The Garden District Association Blog

Hurricane Preparedness

From the Garden District Security District:

Now that hurricane season is here again, we can assure you that your neighborhood security is ready and able to handle emergency situations that may arise due to a hurricane or major flooding. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions from our security provider, New Orleans Private Patrol:

Will the patrol remain in the neighborhood during a hurricane? The GDSD/ NOPP officers will remain on patrol during a Category 1 or 2 hurricane or a tropical storm as long as it is reasonably safe for the officers to be in the area. The severity of the storm may dictate that they take cover for the hardest hit hours before regaining their post. In the case of a Category 3 or above, the officers will be directed by their supervisors to secure the area as best as possible, take cover in local NOPP shelters or evacuate to the Baton Rouge office, then return to their posts as soon as it is safe to patrol.

GDSD patrol officers will only leave the city during a mandatory evacuation and will return to patrol as soon as city/state authorities permit patrol companies to enter. NOPP now has satellite offices in Baton Rouge and housing available for their staff if New Orleans locations are not accessible or safe new tanker vehicles which can provide gasoline for the patrol cars if local gas stations are not operable. Larger rough terrain, high water vehicles have been purchased and will be used for access to flooded or hard to reach areas if necessary. If the city receives a mandatory evacuation order, the patrol must comply, but will return as soon as possible.

How will I know what is going on in my neighborhood while I am evacuated? If you supply us with your email address now, you will receive periodic email updates from the us and /or the patrol about the neighborhood, including the status of utilities, streetlights, security, etc. as often as communications permit.

What kind of phone or radio communication will be available if utilities are down? NOPP/GDSD has set up duplicative systems for computer, phone and radio systems that can operate from other states if the local communications systems are inoperable. This new system will be activated within minutes to avoid interruption of service. For your own home, you may want to install what has been referred to as a ‘princess’ phone, the old fashioned corded phone. Many land lines still worked during Katrina, but because the electricity was out in many areas, those with cordless phones were out of luck, while many with stationary phones were able to dial out and receive calls.

FYI: NOLA Ready Alert System
The City of New Orleans has also set up the NOLA Ready Alert System, which is a new high-tech emergency text and voice notification system. This emergency alert system, will send real-time emergency information that may include rain storms, evacuations, threatening levee breaches, loss of power and communication disruptions to first responders, emergency managers, business owners, tourists and registered residents. The messages will be sent via email, cell phones, pagers, Blackberry’s and Treo’s. To register for NOLA Ready all citizens can log onto the website at www.nolaready.info

The GDSD Security Patrol is available for your use 24 hours per day.
Call 899-4373(GDSD) or 525-7111.
If you have any concerns, please call our administrative office at 525-7911.

STAY IN THE LOOP DURING AN EVACUATION
Send an email with your name and address to
gardendistrictno@bellsouth.net
to join our email list for periodic neighborhood announcements
Visit the GDSD website at www.gdsdpatrol.org

UNOP Info to Date

Dear Neighbors,

Thank you for trying out this new online tool and for your recent comments. Please keep in mind that this blog is your place to share ideas specifically about the planning process. Your comments on planning issues will be compiled and submitted to our planners.

Some of you submitted questions about what we can expect in the United New Orleans Planning process. Below is some general information about our participation in UNOP , however, please keep in mind that ALL neighborhoods have been given only limited instruction about the procedure and timeline of this citywide project.

Your GDA planning committee members have attended city-wide, district-wide and group meetings about the UNOP process and proposed results of the city-wide plan and potential project funding. The Garden District has joined with other "riverside of St. Charles" neighborhoods like Lower Garden District, Touro Bouligny, Irish Channel, Faubourg Marengo, Faubourg Delachiase and others to form one group for planning purposes. We did this because we share the corridors of activity along St. Charles, Magazine and Tchoupitoulas streets, and the blessing of being spared the experience of the devastating floodwaters of last year. The online voting in August for planners resulted in the election of H3 Studio of St. Louis as our District 2 Planner and Goody Clancy as our Neighborhood Planner. Local planners David Wagner and Mac Ball will be working closely with them. All neighborhood plans must be submitted to the City-wide team in November. In the meantime, we will be calling neighborhood meetings to gather your comments and thoughts, as well as compiling your blog comments. Once all neighborhood plans have been completed, the UNOP plan will be submitted to the City Planning Commission, the City Council, the Mayor’s Office and then onto the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA). The LRA will then use this plan to guide the investment of federal funds to begin the strategic rebuilding of communities in Orleans Parish.

On behalf of the GDA Planning Committee, and the Executive Committee of the GDA Board of Directors, thank you for your time and participation in this process.

Feel free to visit the UNOP website at www.unifiedneworleansplan.com for more information.

Evacuation Info

We will use this blog to post important neighborhood information during an evacuation. There is no pertinent evacuation info at this time.

Neighborhood Planning SWOT

The first public United New Orleans Plan meeting for the Garden District was held on September 7, 2006 at the Rink. The purpose of this first meeting was to establish a SWOT analysis, aka, Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. Below are the points gathered from that meeting. If you have any other suggestions to add to this list, please post a comment by clicking the "Comment" button below, or email GDA Executive Director Shelley Landrieu at gardendistrictno@bellsouth.net

STRENGTHS
➢ Historic architecture, streetscape
➢ Tree canopy, gardens
➢ High elevation
➢ Walkable “European” style neighborhood with positive commercial entities
➢ Security taxing district with private patrol
➢ Proximity to downtown
➢ National Historic District
➢ On Mardi Gras parade route
➢ Strong sense of community, strong neighborhood association
➢ Mixed demographics (families, students, retired people, young professionals, etc.)
➢ Relatively quiet
➢ Public Transportation - Magazine St. bus and St. Charles streetcar access
➢ Affluent homeowners
➢ Network of churches and schools
➢ Mixed housing types (large and small singles, doubles, 4plexes, condos, apts)
➢ Proximity to Hospital and Fire Dept.
➢ Five-star restaurant in heart of neighborhood
➢ Historic cemetery
➢ Walking tours, tourism
➢ Film industry interest in neighborhood
➢ Attractive to national and international luxury home buyers
➢ Good scale and density of buildings
➢ Relatively low crime rate

WEAKNESSES
➢ Above ground utilities – practically and esthetically
➢ Poorly repaired potholes, cracked sidewalks
➢ Limited line of sight at intersections causes dangerous traffic
➢ Too much on-street parking
➢ High speed traffic on major thoroughfares
➢ Low water pressure, old sewer lines, water leaks
➢ Clogged drainage causes street flooding in certain areas
➢ 1xweek garbage pickup
➢ need for stronger voice in City Hall
➢ late bar hours on Magazine Street
➢ no public trash cans (pet droppings everywhere)
➢ not enough street lighting at night
➢ no public mailboxes on the street
➢ surrounded by areas of high crime
➢ loss of 100+ old oak trees
➢ termites
➢ buckmoths
➢ no child-friendly greenspace
➢ “unfair” tax assessments
➢ weak zoning laws
➢ need Local Historic District status
➢ bottle-necking on Washington Avenue
➢ need for cross-walks on Magazine Street
➢ narrow 2-way streets in some areas
➢ damaged street signs and historic street tiles
➢ St. Patricks Day parade route “boxes in” neighborhood
➢ Large delivery trucks (mostly for A&P grocery) knocking historic trees and causing traffic jams

OPPORTUNITIES
➢ Montero Park renovation
➢ Our Lady of Good Council redevelopment
➢ Redevelopment/rezoning of area around Louisiana Ave. and Magazine Street corner
➢ Better City Council representative – Stacy Head
➢ Crosswalks or some more pedestrian friendly solution to Magazine
➢ Cutouts in sidewalks for strollers
➢ Bultman Funeral home property for sale/redevelopment (LA & St. Charles Avenues)
➢ Exxon Station property (LA & St. Charles Avenues)
➢ Political clout for historic district
➢ Local Historic District Designation
➢ Help neighboring areas help themselves, show good example for planning
➢ Community Development Corp (Janet Howard comment)

THREATS
➢ expansion of condo conversions in doubles, 4-plexes, etc. that may not have strong condo associations/condo docs
➢ falling trees
➢ falling power lines
➢ blight and crime in surrounding areas such as Central City
➢ weak zoning enforcement by City Council
➢ uncontrolled commercial influx, overdevelopment of Magazine Street
➢ Walmart traffic
➢ Increase in # of rental units -> parking problem
➢ Demolition by neglect (ex. Josephine & Prytania church)
➢ Potential falling real estate values
➢ Old utilities overloaded
➢ Strength of levees at river???
➢ Too many assessors
➢ Cost of insurance determined by zip code – unfair because some flooding in our zip codes outside of our area
➢ Lack of public psych care in the city – more crime
➢ Losing businesses
➢ Uncontrolled new construction and demolition
➢ Late bar hours on Magazine Street
➢ TIF’s
➢ Moving vans knocking old oak trees

Welcome!

What do you think of the Garden District Association Blog?
This blog will be used for emergency communications during evacuations. Be sure to save the link to our homepage, www.gardendistrictassociation.org, so that you can access it for important neighborhood information during an evacuation. We will also use this blog for sharing comments about neighborhood planning efforts as part of the Unified New Orleans Plan. Feel free to post comments or questions by clicking "Comments" below. You may want to try out the system to get used to how it works. If you have any questions, please call the GDA office at (504) 525-7608. Thanks for visiting!