"The Big Green Easy" Parks and Recreation Master Plan, by Scott Howard, NOLA Parks for All

 Dear Mayor Cantrell, City Council Members, Park Partners, and others,

I am writing on behalf of NOLA Parks For All, a local non-profit parks advocacy organization that has been a strong advocate for the adoption of a parks and recreation master plan. We are thrilled that the City has now completed and published The Big Green Easy Master Plan that will govern the city’s green spaces for years to come. The plan was funded by a $433,000 grant from the National Park and Recreation Association, executed by Design Workshop (a top national park-planning consultant), and guided by significant community input.  We urge each Council District Office and the community organizations in those districts to familiarize themselves with this plan and how it affects their neighborhoods. We also urge City Council formally to adopt the plan. 

The plan includes 205 pages of information, suggestions, and strategies.  Parks For All has compiled into a three-page document (go to Carrollton Life Nola home page for download) those directives  — taken directly from the master plan —  that we consider most pressing for the City. We have also compiled into an Appendix screenshots of the "Strategies and Action Items" listed in the master plan for easy reference. These sheets provide very clear recommended action items, responsible entities, and time frames to execute the next steps needed to follow through on the plan.  

As a parks advocacy organization, we intend to make sure this plan gets put into action by the Park Partners with the oversight and support of City Council, the City Planning Commission, and community organizations throughout the City. We hope you will join us in advocating for the execution of The Big Green Easy Master Plan. 

Sincerely,

Scott Howard, President of NOLA Parks For All, and its Board of Directors 

 Greetings from Town of Carrollton Watch

Here is the latest news on D2Ds and historic preservation in Carrollton.

GET YOUR YARD SIGNS

“Stop Turning Our Homes into Dorms” yard signs are available for free.

Write to stopd2dinnola@gmail.com to order. Pick them up in the neighborhood.

CARROLLTON GOES TO CITY HALL:

Zoning appeals—landmarking for John Kennedy Toole house on Hampson—proposed

demolitions/renovations in Carrollton—re-amending the University Area Overlay

All meetings are held in Council chambers at City Hall.

Monday, Oct. 2, 10 a.m., Board of Zoning Adjustments (BZA)

Neighbor Debra Howell appeals the issuance of work permits for the D2Ds at 7608 Zimpel and

1120 Lowerline.

The single-family Craftsman at 7608 Zimpel, owned by a Tulane undergraduate and his father,

dba Campus Rentals, LLC, was recently renovated to increase two bedrooms to four with no

additional parking. (An addition to the house took away a parking spot in the driveway.) The

permit was incorrectly reviewed per an outdated (and over-permissive) standard by Safety and

Permits for the requirements of the University Area IZD. And stamped, approved architect’s

plans were somehow not required (as per usual) for the structural work permit. Ms. Howell

argues the case; and the BZA and S&P respond.

Next, the single-family house at 1120 Lowerline, owned by Preston Tedesco and Sam Torres,

son of Sidney Torres IV—and allegedly expanded by a previous owner without a permit from

two bedrooms to eight—has been extensively renovated using a non-structural work permit of

only minimal scope. Also, S&P failed to review the project for the requirements of the

University Area IZD. Ms. Howell alleges material misrepresentation on the permit application.

These appeals were deferred from last month’s BZA hearing. The written public comment period

is now closed; but please come to the meeting to show your support for Ms. Howell and other

neighbors.

Final Agenda

On city’s video

On YouTube:

 

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m., N.O. Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC)

The house at 7632 Hampson will be considered for nomination as an HDLC landmark. It was

the last residence (1966–1969) of John Kennedy Toole, author of A Confederacy of Dunces.

Toole was renting an apartment at the house with his parents at the time of his death in 1969. He

taught English at St. Mary’s Dominican College a few blocks away.

The HDLC Staff recommends approval of the nomination. See the Nomination Report:

https://sites.google.com/view/no-cmm-100423/landmark-nomination-of-7632-hampson-street

Now it’s up to the HDLC Commissioners to discuss and vote.

Please write to the HDLC Staff at mackenzie.guillory@nola.gov by 4 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 3, to

submit a public comment in support.

The HDLC’s landmark nomination/designation process is highly selective: there are just 328

landmarked sites in the city.

Several demolitions and renovations across Carrollton are also on the HDLC meeting agenda:

HDLC hearing on city’s video:

HDLC hearing on YouTube:

Thursday, Oct. 5, 11:00 a.m., City Council Regular Meeting

The amended University Area Overlay will be heard and voted on in the City Council on Oct. 5,

2023. It’s motion M-23. The ordinance has been around in various forms since

March 5, 2020. It uses off-street parking as a bargaining chip for the city to use to prevent

developers from the structural conversion of historic homes. The developer is obliged to provide

a new parking place for each new bedroom that is carved out of an existing historic interior or

plugged into the back of an old building as a new camelback. But for many reasons the problem

is too hard to regulate.

This latest version attempts once again to close loopholes exploited by D2D developers: This

time around, any new construction or renovation with more than THREE bedrooms or more than

2.5 bathrooms will need to provide additional onsite parking spaces for each additional bedroom

or obtain a variance; and must include a common room.  Public comment may be submitted via email to the City Council members and their Staff until 8 a.m. on Oct. 5:

helena.moreno@nola.gov; JP.morrell@nola.gov; Joseph.Giarrusso@nola.gov;

Lesli.Harris@nola.gov; Freddie.King@nola.gov; Eugene.Green@nola.gov;

Oliver.Thomas@nola.gov; avtuozzolo@nola.gov; Krystal.Hendon@nola.gov;

Amanda.Rizzo@nola.gov; Anpoort@nola.gov; Charles.Toney@nola.gov;

Sandra.Thomas@nola.gov; Diedre.Pierce@nola.gov

Or use this electronic submission form so that your comment will be read aloud at the meeting.

Note that the form will not be available until nearer the date.

Watch the City Council Regular Meeting on YouTube:

A COMMERCIAL PURCHASE BY A D2D DEVELOPER

D2D developer Dr. John P. Hamide buys in at Bruno’s Tavern.

Not content to own 42 D2Ds in the neighborhood, enterprising radiologist Dr. John P. Hamide

has entered into a partnership with Tim Spratt and Jim Brown, III, d/b/a Maple Mint I, LLC,

purchasing the 4225-sf commercial brick building at 7538 Maple on Sept. 14, 2023, for a

recorded price of $672,400. (Actual price is rumored to be over $2M.)

Spratt and Brown have owned the business as Bruno’s Tavern, LLC, since January 2020. The

logical next step was to buy the building too and bring in Hamide.

Spratt is the president of Kirkendoll Management, which owns the Penthouse Club and Lucy’s

Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant downtown. Brown’s a developer with commercial and

residential projects all over town—which includes buying Uptown houses as teardowns (1025

Henry Clay) and “tear-off’s” (1028 Eleonore) for new construction luxury townhouses.

It’s not exactly a pretty fact: college students are the prime source of income for businesses in the

Maple Street neighborhood. But where once Leo Bruno (1910-1972) held court as “father-

confessor to three generations of Tulane students”—at Maple and Hillary Streets, starting in

1933—on that same spot, investor-developers Spratt, Brown, and Hamide will be making a

Maple Mint I from their downtown offices—using the old Bruno brand.

AGAIN, YARD SIGNS

“Stop Turning Our Homes into Dorms” yard signs available for free.

Write to stopd2dinnola@gmail.com to order.

More news at Town of Carrollton Watch!

Please write me at contact@townofcarrolltonwatch.org

Winter Gardening Tips from Ariel Wallick

Happy Carnival! I always love this time of year when the   Japanese magnolias begin to bloom, ushering in Mardi Gras   celebrations. Despite the freeze in December, we’ve had a   pretty mild winter. Really, it has felt like spring for weeks now.   It’s time to get the gardens ready for spring planting. There are   plenty of cold crops you can continue to grow while the mild   winter temperatures sustain. Download the January NOLA planting guide from Anna Timmerman at LSU AG. I’ve recently   sewn lettuce, nasturtiums, arugula, radish, and sunflowers. 

If   you haven’t already, clear out the debris from the winter   freeze. You’ve probably seen dead banana trees around   town. Simply cut them back and they will regrow. The sooner you cut them back the faster they produce, which can take up to a  year. Along with the bananas went the other tropical fruits we’re able to grow most of the year. Papayas are our favorite sweet treat from the garden. They are surprisingly easy to grow. You can buy an organic papaya from the grocery store and start the seeds in pots to transplant, after the last frost. Another tropical you can grow from seeds found in the fruit is passion fruit. Their beautiful flowers are a show stopper, and their fruit are delicious.For more in depth gardening advise you are welcome to reach out to me for a consultation. Happy Planting!

Contact: Arielwallick@gmail.com; (504)228-7892

Housing Developments in Carrollton, by Keith Hardie, Vice President, Maple Area Residents, Inc.

Doubles 2 Dorms

Councilmember Giarrusson’s proposed University Area Off-street Parking Interim Zoning District (IZD), which will require additional parking spaces when developers seek to increase the density of residential structures, was approved by the City Planning Commission. The purpose of Giarrusso’s proposal was to slow the growth of developments known as D2Ds (Doubles to Dormitories), which are replacing housing occupied by long term residents with student rentals going for as much as $ 1750 per month for a single bedroom. The Planning Commission made one change to Giarrusso’s proposal: that the area of the IZD be reduced by moving the borders on the west to Carrollton Avenue and on the north to Claiborne, excluding all neighborhoods on the upriver side of Carrollton, and north of Claiborne, including Riverbend, Hollygrove, Northwest Carrollton, Fountainbleau, Gert Town, and Broadmoor, from the IZD. The proposal now goes back to the Council. Residents of the excluded neighborhoods should contact the Council if they wish to be included in the IZD.

D2D Signs If you would like a “Stop D2Ds” yard sign, send an email to maplearearesidentsinc@gmail.com, give us your address, and we will drop a sign off. The signs are free, but if you want to help us buy more signs, you can make a donation to MARI.

Tulane Proposes Extending Campus Other proposed land use legislation  includes changes to the Future Land Use Map (FLUM). The proposed changes include Tulane’s request to convert several residential properties near the campus to “Institutional” use. See link below. One proposal, for properties on the block bounded by Broadway, Willow, Audubon, and Plum, is reportedly intended for a parking structure and housing for juniors and seniors. (Tulane has declined to confirm or deny that, meaning that they want the City to allow them to change the land use, but won’t reveal exactly what they are thinking about doing with the properties.) Tulane will be required to hold a neighborhood meeting concerning their request. Click here for a map pf the proposed FLUM changes.

Housing Opportunities Study

Finally, the Planning Commission staff is proposing another “Housing Opportunities” study, which will include public meetings. Pay attention to these meetings, as changes to the zoning rules often begin in the Housing Opportunities meetings. One example of a significant change is the “Established Multi-Family” rule that allows a developer to convert a property on a lot zoned single or double family to a four-plex if he can show that the property had four units at any time in the past. As the legislation includes no limitation on the number of bedrooms, an existing single-family property that was a four-plex consisting of four one-bedroom apartments in 1920 could be converted to four four-bedroom apartments today. There are restrictions preventing expansion of the footprint and floor area, but in one case, the rule resulted in a structure on a two family lot with 11 bedrooms expanding to fourteen bedrooms in four units.

Contact Keith at: keithhardie@yahoo.com

The Inner Pup (TIP) works to keep dogs out of shelters. They need our support!

By Leo McGovern, the Inner Pup

Residents of the New Orleans area know a dysfunctional system when they see one. The chaotic nature of life in our city is often obvious to us, whether it's surging utility bills, endless construction, or that one pothole that annoys on a daily basis. There is one endless battle being fought, unseen by the majority of the public-- our animal shelters are full to the brim, bursting at the seams to a point where caravans of former pets are being relocated to other cities where a shelter or rescue is lucky enough to have space available. While shelter employees and their volunteers valiantly go to work every day, The Inner Pup is supporting them by attacking the causes behind pet abandonment. 

The Inner Pup is a New Orleans-based non-profit that is not a rescue but an organization based on prevention, meaning preventing Heartworm infection and preventing the most common reasons dogs from surrendered to shelters. We're a donation-based outfit that operates monthly Heartworm and flea prevention clinics, providing low-income pet owners with low-cost prevention and services. While our clients travel to meet us, we accommodate walk-ups and operate in the neighborhoods that need us the most, frequently appearing in New Orleans East, the Lower 9th Ward, and near Central City, at the Harry Tompson Center.  

TIP helps low-income pet owners maintain their beloved pets by providing low-cost heartworm and flea prevention, as well as treatment programs for those dogs who test positive for heartworms. In addition to our clinics, we have a veterinary assistance grant program that helps with non-emergency pet care, a voucher program for dog training, and a burgeoning education outreach program that visits schools and promotes positive pet ownership and acceptance.  

Our animal shelters were never intended to be used the way they are right now, as indefinite holding pens for discarded pets and rescues. The shelters are meant to reunite stray pets with their owners and take care of dogs and pets that have fallen through the cracks, and while our local shelters are frequently overflowing, their resolve endures despite repeatedly dealing with heartbreaking owner-surrenders. 

The Inner Pup helps well over one hundred dogs every month in the New Orleans area and we're expanding our reach in 2023, and to do that we can use your support! If you'd like to donate to TIP or volunteer your time or services, please reach out through theinnerpup.org. And, this holiday season TIP is running a chocolate cake campaign, where every hundred-dollar cake purchase can receive a specially made flourless chocolate cake made by TIP founder and former longtime caterer, Genie Goldring. All cake proceeds go directly back into The Inner Pup's life-saving programs. More info on the cake campaign can be found at https://tinyurl.com/TIPchocolatecake

 

Frances Swigart

     Frances Swigart is a Carrollton-based, New Orleans born Artist. Her family has been in New Orleans for 4 generations now. Swigart works mainly with the 15th Century craft of printing, which she uses a 100-year old Kelton spider printing press to do.  

     Printing originated via armorsmiths making decorative armor. They discovered that if they covered a piece of copper in wax and then carved a design into it, they could then etch the design into the copper with chemicals. From there, an armorsmith could then cover the etched plate in ink and run it under a printing press to create a portfolio of their designs. After the technique was invented, painters began to use it to mass reproduce paintings. After all this time, the craft really hasn’t changed that much and Swigart uses many of the same techniques as when the craft first originated.  

     Swigart tributes her artistic beginnings to her family, where all the women have been artists. She says that she never “decided to be an artist”, instead she naturally picked up skills from her mother and grandmother. She recalls that she first noticed this back in Kindergarten when she began to draw a sprig of Ivy in class instead of doing schoolwork. Swigart says over time she just gravitated to creating art, particularly with sewing which she learned from her grandmother. Swigart says she even blocked out other hobbies to continue creating art, even asking Santa Claus for art supplies every Christmas. She lists her grandmother as a large influence in her life, teaching her to practice and practice until she had her craft absolutely perfect.   

     It was only when she attended Newcomb College as an art major that she was introduced to printing. She took a printing class that introduced her to the craft with James Steg her freshman year. She immediately loved it, especially the mechanics of how to make the plates work for the outcomes she wanted. It wasn’t until she told her father that printmaking was her medium of choice that she discovered that her grandfather, who died before she was born, was also a printmaker. Unfortunately, none of his work survives to the present day.   

     Growing up, Swigart loved natural objects, especially shells, which she would then make watercolors and sketches of; focusing on making every detail exactly real to life. Sadie Irvine, potter and former manager of the Newcomb Guild, taught Swigart art in High School and further cultivated that love of nature in her. It wasn’t until she was introduced to abstract painting by Ida Kohlmeyer in college that her style began to change. From photo realistic, Swigart would then alternate with incredibly abstract ideas. Now, Swigart says she’s putting everything together, combining the two into her current style. Now, she says, she endeavors to create beautiful art pieces that inspire emotions in others.  

     Swigart says the world around her, including her garden, is a big source of her ideas. New Orleans, a port city awash with multiple cultures and energies, is another wonderful inspiration for her art. The city inspires her to create new images without regard for boundaries.  

     When speaking about her artistic process, Swigart says she likes to go directly to the medium that the final piece will be. She draws the first drawing on the copper plate, etches it, draws it again, and then proofs it. Conducting that process at least 5 times. Interestingly, Swigart says that she’s alway unsatisfied with her first one or two images and it really requires work to make it into something that she enjoys. But she says that she's always confident in herself to eventually achieve that. Contrary to what you might think, Swigart says that etching on copper plates is a very flexible process with what techniques you can use and you can even sand out mistakes. 

     Swigart mainly does monoprints, which means that every piece she prints is different. Even when she prints the same plate, there are always subtle differences caused by the handcrafted process.  

     Out of all the places she’s lived in New Orleans, Swigart says that Carrollton is her favorite, citing the peaceful neighborhood and friendly neighbors. It allows her some independence with an easily reachable social circle. “It’s easy to be home here,” Swigart says about Carrollton. 

 You can find more about on Frances Swigart on her website: https://www.francesswigart.com/