A Voodoo Curse...on the UMC

I just noticed this today.  It's a small sign nailed about 10 feet off the ground on a live oak tree along Canal Street - near where the Canal Street Guest House once stood.  The sign faces in toward the UMC site.

"Voodoo Saint Baron Samadi protects this property...bad deeds, bad vibes reversed"

The Idiocy Continues - State, UMC, Jacobs, subs proceed with multiple demolitions in UMC Footprint despite growing uncertainty

This great house on S. Prieur Street, a wonderful example of New Orleans architecture from circa the 1870s, in good shape and occupied until recently by multiple families, is now gone, demolished for a proposed hospital that may never be built in the LSU Footprint.

The two-story building (at right above) stood immediately next to the still-in-danger McDonogh No. 11 School (the City Council, at last week's June 2 meeting on street revocation, watered down the City Planning Commission command to save or move the building...the state now only has to "use best efforts" - which functionally means that the state will likely demolish it).

Thanks, City Council members, for not making UMC street revocation contingent upon the state agreeing to move all remaining historic structures off the site.  You had a point of leverage that could have stopped this, and you did nothing.  While there are a cast of characters to blame in this steaming heap of stupidity piled up over years, you're to blame for this particular loss.  This one's on you.

If I sound bitter, once again, it's because this sort of squirming by public officials in the face of alternatives makes a person bitter.  Throughout this saga, there has been no champion for what's right on the City Council - the one body that should be looking out for neighborhoods, for residents, and for the city's architectural heritage.  There have been many nods and poses, many excuses, and several half-attempts.  But no member decided to suck it up, do what's right, and vote "No" on anything related to the LSU/VA project.

That's shameful, and I hope it's not forgotten.

Also lost this week:

The corner two-story building at S. Prieur and Canal, former home of a Zulu King.

Here's what it looked like as crews started inside on May 16:

The Canal Street Guest House, too, is gone. The irony is deep and dark - given that the Landrieu administration touted the concessions it got from the state last week, including the possible inclusion of a strip of commercials space along Canal...right where the Canal Street Guest House used to stand.

The Last Day

I caught up with Sam Kranzthor today as he moved a few final items out of the Canal Street Guest House on Canal Street under the live oaks. 

Once a bordello of sorts, the building turned around under the Kranzthors, "We made this a good place for good people."  Several people, seeing this blog, have contacted me and confirmed that Canal Street Guest House was indeed a good place, a place that mattered to them and their sense of what makes New Orleans.

"The building looks kind of sad now," he noted as he wheeled two tables out of the building he once owned.  He's been moving things out for the past four days.

Unlike a neighboring property - a Cox Communications block house that will apparently stay put and be built around by the UMC...interesting - today was the last day for the Canal Street Guest House.

To the Dance Studio

Now that Outer Banks Bar has been demolished, the Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital will be meeting in a new location in the LSU Footprint this evening:

6pm-7:30pm

1926 Canal Street

Canal Street Guest House Dance Studio

The Canal Street Guest House is being expropriated and displaced - and the comparison properties used in the assessment of the property, from what I understand, consisted of lodging facilities that are not located on the streetcar line, a crucial aspect of the business' current location.  Thus, the compensation offered by the state for the taking, at least initially, did not reflect the value of the property.