led by the Rabbi and the Imam.

The dinner gave members of the masjid and the synagogue an opportunity to talk informally and learn more about each other and each other’s religions. The clergy-led dialogue allowed participants to explore questions about faith from the perspective of members of both religions. Members of the masjid and the synagogue plan to schedule further activities together during 2011, including joint worship and discussion groups. “When two congregations come together to plan an event like this, there is solidarity in knowing that although we worship differently, we share the common goal of promoting peace. Whether you greet friends with the Hebrew word ‘Shalom’ or with the Arabic words ‘As-Salaam Alaikum’, both phrases impart peace,” said event co-organizer Lisa Herman, member of Touro Synagogue. “The Weekend of Peace has been successful over the years, and I look forward to expanding the relationship between our congregations. Knowledge is the key to peace, and as we learn more about each other’s faiths, we have greater respect of faiths that are not our own,” said Imam Rafeeq Nu’man. “New Orleans has always been home to numerous religions and races. Thus it is only fitting that we host a weekend of religious friendship and tolerance during the weekend that celebrates Dr. King. This is an event that I strongly support, and I look forward to seeing it continue for years to come,” Fielkow said.

Remembering MLK: Upcoming Community Events Interfaith Volunteer Event

January 15, 2011 from 1PM – 4PM Jomo Kenyatta Park, 1115 N. Claiborne Avenue

Learn More at: www.nolacitycouncil.com 28

Interfaith Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March January 17, 2011 at 9 AM

Meet at steps of City Hall 1300 Perdido Street and proceed to the bust of Dr. King on Claiborne Avenue On January 17, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, congregants from both faiths will march from the steps of City Hall to the Bust of Dr. King on Claiborne Avenue under one banner, proclaiming “Many Religions, One Community.” All are welcome to join.

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

NPN’s Capacity College By Sara Hudson, Trumpet Contributor, 504ward

Seventh Ward. New Orleans East. Carrollton. Irish Channel. District C.

ew Orleanians pledge allegiance to our city, but we salute the flags of our neighborhoods. No surprise then that Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN) rose after Katrina with two basic premises: 1) New Orleanians love their neighborhoods. 2) Change starts there. What does your neighborhood need? Community garden or better retail? A festival, a fair, a feasible afterschool youth option? Got an idea? Let NPN help you make it happen. Apply for the 2011 NPN Capacity College, designed to help existing neighborhood groups improve their ‘hoods by honing their skills. Each graduating class struts away outfitted with workshop training, neighborhood networking, a tailored project action plan and new resources for your neighborhood. NPN will accept applications from individuals, but since they strongly encourage group applicants, get your school cool on to get your closest compadres at the neighborhood organization where you work, volunteer at, or attend to join (score!).

Not part of a neighborhood association? In case you’ve missed it, local is the new black. (Go Ask Alice - Waters.) Check out NPN for a bazillion ways to get involved. (We counted.) Whether you’re too hip to be hipster (Bywater) or bunk down in Unofficial UNOville (Mid City) with NPN to guide you, you’ll never need a cardigan to find new ways to ask, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Are you a member of a faith-based institution? NPN would love for you to apply, too! Want more info? Check out the Capacity College session for interested groups and individuals on Monday, January 24 at 5:30pm at the NPN office, 4902 Canal Street, New Orleans. Learn more about the program at www.npnnola.com Know your neighborhood. Check out The Trumpet Blog at http://npntrumpet.blogspot.com/ and the official Neighborhoods Partnership Network Facebook page.

2011 Capacity College Session Monday, January 24 at 5:30pm

NPN , 4902 Canal Street, New Orleans Applications will be available. Deadline is February 1, 2011

NPN needs bloggers Sign up at: thetrumpet@npnnola.com

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Neighborhood Meetings

Algiers Point Association Every 1st Thursday of the month @ 7pm Holy Name of Mary School Cafeteria Broadmoor Improvement Association 3rd Monday of every other month @ 7pm St. Matthias Church 4320 S. Broad Street Bunny Friends Neighborhood Association Every second Saturday of the month Mt. Carmel Baptist Church 3721 N Claiborne Ave.

Central City Renaissance Alliance (CCRA) Every 3rd Tuesday of every month, upcoming meeting to be held on July 20th 1809 O. C. Haley Blvd. http://www.myccra.org Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association Quarterly Meetings time/date TBA Jewish Community Center 5342 St. Charles Ave.

Bywater Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month Holy Angels Cafeteria 3500 St. Claude Ave.

Downtown Neighborhood Improvement Association (DNIA) Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 7p.m. Musicians’ Union Hall 2401 Esplanade Ave. (entrance through parking lot on Bayou Road and Rocheblave Street)

Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month Parish Hall of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (corner of Carrollton and Zimple)

DeSaix Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Saturday of the month @10a.m. St. Leo Church 2916 Paris Ave.

Carrollton United Every second Monday at 5:00 P.M. every other month St. John Missionary Baptist Church, (corner of Leonidas and Hickory)

East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Committee (ENONAC) Every 2nd Tuesday of each month @ 6 p.m. St. Maria Goretti http://www.enonac.org

Central City Partnership Every last Friday of the month @ 1p.m. Allie Mae Williams Center 2020 Jackson Ave.

Faubourg Delachaise Neighborhood Association Quarterly meetings time/date/location TBA Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Monday @ 7p.m. 3201 Orleans Ave. http://www.fsjna.org Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month @ 6:00p.m. True Vine Baptist Church 2008 Marigny St. Garden District Association 1 annual meeting per year, time/date/location TBA Gentilly Civic Improvement Association (GCIA) General Membership- Every 3rd Saturday of the month 10am Board Meeting - Every 3rd Wednesday of the month 6:30pm Edgewater Baptist Church 5900 Paris Ave. Gentilly Heights East Neighborhood Association Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6p.m. Dillard University Dent Hall – Room 104 Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6:30 p.m . VOA – 2929 St. Anthony Ave.

Gentilly Terrace and Gardens Improvement Association Every 2nd Wednesday of the month @ 7pm Gentilly Terrace School 4720 Painters St. http://www.gentillyterrace.org Hoffman Triangle Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 5:30pm Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 3327 Toledano St. Hollygrove Neighbors Quarterly- Saturdays at noon Next meeting July 10 & October 16th St. Peters Church 3424 Eagle St. Eage St. and Edinburgh St. Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Every Thursday @ 5:30 Center for Sustainability, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 5130 Chartres, Lizardi and Chartres http://www.helpholycross.org Irish Channel Neighborhood Association 2nd Thursday of the month at 7pm Irish Channel Christian Fellowship 819 First Street http://www.irishchannel.org Lake Bullard Homeowners Association Every Saturday @ 3p.m. Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave. http://www.lakebullard.org

Get Connected to the New Orleans Neighborhood Network. Post News & Events for Your Organization at NPNnola.com 30

THE TRUMPET | January/February

Neighborhood Meetings

Ask City Hall District A Susan G. Guidry City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1010 Fax: (504) 658-1016 Email:sgguidry@cityofno.com

Lake Catherine Civic Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 7 p.m. Lake Willow Neighborhood Every 2nd Saturday of the month @ 10a.m. St. Maria Goretti Church Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) Every 2nd Saturday @ 12 noon NENA – 1120 Lamanche St. http://www.9thwardnena.org Melia Subdivision Every 2rd Saturday of the month @ 5 p.m. Anchoren in Christ Church 4334 Stemway Drive Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Board Meeting – Every last Tuesday of the month 6 p.m. General Meeting - Every 1st Monday of the month 6:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church 3700 Canal Street http://www.mcno.org

Oak Park Civic Association Every 3rd or last Tuesday of the month Paris Oaks/Bayou Vista Neighborhood Association Last Saturday of every month @ 4p.m. Third District Police Station 4650 Paris Ave. Pensiontown of Carrollton Neighborhood Association Every 1st Saturday of the month @ 2p.m. Leonidas House Community Center (under renovation) 1407 Leonidas St. Temporarily housed at St. Paul AME Church, 8540 Cohn St. (corner of Leonidas and Cohn) Pontilly Association Pontilly Disaster Collaborative Every 3rd Wednesday of the month General Meeting every 2nd Saturday of the month http://www.pontilly.com

Rosedale Subdivision 2nd Friday of Every Month Tall Timbers Owners Association Semi-annual meetings: 2nd Wednesday of October & April 7p.m. Board meetings: 2nd Wednesday of every other month 7.p.m Tunisburg Square Homeowners Civic Association, Inc. Every 2nd Monday of the month @ 6:30 p.m. http://tunisburg.org West Barrington Association 1st Tuesday of every month @ 6 p.m. Holiday Inn Express 70219 Bullard Avenue

Neighborhood Partnership Network 4902 Canal Street • #301 New Orleans, LA 70119 504.940.2207 • FX 504.940.2208 TheTrumpet@npnnola.com

THE TRUMPET | January/February

District B Stacy Head City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658 -1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 Email:shead@cityofno.com District C Kristin Gisleson Palmer City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 Email: kgpalmer@cityofno.com District D Cynthia Hedge-Morrell City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 E-mail: chmorrell@cityofno.com District E Jon D. Johnson City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 E-mail: jdjohnson@cityofno.com Council Member-At-Large Arnie Fielkow City Hall, Room 2W40 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068 Email: afielkow@cityofno.com Council Member-At-Large Jacquelyn Clarkson City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077

Captain Doullet House (steamboat river pilot)

Built in 1906 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Holy Cross

D O O H R TS O B H H G I G I E N POTL ROSS &RD S A C W Y L H O T H R9 E W O L

Photo taken January 5, 2011