Whose Plan is it Anyway
An e mail recieved from a NorthWest Carrollton member
New Orleanians have waited for clear direction in the planning process and worried over who was going to end up in charge.
We have yet to get it, either clear direction or even a process to might get us to a clear direction.
We’ve had BNOB.
We’ve had individual neighborhood plans done by folks with either money or connections or both.
We had the City Council-Lambert Planners put in place to try to help those folks who have neither money nor connections and to herd the other planning cats and now ….. drumroll please
We have GNOF, Rockefeller, the NOCSF and the Unified plan.
Interesting that GNOF folks participated in BNOB.
Interesting that GNOF is full of folks which lots of connections. i wonder if I were to look deeply at membership how many of those families are Rex or Comus families.
Interesting that GNOF/Concordia and others are only now stepping to the forefront, now that they have secured financing and feel that they can improve upon (circumvent?) the messy democratic process that should be associated with the follow of federal dollars to New Orleans’ recovery. In short what they have said to New Orleans citizenry and government is: “We have the money and the Rockefeller connections” so now that you are desperate you all have to follow us.”
Interesting that we as citizens continue to be told we MUST PARTICIPATE!!!!!, yet are not provided with details or even the actual locations for the meetings where we can PARTICIPATE will be held by our GNOF/Concordia friends. Perhaps this really is the Comus-Rex Plan and all those GNOF/Concordia/folks with connections really don’t want us to participate as much as they want us to stand on the streets and watch their parade.
To bad they haven’t realized, that Katrina made us more aware and less willing to stand on the sidelines.
This, folks, is fixing to implode.
July 25th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I happen to know both of those carnival organizations fairly well and they are full with long-standing New Orleanians having ancestors that go back in the city long before it was even a city. These people give a great deal of time and money to the City and its farious non-profit organizations and causes year in and year out.
Sound like its all sour grapes to me. Oh, wait!! Grapes . . .that’s Bacchus!!!
July 25th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Andy:
I am assuming since your post is an hour ahead of our time in New Orleans that you don’t live in the city. Therefore, I can also assume that you are quite unknowledgeable about the situations at hand…specifically your comments about our disdain for the big square box building tactics that are festering around us. I am curious as to where you do live and how you would feel if these types of structures were threatening the historic integrity of the neighborhood you live in and, I assume you care about. In response to your comments about Rex and Comus. Although it is true that they have been around since before New Orleans was a city, they are also the two hard line organizations that are still segregated…that means, only white folks….if you are not aware, the city pre katrina was teetering on an 80% population of African Americans…i feel fairly confident in suggesting that they haven’t done much for the nieghborhoods of Gert Town, Hollygrove, and many heavly African Amercian populated neighborhoods and their non-profits. Yes they give to the city, but it is with a select eye, very select. This isn’t really about Rex and Comus anyway, it’s about the deplorable condition in which we are being informed…if you live here then you know that and we are on the same page.
July 25th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Debi,
By now you’ve realized that 1) this blog site must be organized in the Eastern Time Zone and thus the time difference, or 2) Karen, the apparent organizer just hasn’t figured out how to snychronize the time, for which she should not be criticized. By now you’re also aware that I am far more knowledgable about your situation and that of New Orleans as a whole than you think.
The bottom line is that I am a life long New Orleanian, one that has had generations of ancestors productively contribute to this city.
I have no idea where you live, but the fact that you are joining in on the complaints about big square boxes threatening your neighborhood only leads me to believe it is somewhere in the Carrollton area between the proposed Walgreens/Robert’s site and the proposed Dollar General Store on Earhart.
To be honest with you, it really doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that another blogger, justifiably out of frustration, took a cheap shot at two carnival organizations, neither of which has a dog in this hunt.
To add insult to injury, you continued the theme and inaccurately portrayed them as still segregated. For your information, there are several prominent African-American New Orleanians that are members of Rex. Again, if people who took the time to write on these blogs took the time to research such issues before they start their babble, they would have learned this. As for Comus, I’m told that that organization is so secret that the members don’t even know who are members. A member couldn’t tell you if their are any African-American members if they wanted to. I happen to know this on pretty good information.
To get better educated, I invite you to log onto http://www.rexorganization.com to get familiar with the good the organization has done prior to and since Katrina. This includes raising over $30,000 for the New Orleans Police Foundation, walking the parade route the Saturday after Mardi Gras to clean up the trash left by paraders and paradegoers and the continued efforts that the Rex Organization is making in New Orleans’ Charter Schools.
It’s absolutely amazing how you can reduce all of this to the simple and incorrect statement that the organization is still segregated.
Your neighborhood needs help and it needs help in a bad way. This includes new developments that will provide jobs and services to very local people that do not have the luxury of automobiles much less the ability to pay $2.88/gallon to put in it.
I think it might be time to get serious about what really is needed in your area.
July 25th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Andy:
I believe my last statement was “it’s not about Rex and Comus”….can I assume you are a Rex member?
You are absolutely right, the neighborhood needs help in a bad way. This how ever CAN and SHOULD include developements that are agreeable to the neighborhood. While I agree with you about the jobs and services for local people who can’t drive or can’t afford gas, it is a very smarmy tactic to get people to agree to buildings and stores they do not want..like emotional backmail. And, Andy I think you do know where I live. Again, the initiation of all these comments was in regards to the bad communication set forth during the rebuilding process…it is not about Rex, Comus, or Walgreens.
July 25th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Debi,
Don’t forget what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to sun. Baby steps is what we need. We need to take it a little at a time.
Have a nice evening.
Andy
July 26th, 2006 at 12:25 am
I’ve just posted details and locations of all the events citywide and will do so from now on at:
http://www.neworleanscitycouncil.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=4
Anyone and everyone can and should participate and I believe these are the first meetings in the Unified Planning Process.
thanks - alx