New Orleans is officially a hipster hot spot | New York Post

New Orleans has long been famous for its centuries-old voodoo culture, historic bed and breakfasts, Cajun food, ghost tours and, of course, Mardi Gras. But now, there’s contemporary Israeli cuisine, locally grown kombucha and a Warby Parker. Arcade Fire is leading parades, and hip hotels like Ace and Virgin are moving in.

The biggest indication of a hipster-focused renaissance is in the Bywater District, a formerly rough neighborhood that’s become the East Village of New Orleans. Joining famed BBQ eatery The Joint and Southern standby Elizabeth’s are sidewalk cafes, yoga studios and trendy restaurants like The Franklin and Red’s Chinese, the latter opened by an alum of Mission Chinese in NYC and San Francisco. A new independent cinema, high-end hotel Stateside and luxury condos are in the works, and the public streetcar system is expanding here by this fall due to demand.

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Still Missing New Orleans | The American Prospect

When Europe lost the home of Mozart to war, America rebuilt it. When the U.S. lost the home of jazz to flood, it sold it to private speculators.

Today, they say, New Orleans is back. Except that it isn’t. The local economy may be humming, but absent are some 100,000 people who fled the city when the storm and its aftermath took everything from them. Many of them descend from families whose presence in the town spanned the ages. Nearly all of them are black.

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Why The Plan To Shrink New Orleans Failed | fivethirtyeight

Canizaro — a big-name real estate developer in town — was due to deliver an official plan for redeveloping New Orleans the next day. But he confessed that he was still struggling with it. The question he asked was simple but profound: Should the authorities rebuild all of New Orleans after the flood? Or should they “shrink the footprint” and declare the lowest-lying areas of the city off-limits, converting large tracts of land into green space?

The “Great Katrina Footprint Debate,” as Tulane University geographer Richard Campanella would dub it, became a long-running public tussle over people’s right to rebuild wherever they wanted, even if that meant they were putting themselves in harm’s way.

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Will The Dew Drop Inn Swing Again? Attempts To Revive New Orleans Hot Spot | NPR

It was known as the "Swankiest Night Spot in the South," one of the most famous clubs in the network of black cabarets known as the "Chitlin' Circuit." During the era of segregation, it was the cultural mecca of black New Orleans, what the Savoy Ballroom was to Harlem. Little Richard, a frequent performer there, even composed a song about the place.

The Dew Drop Inn closed its doors in 1972, after a 34-year run during which it featured some of the greatest R&B and soul artists who ever lived. Now, there's a new effort to rescue and reopen the Dew Drop for a new generation.



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10 years after Katrina, New Orleans' journey toward healing | philly.com

With the Aug. 29 anniversary of the storm looming, the national media will return to the Gulf Coast, attempting to package what's happened there in the last decade into easily digestible articles or broadcasts. That's an impossible task, and because of that I fear too many outlets will take one of the easy outs, using the rising population and tourist figures to tell a simple "New Orleans is back" story. The truth is much more nuanced. It always is.  Natalie Pompilio, a Philadelphia writer, shares her story:

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New Orleanians See Remarkable Progress, A Decade After Hurricane Katrina | NPR

Ten years after floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina breached the levees, inundating and devastating the city, many residents feel the city is making significant headway, according to a new poll by NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which nonetheless reveals deep racial disparities in the recovery.

NPR's David Greene speaks with Liz Hamel, director of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation about the survey findings.

How are people in New Orleans feeling?

On the positive side, we find that most residents say the recovery effort is going in the right direction. A majority now say the city has mostly recovered from the hurricane. And in the years that we've been tracking it, we find big increases in the shares who say there's been progress made on things like repairing the levees, attracting jobs and businesses to New Orleans, and improving access to public transportation.

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NY Times Says Post-Katrina New Orleans Is a Great Place to Eat, Ignores the Plight of Black Families | Atlanta Black Star

As we mark the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, many articles are analyzing what progress has been made in rebuilding New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina resulted in $105 billion in damage, killed 2,000 people and disrupted the lives of many Black families. However, a recent tweet by the New York Times says New Orleans is a better place to eat after the storm.

According to figures from the New Orleans Urban League and the National Urban League, the Black community is worse off 10 years after Katrina.

NOLA.com reveals that, according to the Urban League report, the median income gap between Black and white households in New Orleans has widened by 18 percent from 2005 to 2013. The Urban League also stated that although 59 percent of the population was Black, only 48 percent of Black men were working. The study also found the number of Black children living in poverty had increased from 44 percent in 2005 to 50.5 percent in 2013.

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17 shocking stats that show how the 1 percent have ruined New Orleans | Salon

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, the nation saw tens of thousands of people left behind in New Orleans. Ten years later, it looks like the same people in New Orleans have been left behind again.

The population of New Orleans is noticeably smaller and noticeably whiter. While tens of billions poured into Louisiana, the impact on poor and working people in New Orleans has been minimal. Many of the elderly and the poor, especially poor families with children, never made it back to New Orleans. The poverty rate for children who did made it back remains at disturbingly high pre-Katrina levels, especially for black children. Rents are high and taking a higher percentage of people’s income. The pre-Katrina school system fired all its teachers and professionals and turned itself into the charter experiment capital of the US even while the number of children in public schools has dropped dramatically. Since Katrina, white incomes, which were over twice that of blacks, have risen three times as much as blacks. While not all the numbers below are bad, they do illustrate who has been left behind in the 10 years since Katrina...

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Architect lets history be his guide | The Advocate

When architect Robby Cangelosi faced a tricky problem related to a French Quarter building, he did what he often does: Research the building’s history.

Having nearly 40 years of experience as an architect specializing in the restoration and renovation of historic structures, Cangelosi has an arsenal of resources to draw upon when researching a home’s history.

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In the Lower Ninth Ward, a Fight Over Height | The Atlantic Monthly

New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, one of the poorest and most neglected parts of town, suffered most from Hurricane Katrina. And unlike other neighborhoods, it hasn't seen a post-Katrina renewal bump over the last decade.

Holy Cross is also part of the historic New Orleans high ground known as “the sliver by the river,” the next stop down the Mississippi from the now swank Bywater and Faubourg-Marigny neighborhoods. It's recently gotten the attention of a local developer, Perez Architects, APC. Perez wants to construct a condo and retail development on the 12.5 acres of the old Holy Cross College grounds, hoping to capitalize on the growing appetite for in-town riverfront living. The developer is asking for a zoning variance to allow the construction of nearly 300 apartments in several multi-unit buildings, including two that would be 7 stories tall—higher than the 4 stories permitted under current zoning, although reduced from the initial 13-story proposal. The plan also calls for more than 500 parking spaces...

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Chinese drywall was devastating to non-profit | NBCNews.com

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Welcoming the Dalai Lama to New Orleans, a City Still Rebuilding | Huffington Post

From a talk given at Temple Sinai in New Orleans on May 9, 2013. This is part one in a series.

The Dalai Lama has come to New Orleans. If I were to speak with him, this is what I might say.

Your Holiness, you are coming to New Orleans at a time of some optimism, some hope. Eight years ago, after Katrina, there was some concern we might not survive as a city. Many of us had lost everything, our homes, our community our relatives and friends, and most of all our trust in the large institutions and government we thought should have protected us. The levees broke and so did our hearts, and out in the country there were many dark voices who said we had no right to exist, to continue as a city. We might have lost all faith in each other, but somehow we did not. In the first place, from all over, there was a tremendous outpouring of love and help, of compassion. There was a new influx of young people with energy and hope. We have not exactly triumphed, but we have rebuilt much of our city, our schools...


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Whole Foods calls North Broad Street location 'perfect' | NOLA.com

Mark Dixon, president of the southwest region for Whole Foods Market, said North Broad Street is the perfect location for a new store and hopes to continue expansion in the New Orleans market in the coming years. The national grocery chain announced in February that it will open a new store by December in the former home of Robert's Fresh Market at the intersection of Broad and Bienville streets.

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Past Lives: Historic New Orleans Brewery Hopping Again as Apartments | Curbed NOLA

Photo: Falstaff Apartments and Dorgenois Lofts

New Orleanians probably don't know what a Falstaff beer tastes like, but they know where it was once made. For 60 years, an iconic, 11-story Falstaff sign has topped the brewer's one-time home in the Mid-City area. Now, three decades after Falstaff shuttered its New Orleans operation, the former brewery has helped turn around its depleted surroundings in its new role as residences...

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New Orleans in The Top 12 American Boomtowns | Bloomberg

Photograph by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

The Bloomberg news service has listed New Orleans among its "Top 12 American Boomtowns," citing the city's population recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

"The area is growing as it rebuilds from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," the article says. "Tourism is booming, and the New Orleans area gained more residents than any other in the U.S. from 2007 to 2011. The population rose to 1.2 million in 2012."


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Retail is 'Hot as a Pistol' in New Orleans | My New Orleans

CHERYL GERBER PHOTOGRAPHS

Among the “big deal” announcements are plans by Swedish fashion retailer H&M to open its first Louisiana store soon in the former Hard Rock Cafe space in the French Quarter. The H&M news came shortly before big national shoe retailer DSW Inc. announced the opening of a new store in the Elmwood Shopping Center.

On top of those openings, local shoppers soon will have access to one of the country’s biggest retailers when Costco Wholesale Corp., whose annual sales top $60 billion worldwide, opens at the site of the former Carrollton Shopping Center this fall.


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New Orleans' World Trade Center: Demolish or renovate? Developers offer differing ideas | NOLA.com

Developers and local tourism leaders have proposed varying
ideas for what should be done with the defunct World Trade Center
 building on the New Orleans riverfront. (Architects' renderings)

Two largely out-of-town development teams would like to renovate the vacant World Trade Center office tower at the foot of Canal Street for use as a hotel and other purposes. On the other hand, a broad-based coalition of New Orleans tourism leaders wants to demolish the 33-story building built in the 1960s and replace it with a new "iconic" structure as part of a sweeping redevelopment of much of the city's east bank riverfront -- but what that new structure might be remains a question...

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Gentrification flap rooted in an older debate over New Orleans ‘exceptionalism’ | The Lens

Skooksie/flickr

The rapid demographic changes in some of New Orleans’ older neighborhoods  have sparked consternation among locals as well as professional observers of the city. The firestorm over Richard Campanella’s article on gentrification is only the most recent flashpoint. Is what’s happening in places like Bywater best thought of as a renaissance or mere gentrification? And is there a difference?

As always, word choice is the lifeblood of any good dustup in the public square, and there are certainly other ways to frame the current debate. One of them, dating at least to 1803 and thus as old as Louisiana itself, pits New Orleans “exceptionalism” against “Americanism” as a model for progress.


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Iberville redevelopment threatens St. Louis cemeteries, preservationists contend | NOLA.com

At some point in late October, a large segment of the back wall of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 collapsed. Nearby residents took notice, but for the majority of the city it was a non-event. The Archdiocese of New Orleans quickly repaired the damage, replacing the historic red bricks with a cement floodwall, and tours of the city of the dead marched forward as scheduled.

The cemeteries now face what could be their greatest threat as the Housing Authority of New Orleans moves closer toward the redevelopment of the Iberville housing complex, which flanks both graveyards...

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Circle Food Store begins renovations | WWL

The post-Katrina flood swept into Circle Food 5 feet deep, and new owner Dwayne Boudreau spent years lining up the $8 million needed to repair the store and reopen it. "Basically, we're gonna try to bring back the things we had before,” Boudreau said. “The fresh fruits and vegetables."

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, "And if you asked people about how's your Momma and 'Nem, and where y'all make groceries at, everybody would say I'll see you down at Circle Foods."
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