Remember the mystery walker?

Well, she has a few videos up from her walk.

Like this one - a typical visit with a resident of BioDistrict New Orleans who knows nothing about the existence of the BioDistrict, much less the planning process that started last fall:



*Sumbitted video.

Why are neighborhoods even included in the boundaries of the BioDistrict - which is charged with developing biosciences infrastructure?  My hypothesis is that the district, despite contentions that it wants to improve neighborhoods like Mid-City (which is not its legislatively assigned mandate), needs a tax base to tap into down the road.

A Letter about the BioDistrict

...appeared in today's Times-Picayune from Lili, who lives in Mid-City.

Note the first comment, which points out that key points have been carved out of the version that was actually published.

"Modular Grid Modern" - and Mid-City Historic District Expansion

Recently, Crescent Growth Capital, the entity that's redeveloping the former Lindy Boggs or Mercy Hospital site near the end of Bayou St. John, proposed an expansion of the period of significance for the Mid-City National Register Historic District.  It also proposed boundary changes.

The period of significance, key for obtaining historic tax credits, is proposed for extension to include the period of 1943-1961 - which would sweep in more Mid-Century Modern buildings, like the LSU Footprint building on Canal Street shown above.  It was pictured in Crescent Growth's Baton Rouge presentation as an example of Modular Grid Modern, one of the styles that would be eligible for the National Register under the expanded concept of the district.  The building, to my knowledge, is still set to be demolished.

The presentation also acknowledged two small reductions in the district due to new infill housing being built by Providence Community Housing, along with "a larger contraction" due to the destruction wrought by the LSU/VA project, which largely fell within the Mid-City District.

In total, the numbers of contributing historic properties in the district have dropped since the last survey years ago, falling from 3,811 structures to 3,567 structures.  In the non-contributing department, there are now 539 structures, down from 678.

The proposed change to the district also seeks to sweep in industrial buildings, such as the brick warehouse and shop buildings along the former Carondelet Canal, now the site of the proposed Lafitte Greenway.

The National Register of Historic Places will ultimately have to decide on whether or not it will accept the proposed changes.

Finalized Details on Mid-City Mitigation Grant Program

Here, via the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation.

The full roll-out of the program is set for the August 8, 2011 Mid-City Neighborhood Organization meeting:

August 8, 2011
6:30 PM
Grace Episcopal Church
3700 Canal Street

The program is designed to award rehabilitation grants to owners of historic properties in the Mid-City National Register Historic District.

As I noted in my earlier post providing the first public details of the grant, the program was set up as part of the Programmatic Agreement that governs the LSU/VA project.

An interesting story

It's hard to know what interesting side story regarding the LSU/VA project will emerge next.

Today, I learned that at least a few individuals are now calling organizations around town trying to figure out how to buy moved VA houses.  And most of the houses are still very much in transition back to fully renovated status.

In the example related to me today, the caller sought to find out how to buy a house in the greater Mid-City/Parkview neighborhood (with the specific intent of living in the house).

That's a good sign for the long-term viability of the moved houses, even if about a third of the VA moved houses remain in less than ideal condition, for some inexplicable reason.  The other two thirds are at least roofed and secured.

Images from the Kennedy Talk

Over 100 people showed up last evening at Grace Episcopal to hear State Treasurer John Kennedy speak on the fiscal realities of the UMC situation. And they, importantly, also got to speak as well.

A steady flow of people spoke after Kennedy's brief remarks. It was a truly diverse outpouring of emotion, facts, suggestions, questions, and a desire to do things right.  Topics ranged from healthcare to expropriation to fraud to personal connections with Charity Hospital to questions about alternatives.

The biggest consensus: nobody is opposed to the hospital, it's about opposition to the process, the site, and the lack of community input and discussion on a major community issue.

Kennedy repeatedly emphasized the fact that thus far, discussion has been limited to a single plan, the current UMC plan.  And that plan is not sustainable.

While a few proponents of the current plan showed up, the crowd was overwhelmingly in support of rebuilding in Charity Hospital and critical of the state's decision to destroy a neighborhood without a business plan and financing in place.

Kudos to Ms. Sandra Stokes for organizing such a successful event.

Mid-City Mitigation Grant Program unveiled last night

Last evening, with two security guards outside the doors of the First Pentecostal Church's meeting hall on Canal Street (brought in by VA contractor Clark/McCarthy), the VA held its monthly neighborhood meeting with residents affected by the project.

Representatives of the State Historic Preservation Office were on hand, based on a request at the last meeting, and they shared the outlines of a rehabilitation grant program for historic buildings in the Mid-City National Register Historic District here in New Orleans (here's a map that gives some rough idea of the district, LSU/VA site is shown in red).  The program is being implemented in compliance with the Progammatic Agreement that governs the LSU/VA site preparation.

While the official unveiling of the grant program will take place at the August 8, 2011 meeting of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization, here are the basic, tentative details of the grant program as laid out last evening:

- The total pot of funding equals $1.4 million, made up of contributions from the VA, City of New Orleans, and State of Louisiana
- The total amount of funding that will comprise grant awards is approximately $1 million; some of the funding is for administrative overhead, some has gone to help with funding rehab of moved VA houses in the Mid-City district
- The cap on individual grants to property owners will be $20,000 - the amount awarded can be any amount equal to or lower than that
- The grants will be available to any property owners with contributing historic properties in the Mid-City National Register District, but the district will be tiered into three areas: the area below Broad nearest to the hospitals site, the area between Broad and Carrollton, and the area above Carrollton farthest from the hospitals site.
- A panel of reviewers, seemingly SHPO staff, will review applications and give preference based on a variety of factors including which tier the applicant's property is located in (preference to those closest to and most affected by the LSU/VA hospital project).  It is not clear whether the panel's deliberations will be open to the public or open for public comment.
- Owners will need to provide a scope of work with an application
- Applications will be due on October 14, 2011
- Awards will start to trickle out in about December 2011
- Owners of historic properties that are not contributing due to a building's disrepair will likely be able to apply for funding for repairs that would result in the building become contributing once again
- It sounds like the "first zone" below Broad Street will receive flyers about the grant via a door-to-door walk around, which is good to hear
- The grant will not be a matching grant; owners are welcome to match the grant amount, but they are in no way required to put up funding to get funding
- SHPO staff will hold a grant workshop for residents on August 23 and may host another at some point in September

Here are the provisions in the PA regarding the mitigation fund and grant program (which outline the amount contributed by the various parties):

Treasurer John Kennedy to Speak in NOLA on UMC Financing

[Click to enlarge]

A good point

As readers of this blog likely know, the LSU/VA footprint is located in a much larger footprint, the footprint of "The BioDistrict." 

Here's a good point about a lack of public awareness about the BioDistrict project from a letter in the Times-Picayune today:

'Readers have been privy to stories about chickens in the Seventh Ward, nutria couture and Nicholas Cage's French Quarter exploits, but we have not seen a single piece on a neighborhood organization's effort to escape "BioDistrict New Orleans."'

The local media really should do a better job of ensuring that the public knows more about things like the BioDistrict.  The same goes for many aspects of the LSU/VA undertaking that haven't been covered over the past year.

Mid-City Neighborhood Organization takes official stance against the BioDistrict

You can read the letter and the various points of contention here.

BioDistrict New Orleans encompasses both hospital sites - and more, a total of 1,500 acres of New Orleans.

Mapping the VA Hospital Footprint Moves

I've continued to enter the data. Here's the first 10 "move days" worth:


View LSU/VA Hospitals Footprint - Lower Mid-City, New Orleans in a larger map

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.