Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association (CRNA)

Carrollton-Riverbend (the Leonidas neighborhood) has seen a great deal of change, especially during the last ten years. The changes are ongoing, some are for the better, and some are not. Most are a mix of both.

As one of the few remaining areas in the City with historic housing stock, Carrollton-Riverbend has seen a tremendous increase in “renovations”, older homes sold to developers for flipping, and vacant lots sold for new builds. We’ve seen a surge of short-term rentals (STRs), too. What we have NOT seen is well-designed, safe affordable housing—this, in spite of the displacement of many long-time residents—and this is a serious problem. We are seeing a rapid change in our long-standing neighborhood demographics.

Many of us grew up in the neighborhood, some left and came back, many moved here from out of town, but ALL of us love this neighborhood. We love the trees and their shade; the old houses; the sounds of the streetcar, the train, and the ships on the river; being able to stroll up to the Leaf or the Rue; eat at Lebanon’s, Milk Bar, Cowbell, or at Brigsten’s; pick up some groceries at Robert’s or Canseco’s. We celebrate our neighborhood feral peacock, Mr. P, who we have chosen as our mascot. (After all, thanks to Mr P, Carrollton is an official Bird Sanctuary.) And we ALL love Castellon’s.

The Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association is not new. All residents—renters and home owners—are welcome to join, to come to our Zoom meetings—held the 2nd Thursday of each month—to share ideas, to help us in our endeavors, to suggest projects that would benefit from our involvement. Sign up for email notifications on our blog: https://crna-nola.org or check out our Facebook page.

Come to a meeting. All are welcome, regardless of “boundaries.”

Some of the things we’ve been doing and supporting:

• Assist with problems and questions that residents bring to our attention
• Shared & collected polls & surveys about neighbors’ preferences for the renaming of Palmer Park. Marsalis Harmony Park!! Thanks to Betty and Carrollton United and Julianna and Councilmember Giarusso!
• Walked around petitions & surveys about SWB industrial noise to register the voices of residents near the SWB Carrollton plan. Sharing the petitions & surveys with SWB, the Mayor, City Council. Thanks to Melissa, Bernard, Cindy, Julianna, Elaine, & Nicole!
• Collected residents’ street repair complaints, shared with DPW & RoadworkNOLA, Councilmember Giarusso, the Mayor, and pushed DWP to find resolutions.
• Hosted DPW-RoadworkNOLA rep to a meeting with residents about their street repair complaints.
• Hosted SWB reps to talk about SWB industrial noise remediation.
• Zoning and land use matters:
  • Challenge subdivision of 914 Dante historic site
  • Track and work with other neighborhood groups to oppose Doubles-to-Dorms developments
  • Identify and report unpermitted renovations, vacant lot problems (owner neglect, illegal dumping)
• Share info about meetings of Together Louisiana, Help Not Handcuffs, projects, programs, etc.
• Challenge Sewerage & Water Board re: industrial noise near the Carrollton plant. Thanks, Melissa and Andreas!
• Affordable housing: HANO-Iris development on General Ogden
• Painted utility boxes at Oak-Carrollton and S Claiborne-Leonidas. Thanks to the Oak St Merchants for the Oak St box! Thanks to Bill and Betty and Carrollton United!
• Organized native tree plantings through SOUL. Thanks, Sabine for spearheading this!
• Glass recycling drop-offs—this may begin again this fall. Thanks Charlene, Julianna, and Elaine!
• Applied for and got $1000 Clean-up Impact Grant: $500 to Lycee for landscaping, $500 to Community Commitment Education Center’s COVID relief activities. Thanks, Julianna!