B37AcV Equity in Rebuilding

A Community Voice Demands Action at Upper 9th Playground by area rife with Murder, Robberies, Theft, Jungle-like Overgrowth, and More

Upper 9th Ward A Community Voice members rallied to fight for Blight clean-up at a neighborhood park

Odile Davis Park at 3000 Law Street  corner of Montegut and Law Streets

Site of two murders this year, cars are burned, homes regularly burglarized, wheels stolen from cars, wide open drains with covers are missing, huge holes in the streets, an abandoned boat from Katrina rests and the CSX railroad has created a mile of overgrown rat and crime harborage.

“The Upper 9th ward is still struggling to come back since H. Katrina” states Debra Campbell, Chairperson of the Upper 9th Ward A Community Voice chapter.  “We cannot afford to pretend that letting one area of the city die won’t affect the whole city. A Community Voice 9th Ward members meet monthly to work on strategies to save the neighborhood and have recently won restoration of street lights on the France/Poland St overpass, so we are a CAN-DO organization and will fight for a clean-up here.”

The residents and churches that have returned in the Montegut/Feliciana area between Galvez and Law need:

  • serious enforcement of the law, including regular community policing patrols and investigations of crimes by Police,
  • enforcement of code violations by the City Health Dept., including  fines to CSX Railroad for their length of uncut grass and jungle conditions along Montegut St.,
  • street repairs
  • and clean-up of area blighted lots, including another home for the Katrina abandoned boat.

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B37AcV Equity in Rebuilding

NOLA activist on Chicago Tribune editorial calling for a Hurricane Katrina

http://www.wbez.org/programs/morning-shift/2015-08-17/nola-activist-chicago-tribune-editorial-calling-hurricane-katrina

Late last week, Chicago Tribune editorial board member Kristen McQueary wrote an opinion column about Chicago’s deep financial crisis. It was about government, schools, borrowing, and the citizens of Chicago being either unwilling or incapable of getting the change we need. McQueary wrote that Chicago needs to wipe the slate clean, and she wished for a natural disaster, another Hurricane Katrina in her words, to do the job.

“I find myself wishing for a storm in Chicago — an unpredictable, haughty, devastating swirl of fury. A dramatic levee break. Geysers bursting through manhole covers. A sleeping city, forced onto the rooftops,” she wrote. It was meant as a metaphor. But many readers called it tone deaf, clueless, or a sad display of white privilege. McQueary is white, and many of the more than 1,800 people who died during Katrina were elderly, poor, and black.

On Friday and over the weekend, the column spread around the internet — to New Orleans, to Washington, even internationally — and the backlash was swift and cutting.

“As someone who experienced Katrina first-hand, the ignorance in this column is trivializing, grotesque and upsetting,” one person wrote on Twitter.

Some readers defended McQueary and the Tribune, saying it was a bad metaphor, nothing more.

Down in the Big Easy, many residents took issue with McQueary’s glossed-over version of their city after Katrina. In her depiction, things are peachy. Government corruption has been rooted out. Dilapidated buildings have been torn down. The schools are great.

Our guest says that’s far from the case. We turn to Vanessa Gueringer, Vice President of “A Community Voice,” a non-profit community organization in New Orleans made up of and serving the working, poor, elderly, women, children, and families. (Photo: Flickr/Infrogmation of New Orleans)

 

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B37AcV Equity in Rebuilding

Residents say broken Upper 9th Ward streetlights a hazard

Link to WWLTV article and video

NEW ORLEANS — Lights are out along two major overpasses in the Upper Ninth Ward. Community activists are concerned about public safety, saying they’ve reached out to the city in the last year and nothing has been done.

The city of New Orleans is once again blaming copper thieves for the blackout.

“That bridge makes a curve. If you’re not familiar with it, you could just as well go off the bridge. So all of this is a concern for me,” said Debra Campbell, chairperson for A Community Voice in the Upper Ninth Ward.

Broken streetlights and missing guardrails dot the France Street overpass in the Upper Ninth Ward along the Industrial Canal. Those safety concerns are weighing on the mind of Campbell and her neighbors.

Our camera captured blacked-out lights at sunset along a nearly two-mile stretch from North Dorgenois Street at France Street all the way to the Alvar Street overpass near 1-10.

Campbell is chairperson of the Upper Ninth Ward chapter of A Community Voice. She said residents’ complaints to the city continue to go mostly unanswered.

“I’m just concerned for their safety. I think something needs to be done. I’m not opposed to the areas we’ve given to the bicyclists, but we have to protect them,” said Campbell.

The New Orleans Department of Public Works confirms thieves stole the copper wiring inside some of the streetlight poles, damaging a feed point at the France Street overpass.

“It’s a big hazard. It’s an overpass where people could get hit. A bicyclist, a vehicle could go off road. The lighting needs to be addressed at this overpass,” said Councilman Jared Brossett, who said his office is aware of the problem.

Brossett said the Department of Public Works informed his office that major repairs are needed and an estimate is being drawn up to figure out a price tag.

“I’m hoping the Department of Public Works can act swiftly on this, as it is a hazard. I’m working with the community to address their concerns,” Brossett said.

For those who regularly drive, cycle or walk along these Upper Ninth Ward overpasses and streets, the unlit stretch is seen as a ticking time bomb.

“We have bikers that go over after dark. We’re asking the city to please give us some lights back here,” Campbell said.

In a written statement, the Landrieu administration said “97 percent of the city’s streetlights are now working more than before Hurricane Katrina.”

In this case, the city confirms it is taking measures to restore some streetlights until permanent repairs can be done. City officials urge citizens to call 911 if they spot anyone attempting to vandalize city streetlights or any public property.

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B37AcV Equity in Rebuilding

Blight is a Fright Action Lower 9th Ward

October 30th, 2014

Protest at the former SOUL headquarters (Jon Johnson) 1938 Caffin – been on the demo list since July. Lower 9th Ward is full of Haunted Houses and every day is Halloween thanks to the City. This is a bus stop and students walk by this every single day they go to school. Please vote YES to Amendment 13th on November 4th to allow residents to buy lots for $100.

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B37AcV Equity in Rebuilding

Stop Blight & Crime Protest Upper 9th Ward 9-25-2014

On September 25th, 2014, ACV members held a Stand up and Fight Back against growing blight, lack of city response and no police patrols.

The 1600 block of Louisa (at N. Claiborne) is a hazard with overgrown grass so you can’t see to turn onto Claiborne, 3 wide open abandoned homes, people allowed to buy property at discount and never keep it up, and an unsafe bus stop. Residents are sick of overgrown grass, vacant homes and unsafe bus stops.  Councillmember Jason Williams’ office made a commitment to get something done within 3 weeks.

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