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In recent weeks, New Orleanians have been singing the praises of their city’s remarkable recovery and resilience to visitors here for Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl. Signs of a robust economy are evident everywhere, from new construction to street... Read more >

Independent retailers and their local governments have a mutual interest in a thriving local economy that generates a solid tax base to adequately fund community services. By working together, they can make sure that wealth is generated and retained locally. Read more >

Long before the internet, the daily newspaper was the virtual water cooler. Citizens from various walks of life and regions of the circulation area were brought together daily by a shared, though imperfect, vision of what was news, what was important, what was interesting. This thirst for community cannot be satisfied on a thrice-weekly basis. Read more >

While there is a tendency to protect people from themselves, the way to do this is not to create barriers that are potentially more dangerous, but to give citizens safe access where they can be in control of their situation. Read more >

If there is a leit-motif to all of the documentaries, reports, memoirs and retrospectives on New Orleans five years after Katrina, it is this: we are a city that is at once rich in excess and desperately in need. Both "The Price of Civilization" and the "New Orleans Index at Five" reports highlight a second, less headline-grabbing but equally resonant theme for residents shoring up our infrastructure, our levees and our coastline: prioritization and coordination. Read more >

In Ysyclosky, Brad Robin, an old podnah of my fathers, watched as deckhands unloaded the last sacks of oysters from the Ms. Donna Ann. "I'm a oyster fisherman today," he said, "but I don't know what I'm going to be tomorrow." Read more >

The LSU/VA project has been mired in controversy since its inception in November 2007, when Mayor C. Ray Nagin signed a deal with the Veterans Administration to provide land currently occupied by homes and businesses "construction ready." For many it feels like a done deal with no opportunity for meaningful input from property owners, urban planners, preservationists, and others opposed to the project. Read more >

To attract new capital to New Orleans, we tend to market the city’s assets - its distinctive character, its beautiful architecture, its music. Meanwhile, the underlying deficiencies that keep investors away - crime, poverty, low literacy - continue unabated. Last... Read more >

When Maple Street Children’s Bookshop announced its closing after nearly thirty years in business, owner Cindy Dike pointed to three forces that conspired against her continued success: the flagging economy; the opening of Borders Books on St. Charles Avenue; and... Read more >

Just weeks ago, The Urban Conservancy joined a powerful coalition of 60 other community groups to make three general demands of our municipal and state leadership. Because of our collective voices, the City Planning Commission has delivered on the request for a public hearing to present the two competing proposals for the restoration of health care institutions to New Orleans. We urge our membership to attend this critical hearing. Read more >

Mayor Nagin seems to equate “transparent” with “unseen.” While the public clamors for transparent governance, the Mayor tries to shove as much of his administration’s process on the awarding of contracts as he can behind closed doors, out of public... Read more >

The cost of energy, rising for years, has been one of the more vexing issues for New Orleans residents and businesses since Katrina. Entergy New Orleans has just announced that natural gas prices are set to spike once again this summer. These costs will be passed on to us in the form of higher bills, through a fuel adjustment charge for metered electricity use and metered gas. In the face of this daunting situation, we are not powerless. Read more >

With the Council's approval of the amendments, once finalized, New Orleans will have an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond the dysfunctional, special-interest-driven planning process that has plagued the city for decades, and to create a visionary one that all our citizens can be proud of. Read more >

The recent uptick in big-box projects and proposals in the Crescent City, fueled by tax subsidies and other costly giveaways, has left owners of smaller home-grown businesses in related industries gritting their teeth and bracing for hard times. Read more >

Something is afoot in your neighborhood. Surveyors are walking around a defunct property taking notes. When you approach and ask questions, they are evasive; however, through persistence your neighbors piece together a puzzle. It’s another development by “surprise!” One of... Read more >

A single opposing vote. A single vote in opposition to a broadly supported neighborhood request to the Board of Zoning Adjustments (BZA) to reconsider a decision by the Department of Safety and Permits has left the neighborhood facing the prospect... Read more >

Remember all the planning meetings we went to where we were told our ideas would shape the future of the city? When do we get to decide the budget priorities that make our ideas a reality? There are now more... Read more >

One of the challenges of discussing zoning in urban areas, is that zoning itself is often part of the problem. Many of the aspects of New Orleans we love could not be built today under the current zoning laws. Those cool outbuilding on the property lines--need a 3' setback now. Houses next to each other--can't do it. Neighborhood corner stores--better know that council person. Hubigs Pie plant in the middle of the Marigny? Are you crazy?--that mixes light industrial with residential. Read more >

Our recovery from the levee failures of 2005 has benefitted enormously from the skill and dedication of our leaders. No, not our inept mayor and moribund City Council. Not our leading lights of big business and their developer friends. We are talking about the real leaders of the recovery—the people who didn't even know they were leaders until the folks who were supposed to be leading ducked and ran. Read more >

The good thing about Bad Ideas is that they are really easy to spot — after the fact. The problem with Bad Ideas, however, is that at the time they are proposed they appear to have a logic about them. Thoughtful people embrace the Bad Idea. In fact, they often defend the Really Bad Idea as the Only Hope. The Progressive Solution. They call it the Really Good Idea. Read more >

If the purpose of the various official planning processes -- Bring New Orleans Back, Urban Land Institute, the Lambert Plan, and the Unified New Orleans Plan -- was to aid the recovery of our city, we can now classify this exercise as a failure. And we can continue rebuilding our neighborhoods as we have been since the federal government graciously allowed us back into our city. Read more >

Never has Mother Nature been so verbally maligned as in post-diluvian New Orleans. It started with the green belts of the Urban Land Institute's proposal and the legendary green dots of the Bring New Orleans Back plan last winter. Some New Orleanians came to see green space as a menacing blob doing the bidding of evil, scheming developers bent on violating average folks' property rights and turning neighborhoods into golf courses for the rich. Read more >

New Orleans's entrepreneurs know what it means to put in 12-hour work days and 7-day work weeks. The Urban Conservancy is working just as hard to support their efforts. Please consider making a donation to The Urban Conservancy this holiday season so that we can continue our work in the New Orleans community. Read more >

If they can do it in those other cities, then surely it can be done in New Orleans. With a reform-minded City Council at the helm, and civic involvement at an all-time high, the time is certainly ripe. City governance should be reorganized in a way that gives more control to the local community. Read more >

This Saturday, visit your locally-owned coffee shop. Get your coffee and talk with your friends. Then go vote. Heck, take one of your friends with you! Read more >

If our community is to thrive, we need large-scale institutional changes to the way business is done in New Orleans. Not just a new council or a new ordinance but serious reforms that will ensure that our gains today are enshrined in law and not dependent upon the good graces of whoever happens to be in office at any given moment. Read more >

The Urban Conservancy launches StayLocal.org — A Community Database of Locally-Owned and Operated Businesses. Just as many of New Orleans’ locally owned businesses are handed down from generation to generation, so too are business recommendations passed along, word-of-mouth, from mother... Read more >

When the Nagin administration finally broke its post-election silence, the news was not good for those locally-owned businesses that didn't cut and run after Katrina. Read more >

All of the stops on this year's tour flooded at least partially following the levee failure, and some were severely inundated and looted as well. Each stop was thus a testament to the rebirth of the city; each an example of perseverance and determination. Read more >

The consequential year of 2005 has meant many things to those of us in New Orleans. It has brought many changes to our home and to a small non-profit organization called the Urban Conservancy. It is with greatly mixed emotions... Read more >

It’s hot. It’s hurricane season. It’s time for some good news. On a good year, summer in New Orleans is the time we all struggle to remember why we live here. The stultifying heat makes just laying on the porch... Read more >

We are extremely pleased to welcome Dana to The Urban Conservancy. Dana has worked with us in the past and served as a founding member of the Advisory Board of our Stay Local! project. Dana brings to The Urban Conservancy... Read more >

“We are about to lose New Orleans.” So said the New York Times on Sunday. All over New Orleans people read the editorial and nodded their heads. They copied it into e-mails and forwarded it to friends—both here and elsewhere.... Read more >

Conferences, meetings, strategy sessions. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Atlanta. Urban planning, public health, affordable housing, small business retention, and green building. Since September, Urban Conservancy staff have participated in countless discussions focused on rebuilding the city we love. Throughout the... Read more >

We think the first step in the recovery is acknowledging the hard facts and then speaking and acting as one community. Read more >

During the 1980s, Vladimir Posner explained the policies, actions, and culture of the Soviet Union to the American Public. He was the spokesperson for Russia and Americans loved him; he spoke flawless American English and was charming and funny. Nevertheless,... Read more >

On Wednesday Marc Rosenblum, Tim Ruppert, and Geoff Coats — three residents of New Orleans — spent a day in Washington, DC talking with our representatives and their staffs about the rebuilding of our city. Our primary goal was to... Read more >

As the new program coordinator for the Urban Conservancy, I thought I might take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Forest Bradley-Wright. A native of Eugene, Oregon, I was raised believing that community self-determination is a fundamental right,... Read more >

A big thank you is in order to all the folks who made the Urban Conservancy’s first-ever benefit a rousing success—on a school night, no less. Over 150 people attended the screening of the film Unbroken Line of History:... Read more >

We would like to extend a special invitation to the readers of the Urban Conservancy’s e-mail list and website to the UC’s first-ever benefit concert and film premiere at the Dragon’s Den, 435 Esplanade Avenue on January 20, beginning at... Read more >

Like politics in general, land use decisions are a contact sport in New Orleans. A limited supply of available land, combined with our bewildering system of zoning codes and a political system that rewards back door deals pretty much ensures... Read more >

Three months ago, the city changed the way it does planning, again. Collette Crepell, the executive director of the city’s Planning Commission resigned and at the same time it was revealed that many seats on the Historic District Landmarks Commission... Read more >

As we turn our attention to the New Year, the Urban Conservancy has set an agenda for action, with the new year bringing new issues, as well as some old favorites, to the fore. Here are a few issues on... Read more >

Many people in New Orleans, especially our younger readers, are at least acquainted with the Artist Resource Kollective, or the ARK. This Faubourg Marigny institution serves as one of the city’s few venues for alternative music, art and theater. Stage... Read more >

In the Urban Conservancy’s attempts to be “fair and balanced,” we have a tendency to fix our sights firmly on issues that are important, and sometimes those issues are, well, a bummer. There are some bright spots in the political... Read more >

With all the talk these days about promoting business in New Orleans, we’d like to take a moment and recognize a local business that is garnering national recognition for its leadership and innovation. Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, an architecture and planning firm located... Read more >

At times it can seem overwhelming to live in the city with its many challenges. Where to start first? Public schools? Crime? Corruption? Housing? Take your pick. Maybe there are subtler parts to the solution. Here’s an idea for an... Read more >

Supporters of a resolution to allow the City Planning Commission to review plans for changes to Audubon Park suffered a severe blow last Thursday as Councilmember Jay Batt withdrew the resolution that would have enabled it. Citing an apparent duplication... Read more >