Posts In 5/2009
The point of last night’s public forum on the state’s plan to level 70 acres of Lower Mid-City to make way for a $1.2 billion medical center was mostly symbolic, but that didn’t a diverse cast of doctors of all stripe, residents and fair housing activists from coming out to make their voice heard
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If you say the word truth 17 times in a speech, do you become any more truthy?
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In an interview with The American Prospect, the first African-American chief administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency exposes her New Orleans roots — and gives voice to a critique her hometown must remember as it moves forward with the creation of a new land use master plan.
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One month after dozens of residents walked out of the city’s public forum on the proposed land use master plan protest of the fact that the largest proposed development in post-Katrina New Orleans was not on the table for discussion, City Planning Commissioner Yolanda Rodriguez made an obvious right choice to demand a first public meeting on the $1.2 billion state hospital project.
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New Orleans’ first food cooperative is searching for the capital funds it needs to build a bricks-and-mortar grocery store on St. Claude Avenue. The funding appears unlikely, judging from the resigned email coop supporters received this morning from their neighborhood state representative.
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New Orleans is 62 percent African American. Now, I’ve never done a desk-by-desk census of the newsrooms in the city’s major media outlets, but my experience – and some byline checking at the The Times-Picayune and New Orleans City Business – leads me to believe that newsroom demographics don’t exactly jibe with those of the city’s mostly black neighborhoods.
released Thursday, revealed that America’s newsrooms became less diverse in 2008 from the year before. The percentage of journalists of color in the nation’s newsrooms dropped from 13.5% in 2007 to 13.4% in 2008. The percentage of journalists of color in…
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The City Council will hold a public hearing tonight on the state’s decision to close New Orleans’ only mental health facility for youth. The hearing represents a rare instance in which all sectors of local government – including the New Orleans Police Department and Mayor C. Ray Nagin- are actively engaging in an issue, on the same side as taxpayers.
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Hollygrove residents want the neighborhood’s shuttered Paul J. Dunbar school to reopen before 2014. Unfortunately, it appears that that their state representative in Baton Rouge is unwilling to back up the long-neglected, low-income community.
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Visit schools. Engage with parents and don’t ever ever forget that the centralized model of public school education is not yet done being transformed.
These were some of the points made Thursday night by Educate Now! founder Leslie Jacobs, Duke Bradley, founder of a new Lower Ninth Ward charter school, Benjamin Mays Prep, and Parent’s Organizing Network founder Aesha Rasheed. Speaking at an event sponsored by Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans, the eclectic panel spoke to the growing pains facing students, teachers and parents as the city’s notoriously dysfunctional school system makes itself over.
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Yesterday’s introduction of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) could pave the way for green innovators in New Orleans to grow their operations.
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A new website challenges municipal officials to respond to tech-savvy citizens as they virtually rat out public works problems in their cities. The web service SeeClickFix reflects the increasingly participatory nature of civic governance.
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Come out to hear three celeb-educators tomorrow night.
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The ball is finally rolling on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act.
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Hundreds of supporters of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act are descending onto Capital Hill. Wanna go?
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I left last night’s Seventh Ward town hall meeting knowing far more about this city’s deep psychic wounds, than the proposed nightclub we were ostensibly gathered to talk about.
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The gods of urbanism were smiling down on New Orleans’ inaugural Jane’s Walk this last weekend. Dozens of people — a mix of former and current New Orleans residents and visitors in town for Jazz Fest— joined the laid-back Saturday morning celebration of the walkable, diverse neighborhoods advocated by the late great Jane Jacob, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities..
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Well, last night Perry Farrell missed a great opportunity to learn what Jane really says – or said, before her death in 2006.
Indeed, even without any addicted rock stars – or any rock stars at all beyond those of the academic sphere— last night’s screening of “Urban Wisdom at Zeitgeist was a rollicking good time. Who knew Jane Jacobs enjoyed preparing meals with geometric themes? Putting aside the documentary’s bizarre foray into Jane’s predilection for serving hot dogs with string beans and long thin carrot strips, my favorite part of the night was a presentation by University of New…
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If any part of the country knows how critical public works are to region, it’s the infrastructure-poor Gulf Coast. And after years of talk, Washington is finally ready to talk about a serious public works initiative for the region. Time to help get this party started!
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