B37AcV Florida Avenue Freeway, Uncategorized

No Florida Avenue Freeway: Save Our Homes & Community Health

Fact Sheet

The “Florida Project” is a joint federal and state funded proposal to expand Florida Avenue and create a new freeway through the 8th and 9th Wards on Florida, for heavy trucks that are in transit from the St. Bernard Port.

Currently, there are problems associated with Florida Avenue in the Upper 9th Ward, such as the truck traffic that diverts from there down Pauline and damages the homes of senior citizens and long time residents of the area.

A further expansion of Florida Blvd will create an unnecessary freeway for heavy trucks to come through Orleans Parish to reach Elysian Fields and then gain access to the interstate.  The option to have the trucks take Paris Rd. in St Bernard is by far the cheaper and more expedient option for the trucks and state.  Frankly, imposing a freeway on African American communities is simply environmental racism.

Elected officials are telling residents that a new Florida Avenue Bridge is completely contingent on the whole Florida “freeway” project. This is not true, as funding for this bridge has to be a separate item.

A freeway through our community would create noise, congestion, pollution, and access points for heavy trucks to cut through the neighborhoods.  It is particularly mind-boggling that they would attempt to put this truck traffic onto Elysian Fields at I-610 where there is currently so much congestion and an existing danger from the current heavy traffic.

A Community Voice supports:

  1. A new Florida bridge
  2. Replacement of the Claiborne/Judge Seeber bridge
  3. An additional bike and pedestrian bridge at St. Claude
  4. All St. Bernard Parish truck traffic needs to stay in St. Bernard Parish, and use Paris Rd. to get to the interstate

Join us. Sign our petition

Print out fact sheets for your church or organization.

no-florida-avenue-freeway-fact-sheet

Have your church or organization join the fight.

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organization-sign-on-form

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B37AcV Education, Equity in Rebuilding, Uncategorized

Petition to John Bel Edwards from A Community Voice

Return New Orleans Children to Schools in Their Neighborhood Governed by Our Elected Board

We, the citizens of the New Orleans community, applaud your election as our governor. We appreciate your stand for public education and acknowledge your support for HB 166, which would have returned successful schools to our Orleans Parish School Board. At the same time, the presence of Leslie Jacobs on the K-12 Education Committee reminds us of the past harms, the firing of thousands of teachers after Katrina, and the present harms that our community has suffered at the hands of market-based education reform. We believe the following changes will make our community whole:

  1. All our schools are returned to our elected school board.
  2. Children are able to attend neighborhood schools.
  3. Students are not forced to ride unmonitored buses from as early as 5:30 AM to as late as 6 PM.
  4. The millions of dollars currently diverted to bus companies are returned to our schools.

We look forward to supporting you as you use the remedies available to you to correct these injustices.

Sign the petition on Change.org

Call A Community Voice at 800-239-7379 for petitions or email info@acommunityvoice.com

If you would like to help on this campaign, please download the flyer and the petition below to pass out in your neighborhood, church or workplace.

Flyer for schools issue

John Bel Edwards Petition

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B37AcV Uncategorized

Support Education Bill in Baton Rouge!!

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 12.14.54 PMTo Join us:


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The Education Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives meets Wednesday May 6th at 9:30 am.  at the Louisiana Legislature in Baton Rouge.

Supporters of House Bill 166 sponsored by Representative Joseph Bouie are asked to write letters, email, and attend the hearing. The law would require that all schools taken from the Orleans Parish School by the Recovery School District that have recovered academically be returned to the Orleans Parish School Board by beginning of fiscal year 2016-2017 school year.

Under present law and BESE policy schools can determine if they want to return to Orleans Parish Schools and they can keep public schools forever.

Thirty-Three schools have achieved academic success and have recovered from failing status on tests administered to students. Under Representative Bouie’s bill, approved by the Orleans Parish School Board, these schools would finally return to local control.

The Education Committee is comprised of persons outside Orleans  Parish, except Rep. Wesley Bishop and Rep. Walt Leger, added to the committee because Leger is House Speaker Pro Tem.

You are urged to write letters, emails and make phone calls to these representatives letting them know that you support this legislation. Below please find a link to a bill summary and a link to the Committee members contact information.

It is important that the New Orleans delegation to the Legislature be contacted. We have also attached their contact information.

Bill summary:  https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=931352

Education Committee and the New Orleans delegation contact information is attached below. Hold ctrl + click over each member’s name to get information for the representative.

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B37AcV Uncategorized

Please Support the Houma Nation

Five years ago, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of Louisiana decimated the fisheries of the Gulf Coast, and the livelihoods of the people who live there – including the 17,000-member United Houma Nation, a tribe native to southern Louisiana.

But, when the Houma sought payment for damages from BP, they were denied because the tribe is not officially recognized by the U.S. government.

The United Houma Nation is recognized by the state of Louisiana — but not by the federal Department of the Interior. Federal recognition would mean a shot at fair compensation from BP, and allow the tribe to apply for disaster relief after major storms. Can you join with thousands of other Louisianans calling for recognition for the United Houma Nation?

Click here to tell the United States Department of the Interior to recognize the United Houma Nation.

The United Houma Nation is on the front line of climate change. Faced with increasingly severe storms, they are unable to apply for disaster relief because they are not federally recognized.

The coastal location of the Houma’s tribal communities puts them in the path of oil pipelines and drilling operations in the Gulf Coast that further erode their land, yet they cannot contribute to decision-making about land use and environmental restoration.

For more than three decades, the Houma have fought for official recognition from the federal government. Recognition would give the Houma more power to protect their land, food systems and way of life as they stand on the front line of climate change.

Click here to stand with the United Houma Nation in their fight for land sovereignty and climate justice.

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B37AcV Uncategorized

Katrina 10 Years After Commemoration Event

We are having a community awards program for our Katrina 10th Year Commemoration.  The event will be held on Saturday, August 1st from 2pm to 5pm at Holy Angels at 3500 St. Claude Avenue.   This program will honor the regular heroes of our community who work every day to help rebuild our neighborhoods.  Your donation will help us with our awards program and support the work that we do in the community.

Donations are $10/ticket to help support:

  • homebuyer programs and credit counseling
  • home repair programs
  • fighting for equal funding for all neighborhoods

Please support if you can and come out to our event.  Call us at 504-941-2852 or 800-239-7379 with any questions.

Thank You!!


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