LEDs are pretty good, it's a nice clean-looking, whiteish/blue light - like a bright full moon. It's 10x better than the blurry, off-white, eye-irritating, compact-florescent lights the city uses mixed among the halogen lights. If you go to the National Mall in DC many of the new lights are LEDs and it looks great, and certainly worth the cost savings... in my humble opinion...

University BS & Touro
 

Guidry has gone f****ing whako with this "university zoning" whatever. it's on the Council agenda today and i'm pretty sure all of the universities will be there in force. Hopefully Fr. Wildes will kick some ass (he's a boxer and a Jesuit). Here's the agenda item:

"62. MOTION - NO. M-12-150 - BY: COUNCILMEMBER GUIDRY


Brief:
Directing the City Planning Commission to conduct a public hearing to consider an amendment to the text of Article 18 of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance No. 4264 M.C.S., as amended, and the designation of such on the corresponding zoning base maps of the City of New Orleans, to consider the establishment of an Interim Zoning District, to prohibit the construction or expansion to existing structures of any building or facility within college and university campuses that will result in a building or facility in excess of 250,000 square feet of gross floor area and will cover a footprint of more than 50,000 square feet within any residential zoning district, in the area generally bounded by: the east bank of the Mississippi River, the Orleans/Jefferson Parish line, Metairie Road, Interstate 10, Norfolk-Southern Railroad track, Orleans Avenue, City Park Avenue, Wisner Boulevard, Interstate 610, Florida Boulevard, the Orleans/St. Bernard Parish line, and the Mississippi River.


M-12-150 "

So pretty late in the action, but i plan on watching it on the live internet feed.

------------------------------

Also, Touro's renovations are looking good. The entrance looks great!

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/th...of-renovation/ Sounds like the designers and architects are fixing a lot of past wrongs...

Municipal Auditorium
 

Today FEMA has given the state of LA $16 million for the Municipal Auditorium repairs in New Orleans.

I hope they do something great with the building. My dream is a multi-screen movie theater, or casino, but I'd be happy with anything at this point. I don't know if the city needs just another regular meeting space for graduations, or whatever else it was used for right before Katrina. Am I wrong about the need for this? Any better suggestions?

I really think it could make for a beautiful casino. Sort of like the Monte Carlo in Monaco!

Casino
 

I'm all for breaking the Harrah's monopoly. Gambling is a tax on the stupid so i only do it when i'm very drunk, but I dont mind if other idiots want to pay the tax for me and it would draw investment and crowds to the Rampart side of the Quarter which is desparately needed. Imagine too with the streetcar being right there....very neat.


And much to my chagrin....the council passed the university area ordinance....

I had some friends in the council chambers that said it got nasty...allegations of racism, corruption, and a neighbor pointing at Tulane students and alleging that they pee on her front yard all the time... at least it was interesting, NOLA politics never fails!

Thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard. But either way that stadium is coming. The ordinance just says they have to review it which makes no sense to me at all. OK you reviewed it but you cant change what Im building only make me put in new things to placate the neighbors.

In light of mounting evidence of chronic brain injury in football players (even in college-age players), the Junior Seau suicide, and increasing number of lawsuits against the NFL from brain-damaged former players, now might not be the time for Tulane to sink money and land into a football stadium. There's even speculation that many college programs may eventually abandon football because of the prohibitive costs of insuring the players and defending themselves from lawsuits. Just do a google search for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in case you haven't read up on the terrible growing evidence about football and brain injury.

Here's an idea: build a world-class college basketball stadium on campus instead. Tulane's size makes it a better fit for being a basketball power, anyway.

Small schools like UNO and Nichols might phase out football but never schools that gain a significant profit from it. Such as UL or LSU.
Tulane has a basketball team lol? :shrug:

This is largely a football state.

By the way fellas, I don't know if yall noticed, but they have 2 new sandwich shops coming in on either side of the BioInnovation Center. One is Subway and they are renovating the first floor of 1411 Canal street, which is an unoccupied blighted building (good news). The other place is called the Honey Loaf, a sandwich lounge, and its a new local business. Here is there facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Honey-...51808814929518

I know its nothing huge, but considering the big black hole this end of Canal in terms of restaurants and retail, I was happy to see something coming up. Hopefully they actually start renovating the old Texaco building soon, that'll make a huge difference.

I think it's important the Texaco building gets under construction soon. There is another building that looks like it was bombed too, (no, not the Palace Hotel on the hospital site). I'd hate for the Super Bowl crowd to see these buildings. IMO, buildings under construction with cranes say a lot more than finished buildings, because visitors can see the growth. With a finished building you don't know how long it has been finished, 1 year or 10 years? I'm really hoping the two hospitals have multiple cranes high in the air in time for the Super Bowl so out-of-towners are like "whoa!"

It really would be nice to have Canal in business all the way up to Claiborne and past eventually. Isn't the Bioinnovation Center beginning an expansion already too? We just need the DDD to keep at it with getting retailers to locate on Canal while "gently nudging" the crappy tourists shops to leave.

Permits

Walgreens
5518 MAGAZINE ST
NEW ORLEANS LA 70115 CONVERT 12140 SQ FT VACANT COMMERCIAL BUILDING TO A PHARMACY WITH DRIVE-THRU WINDOW AS PER PLANS.Job Value($):
$2,000,000.00

The thing I worry about most with the IZD vote is fundraising... even if Tulane can come up with a plan that should be allowed re: parking etc... how do you sell alumni on giving money for something that may not be built?

You have to hold each contribution in escrow or something... shouldn't be too difficult to set up, but it will probably dampen enthusiasm.

I'm glad they're finally moving forward on the Magazine Walgreens. The old VFW hall is a big black hole on that street.

Sure, Louisiana's a football state, but there's a real headwind against the continued growth of football right now. The concussion / CTE issue isn't going away any time soon. Maybe it'll all blow over, maybe it wont. I just think right now is a potentially very boneheaded moment to sink $100 million or whatever and a huge chunk of a finite campus into a football-only stadium.

Happens alot. It's a good investment for a city with no college football stadium.

This stadium is about more than football, its about re-establishing Tulane as first rate college sporting institution. A stadium will do wonders for Tulane as a whole.

The BioInnovation Center is 4 stories and built out 3 of them, but the 4th floor was completely vacant. They finally got the funding to build out the 4th floor & its a good thing too because all the office space is almost completely leased. I've met the president before, and he's told me he would like to expand the building further due to such high demand, but that would require a substantial additional infusion of funding...

First rate sporting? Not until they are back in the SEC.

^^ Yeah, Arkansas is holding our place.... :haha: