A Letter from the Advisory Council

The Lens unearths a letter sent from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) to the City of New Orleans regarding the treatment of the moved VA houses.

As someone who's been both a long-time supporter of the house moving alternative - a majority of the moved houses are secured and re-roofed - and someone's who's concerned about the failure to get the remainder back into some semblance of order...I can say that I have seen the letter and thought about it a bit.

A key problem with the letter is this: the Programmatic Agreement (PA) that the ACHP cites as it chastises the City...doesn't actually address the house moving that the Landrieu administration ultimately pushed for in response to the calls made citizens and preservationists.  That's not meant as an excuse, just a hard look at the text.

The PA only contained stipulations that addressed a much more modest house moving effort that the VA agreed to fund at the outset of the hospital project - and only 3 houses ultimately moved under that program (with owners, with roofs intact).  The 72 additional houses moved as part of the effort that materialized in summer of 2010 (covered extensively on this blog - without owners, without roofs) are not envisioned in the PA.  Thus, for better or for worse, the PA proper, as governing document for effects on historic resources, arguably has nothing to say about the vast bulk of the houses that moved off the site - the City effort that came after demolition had started was and is entirely "extra-PA."

A somewhat better hook - and the one that the ACHP probably should have used in its letter - is a provision in a letter from the State Historic Preservation Office that's constitutes part of an appendix to the PA (below in blue).  In the letter, the SHPO makes it clear that the "Area of Potential Effects" for the project would have to be expanded if any houses moved off site.  In other words, it's likely that more process would have been required to address the potential effects of the moved houses on the historic neighborhoods where many of them landed (and possibly the effects of roof removal, etc. on the moved houses themselves):

To my knowledge, the SHPO understanding  in 3(c) has never been been realized despite the moving of many houses into different locations, as I've mapped here.  I know of no extension or change to the "APE" that would serve to acknowledge that more historic buildings and neighborhoods were being affected by the project.

Finally, the piece in The Lens notes the handful of houses that moved into Historic Treme.  Of all the houses that moved off site, these really are the most incongruent with their new surroundings in terms of historic and architectural context (parts of Hoffman Triangle come close, but the existing neighborhood was not as deeply historic as Treme).  That's why I was fine with the article employing the photo from this blog.

In the end, I remain hopeful that the house moving effort will succeed.  Many of the properties continue to creep forward toward better condition, and I still say that even if only 2/3 of them ultimately come back in commerce with historic character intact, it will be better than the alternative faced in June of 2010 - mass demolition of all 72 houses along with the scores of other structures that were in fact demolished.

"in the event Treme decides not to Treme itself, it will wholly get it wrong. Completely. They’ve written themselves into our recovery. Period."

Will HBO's Treme ultimately cover its own presence in New Orleans as the tv timeline and the real world timeline collide?

Jean-Paul Villere lays out the strange possibility of "Davis potentially watching Davis then watching Davis."

It's an interesting conundrum, the documentarian's dilemma.  And it's one that gets even weirder as you ponder how Treme touches on the LSU/VA Footprint.  Here are some photos of the shoot in the LSU Footprint from a few weeks ago that never made it onto the blog:

As you can see, the filming required use of some of the now-vacant property in the LSU Footprint - contradicting what the location manager contact told me (that only the streets would be used).  The filming actually required messing up some of the lots that had been fully cleared:

It gets interesting when talking LSU/VA because the greater hospitals controversy - not just the geographic setting as stage - seems to be working itself into the show.  This past Sunday, for example, the show's viewers saw a developer talking briefly about a map...which turns out to be the LSU/VA hospitals area.

And recent scenes this season, set in 2007, were actually shot in late 2010 in the VA footprint...including a shot near Outer Banks Bar that I watched as it was filmed, (and documented here).

So, at some point in later episodes, if the LSU/VA footprint/Charity theme continues...will viewers ultimately see the show depicting its own crew filming earlier episodes of the show in the crumbling VA or LSU footprints as residents attempt to move out?  And if the LSU Footprint is still largely vacant at that future date (which would be no surprise to many of us), will the show's crew return there to shoot/recreate such a scene?  The possible convergences of film, reality, and time are almost too much to handle all at once.

As Villere puts it: "Treme must Treme itself. Why? Because the whole point of the show is to tell New Orleans’ story post Katrina, and whether you want to admit it or not the diurnal tedium of our lives will forever be impacted by the concept and execution of this show paralleling and in effect documenting the fabric of our culture."

More on filming in UMC Footprint

According to the locations contact, filming that begins tonight at 5 p.m. in the UMC Footprint is for HBO's Treme.

The contact also said that proper permits are in hand and that the streets alone will be used for shooting.

Mardi Gras Day in Treme

As I trekked through Treme yesterday, en route to the tail end of the Zulu Parade on Basin Street, I saw the destination lots of two of the final moved homes from the VA Footprint.  The little purple house above, once in the 2400 block of Cleveland Avenue, looks like it will fit right in with the varied streetscape.

Down the street, however, the former home of Deborah Brown-Cassine was sticking out like a bit of a sore thumb near The Candlelight lounge as Mardi Gras Indians headed over toward the Bridge.  Sans camelback hump and without even its distinctive perpendicular front porch roof, the building barely fits on the lot that it was placed on.  I hope a way can be found to minimize the intrusiveness and reinvigorate the building as its rehabilitated.

Treme Filming Today in VA Hospital Footprint

Crowds of people were scurrying about along the streetways of the VA Hospital Footprint today, filming HBO's Treme.  Some stretches of road were actually reconstituted for the filming after being torn up.

This bit of S. Tonti, for example, between Banks and Palmyra, had been recreated.

I had mixed feelings about the whole affair.  I learned that the scenes being shot were not actually depicting the demolition of the VA Footprint, but rather some general scenes from 2006.  That's not surprising, but it did make me wonder a bit more about the propriety of filming on the site.

For example, as shown above, Ms. Gaynell and company were trying to move things out of her house on Palmyra today (she departs tomorrow).  She said she didn't know anything about the filming until this morning.  An officer in a car blocked off access initially while the crew was filming, although the truck for moving was later able to pull up.  Most absurd, though, was witnessing crews shush Gaynell when she was talking out in front of the house.  While I normally wouldn't have a problem with a film crew causing some temporary inconvenience for neighbors, I don't think the crews recognized who they were dealing with - someone who's been through a lot.

Still, I'm a huge fan of the show.  And a visit with one of the writers, Mr. Tom Piazza, provided a few interesting views of things as they played out in front of Outer Banks.

It was a strange scene.  Below, you see several of the fake demolished houses brought to the site.  The excavator operator, serving as backdrop, just kept going through the motions with the machine, sort of "air-demolishing."

Meanwhile, not far away, real, loud, destruction was still very much underway on the old Tate building:

I'm not certain who, if anyone, is getting paid for providing the location.  If any of the developing parties or their contractors a getting paid, though, I would request that they use any revenues from the filming to assist those being displaced from the VA or LSU sites, or to move homes off the LSU Footprint, preferably with their owners, if possible.

HBO's Treme Filming Inside the Footprint Tomorrow

I happened upon crews hauling in debris and placing it above Outer Banks in the razed lots that used to be thick with occupied houses.  Allen Boudreaux at Boudreaux's Tires, which is still operating between Tulane and Banks, tipped me off.

It's just surrealism layered upon surrealism.

Here's a shot of the debris that was moved in - there were no houses or buildings left along this portion of what used to be Palmyra between S. Rocheblave and S. Tonti as of yesterday.

James, a fixture in the neighborhood, watched from the door of Outer Banks as crews pushed dirt onto the roadway that was recently torn out.

The bar is still open.

Across the street, a few people looked on, including a man in shades and a blue scarf who, like several of the contractor staff on hand, remained silent when I asked where the debris came from.

While I'm glad that the show will have a chance to capture the reality of the devastation that's been wrought, I also think it's a little eerie.  People like Deborah Brown-Cassine, from what I can tell, still live in what will presumably be the backdrop for the shot.

Additionally, I hope that none of the developing parties or contractors are making any money off the filming.  If they are, they should immediately disgorge any profits for the benefit of those being displaced.  Or for house moving in the LSU Footprint - where there was more "real" debris being produced today after yet another demolition:

Weaving Back In

Yesterday, I caught the Dumaine Street Gang as it second lined through the Treme. One friend snapped this great shot as the throng of people passed a moved VA Footprint house on St. Philip Street (in yellow) that once stood on Banks Street.

At various points along the route, I stood and marveled at just how important the historic architectural streetscape was to the second line phenomenon.  Take away the distinctive houses and buildings that make the cultural tradition undeniably New Orleans, and it would be a wholly different thing.  In that vein, it's encouraging to see the houses saved from demolition in the VA Footprint weaving themselves slowly back into the street fabric.

Last week, inside the Footprint, someone stole my laptop and back-up camera from my car while I was in at Outer Banks bar to check in on the Committee to Reopen Charity meeting (I didn't think I had left my laptop bag in my car, but alas).  I lost many, many photos.  But when I saw the wild, joyous life of the second line pass the moved house on St. Philip yesterday, things equalled out a bit.  It was easier to accept the loss.  All of the effort, all of the difficulty over the past nine months or so paid off when I saw a bit of the tangible outcome of the push to extract positives from the unwise hospital sites. 

Everyone involved in the house moving undertaking - whether it was Builders of Hope or Mary Howell, who really sparked it all back in March - managed to help give New Orleans new life without forsaking what's best about the city, what makes it unique and worth celebrating.

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