Take the BioDistrict Survey

Here.

Let BioDistrict officials and planners know what you think about the consolidated scheme for the 1,500-acre district that encompasses the bulk of what's left of the Mid-City National Register Historic District.

Keeping tabs on the BioDistrict

Both the VA and LSU Footprints fall within a much, much larger overall development footprint - a legislatively defined district known as BioDistrict New Orleans (also known to some as GNOBEDD).

While I've touched on the BioDistrict tangentially, it hasn't been the overarching focus of this blog.  Still, since the first of the year, a number of developments related to the district have been underway.

SaveCharityHospital.com put up a post today that summarizes a number of the developments and the concerns, devoting attention and time to the matters that Inside the Footprint - and the mainstream media - haven't been covering in the depth that they deserve.  Even if you don't agree with all of the SaveCharityHospital.com stances, the post is quite informative.

BioDistrict Meeting Tomorrow

Make sure you know what's going on in your neighborhood, in your city:

"On Saturday, January 15th, 2011, BioDistrict New Orleans invites area residents to attend a community meeting to view the 'Draft Alternative Concepts' that were developed as a result of the Physical Planning Workshops held in November of 2010."

January 15, 2011 – 9:00AM to 12:00PM
Jesuit High School – The Student Commons Building
4133 Banks Street, New Orleans, LA 70119

The BioDistrict (also known as GNOBEDD) stretches from Iberville Street to Earhart, from inside the CBD all the way out to Carrollton Avenue.  It includes the entirety of the LSU and VA Footprints.

I'm interested to see if the draft alternative concepts for this undertaking actually mitigates concerns raised at sessions in the fall.  The fundamental concern from my standpoint, which likely won't be addressed absent legislative action, is the sheer size of the district; I continue to feel that the 1,500-acre footprint is overly ambitious, especially since it's largely superimposed on a National Register Historic District.

BioDistrict Public Meetings this Week

If you live in the VA or LSU Hospital footprints, you also reside within the much larger footprint of "BioDistrict New Orleans" planned for a 1,500-acre campus in Mid-City and Gert Town.

Several public meetings are scheduled for this later this week:

If you're not familiar with the project, which is overseen by an unelected board, you should attend...if only to see whether your home or business falls within an "opportunity zone" proposed by the project.

Relevant Meetings Today

1.  UMC Board - 1 p.m. - basement of LSU Interim Hospital - Details of LSU's attempt to finance its proposed University Medical Center (the LSU Footprint).

2.  GNOBEDD (BioDistrict) - 6 p.m. - Xavier Student Center - Provide input on the nature of the BioScience District.  If you thought the LSU/VA Footprint was excessive, take a look at this one.  In shaping its plan, the district needs to adopt a more modest set of geographic boundaries and focus its energies on the many vacancies in the existing Medical District (inside the CBD) instead of expanding into Mid-City.

Today's Update

Crews started in on this 3-bay shotgun at 309 S. Galvez today, preparing it for a move.

Wally Thurman stopped by S. Tonti Street to check up on his house.  The house across the street and the house next door, 223 S. Tonti, (blue, below) were both being prepared for moving.

Crews also continued work today on this house at 2326 Palmyra Street.

Farther down the street, the house at 2224 Palmyra was also being prepared for moving.

The final development, pictured below, is perhaps the most interesting of the day.  Handbills appeared on doorknobs throughout the VA Footprint announcing "A new BioScience District is coming to your area."

 'What does this mean for you?', it asks rhetorically, answering in part with a "revitalized Mid-City."

What it doesn't mention - and what makes it rather creepy and disturbing - is that the GNOBEDD plans, in their vision of a "revitalized Mid-City", would require the demolition and destruction of much of Mid-City as we know it - and not just Lower Mid-City.  Thus, the placement of these disingenuous fliers really is quite a final salt-in-the-wounds insult to the people that remain inside the VA Footprint.

Like the hospitals project, the 1,500-acre BioDistrict is not a wonderful, benevolent stranger to invite into the neighborhood.  The euphemistic language hides the fact that the development of the BioDistrict with its claims of a "land bank" require neglecting to mention that thousands of people live in hundreds of historic homes in the enormous footprint for the proposed project.

It's unfortunate that I have to warn against GNOBEDD.  Usually, I'd be welcoming this sort of development.  I would have no problem if it was trying to redevelop the many vacant skyscrapers in the CBD.  Usually I would see its push for high paying jobs as a plus.

But then again, usually the powers that be would not be quite as brazen in their disregard for the irreplaceable historic communities at the heart of their metropolitan region.  Usually they'd be a little more savvy and a little less cunning.

ADDED: Last evening, I had a chance to look at the GNOBEDD AECOM Draft, a study of the Biodistrict.  To substantiate my assertion above about the likely damage to Mid-City, here's a screen shot near the end of the report that hints at the desire for a sizable land grab:

The fact that there's a district at all begs the question - why not simply trumpet the existing health and science nodes at either end?  Combine that with regret over the lack of eminent domain authority, and it's difficult to see how existing Mid-City neighborhoods - in the Mid-City National Register Historic District - aren't the largely unspoken target.

The report also notes the many vacancies in both major structures and land in the historic Medical District in the CBD.  That, too, begs the question - why the need for a district expanding out into Mid-City when there are so many possibilities in the existing Medical District in the CBD?  Here's a look at the working paper: