Help Holy Cross

The Lower Ninth Ward Urban Farming Coalition invites you to check out what's growing in the Nine!

Lower Ninth Ward Urban Farming Coalition GARDEN TOUR
Saturday, May 23rd
Meeting Time: 8:30 am (tour bus leaves at 9 am)
Meeting Location: School At Blair Grocery on N. Roman and Benton Sts.

We're celebrating growth and sustainability in the Nine with an urban agriculture tour of 7 gardens right here in our neighborhood (and a couple in the Bywater!). The tour focuses on vegetable gardens and micro farms, including raised beds and container gardens. It's a great opportunity to not only see what's growing, but to get ideas and inspiration for your own garden, get involved in community gardening and/or meet other neighborhood gardeners. Free tour bus service will be provided on this group tour.

The Lower Ninth Ward Urban Farming Coalition is a partnership of local groups and individuals committed to food security and environmental responsibility through urban agriculture.  Please visit lowernineurbanfarming.org for more information.

Justice for the Gulf Coast

Representative Zoe Lofgren of CA just introduced HR 2269, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. The legislation would create 100,000 "green" living wage jobs and training opportunities for Gulf Coast residents and displaced people to rebuild critical infrastructure, restore natural flood protection and increase energy efficiency.

Visit the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign on Facebook.

Ask your friends and family to write Congress!

CSED Gets a Piece of the Pie

The Times-Picayune reports today on a half million in funding from The Greater New Orleans Foundation to a number of local civic and advocacy organizations involved in vital recovery and rebuilding efforts around the city. In "$500,000 in grants to boost recovery", the T-P reports:

“The Greater New Orleans Foundation will award 14 grants totaling $500,000 today to organizations struggling to deal with post-Katrina environmental issues in the New Orleans area.

The grants will pay for projects ranging from removing lead contamination from the soils of outdoor play areas at 10 day care centers to designing a combined wetland and bicycle path along the path of an old railroad track in the Lafitte corridor to expanding the creation of urban gardens.”

Among the GNOF recipients are: Friends of Lafitte Corridor, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, the United Houma Nation – and the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development (CSED), awarded funding to create "an implementation plan for sustainable, resilient restoration of the Lower 9th Ward, including coordination with other nonprofit organizations active in rebuilding the community." Also, the Lower Ninth Ward Urban Farming Coalition received a grant to "Expand the capacity of this student program that operates the Urban Micro-Farm at the School at Blair Grocery."

Great news for the Nine! Read more here.

MLK Community Garden This Summer

The “King’s Community Garden” Summer Program will engage approximately 20 students, from 6th and 7th grades. As a new addition to the MLK Charter School’s annual Summer Science Academy, this program will be held June 1-June 30, 2009, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Students will work with a variety of volunteers from Common Ground Relief, Urban Farm Network, etc. to learn the “ins and outs” of gardening, the importance of community gardens, and learn about fruits, vegetables, and herbs indigenous to Louisiana. Students will also be engaged in a variety of service learning activities centered around supporting the Lower 9th Ward community.  The primary goal of this program will be the construction of a community garden on campus.

Download “King’s Community Garden” for more information and contact Justin Mack, Science Coordinator, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School for Science & Technology.

Reminder: Master Plan Meeting for Lower 9 - April 21st

New Orleans Master Plan District Meeting: Planning District 8 (Lower 9th Ward)
04/21/2009 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Residents of all neighborhoods are invited to attend these meetings to review the first draft of the proposed New Orleans Master Plan.

The plan features proposals such as replacing the Interstate 10-Claiborne Avenue expressway with a tree-lined "urban boulevard"; reviving the Canal Street theater district; creating landscaped open canals and "urban wetlands" to beautify the city while reducing the chance of flooding; expanding streetcar lines and bicycle paths; and making "green options" standard practice in planning and zoning decisions.

Location:
M.L. King Charter School, 1617 Caffin Ave.

Contact Information:
Download the plan on the website or call the City Planning Commission at 504.658.7033 for more information.

April 17: Promoting a Fair Climate Agenda

Historic Green Videos

A series a terrific videos from this year's Historic Green event (March 10 to 20) around the Holy Cross Neighborhood - thanks to David Eber, Sustainability Outreach Associate for the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development.


School kids participate in Historic Green by building a raised bed garden at the Lower 9th Ward Village.


Crawfish boil at The Lower 9th Ward Village!

CNN on the Lower Ninth: Loss, Hope and the ‘New Normal’

CNN's chief national correspondent John King traveled to New Orleans to look first-hand at recovery in the Lower Ninth Ward compared to the rest of the city. In this week’s "State of the Union” (Sundays, 8 ET), he features Patricia Berryhill, Alice Craft-Kerney and the positive impact of the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic in Holy Cross. In the “Lower Ninth Ward trails in New Orleans 'new normal'” he reports:

“During a helicopter pass over the neighborhood, we saw concrete slabs and weedy spaces where houses once stood. Yes, there is a fair amount of new home construction, and renovations under way at some homes gutted by Katrina.

But while the debris is mostly gone, much of the neighborhood remains an abandoned wasteland.”

…

"My sense is the post-Katrina city we all wondered about 3½ years ago what would it look like – that we are there now," Campanella (Tulane University demographer Richard Campanella ) said in an interview on the Tulane campus. "The patterns are stabilizing and we are in a 'new normal' period."

A new normal in which the Lower Ninth Ward trails significantly behind.

Only about 19 percent of its pre-Katrina population has returned; roughly 3,600 people live there today, compared to some 19,000 when Katrina hit.”

MR-GO Suit Moves Ahead

The Times-Picayune's Susan Finch reports in "Judge gives go-ahead to MRGO suit":

"A federal court judge in New Orleans cleared the way Friday for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to face trial next month in a lawsuit that claims the agency's failure to heed environmental laws in building and maintaining the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet caused environmental damage that led to massive flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish during Hurricane Katrina.

The case, which Judge Stanwood Duval is scheduled to hear without a jury starting April 20, was filed by WDSU-TV news anchorman Norman Robinson and five other plaintiffs whose homes or businesses in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish were swamped during the August 2005 storm."
...
The suit alleges that the corps' negligence destroyed protective wetlands and turned the shipping channel into a speedway for Katrina's storm surge.

The MRGO, which offered a shortcut for large ships between the Gulf of Mexico and the Industrial Canal, opened in mid-1963. Almost two years later, Hurricane Betsy hit in September 1965, flooding parts of the city, including Gentilly and the Lower 9th Ward, as well as Arabi and Chalmette.

Last summer, the corps deauthorized the MRGO as a shipping channel. Work began in January to close the MRGO."

Read the full story here:

New Orleans 2030: Working Draft

Subject: MASTER PLAN WORKING DRAFT NOW AVAILABLE!

The New Orleans City Planning Commission is preparing a citywide Master Plan to guide the long-term physical development of the city, along with a new, user-friendly Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO). The Master Plan is scheduled for completion by June 2009.

Please note that the second round of District Meetings will be held April 15 to 22. The hearing on the Master Plan for the Lower 9th ward will be:

Tuesday, April 21, 2009    Time 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Planning District 8
MLK Charter School, 1617 Caffin Ave.

 

See the Master Plan Working Draft!  Visit NOLA Master Plan.

Historic Green Throughout the Neighborhood

Historic Green volunteers were seen throughout the Holy Cross Neighborhood yesterday – from the Delery Street Playground to Dauphine, St. Maurice and Tupelo. The annual event started March 10 and runs through the 20th.

Resident John Koeferl gets a hand from DCL Mooring & Rigging.
Marquette University students work at 5516 Dauphine Street.
Volunteer crews at 5515 Dauphine.
Redeemer Church worked at 632 Tupelo Street.
Volunteers at 429-31 St. Maurice.

ALL PHOTOS: Darryl Malek-Wiley.

Attend the Corps Hearing!

There is a public meeting next Tuesday on March 3, 2009 regarding IERs 4 (Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project, Orleans East Bank, New Orleans Lakefront Levee, West of Inner Harbor Navigational Canal to East bank of 17th Street Canal, Orleans Parish, Louisiana) and 11 Tier 2 Pontchartrain (Improved Protection on the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes, Louisiana). The meeting will be held at the Lindy Boggs International Conference Center, which is located at 2045 Lakeshore Dr. New Orleans LA 70122.  There will be an open house from 6-7pm, and the presentation and discussion will be from 7-9pm.

There will be another public meeting next Thursday March 5, 2009 regarding IER 11 Tier 2 Pontchartrain (Improved Protection on the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes, Louisiana). The meeting will be held at the Port of New Orleans 1350 Port of New Orleans Pl. New Orleans LA 70160. Please note the time: 8:00-10:30am.  There will be an open house from 8:00-8:30am, and the presentation and discussion will be from 8:30-10:30am.

Guard is Going

"National Guard is pulling out of New Orleans" announces the Associated Press:

"Three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard is pulling the last of its troops out of New Orleans this weekend, leaving behind a city still desperate and dangerous.

Residents long distrustful of the city's police force are worried they will have to fend for themselves."

Read the full story here.

Spread the Word: Protect the Gulf

 

Bayou Bienvenue, February 2, 2009

PHOTOS: Darryl Malek-Wiley

Lost Dog, Lower 9th

In D.C.: Pressing for Green Jobs

Darryl Malek-Wiley was there. So was Pam Dashiell, "Mack" McClendon, the Rev. Willie Calhoun and other community leaders representing the Lower Ninth Ward. All in Washington, D.C. for this past week’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference – focused on solutions to environmental challenges to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.

The Times-Picayune ran a terrific piece in today’s paper on the Lower Ninth Ward contingent to this year’s event which also featured Lisa Jackson, the new USEPA Adminstrator (and a Lower 9 native):

"WASHINGTON – This time, residents of the Lower 9th Ward are worrying about being left high and dry.

An unprecedented torrent of federal spending will almost certainly be unleashed once the Obama administration economic stimulus package clears Congress in one form or another. But advocates for the Lower 9th Ward, which came to symbolize the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, are left to wonder how much will come its way.

'We keep hearing the rain is coming, the rain is coming; we just want to know where we put our cup to catch a few drops,' said Darryl Malek-Wiley of New Orleans, the Sierra Club's regional representative for environmental justice.

Malek-Wiley was part of a small delegation of advocates for the Lower 9th who came to Washington this week to participate in a national "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference. The contingent arrived with things they hope the stimulus package does not finance – like the Army Corps of Engineers' huge Industrial Canal lock project – and things they would like to see get a little money ¬– like the Global Green community development center along the Mississippi River in the Holy Cross neighborhood."

Read all of “Lower 9th Ward advocates want share of stimulus”.

New Rebuilding Assistance Resources

Project Homecoming is accepting applications for from homeowners living in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes who need rebuilding assistance and have the ability to purchase their own rebuilding materials.

Rebuilding Together is accepting applications from low income elderly or disabled homeowners and first responders in Holy Cross, Broadmoor, Tremé/Esplanade Ridge, St. Roch, and Hollygrove who need assistance completing rebuilding work.

Find information on these programs and others on our list of organizations offering Free or Low-Cost Rebuilding Assistance here.

Green Jobs, Lower Ninth Ward

Forest Bradley-Wright, Willie Calhoun, Darryl Malek-Wiley and others are featured in this great segment from WWL TV on green jobs training and their pending trip to Washington, D.C.
SOURCE: WWL TV

In "Funding drying up for green job training program", WWL TV reports:

"It's a program designed to educate New Orleans youth, create jobs, and alleviate strain on the environment but in just a few months, the necessary funding runs out."

"A green movement takes root" in the Lower Ninth Ward

Cain Burdeau of the Associated Press has done a fine job of documenting life in and around New Orleans since Katrina. In "As New Orleans rebuilds in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a green movement takes root" recently, he writes of the greening of the city and talk of restoring the wetlands, of harnessing power from the MIssissippi with river turbines, and of the rooftop solar panels that are starting to appear:

"For example, in the Lower 9th Ward, hit particularly hard by Katrina, some 20 energy-saving homes are using solar panels.

'I never knew nothing about solar panels until after the storm,' said Mable Howard, an 80-year-old doll maker whose five-room home was flooded. The solar panels were donated and installed for free, and her electric bill has been cut at least in half during some months."

Read the full story here.

Snow in the Lower Ninth Ward

A beautiful blanket of snow covered Holy Cross and the Lower Ninth on December 11th...Darryl Malek-Wiley sent along these fantastic photos of Bayou Bienvenue, the Make It Right project, and the Claiborne Avenue Bridge across the Industrial Canal. Enjoy!
ALL PHOTOS: Darryl Malek-Wiley

Obama, Environmental Justice, Hope for the Gulf Coast

Today’s Times-Picayune ran a piece about an important gathering held outside of Washington, D.C. following Barack Obama’s inauguration earlier this week. Aaron Viles, campaign director of the Gulf Restoration Network, was there. So were representatives of New Orleans’ Advocates for Environmental Human Rights and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, and other Gulf Coast organizations. And so was Pam Dashiell of the CSED, representing the Lower Ninth Ward:

"It's a new day," said Dashiell, who also was on the Mall Tuesday. "I think the people of the Gulf Coast are going to see a new way of doing things."

Pam and other retreat participants are members of the advisory group of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Read all of “Obama gives hope to Katrina activists”.

Join Us for the Obama Inauguration Celebration!

January 19: National Day of Service in Holy Cross

The Sierra Club in New Orleans will be answering President elect Obama’s call by doing a work project at the Episcopal Church of All Souls in the Lower 9th Ward (St. Claude Ave. @ Caffin Ave.) starting at 9:30 a.m.

President-elect Obama is calling for a, National Day of Service on Monday, January 19th in New Orleans which is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the day before the presidential inauguration. The Sierra Club is answering President-elect Obama's call to service

Get involved by joining the service project in New Orleans, LA! E-mail Darryl Malek-Wiley or call (504) 427-1885 for more details.

PBS: "The Old Man and the Storm"

“The Old Man and the Storm” airs Tuesday, January 6 at 9 p.m. ET on the PBS show FRONTLINE. The program’s description reads:

“Six months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, producer June Cross came across 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge working alone on his home in the lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood devastated when the levees broke in August 2005. Over the next two years, Cross would document the story of the extended Gettridge clan – an African-American family with deep roots in New Orleans – as they struggled to rebuild their homes and their lives.”

You can see more clips and read a full description of this new documentary at FRONTLINE. Living on Earth, the excellent public radio show, also offers an interview with the film maker, June Cross, who describes Mr. Gettridge’s determination to rebuild his home and life:

“In the first place it was the only house that still had four walls that were standing in that neighborhood. So it really could be rescued. I mean he literally just needed to gut it. All the rest of the homes had either pancaked or been washed away. You know, I think his attitude was, well, the house withstood the water. I'll be damned if I'm gonna just walk away from it. I worked too hard to get this.”

Listen to the interview here.

Bayou on Fire

Amazing photo from The Times-Picayune…shows a marsh fire in Bayou Bienvenue/eastern New Orleans burning out of control yesterday.

The New Orleans Fire Department continues to monitor the blaze in what they an "extremely isolated" area near Paris Road and the I-510 bridge.

PHOTO: Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune

L9 Center for the Arts: Helping a City to Heal

The NewsHour on PBS ran a wonderful piece recently featuring photographers Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick and their L9 Center for the Arts at 539/537 Caffin in Holy Cross. The Center was launched after Katrina in a restored double shotgun – as a place to celebrate the arts and culture of the Lower Ninth Ward.

In “New Orleans Art Exhibit Aims to Help City Heal”, Keith and Chandra are interviewed by reporter Jeffrey Brown as part of a segment on the citywide Prospect.1 exhibit:

JEFFREY BROWN: Through layers of slime, a trumpet is raised, a trombone pokes out, and you can almost hear the sounds of New Orleans. These photographs once documented the vibrant life of this city. Now they capture something else: the destruction wrought by Katrina.

KEITH CALHOUN, photographer: They're not photos anymore. They're objects now. The water took it to another level.

To view the entire NewsHour story, go here. For more on the L9 Center for the Arts and their ongoing mission, go here.

L.A. Times: "Pioneer Spirit of the Lower 9"

   CREDIT: Kirk McKoy/L.A. Times

PHOTO: Plastic snow man in a Lower Ninth Ward lot.

The Los Angeles Times has consistently done a great job of documenting life after Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward. As part of the paper’s “An American Moment” series, the Times’ Peter H. King tells what he sees in “Pioneer spirit in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward”:

“It might seem a daunting landscape, but not to Miss Gertie: ‘To me those houses are like flowers popping up in a garden. There's just a few of us now. But there will soon be a beautiful garden. Oh, yes.'

This wasn't supposed to happen. The Lower 9th Ward had been written off by most of the politicians and urban policy experts who after Katrina set out to engineer a new New Orleans."

Read the full piece here.

Merry Christmas, Holy Cross

PHOTO: "Snow on the Levee", by Sarah DeBacher

PHOTOS: "Holiday Lights in Holy Cross", by Kathy Muse

Global Green Commits More to New Orleans

Yesterday's New Orleans CityBusiness reports that Global Green plans to invest an additional $17 million on green building initiatives in New Orleans during 2009 - with an emphasis on their Green Seed Schools program to retrofit and upgrade two more schools to make them more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. For more info, read "Global Green to invest $17M in N.O."

PHOTO: Rita Capers is among the Lower 9 residents (pictured here with Global Green staffer Raymond Breaux) who have worked with Global Green to cut their energy and water bills in half. Courtesy of Global Green.

Global Green is also seeking donations to help support continuing efforts like the Holy Cross Project, Build it Back Green, and green policy advocacy efforts and forums for professional builders and the public. Consider a year-end tax-deductible contribution today to help these very worthy causes.

National Guard Will Stay – Again

Good news for Lower Ninth Ward residents. Yesterday's Times-Picayune reports that lawmakers in Baton Rouge have approved funding to keep 100 National Guard troops in New Orleans through February 2009. "The guard had been slated to be phased out by year's end. But police Superintendent Warren Riley sought more time to bring on additional recruits. Soldiers have helped patrol less populated areas to allow police to focus on curbing violent crime."

The HCNA&L9 Crime Committee plans to call for more time.

More on this developing story at “Louisiana National Guard will remain in New Orleans to help police”.

MR-GO: The Hurricane Highway

What scientists, wetlands experts and community activists have been saying all along: the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) did (and still could) contribute to catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and the Lower 9.

Yesterday's "New computer storm model condemns role MRGO played in Katrina flooding" states:

"Had there been no MR-GO when Hurricane Katrina roared out of the Gulf of Mexico atop a record storm surge, the catastrophic flooding that killed some 1,500 people in the New Orleans region would have been reduced by 80 percent, an outspoken coastal scientist told regional levee commissioners Thursday.

Ivor Van Heerden, also well-known critic of the Army Corps of Engineers who led the state's investigation into Katrina failures, said new computer modeling done over the last 12 to 18 months also proves that one mile of healthy wetlands can reduce storm surge by one foot."

Read the full story from The Times-Picayune here.

Stop Crime, Use Twitter

Sign up for our Lower 9 Stop Crime Twitter account to receive brief emails and text messages detailing crime and community event information for Holy Cross and the Lower Ninth Ward. As soon as NOPD emails me notice, usually within 24 hours or less, I will post a message to our Twitter account. Then you will receive notice both as an email and a text message on your cell phone, if you choose. Furthermore, I will also send out messages for upcoming meetings and events.

Please click here and consider joining the Holy Cross and Lower Nine Crime Prevention Committee's Twitter updates.

An informed community is a safer and empowered community.

Ariane Wiltse

Co-Chair Crime Prevention Committee

Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

Snow in Holy Cross

Thursday was a snow day for Holy Cross and the rest of New Orleans as the white stuff blanketed the semi-tropical city. Thanks to David Eber for these photos in the Holy Cross Neighborhood. Check out more photos of the snow in the area here.
PHOTOS: "Snow Day!", by David Eber

It's a Holiday Potluck!

Natural Protection: the Bayou Video

Darryl Malek-Wiley and Pam Dashiell speak about the importance of Bayou Bienvenue on yesterday's ABC26 feature, "Natural Protection".

In the News: Bayou Bienvenue

New Orleans' local ABC affiliate, WGNO, ran a piece yesterday on the Lower Ninth's efforts to restore Bayou Bienvenue:

"The area of Bayou Bienvenue that stretched 30 miles from New Orleans to Lake Borgne was a complex network of wetlands, mostly cypress trees.  Now, only tree stubs stick out of the water.  But a local environmental group and Lower Ninth Ward residents are hoping to restore the area to it's original, natural beauty.

What was once plush wetlands filled with cypress trees, Bayou Bienvenue now looks dead.  "This was a beautiful, fertile, cypress swamp," says Pam Dashiell.  She's lived in the Lower Ninth Ward for almost two decades.  After Hurricane Katrina she learned about the bayou.  "The degredation of what once protected the people is something that can't be allowed to stand," says Pam.

Now, Pam, residents and environmental groups are working to restore this area with thousands of cypress trees.  This is how the area looked in 1952 and then in 1976 – already a marked erosion."

Read all of "Wetland Restoration Project in Lower Ninth Ward".

LA Green Corps Workforce Training Opportunities

The Alliance for Affordable Energy has teamed up with the LA GreenCorps to offer a Workforce Training Program in weatherization and energy efficiency. This program is designed to teach team members the following skills:

• How to effectively seal all cracks and air leaks in a home and view homes as air flow and thermal envelopes
• Make changes to the home to affect energy efficiency
• Proper installation of radiant barrier in attics
• How to choose and install the best insulation for a building or space

This 4 month program is a paid job, and offers a continuing education award of $1250 upon completion. More importantly, because energy efficiency saves homeowners and renters money every month, there is a growing demand for tradespeople who can make energy efficiency improvements.

LA GreenCorps is currently seeking applicants who have an active interest in the building or rebuilding trades. Applicants must be between the ages of 18-24, and have limited work experience to apply.

If you are looking for a career in the building industry and need more experience, this may be the perfect opportunity for you. Contact Rick Yelton, LA GreenCorps Field Supervisor, for more information or to apply: (630) 217-4606.

Video: MR-GO, the Wetlands and a Greener New Orleans

 

Two New Orleans high school students wrote and directed their own documentary about the destructive power of the MR-GO shipping channel on Louisiana wetlands. This is an amazing short video, and recently won "Best Personal Film" after being screened at the Remedee Foundation's Reel Earth green carpet event last month.

In “GO-ing Green”, students Jacie Lemon and Sharett Brooks take an airboat tour of the Louisiana wetlands to learn about the consequences of the MRGO industrial canal. Featured in the film are Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network, Darryl Malek-Wiley, and Ronald Lewis of the Lower Ninth Ward. 

Take a look!

Home Sweet "Make It Right" Home

PHOTO: Howie Luvzus

It's move-in day for six Lower Ninth Ward families who are taking possession of their new sustainable homes - the first of 150 affordable houses. Some nice media coverage of this important event, including "Families move into homes that Pitt built" by the Associated Press:

"It was a bittersweet moment for Brad Pitt, walking through the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood where families were preparing to spend their first holidays since Hurricane Katrina.

Those families are moving into the first six houses built through Pitt's Make It Right foundation. One home was already strewn with green garland, lights, wreaths and red bows.

Still, Pitt is restless.

"I'm really happy for the families that are going to be here, but I can't help but think about the families that aren't," Pitt said Monday. "It's a push-pull for me. The excitement is that it's being proven, that it's working. The frustration is that we have a long way to go."

Read the full story here.

Make It Right: the Houses That Brad Built

The Today Show's Ann Curry revisits Brad Pitt and the Lower Ninth Ward's Make It Right Project as Inez Converse and other residents move in for the first time - home for the holidays.

The Village: "Where's Your Neighbor?"

WWLTV ran a nice story yesterday on the one year anniversary of the Lower 9th Village and their new initiative to bring back the elderly and disabled who have been unable to return to their homes since Katrina.

"Mack" McClendon and the folks at the Village call it the “Where’s Your Neighbor?” Program. It’s designed to help as many of the 600 elderly, handicapped and disabled residents who want to return to their damaged homes but simply can’t afford the renovations.

"'Here, it's been one exciting year to see that one person can make a difference,’ said Wood "Mack" McClendon, director of the Lower Ninth Ward Village. ‘You've got to at least try.’

McClendon's try came in the form of the Lower Ninth Ward Village, a non-profit community center he opened exactly one year ago after buying an abandoned warehouse on Charbonnet Street.

‘It's getting some good attention and hopefully giving people a chance to see the community and what it can be again, McClendon said.”

Check out the full story and watch the video “Group aims to bring back elderly and disabled back home to New Orleans”.

Contractor Fraud: Take the Survey

Contractor fraud has become a major challenge to New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

LouisianaRebuilds.Info and the LSU Sociology Department in Baton Rouge have created a survey that will help us understand how widespread contractor fraud is and more importantly, what we can do to stop it. 

Whether or not you've been a victim of contractor fraud, please take this important survey. Getting information from all residents will give us better insight on how to fight this issue. The survey takes an average of 5 minutes to complete and is fully confidential. Your answers are completely confidential, and you are free to skip any question or to end the survey at any point. Louisiana Rebuilds/LSU will report results only in aggregate, percentaged form and will not release data with personally identifying information. The results will be used only for community recovery planning and scholarly research.

If you have questions about this survey, contact the LSU Sociology Department at 126 Stubbs Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, 225-578-1645. If you have questions about respondents’ rights, contact Dr. Robert C. Mathews, Chairman of the Institutional Review Board at LSU, at 203 B-1 David Boyd Hall, tel. 225-578-8692.

Please feel free to forward the survey to others. Access the survey here.

New Lock for Industrial Canal: Who Needs It?

A hearing last night at MLK School drew 100 residents - with more than 30 speaking out against a Corps of Engineers proposal to replace an existing lock in the Industrial Canal (Inner Harbor Navigation Canal) with a larger, deep draft lock.

This new plan and report from the Corps comes despite concerns from the adjacent community – and neighborhood organizations – about the environmental impacts of dredging toxic materials from the canal. Groups such as the Corps Reform Network and local Citizens Against Widening the Industrial Canal (CAWIC) have also called into question the economics of the project, outlined in their recent report “Failure to Hold Water.” And in 2006, a United States District Court concluded that the Corps had not met all of the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act and ordered that construction be suspended until these issues could be adequately resolved.

The Times-Picayune’s Jen DeGregorio reported on last night’s public meeting in “Critics say lock plans are unfair”:

“The Army Corps of Engineers' latest plan to build a new Industrial Canal lock drew sharp criticism Wednesday night from activists who say the controversial project unfairly puts shipping interests above the environmental health of neighborhoods along the waterway. 

Pam Dashiell, chairwoman of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, said the new lock would usher in "gangs of barges and deep-draft ships to a community that is struggling." 

"Are you trying to kill us again?" Dashiell said, referring to the breached floodwalls that allowed Katrina's floodwaters to inundate neighborhoods abutting the Industrial Canal. 

Dashiell was one of more than 30 angry citizens who railed against the new lock Wednesday night at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward, where the corps presented its new report of the environmental consequences of the project.”

Additional background on the Corps’ new lock plans:

• "Price for new lock swells to $1.3 billion, corps says”, The Times-Picayune, October 16, 2008
  
• "Corps releases report on Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project", October 2008. Comments due on Nov. 24, 2008
  
• "Economics of the New Lock Project for the Industrial Canal", WWLTV New Orleans Channel 4, Dec. 2007

EZ Bus: Improving Transit in the Lower Nine

Information about the new EZ Bus Concept from the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA). This service will be brought first to the Lower Ninth.

RTA is planning on having at least 20 EZ bus stops in the Lower Ninth throughout the different neighborhoods:

• EASYBus is a neighborhood circulator providing public transportation to those persons in an area where ridership density is not great enough for a traditional fixed route service.
• These circulators provide transportation to transfer points within the fixed route system, as well as transportation within the local service area.
• As ridership demand increases additional bus stop locations are added to accommodate the greater need.

Something "Stinks" in St. Bernard Parish

SDT Waste & Debris Services, LLC has a proposed site selection for a regional waste transfer station adjacent to the recreational marina on Bayou Bienvenue in St Bernard Parish. In response, the St. Bernard Business Association, Concerned Citizens of St. Bernard Parish, and CCAM (Concerned Citizens around Murphy) have joined together on a petition to oppose this site:

“SDT's proposed site selection for a regional waste transfer station is adjacent to the recreational marina on Bayou Bienvenue in St Bernard Parish. One acre of the proposed site selection is potential wetlands.

St. Bernard Parish deserves better than having the entrance to our parish marred by a garbage site. The diminished reputation of SDT and its sour relations with St. Bernard have been established. SDT claims that approximately 20 trucks a day will use the site. In fact, the actual number is closer to 175 trucks per day based on a two week average. Can SDT be trusted with our future?

Let your councilman know that this massive garbage site will not be a monument to economic development, but a tombstone for all elected officials who support this effort. Attend the Parish Council meeting November 18, 2008 at 11:00 A.M. to oppose Council approval of this garbage transfer site. Submit written comments to the council by November 25, 2008. Keep in mind that this has already received approval from the Planning commission.

Sign the petition. Tell the council to VOTE NO to Summary 2264 and Summary 2229.”

In addition, there will be a public hearing on the proposed site, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 11 a.m. Submit written comments to the council at radams@sbpg.net by November 25, 2008.

Widening the Lock: A Heated Debate

A great piece from reporter Jen DeGregorio in this morning's Times-Picayune:

"The latest report on the consequences of building a new Industrial Canal lock will get its only public airing tonight before the plan is reviewed by a federal judge who halted work on the Army Corps of Engineers project.

The corps will present the results of the supplemental environmental study as well as field questions and comments at an event scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward. Feedback received by Nov. 24 will be packaged with the corps' study and submitted for judicial review, said Amanda Jones, a spokeswoman for the corps.

The meeting is sure to generate a heated debate. The lock replacement has long been a controversial subject, pitting shipping interests against citizens who say construction will pollute neighborhoods that run along the Industrial Canal and could increase the risk of flooding."

Read all of "Canal lock meeting tonight" here.

Stop the Lock: Press Conference

Who: Lower 9th Ward residents, New Orleans residents and environmental leaders
When: 12 November
When: 6:00 p.m.
Where: In front of Martin Luther King Jr. School (Claiborne Ave and Caffin Ave)
What: Press conference demanding that the Corps of Engineers ‘stop the lock’

“At a time when the Lower 9th Ward is starting to recover from the failed levee built by the Corps which caused the total flooding of the Lower 9th Ward during Katrina, we do not need a 10 to 15 year period of construction on a this lock which will limit our access to the rest of New Orleans and impede the recovery progress of our community,”  stated Pam Dashiell, Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.
 
In the Citizens Against Widen Industrial Canal (CAWIC) report Failure to Hold Water, December 2007, the some of the major conclusions were:

• The decline in traffic and the limited delays that have been observed are so significant that even the best project [1] (the shallow draft lock) can not be justified.
• These conclusions are valid even when the benefits are compared to the remaining costs of the project. Resuming construction of the lock would be throwing good money after bad. [2]

“This new Corps Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) does not answer our questions about the basic economics of this project. We are therefore asking for an ‘independent review’ of the SEIS since the project at $700 million did not make sense. Its new $ 1.3 billion price is a clearly a “boondoggle,” stated John Koeferl, President, CAWIC.

“The environmental justice impacts of this Corps lock project are massive and the Corps’ analysis of these impacts is inadequate. An independent review of the whole SEIS is needed to address the environmental justice and environmental impacts,” said Darryl Malek-Wiley, Environmental Justice Organizer, Sierra Club.

[1] This term “best project” is a Corps Of Engineers term. We do not view this as a good outcome for the Lower 9th Ward residents and American Taxpayers.

[2] Executive Summary, Failure to Hold Water, page 3 

Salute to The Village

Join your friends, neighbors and supporters of the Lower Ninth Ward Village for a “One Year Anniversary Celebration”, November 30, 2008, 1:00pm~Until. The Village is located at 1001 Charbonnet Street in Holy Cross.

Featured will be guest performer Shamarr Allen. Opportunities to tour the facility with Village Director Ward "Mack" McClendon. And a special presentation of the first beneficiary of The Village’s “Where's Your Neighbor Program”, a special initiative focused on saving the lives of elderly residents throughout the Lower Ninth Ward.

 For more information on the Anniversary Celebration, contact The Village.

Reviving the Bayou

Nice recap of “Bayou Bienvenue Days”, the mini-conference at the bayou last weekend, in The Advocate (Baton Rouge):

“Bayou Bienvenue used to be a part of life in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans as a place where people could fish, crab or just enjoy the outdoors.

On Monday, a group of residents, nonprofit organizations, university professors and others talked about how to make that a reality again.

Monday was the last day of a multiple-day conference that ended with discussion of how to connect the neighborhood’s rebuilding efforts with restoring the nearby marsh.

Bayou Bienvenue used to be a cypress forest, but a number of factors have come together during the past few decades to turn the area into a primarily shallow open water body.

‘I spent my childhood back there,’ said Ward “Mack” McClendon, executive director of the Lower Ninth Ward Village community center. ‘I know what it was and what it has the potential to be.

However, speakers Monday said the restoration of the area back into a cypress marsh needs to be more than just a coastal restoration project.”

Read all of “Group discusses revitalizing popular bayou site in N.O.”.