Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association (CRNA)

Our next monthly CRNA meeting:  Thursday, March 11, 7 p.m.   Place:  Squeal Bar-B-Q at the corner of Oak and Cambronne.  We’d love to see you there.

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The Blessed Sacrament/St. Joan of Arc parish will present the 2010 Cultural Arts Festival on Saturday March 20, 11am-7pm.

“We’re excited to have our first festival as a merged parish family,” said festival chair Johnnie Tillman.

Tillman says there will be rides and games for the kids, plenty of good food, and a free music stage with several local artists performing.  “This festival is a celebration of cultures and we have something for everyone. We also have several spaces available for a wide variety of vendors, she said.

The festival will take place on the school grounds at 919 Cambronne St. in the Riverbend.

Admission to the festival is free.  For more information on the festival contact Tillman at 504-432-6189.

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The District A council seat runoff election between Susan Guidry and Jay Batt is this Saturday, March 6.

Citizens, do your duty!

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Another opportunity to help out:  Our Communications Committee, will meet on Sunday, March 7, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., at 8207 Jeannette, to talk about ways to improve our communications within our organization, with the neighborhood, and with other organizations in the area.  We’d be happy to see you there, too.  For more information, contact Pax Bobrow at paxbobrow@yahoo.com

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Cell tower, zoning, etc. – Our newly re-forming Zoning and Land-Use Committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday evening, March 4, in the basement of 1225 Dublin, a house on the Mater Dolorosa property.

T-Mobile has proposed to erect a 120’ cell phone tower on the Entergy property between the Chevron station and the streetcar barn on Willow St.  It is a defunct Entergy site.  The City Planning Commission denied their request (after neighbors complained that we’d been given no information about the proposal.)  The Commission’s Staff Report indicated that things could be done to “mitigate” the eyesore, but none of those have been deemed effective or acceptable to the neighborhood.

At our last board meeting, CRNA heard the proposal from T-Mobile representatives and voted against the proposal. At the same time there were various suggestions for a better use of the land.  The matter is presently on appeal to the City Council — on its March 11^th agenda.

At the Thursday meeting, the Council meeting will be discussed, as well as the best approaches to petition Entergy for a better use — and exploring ideas identifying various entities for collaboration, support, etc.  Other topics for future meetings will also be discussed.

To enter the meeting site: You can park in the lot behind Mater Dolorosa, but NOTE that the meeting is NOT in the cafeteria.  You can enter the basement of 1225 Dublin either at the rear, through a gate from the parking lot, or by knocking on the basement’s front door.

For more information, contact Co-chairs Marilyn Barbera at malynbarbara@msn.com or Betsy Weymann at eweymann@cox.net.

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Paving news: Carrollton: We’ve just learned, at a meeting on Tuesday night, that the re-paving of Carrollton Avenue, from St. Charles to the I-10, will begin on MONDAY.  Essentially, the project will remove and replace the top two inches of asphalt—plus replace all curbs and sidewalks.  A designated “bike lane” will also be added.  Where the sub-surface concrete must be repaired, traffic will need to be blocked while the concrete cures.

In response to numerous questions, the contractor assured the audience that trees will be protected.  Their contract with the city requires a city arborist to approve any interaction with the trees or their roots.  It was suggested that roots might be ground down in a few cases, but only under the supervision of an arborist.

The project will begin at St. Charles on the lakebound lanes, taking up half the surface.  At I-10, the machine will come back down the riverbound lanes, removing half that surface.  That will be repeated for the remaining half of the surface, then twice more as the new asphalt is laid.  The contractor has 150 days to complete the job, after which he begins to lose money.

Claiborne: We have also only recently learned details of a much more extensive repair project on Claiborne Avenue.  This will involve rebuilding the drainage “canal” that runs under the Claiborne neutral ground—from the parish line to Lowerline—converting two 13’ X 19’ concrete box culverts to one 12’ X 30’ concrete box culvert (roughly a 50% increase in capacity).  In total, 140 trees and 66 shrubs will be removed from the neutral ground to facilitate the digging.  There is a promise to re-plant, but a similar project on Claiborne from Nashville to Louisiana was completed before Katrina and the neutral ground has still not been re-planted.

The portion of the project between the parish line and Leonidas is scheduled to begin some time this spring—and is presently projected to continue until 2013!  The Leonidas to Lowerline portion is scheduled to begin in 2011—and is projected to end in 2016!

Though we have a vibrant new committee structure (see below), we do not presently have a committee whose task is to oversee such projects on behalf of the neighborhood.  Anyone out there motivated to help?  Anyone?  If so, please contact me directly.  And thanks.

Meetings: New Orleans Citizen Participation Project (CPP) Forum  — Saturday (TOMORROW), January 16th at the Urban League, 2322 Canal, 9:30 – 12:00,  to review several options for a formalized citizen participation project also known as CPP. A CPP, which is now mandated by law, is a formal structure that gives residents greater input with local government officials in the decision-making process on important issues such as zoning, land use, and budgetary spending. The forum will provide information on the various proposals for the new CPP structure and will gather feedback from the community. Come and get informed and make sure your recommendations for our new civic structure are heard!

For more information, see http://nolacpp.wordpress.com

GET INVOLVED:

These are our new committees for the year and their chairs/convenors.  We’d be VERY pleased to have your participation in one or more of these efforts. Leave a comment to this post for more information:

Blight, Byron Johnson

Communications, Pax Bobrow

Education, Ariel Wallick Dorfman

Priestley School site, Anne Nicolay

Safety/Crime, Liz Reed

Sustainability, Andreas Hoffman

Zoning/Land Use, Betsy Weymann and Marilyn Barbera

Haiti – Many are asking how to be of help to those presently suffering from the latest natural disaster in Haiti.  Board member Pax Bobrow reports that a friend who has worked extensively in Haiti believes the following organizations to be particularly effective:

Partners in Health http://photos.pih.org/home2.html Haitian Association for Human Development http://www.haitiahdh.org/

We also understand that a group of New Orleans doctors are going to Haiti next week, and dried/canned goods and money are being collected through Lusher school as part of that effort.

A friend who works at Whole Foods also tells me that they have partnered with Food for the Poor (a Miami nonprofit) and that monetary contributions can be made at any register at the store(s).

Hope to see you at future meetings.

Jerry Speir, President

Carrollton/Riverbend N’hood Assoc.  (CRNA)

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Next Carrollton Neighborhood Porch Party is this Sat 1/23/2010. The monthly Porch Party is an event where the Carrollton neighborhood associations support a block in coming together on a Saturday evening from 6pm-8pm to enjoy the company of neighbors and create a network of safety at your doorstep.  Please bring your own folding chair and preferred beverage (alcohol or other).

This Sat. 1/23, 6pm-8pm at 8214 Willow Street.

Open the Porch Party flyer here:  2010-porchpartyflyer

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