News Roundup

Recovery Plans Number In Hundreds, Funded By Millions

City Business
by Jaime Guillet Staff Writer
October 22, 2007

Editor’s note:”Target Recovery” is an occasional series on how New Orleans is progressing on implementing the recovery plan developed by Director Ed Blakeley and his team at the Office of Recovery Management.

NEW ORLEANS — The Lafitte Greenway, a proposed 3.1-mile linear park for bikes and pedestrians, will do more than just help rebuild a neighborhood: It connects communities, recovery officials say.

The New Orleans Office of Recovery Management identified the park as the most critical project in the Broad Street and Lafitte Greenway-Tremé target area, one of 17 areas of development targeted for renewal by ORM Director Ed Blakely.

Jerry Williams, ORM community liaison, said the park project is critical because it is highly visible, community input identified it as important and it is in an area of historically concentrated commercial development.

The Broad Street and Lafitte Greenway-Tremé target area runs along the old Norfolk Southern Rail Line from Basin Street to Canal Boulevard next to St. Louis Avenue.

The project would convert a now-largely derelict strip of land into a bike path and pedestrian walkway running from Armstrong Park in the French Quarter to the foot of Canal Boulevard near City Park.

The ORM has $2.4 million of an estimated $2.5 million needed to complete phase one, which includes developing a greenway between North Broad and Jefferson Davis Parkway. ORM will use $2 million from the $117 million authorized by the Louisiana Recovery Authority for the city, $313,000 from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and a $95,000 grant from the American Institute of Architects to develop the park.

The nonprofit Friends of the Lafitte Corridor has backed the project since 2006.

“We had a very significant victory this summer (when) the New Orleans City Council approved a resolution that recognizes the value of the project and dedicated the remaining land,” said FOLC President Daniel Samuels. “Also they passed an ordinance establishing a greenway advisory task force, which is in the process of being formed.”

The task force mission will be to “provide a structure for neighbors along the greenway to be involved the planning and implementation of the greenway,” Samuels said.

The project has encountered objections from some residents who feel the park would negatively alter the landscape of their neighborhoods. Members of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association complain the corridor could be a potential alley for criminals to travel into the Lakeview neighborhood.

“There were a couple of people at some meetings concerned of the greenway becoming an access point for criminals,” said Bari Landry, LCIA president.

Comments such as “who in their right mind would ride by the Lafitte Housing Project” also surfaced, Samuels said.

On the other end of the proposed path, members of the housing advocacy group C3/Hands Off Lafitte at first opposed the project because they viewed it as an attempt to take housing away from the disadvantaged, primarily from former residents of the 896-unit Lafitte Housing Project first established in 1941, Samuels said.

But no housing is being torn down. The greenway project deals only with an unused tract of land, Samuels said.

“There is no one who is opposed to this project,” he said. “The greenway is only going to be successful if it meets the needs of the neighborhoods around it. Part of our mission is to ensure each and every neighborhood has a voice in the planning.”

Members of C3/Hands Off Lafitte could not be reached for comment.

Landry said the vast majority of LCIA members support the project.

“We see it as a great opportunity to have a greenway extend into our bike paths and City Park,” said Landry. “What a great opportunity for people to share the beauty we have in Lakeview. Whenever you have a project of any kind, you’re going to see people who have a suspicion of change.”

The park will be a “unifying element” for the city, which is why District A City Councilwoman Shelley Midura said she supports it.

Samuels said he hopes now the timeline for the project will be expedited since ORM has included the park in its citywide recovery plan.

Construction of the park will take two years if there “is no holdup” while builders formulate plans, Midura said.