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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.

Lower 9th Ward Bayou Bienvenue Workshop

Sunday Photo: "Floating Island & Feathery Friend"

 
"Floating Island and Feathery Friend" - egret on Bayou Bienvenue. By Darryl Malek-Wiley

Bayou Stories: November 5th @ MLK School

America's Wetland Conservation Corps and The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School present "Bayou Stories: What was it like to grow up in the Lower 9 before the storm walls went us?" Join us for refreshments and great stories about being a kid in the bayou when the bayou was right here.

Wednesday, 11/5 @ 7:00 p.m. in the library of MLK Charter School, 1617 Caffin Avenue

Call Emily at 954.600.7022 with questions. Download the full press release here.

Blessing the Bayou

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew returned to the Lower 9th Ward yesterday to survey recovery and restoration efforts and bless Bayou Bienvenue. This is his second visit since Hurricane Katrina – the first came in January 2006, when he traveled here in order to witness the storm’s devastation and to pray with people of New Orleans.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, based out of Istanbul, Turkey, is the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. He has been in New Orleans since Wednesday to convene the Eighth Religion, Science and Environment Symposium, a meeting of scientists, business leaders and public officials addressing environmental challenges facing coastal Louisiana and the Mississippi River.

Prior to his visit, the Patriarch conducted a memorial service at the St. Louis Cemetery #3 for the victims of Katrina. His tour of the Lower 9 commenced at 3:00 p.m. at Florida and Cafin Avenues and then proceeded to the bayou platform at Florida Avenue and N. Prieur Street.

Coming to Closure with MR-GO…Finally!

The Times-Picayune documents the final steps by the Army Corps of Engineers to close the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal yesterday with giant concrete pilings. See photos, diagrams and more at “Surge barrier spells death knell for MR-GO”:

“It will take eight Eiffel Towers worth of steel to build the massive structure that will permanently close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and better protect the Industrial Canal from storm surges. And much of that steel has been loaded into 1,271 foundation pilings that contractors finished driving Wednesday.”

See the full story here.

Will the White House Protect Bayou Bienvenue?

Maybe.

That’s the word from Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who visited the Bayou as part of President Obama’s visit to New Orleans yesterday. A panel focused on coastal restoration will soon choose its priorities for wetlands and barrier-island rebuilding.

As reported in today’s Times-Picayune:

“White House Council on Environmental Quality chairwoman Nancy Sutley promised Thursday to complete a review of Louisiana coastal restoration projects "within months" to determine which would become priorities for the Obama administration.

Speaking to reporters at a hastily arranged news conference on a platform overlooking a proposed wetlands-restoration project along Bayou Bienvenue in the Lower 9th Ward, Sutley sought to reassure state and local officials who were concerned that President Barack Obama's four-hour visit to New Orleans failed to take advantage of an opportunity to review coastal restoration and levee safety issues.”

Read the rest of “Environmental adviser to review coast projects”. And please consider attending or viewing Monday’s Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in New Orleans this Monday. See the post below for more information.

New Orleans' Fox 8 (WVUE) did a nice follow-up story of the visit to Bayou Bienvenue by CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley in "A cypress swamp to be reborn" with video below:

Holy Cross/L9 Residents Meet with CEQ Chairwoman Nancy Sutley During the President's Visit

Pam Dashiell, was among those attending an event at the Bayou Bienvenue Platform this morning, where Nancy Sutley, the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, witnessed the devasation of our bayous at the hands of the now-closed MR-GO and learned more about the cypress marsh restoration and efforts to restore destroyed wetlands .  Here are photos:

Nancy Sutley meets Pam Dashiell.

 
New Orleans residents crabbing in the midst of a White House event, illustrating local priorities and the need for restoration of our bayous--not just as efforts for environmental justice, but also for recreation and our general health and well-being.

Floating islands of marshgrass, planted this summer with the help of the good people of the University of Wisconsin, show Nancy Sutley the first signs of post-MR-GO life--a glimmer of hope for the future...

Steve Ringo and John Taylor with CEQ Chairwoman Nancy Sutley. (All photos by Darryl Malek-Wiley.)

More on upcoming work of Nancy Sutley and the White House CEQ:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 9, 2009

Obama Administration Officials to Hold Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting on October 19, 2009

New Orleans, LA — Obama Administration officials will hold a Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in New Orleans on Monday, October 19, 2009. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, consists of senior-level officials from Administration agencies, departments, and offices. 

The Task Force, established by President Obama via presidential memorandum on June 12, is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes.  It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning.  The meeting in New Orleans will be the fifth regional public meeting held since the Task Force was created. The public is encouraged to attend and an opportunity for public comment will be provided.

Members of the public can access the meeting in three ways: by attending in person at one of the sites listed below; by calling into the listen-only phone line (800-369-1897; participant code: 2495142); or via live webstream at http://www.whitehouse.gov/oceans.

 

Who:     Chair Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality
             Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and
             Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
             Peter Silva, Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection Agency
             Associate Deputy Secretary Laura Davis, Department of Interior
            Admiral Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant

What:    Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting

 

When:   Monday, October 19, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. (CDT)

Where:  Audubon Aquarium of the Americas & Entergy IMAX Theater

             1 Canal Street
             New Orleans, LA 70130

Listen-only phone line: 1-800-369-1897; passcode:249514

Live webstream: http://oceanpolicy.disl.org/

Live video-connections will be used at the following locations:

Texas State Aquarium
2710 North Shoreline Boulevard.
Corpus Christi, TX 78402
RSVP Contact:  Rosanna Gossett
361-881-1204
rgossett@txstateaq.org

Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Wiese Marine Science Hall, Room 102W
101 Bienville Blvd.
Dauphin Island, AL 36528
RSVP Contact: Ms Lori Angelo
251-861-7507
langelo@disl.org

National Marine Fisheries Service (4:30-7:30 p.m. EDT)
Southeast Regional Office
263 13th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
RSVP Contact:  Michael Henderson
727-824-5396
Michael.Henderson@noaa.gov

J. L. Scott Marine Education Center
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
RSVP Contact:  Johnette Bosarge
228-818-8893
johnette.bosarge@usm.edu


Note: Public comment can also be submitted online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/oceans. 

 

Rebuilding the Bayou

This Saturday, August 15th, 2009, join community members and experts to learn what's happening and share your vision for the restoration of the Bayou Bienvenue/Central Wetlands area.  The event begins at 12:30pm at MLK Elementary, 1617 Caffin Avenue.  First up: free lunch from Holmes One Stop. After lunch: panels featuring Holy Cross's own Charles Allen and Pam Dashiell, along with speakers from the University of Colorado, the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board, Make It Right, Global Green, the Sierra Club, and the Army Corps of Engineers – plus longtime L9 resident, John Taylor. 

Download the full-color Rebuilding the Bayou flyer.

And don't forget to join the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association for our twice-monthly meetings.  Meetings are held the second and fourth Thursday of each month.  In August, we'll meet on the 13th and 27th, beginning at 5:30.  Meetings are held at 5130 Chartres Street in Holy Cross.  We welcome new and returning members.  Membership dues are just $10 and include an HCNA T-shirt.  Please come join our supportive community as we restore and sustain Holy Cross and the Lower Nine!

Sunday on the Bayou

PHOTO: Darryl Malek-Wiley

Always looking for a nice Sunday photo - and Darryl Malek-Wiley came through this week with a great shot of a green heron appearing at Bayou Bienvenue on July 4th. Thanks Darryl!