Quote:
Originally Posted by prokowave
I have no problem with them scaling it down a bit, but this is not a Marriott-sized tower. With it being so slender and in the middle of the block, I doubt we would see many negative effects. Perhaps if they brought it down a bit and made it all or mostly residential, it would be more palatable. It would be nice to get those old buildings back into use.
My concern is not so much becoming a Houston or Atlanta, as it is not chilling development and sending it elsewhere. Housing, which used to be quite affordable, is now very scarce with prices rising rapidly. It's hard to attract a new business if they can't find housing for their employees. And new hotel stock, while not directly addressing the issue, might help to ease pressure on residential to airbnb type conversions, not to mention increasing the tax base.
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Those are fair critiques and I do want to see development there as much as anyone else. I wouldn't lose sleep if it was approved either just wish developers would propose these buildings in areas where they can be built as of right.
Some Interesting Press Releases out of the Mayors Office this week:
Mayor Landrieu Issues Statement on Planned Collaboration Between HUD & State on Road Home Grants
August 24, 2015
NEW ORLEANS – Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu issued a statement following the announced collaboration between State of Louisiana’s Office of Community Development, Disaster Recovery Unit and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide additional construction assistance and administrative remedies for Road Home Program grant recipients who have not yet returned to their homes, not yet elevated or are otherwise non-compliant with the Road Home Program.
Statement from Mayor Mitch Landrieu :
“The Road Home Program was largely successful, yet some residents are still struggling to return home. Since taking office in May 2010, I have fully supported the State of Louisiana’s requests for modifications to the program to end the collection of funds from Road Home recipients who in good faith do not have the resources to repair their homes. No storm victim should ever be left behind. I have repeatedly pushed for amendments to the program that would make the process more accessible to all New Orleanians, including meeting numerous times with then-HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan on the program’s inadequacies and limitations and continuing that dialogue with his successor, current-HUD Secretary Julian Castro. Today’s announcement is welcome news as we mark the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As Mayor of the City of New Orleans, I am committed to doing everything within my power to help our residents return home. I want thank Secretary Castro for reducing the barriers Road Home recipients have faced, and I congratulate Louisiana’s Office of Community Development, Disaster Recovery Unit for its persistence in fighting for more avenues so New Orleanians can finally come back home.”
City Unviels Resilience Strategy
AUGUST 25, 2015
Over 110 New Orleanians Representing Every Segment of the City Worked Over a Nine-Month Time Frame to Develop ‘Resilient New Orleans’
Strategy Calls for Establishment of Personal Emergency Account Program, Development of a Comprehensive Storm Water Management Program,
and One of the World’s Few Resilience Centers Right Here in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Mayor Landrieu, joined by The Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin, 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) external link President Michael Berkowitz, New Orleans Chief Resilience Officer Jeff Hebert, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator (NOAA) Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, unveiled Resilient New Orleans external link – a concrete, strategic roadmap for the City of New Orleans to build urban resilience. The strategy, a joint effort between the City and 100RC – pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, proposes 41 actions to build citywide resilience. The strategy will help New Orleans become a more equitable, adaptable and prosperous place for all of its residents as the City approaches its tri-centennial in 2018. Resilient New Orleans includes such items as the establishment of personal emergency savings accounts, the development of a comprehensive storm water management program, and establishing one of the world’s few resilience centers, located right here in New Orleans.
The strategy comes with over $1 million in commitments for implementation from 100RC Platform Partners external link, in both the public and private sectors, as well as additional commitments from other local and national philanthropic organizations. As the City moves towards implementation, they will also have continuing access to a $100 million pool of tools and services from the 100RC network and platform partners.
“Being resilient means more than having levees and wetlands to hold back water,” said Mayor Landrieu. “To be a truly resilient society means also combating the longstanding, generational challenges around crime, education and income inequality. It means replacing hatred with empathy, disassociation with harmony, and striking a balance between human needs and the environment that surrounds us. Now, the opportunity is to position New Orleans as a global leader on resilience. The people of New Orleans are a profile in resilience, but more must be done to adapt to new and forthcoming challenges facing our environment and opportunity gaps that persist in our City. We don’t want a New Orleans in which people live a block away but are a mile apart in terms of economic opportunity, and our vision with this strategy is to ensure that as we continue rebuilding our city, no one gets left behind.”
Resilient New Orleans lays out dozens of actionable steps in response to these challenges, focused on several key, tangible pillars, including:
· Launching an emergency account program, using the model of the Individual Development Account, a savings-matching program for low- and moderate-income earners to set aside funds for emergency uses. The City will work with the Foundation for Louisiana on this brand-new initiative.
· Implementing a comprehensive storm water management through a partnership between the City, as well as national and international experts, including Greater New Orleans, Inc., Greater New Orleans Foundation, Trust for Public Land, and Dutch water management firm, Deltares. This effort will complement the traditional, or “gray,” drainage system of pipes and pumps with green infrastructure that delays and detains storm water in landscaped spaces.
·
Establishing one of the world’s few Resilience Centers right here in New Orleans, a storefront to be centrally located in our City, and serve as a hub for resilience innovation and leadership development. Partners on this initiative include The Rockefeller Foundation, Tulane University, Greater New Orleans, Inc., and the American Institute of Architects.
· Leading by example through a new partnership with a homegrown company, PosiGen.
PosiGen Solar Solutions and their partners will install a photovoltaic cell array and battery backup modules on the New Orleans City Hall complex to reduce strain on the electric grid, and provide redundancy in the face of shocks and outages to critical city systems.
· Developing a small business resilience initiative to bring technical assistance to small businesses in order to assess their preparedness, identify improvements, and enhance economic stability. Partners include the Walmart Foundation and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
· Implementing a resilient infrastructure recovery and risk transfer initiative to deploy private-market assets to improve or repair critical systems after a disruptive event. Partners for this initiative include Swiss Re and Veolia.
· Establishing a resilience-retrofitting program that incentivizes property owners to invest in risk reduction through a tested financial tool, the Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) initiative. Deutsche Bank is a partner on this initiative.
Resilient New Orleans was developed in partnership with over 110 local community leaders and stakeholders external link, including representatives from the Foundation for Louisiana, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Neighborhoods Partnership Network, Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies and Broad Community Connections. The strategy is also a key component of New Orleans’ membership in 100RC, which played a leading role managing the community stakeholder process, and providing expertise to local community leaders and organizations.
100RC currently works with a network of 67 cities around the world to prepare for and bounce back from physical, social and economic challenges that increasingly impact our rapidly urbanizing world. In addition to funding the Chief Resilience Officer position, 100RC provides cities like New Orleans with partnerships in the private, public, academic, and non-profit sectors to implement ideas from resilience strategies, like Resilient New Orleans.
Resilience represents a city’s ability to engage its communities in response to social, economic or physical challenges, so that it can survive, adapt and grow no matter what kind of issues it may face. Resilience is best demonstrated through the people of New Orleans, who chose to return and rebuild our City in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – so that it not only recovers, but becomes resilient to all future challenges.
The full Resilient New Orleans strategy is available here:
http://resilientnola.org/ external link. Community members wishing to provide feedback on the plan can input directly to the City here:
http://nola.gov/resilience/communityinput/ external link.
“Our work with the City of New Orleans over the last decade has not only shaped the future of this city, it has also influenced how the foundation works all over the world,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “New Orleans was the inspiration behind 100 Resilient Cities, and it was the impetus for our hallmark innovation: the Chief Resilience Officer. The importance of having a central point of contact for resilience building cannot be understated. Jeff Hebert was the natural choice for this role here in New Orleans, and he’s doing an extraordinary job.”
“Resilient New Orleans represents a pivotal step down the city’s path to becoming a resilient city, not the destination,” said Michael Berkowitz, President of 100RC, whose organization worked directly with the city to develop the strategy. “By building the capacity of individuals, institutions, and systems to quickly recover and adapt, New Orleans is poised to become a model of urban resilience, and a great city partner of 100 Resilient Cities.”
“Resilient New Orleans is squarely focused on addressing the challenges of the future today and preparing our community to adapt to address those challenges,” said Jeff Hebert, New Orleans Chief Resilience Officer. “As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we are pivoting from recovery to resilience to provide a better future for the next generation. Because the challenges we have faced over the past three centuries are different from what we’ll face in the future, we need to be prepared to stand up to these challenges in order to thrive in the centuries to come.”
“Resilient New Orleans is a significant, actionable strategy for the long-term health and wellness of our city,” said Councilmember-At-Large Stacy Head. “It is inclusive, comprehensive and thoughtful, and includes partnerships with remarkable national and global organizations that have proven their success in cities around the world.”
“The development of the Resilient New Orleans Strategy, with generous support from The Rockefeller Foundation, will establish a framework for discussing and addressing the chronic stresses that we face as a city,” said District A Councilmember Susan Guidry. “Our citizens have overcome so many challenges in the years since the devastation following Hurricane Katrina, and we all benefit from the stronger, more sustainable New Orleans that we live in today. We must continue working to ensure that we are better prepared for the challenges of the future.”
“The City of New Orleans partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, 100 Resilient Cities and FEMA to create Resilient New Orleans brings necessary services and planning to a city that was unprepared for the devastation of Hurricane Katrina,” said District C Councilmember Nadine Ramsey. “Resilience is all about innovation to create a better way of life. This program builds a support system for all strata of individuals, businesses and public entities. Our city will be well prepared not only in the advent of disaster, but also for the current growth of our economy and human potential.”
“As a city that lives with significant environmental and climate-related threats, it is clearly in our interest to be on the leading edge of resilience strategy and technology,” said District D Councilmember Jared Brossett.
“New Orleans has always had a wonderful reputation for hospitality, food and culture, but I believe we are the poster child of resilience,” said District E Councilmember James A Gray II. “With the help of many, we’ve brought the city back from the worst man-made disaster in American history, and – in 10 years – have again made New Orleans a rapidly growing, vibrant city that provides a laboratory for economic, environmental and social opportunity. I look forward to working with the Mayor to make New Orleans a resilience model for the nation.”
Recovery efforts in the years following Hurricane Katrina, and The Rockefeller Foundation’s leadership external link in spearheading the Unified New Orleans Recovery Plan (UNOP), helped inspire the global 100RC Challenge, launched in 2013. With a focus on flood protection, affordable housing, public services, and state-of-the-art education and health care systems in New Orleans, UNOP was a single, cohesive plan that enabled the city to access federal recovery funding and focus on long-term resilience-building activities. Its success became a model for The Rockefeller Foundation’s global resilience efforts and illuminated New Orleans as a living laboratory for resilience thinking and planning.
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Mayor Landrieu and Councilmember James Gray Join CVS/Pharmacy to Break Ground on Lower Ninth Ward Store
AUGUST 21, 2015
NEW ORLEANS – Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and District E Councilmember James Gray joined CVS/pharmacy to break ground on a new store in the Lower Ninth Ward. This is a major milestone for this area, marking the first major retailer to commit to a project in the neighborhood since Hurricane Katrina. The new store is scheduled to open in January 2016, bringing 20 new full and part-time permanent jobs to the community.
CVS/pharmacy is building a 13,225 square-foot retail store at 5000-5030 North Claiborne Avenue, at the corner of Forstall Street. The block currently includes an abandoned, former service station and a residential property.
Brandan Odums Channels Michelangelo in N.O. East Mural
http://nola.curbed.com/archives/2015...wall-mural.php
Permits:
428 Canal St·Renovation (Non-Structural) · Permit #15-25440-RNVN ·Ref Code: 7F5HGS
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progress
Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
Jerry P Smith
Status:
Permit Issued
Date Filed:
8/24/2015 4:02:05 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Interior repairs to a commercial space: Electrical, flooring, plumbing; paint and trim.
911 Decatur St·Renovation (Non-Structural) · Permit #15-25442-RNVN ·Ref Code: YGMS11
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Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
Jerry P Smith
Status:
Permit Issued
Date Filed:
8/24/2015 4:12:05 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Interior repairs to a vacant space: Electrical, flooring, plumbing, sheetrock; paint and trim.
1450 Poydras St, 5th Fl·Renovation (Non-Structural) ·Ref Code: 85A103
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Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
Michael Holly
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/24/2015 1:07:33 PM
Closed: No
Description
Non-structural tenant build-out of 5th floor as per plans.
228-230 Harrison Ave·Conditional Use · Project #15-1094 ·Ref Code: MBKUCJ
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Type:
Conditional Use
Applicant:
Shirley G Stewart
Status:
Draft Application
Date Filed:
7/21/2015 10:59:08 AM
Closed:
No
Description
Conditional use request to permit a non-accessory parking lot in an LB1 District.
El Gato Negro Expansion and Renovation as well as ancillary parking lot\
216 N Villere St·New Construction ·Ref Code: Y8ALHS
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Type:
New Construction
Applicant:
Michelle Burkart
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/25/2015 4:10:04 PM
Closed:
No
Description
New construction of three (3) story multi-family residential apartments (T-7)
5610 Read Blvd·Renovation (Non-Structural) ·Ref Code: 00RRZ2
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Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
Richard N Lindsay
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/25/2015 4:52:54 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Renovation of a vacant commercial building into office space as per plans. Electrical, hvac, insulation, plumbing; sheetrock and trim.
205 Bourbon St·Renovation (Non-Structural) ·Ref Code: P3Z2C1
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Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
John C. Williams
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/25/2015 4:33:09 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Renovation and modification of an existing street facing Second Floor Balcony into an enlarged Gallery with columns at 205 Bourbon St. per plans attached. No change in Use and/or occupancy. Application is for VCC Architecture Committee review.
822 N Rampart St·Renovation (Structural) ·Ref Code: RZAV5L
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progress
Type:
Renovation (Structural)
Applicant:
John C. Williams
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/25/2015 3:06:39 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Change of Use from Vacant, to Commercial 1st Level and Residential 2nd & 3rd Level, renovation & repairs
2101 S Claiborne Ave, Ste R162·Renovation (Non-Structural) ·Ref Code: U2VPMN
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Type:
Renovation (Non-Structural)
Applicant:
George Jeansonne
Status:
Application Submitted
Date Filed:
8/25/2015 3:49:56 PM
Closed:
No
Description
Tenant build out of a take-out wing restaurant as per plans within existing commercial space.
Union Street Hotel Plans
City Planning Approves Mid-City Condo Development
http://canalstreetbeat.com/city-plan...o-development/
New Look for Rampart Street Hotel Apartment Complex from HRI:
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ermit IssuedDate Filed:8/20/2015 12:56:04 PMClosed:NoDescription
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