O.C. Haley
 

I know there has been some chatter about the O.C. Haley corridor in the past. This article does a good job summarizing what's going on there, as well as its past.

I know of a local start-up that is considering moving from shared work space to a building near Cafe Reconcile. They like the cheap rent and want to be a part of the area's improvement.

The corridor is still a few years away from tipping, but I'm convinced it will tip at some point.

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gamb...nt?oid=1989543

Agree that it is close to tipping though I will say the one thing they will have to work harder to deal with is the fact that the universities arent right next door which means there wont be as much an obvious demographic to go after and 2. the corridor is substantially larger than Freret. But I think proximity to downtown can really help as well as the streetcar coming down the end of it.

Hadnt seen this rendering of Algiers Crossing before:

http://www.mathesbrierre.com/project...crossing-1.jpg

Also here are renderings of the Juvenile Justice Center:

http://www.mathesbrierre.com/project.../justice-2.jpg

I'd love to see the Loyola streetcar go down OC Haley and then down Jackson to the Riverfront line.

I also think the streetcars need to have a much stronger focus on speed though. I'm tired of this attitude that the slow lumbering streetcar doesn't need to go faster because we have a "slow pace of life" but in reality only tourists can afford to burn 40-50 minutes getting to the CBD. Most locals will just hop in their car and zoom down Claiborne or Tchoup, and that's a problem.

If we spend $150M to build a St Claude streetcar that's slower than the bus it's replacing, that's not a good use of money. It's not like there's some unlimited demand for tourist theme-park rides.

That Juvenile Justice Center is a huge mistake the city is making as far as urban planning. Why on earth put this on the last vacant land along Bayou St. John? There are literally thousands of other vacant places in the city to put this facility in - starting with the abandoned city-owned Milne boys' house.

And what's worse is that the Bayou District Foundation (who rebuilt/runs Columbia Parc) wants this land to expand as part of their masterplan.

Everyone write to your Councilperson please and ask them not to build this there!

That is a poor choice of location. Wonder why they arent building it around the Criminal Justice Complex?

Because the point is to deter the youth from becoming adult perpetrators. Proximity to the Tulane and Broad complex is a horrible idea. Even if the two populations never mix, the location is too linked to criminality. You don't want the youth to see themselves as criminal.

I get what you're saying, but I think 16-year-olds are smart enough to realize they're in jail.

It's a touchy subject though, for sure. Who wants a jail in their backyard?

While I wish it wasn't, this is a really good point. Is it possible that more people would ride streetcars, because they are more in sight, in mind? Are streetcars more efficient than buses?

Making the street cars faster is a good idea on new zones. The main appeal of a streetcar is that it has more of a physical presence than a bus system and is considered less of a 'poor person thing". Bike riding is going through the same transition with bike lanes.

I can see that but one wonders if there still wasnt a better location but I guess the state owned the land where its located and that was the easiest space. JUst hope they keep the bayou side open all the time to residents and landscape it well.

There's an article today about the Iberville redevelopment starting soon. I think demolition is supposed to begin soon. What do y'all think about this? Will it revitalize this area or stay the same?

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...plex_rede.html

Team behind Twitter invests in Neighborland
 

Another big win for the NOLA tech community. Obvious, CrunchFund, True Ventures And Others Back Online Community For Local Neighborhoods And Cities, Neighborland.

I think this site has the potential to be an important tool for real estate development. Corporate Realty and Wiznia both have used it to identify space and tenants, and I think you'll see more development companies doing that soon.

Here's how I see things:

Pros:
1. Something desparately is needed to be done. The area is a barren desert for development, because no one wants to invest next to this project.
2. Restoring the streetgrid, as this plan will do, is a great idea to make the neighborhood feel more transparent and safe, as well as useful for automobile traffic.
3. The new projects model New Orleans is using for the last few years look infinitely better than the old model of identical brick buildings, and are much easier to see people investing to be cloesby.

Cons:
1. While people may invest closer-by, I think more private ownership and less government-ownership would still be a better model in this case.
2. That area is prime real estate, the possibilities would be endless if some or all of the land were sold to developers.
3. There are much more effective ways of helping the poor with housing. Why spend half a billion rebuilding this? Most cities just use vouchers nowadays and got out of the business of owning housing stock, because it inevitabely becomes too expensive to maintain, so it becomes rundown.
4. While it may look pretty for 5 years, I know New Orleans city government too well and don't see this remaining as maintained as they dream.

So overall, I'm against this project. Not that I don't want to see the poor helped or anything like that, I just don't see it as good urban planning - though it is better than what's there now. :(

Let the free market buy it and all the proceeds divied up to the residents to purchase a home whereever they want even in the same location. If they own it they will treat it differently. One last problem is that the whole area is sort of seperated fromt he rest of the city by Claiborne over pass and basin street rampart street to south and east and canal to west. Something needs to be done to make area more pedestrian friendly scale wise. Seems like the streetcar and lafitte greenway will help. That empty winn dixie has to go for sure and return the street grid.

But these developments are not structured like the old projects. It isn't the old projects in drag. Since most are private-public partnerships, there exists an incentive to maintain "the dream" because there is a maximum number of market rate apartments that each develop most maintain at anytime. Since someone like myself will only pay market rate where I feel safe and happy, then the managers must keep things up. Vouchers are terrible idea, because it only shifts the problem to the now not so attractive suburbs and suburban-like sections of the city. Thus, voucher acceptance would be concentrated where the rental market is weak (i.e., Kenner and New Orleans East), and this phenomena would only recreate the cluster of low-income dwellers that we seek to dismantle. Unless that is not our intention as long as it is not NIMBY. I do agree with increasing home ownership, and how that changes a dwellers relationship with the property, but I don't think that it has to be an "either-or" situation.

The point is that most people cant afford to live downtown cause its expensive. There isnt a reason to put a housing project right there. The other four I think are fine locations but this one spot is prime real estate and should be put to the free market and use the proceeds to pay for part of the public housing. Its win win!

However, this current scheme is much better than what is there for sure I just want it to function longterm and anything we can do to make that happen we should plan for. We have a once in a generation oppurtunity to make this city better and more equitable for everyone and we dont want to waste that oppurtunity.

More people definitely ride streetcars, if I'm not mistaken, the 3 most ridden transportation routes by the RTA are St. Charles Streetcar line, Canal St. Streetcar line and the bus route on Broad. Regarding your question as to whether or not streetcars are more efficient, that depends. They have the capacity to be much more efficient, but there are a few barriers really holding back the efficiencies of the streetcars in NOLA. They are:

1) Streetcar stop every two blocks
2) Payment for a ticket on the streetcar
3) No coordination with the lights
4) Traffic blocking the steetcars

In my mind there is no reason the streetcar should stop every two blocks. It should be every four blocks. If you can't walk two blocks you probably should take a taxi. #2 slows down these cars SOOO much. I have been in similar streetcars in Lisbon and Zurich among other cities in which you purchase the ticket at a machine or a store close to the stop and when the streetcar stops all the doors open and people with the tickets hop on and other people hop off, functioning like a subway as opposed to everyone forming a line when the streetcar stops and holding up the streetcar indefinitely. I understand there are capital costs associated with purchases the equipment necessary to do that, but if we made less stops this should be easily attainable with a federal grant increasing efficiency of our public transit (This would especially make a huge difference at the beginning of the St. Charles streetcar line on Canal which takes terribly long for everyone to get on). #3 is a little more difficult as all the streetcars need GPS, but I think Veolia is working on that, and maybe we'll see that sooner than later. #4 I don't really have a solution for...that's what you get with streetcars, but having said that, if we can solve the first three issues the streetcar can be much more efficient than a normal bus. If you are interested in this topic transport for nola regularly pushes for changes like this and thetransportpolitic.com addresses these issues on a national level.

Another reason why I thing the RTA should follow the trend and move to electronic fare cards. Why not go ahead upgrade the Jazzy Pass to the same level as, for example, the MTA Metrocard. They already have to technology and the equipment.

Tap cards would be awesome... but hopefully they can do it right. In Chicago, many regular riders don't have tap cards because they only work with full fares - if you buy a monthly pass to save money, it only comes on a paper card instead of a tap card.

I was relieved when I heard that NORTA would be installing fare machines for the Jazzy Card, but there still aren't any machines along St. Charles. Probably has something to do with the National Register historic protection... :/

Stirling Properties

This article is a little old but it explains the many projects going on in the "Bio-District" and a streetcar expansion concept...

http://stirlingproperties.wordpress....ical-corridor/

http://biodistrictneworleans.org/wp-...g_02-04-11.jpg