Help Holy Cross

Lower 9th Ward Village Launches Bayou Art, Science & Community Project

The Lower 9^th Ward Village invites you to participate in its newest project to restore and celebrate the Bayou.
Meetings every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 6 p.m.

Many Lower 9^th Ward residents, volunteers and supporters have been to the beautiful bayou overlook at the north end of Caffin Avenue. Bayou Bienvenue has been attracting lots of attention, and there are many plans and proposals for improving and restoring it. It's up to us to make sure that this benefits our communities and contributes to sustainable recovery.

The Lower 9th Ward Village is starting a twice-monthly meeting to bring the whole New Orleans community together to make this important place even better. When everyone starts talking and working together with strong local leadership, we will make big things happen on the Bayou. We are starting out with a proposal to build an outdoor sculpture park, wetland restoration and memorial at the Caffin Avenue overlook. Here's a link to the project description.

We encourage everyone who's interested in the bayou to come be part of making it better. Meetings will be held every 1st and 3rd Thursday, 6 p.m. at the Village, 1001 Charbonnet.

VOTE To Help Transform Blighted Lots in New Orleans to Beautiful Urban Gardens

Project Sprout, which shares Global Green's mission to improve the built environment in New Orleans, has an opportunity to win $25,000 that would go towards removing blight in New Orleans neighborhoods. GTECH Strategies, a partner in Project Sprout, is involved in the Pepsi Refresh project, an online voting platform whereby Pepsi is giving away $1.3 million per month to social enterprises. Right now, GTECH stands to win $50,000 in February if they can move up at least 4 spots in the rankings (they are currently ranked 14th and the top 10 get funding), and half of this money would come to New Orleans in support of Project Sprout.

Project Sprout is a joint-venture between two Echoing Green fellows from the class of 2008, Green Coast Enterprises (GCE), a New Orleans-based green real estate company, and GTECH Strategies (GTECH), a vacant land management social enterprise based in Pittsburgh, PA. GTECH’s bioenergy gardens grow sunflowers on local vacant lots to reduce blight, engage community, phytoremediate contaminants, and create a biofuel feedstock. This transitional strategy provides a platform for more productive vacant land use such as parks, urban food gardens, and building development. Project Sprout projects will use this premise to transition vacant land into opportunities for redevelopment in communities devastated by lack of investment.

Your vote can help. Go to the link below (up to once a day through February 28th) and please tell your networks about this project and ask them to vote as well. With your help, we can bring much needed resources to blight removal in New Orleans!

For more information and to VOTE, click here: Refresh Everything

Corps Meeting on Violet Freshwater Diversion (MRGO Project, St. Bernard) – This Monday, Feb. 22

Just want to make sure everyone is aware of this Army Corps neighborhood focus meeting for Violet Diversion on Monday!

The New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting a neighborhood focus meeting Monday, February 22 to discuss alternatives under consideration for the Violet Freshwater Diversion in St. Bernard Parish as a feature of the larger Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Ecosystem Restoration project.

The meeting will provide a venue for community members to learn more about the proposed Violet Freshwater Diversion and impacts anticipated by its construction and operation. The meeting also will provide a general overview of coastal restoration projects in the area included in the MRGO Ecosystem Restoration project.

There will be an Open House from 6 to 6:30 p.m., with a presentation beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be at Willie Smith Elementary School, 6701 E. St. Bernard  Highway in Violet.

For more information on the development of the MRGO Ecosystem Restoration project, visit www.mrgo.gov.

Questions or comments concerning the MRGO Ecosystem Restoration project should be addressed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, c/o Public Affairs, P.O. Box 60267, New Orleans, Louisiana 70160-0267. Phone: 504-862-2201. Fax: 504-862-1724. Email: AskTheCorps@usace.army.mil.

Become a Global Green Ambassador - This Saturday

Global Green is hosting its first ever Ambassador Corps Training, and we need your help to make New Orleans a greener city in 2010. Please join us on January 30th as we host a volunteer training to discuss ways to get involved.  At the training, volunteers will have an opportunity to meet other individuals that share their interests, learn about how to volunteer at the Global Green House, and also learn about how to volunteer at Global Green's various outreach events throughout the city. We look forward to seeing you there!

• Host:         Global Green USA
• Location:   The Global Green House, 409 Andry St., New Orleans
• When:        Saturday, January 30, 2:00PM to 4:00PM
  
• Phone:       (504) 525-2121

Please RSVP for the event as refreshments will be provided, and we want to provide enough for all.  To RSVP, please email Joe Pitman. The event will be from 2-4 p.m. Visit Global Green's website to learn more about our programs in New Orleans.

New Elementary and High School Needed for Lower Ninth Ward

Concerned organizations and residents of the Lower Ninth ward have created the Lower 9th Ward School Development Group to build a new K-8 and high school on the former Alfred Lawless Sites to meet the demand of returning residents. The group has developed an educational plan for these schools and has worked with an architectural firm to build a state-of-the-art educational facility and plan to privately raise the funds needed to build these schools.
 
A  community meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School at 1617 Caffin Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward.

For more information, contact:

Rev. Willie L. Calhoun/Linda Jackson/Thom Pepper
Lower 9 Ward School Development Group
1800 Deslonde St
(504) 606-2603/(504) 583-1205/(228)269-9078
Fax: (504) 279-5018/
Email: GGTG99364@aol.com

Your Input is Needed: Lower 9 Properties At Risk

A representative of CDM is requesting your input on properties that will be going before the NCDC (Neighborhood Conservation District Committee of the City of New Orleans) for consideration of a demolition permit. CDM is a nationwide consulting, engineering, construction and operations firm with offices in NOLA and Baton Rouge.

Here are the 4 addresses of properties being considered in the Lower Ninth Ward:

• 1513 Feliciana Street
• 1405 Flood Street
• 1122 Forstall Street
• 3807 N. Roman Street

“If this is in your area, we would like comments about what you suggest happen to this structure: Should it be saved, demolished, salvaged, etc? In your opinion, what is the condition? If you would like it to be saved, do you have a suggestion for a group or company that is willing to do the work?”

1122 Forstall Street
1405 Flood Street
1513 Feliciana Street
3807 N. Roman Street

This NCDC Meeting will be held in the City Council Chamber, 1300 Perdido St, New Orleans at 2:00 PM on Monday, January 4, 2010. Please call or email Pamela L. Danner, CDM’s project administrator, with any comments before noon Monday, January 4, 2010. Or you can attend the meeting and present your comments directly to the NCDC Board.

For more information, call Pamela at 504.799.1100 or 504.799.1135.

Rain, rain go away...Making the Case for Better Drainage in Holy Cross

Flooding of another kind has returned to the Lower Ninth Ward due to a deteriorating storm drainage system – a problem long before Katrina paid an unwelcome visit four years ago.

According to Marna David, a Holy Cross resident who lives with her husband J.W. on some of the area’s highest ground near the river…

“It has seemed like "monsoon season" here for a week and some of us are now ready to organize a push for better drainage. We'd like to ask for EVERYONE with drainage problems to photograph them and send name, location and photo to me @ jtatum7@cox.net. We'd like to create  documentation to submit to every relevant entity regarding this overwhelmingly neglected situation. Anyone reading this who has problems themselves (or know someone with these problems), please do  contact me. Our neighborhood is a Recovery Area. Let's start  recovering from this long-standing (pun intended) reality.

PS: These photos are taken along Douglass Street which has NO storm drains along any of the residential blocks (only around the warehouse at  the end of the block).”

Advisory Commission to Meet In Lower Ninth Ward: December 1

The Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation will conduct a public meeting Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 9 a.m. at the All Soul's Episcopal Church located at 5500 St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans.

The agenda for Tuesday's meeting is as follows:

• 9:00- 9:30am Introductory presentation on New Orleans Urban Coast; John Williams introduces John McLachlan, Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research @ All Souls Church, 5500 St. Claude Ave
• 9:40-10:00am Presentation on River Turbines/Wetlands Restoration; Douglas Meffert, Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, River Turbine
• @ Mississippi River Levee, Andry Street Wharf
• 10:15-11:00am Presentation on Affordable Green Building and Wetlands Nursery; Tom Darden, Executive Director of Make It Right Project, Tim Duggan Make It Right Landscape Strategies Director, Review of House Designs and Permeable Street Strategy and Wetlands Projects @ Make It Right Project Site
• 11:10-11:40am Presentation on Community Engagement and Wetlands Restoration, Pam Dashiell, Co-Director of the Lower 9th Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Citizen Engagement and Bayou Bienvenue Restoration with Darryl Malek-Wiley, Sierra Club @ Bayou Bienvenue Platform
• 11:55-12:20pm Gordon Austin and Jacob Groby, New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board Treatment Plant, St. Bernard Parish Sewerage Treatment Plant, Tertiary Treated Waste Water for Wetlands Development @ All Souls Church
• 12:30-1:00pm Presentation on Wetlands Land Rights, Mark Davis, Director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy @ All Souls Church during lunch
• 1:00-1:15pm Break
• 1:15-2:30pm Wrap Up Discussion, Garret Graves, Director of the Louisiana Office of Coastal Activities @ All Souls Church

If you need additional information, please call Chris Macaluso in The Governor's Office of Coastal Activities at (225) 342-3968 or email at chris.macaluso@la.gov.

 

Introducing…the Lower 9’s New Landscape Resource Depot!

Check out these photos from the Landscape Resource Depot Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on October 15, 2009. The new Depot is located at 1742 Deslonde Avenue.

Community Beyond Housing is a collaborative project that focuses on landscape as part of the recovery and rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward Community. Together, the groups involved in the project are planting 30 rainwater and urban gardens in the Lower 9th Ward to create green and public meeting places and to help reduce street flooding.  The Landscape Resource Depot has been built as both a gathering place and a distribution point for plants and landscape materials for the entire community. 

The Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development (CSED), the Make It Right Foundation, the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture and the University of Colorado Denver Department of Landscape Architecture, Walter Hood of Hood Design and landscape architect Jane Wolff are all collaborating on the Community Beyond Housing project supported by a grant from the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF).

(left) Jenga Mwendo w/ daughter Azana & Wendell Thompson (right) Colleen Morgan of Bayou Rebirth & Tom Pepper of Common Ground
(left) Rev. Gilbert Scie, Henry Irvin & Warrenetta Banks (right) Charles Allen of CSED & Tom Darden of Make It Right
(left) Zakenya Perry of Make It Right (right) Mack McClendon of The Village

ALL PHOTOS: Kathy Muse

Lower Nine's Guerilla Garden Project

The Guerrilla Garden is a project conceived, developed and implemented by Lower Ninth Ward residents committed to community revitalization. Since April 2009, neighbors have worked together clearing this lot, planning the space, securing resources and even planting a few beds of okra in the meantime. Once an overgrown dumping ground, this space is now clear, maintained and ready to be developed.

The Guerrilla Garden is about community building and community ownership, eliminating blight and providing food access. It will feature a small tree grove, a shade structure with a rainwater catchment system, in-ground vegetable patches as well as raised garden beds, and ample seating. It will be a place for folks of all ages to get together and learn from each other.