Claiborne Avenue Opportunities and Challenges

Reasons for Decline.

HANO mis-management

The primary cause of the economic decline of Claiborne Ave, north and south, is the same primary cause of many of the distressed neighborhoods in the city: Proximity to or being located between large scale, HANO run housing projects. Decades of HANO mismanagement, coupled with the City’s lack of interest in economic development that leads to jobs for its citizens that would move them out of subsidized housing and into the housing market has lead to precipitous decline in neighborhoods adjacent to HANO housing projects. This has played itself out on Jackson Ave, St. Bernard Ave, Orleans Ave, Basin Street and is the primary cause of the decline on both N. Claiborne, flanked as it is by the Lafitte and Iberville projects and S. Claiborne, sandwiched between the Magnolia and Calliope. Simply put, concentrating poverty and putting large communities of people without resources together has a tendency to suck the economic life out of an area.

Failure to incorporate interstate into land use plans.

Another missed opportunity was the failure to incorporate I-10 into longer term land use plans. We should have encouraged larger, private commercial development near the on and off ramps, using those exits as destinations and thereby encouraging much needed commercial development in the city, thereby capturing the jobs and tax revenue we’ve let escape to neighboring parishes.

Ways to enhance N. Claiborne

Markets

One of the ways we can bring economic life into the community adjacent to N. Claiborne is by using the shade and shelter provided by the elevated I-10 as an open air market from Orleans to St. Bernard, along the lines of the Portabello Road Market in London which sits under the freeway. Using the space under the bridge, lighting it attractively, providing  some soft material overhang to dampen highway traffic noise and setting up a system of market stalls along with a couple of permanent performance stages for local musicians. This area can be a focus of community activity, providing as it does, ample parking and a large swath of land for expansion.

Bus Transfer Station

The area under I-10 at Canal should be used for a Bus Transfer station. Move all of the current bus route termination points from their current locations at Canal & Rampart, Canal & Basin and Tulane & Loyola and centralize them to a Bus transfer station at Canal & Claiborne. Light it attractively, use soft awnings to minimize highway noise, fence the area to provide security, provide security, a driver break room & a small kiosk for the sale of magazines and cold drinks.

Larger commercial development

Rewrite zoning code to provide for opportunities for larger commercial development. Encourage retailers to locate there and make it easier to remove blighted buildings. Also make it easier to combine lots on adjacent streets so that larger parcels can be developed.

Ways to enhance S. Claiborne

Larger commercial development

Rewrite zoning code to provide for opportunities for larger commercial development. Encourage retailers to locate there and make it easier to remove blighted buildings. Also make it easier to combine lots on adjacent streets so that larger parcels can be developed.

Provide turning lanes

One of the major issues with S. Claiborne is traffic flow. Some of this could be mitigated by providing turning lanes, cut from the neutral ground that takes folks making left hand turns out of the flow of traffic. Also, reworking the overpass from the Northeast so that there are ramps to Earhart.

What removal of elevated I-10 means to the City at large.

Endless Gridlock on the Pontchartrain Expressway

The Pontchartrain Expressway to and from the west already carries close to 200,000 cars a day. At peak rush hours traffic will stack up back across the Crescent City Connection. Adding Eastbound I-10 traffic to that will likely increase it to a breaking point. And the Pontchartrain Expressway is prone to flooding at the railroad underpass.

Massive new interchange in Lakeview

As there isn’t currently a way to get from Westbound I-10 off the Pontchartrain Expressway to Eastbound 610 a massive new interchange will have to be built. Any discussion of removal of I-10 over Claiborne should include stakeholders in Lakeview.

Removing access to downtown hospitals.

We are in the process of building two brand new hospitals downtown, one of which will likely house our city’s trauma center. Currently they will sit next to the interstate which will provide speedy access from most parts of the city. Much of the city will be cut off from easy access to the new hospitals if we remove the interstate.

Endymion Saturday, Crescent City Classic, Rock And Roll Marathon.

I-10 provides a flyover of Canal Street and joins Uptown with Downtown when Endymion rolls on Saturday or any time Canal or Esplanade is blocked by a special event, such as parade or race.

Increased ground level traffic on Claiborne, Broad & Elysian Fields

With the I-10 handling over 100,000 cars a day, if a significant number of those are folks from points east looking to access downtown they will likely take Claiborne, Broad (Hwy 90) and Elysian Fields. Broad is currently very congested. Elysian Fields also is very busy at rush hours. And any extra traffic on surface level N. Claiborne is likely to make that street difficult to cross without a street light.

Increased congestion on Rampart and Canal and the CCC approaches.

As more traffic would be shifted to ground level more congestion would likely accumulate on Canal and Rampart. Also more congestion and traffic would be seen on Loyola, Carondelet and Tchoupitoulas exits of the CCC approach (Hwy 90) and these are exits that currently back up on to bridge approach most mornings.

Our transportation legacy and capacity

Given that a major part of our legacy, and hopefully our future, is with the transportation sector it seems hostile to our capacity and legacy and future to look to reduce our transportation links. We should look for ways to increase our capacity so that we can promote growth in the transportation sector, a key sector of our economy.

The future I-49

Hopefully, when I-49 is completed and can meet up with I-10 at the Superdome, it will provide a signature crossroads that we can all be proud of.

Unbuilding New Orleans East

Considering that the main effect of removal of I-10 would be to cut off New Orleans East from convenient downtown access, any and all discussions should involve New Orleans East. Actually, given that this road is used by the entire city, this discussion should be brought to the entire city.

Removal of roadway above flooding in a city where street flooding is an issue

Having gone through a host of planning where “storm-proofing” infrastructure was a major topic, it seems particularly foolish to consider removing a roadway always above base flood elevation and that provides a “dry” way out of a city that frequently floods from rain storms. The I-10 to the CCC (Hwy 90 ) provided a way out for many in downtown neighborhoods during Katrina. And this is particularly important as both I-10 West is prone to flooding at the railroad underpass, 610 isn’t raised along its entire length and I-10 East is prone to flooding by offshore winds from the East pushing water in the Bayou Sauvage area.

A personal tale

On May 8^th 1995, I was living in the Bayou St. John area, but when the skies opened up I was downtown rehearsing a production of Richard III. As the water rose in the Warehouse district and flooded the arts space, I had moved my truck to the sidewalk. After considering all routes I eventually found my way to the interstate. As I knew many of the low lying areas that stood in my path to home and receiving reports about flooding on Canal, Broad, parts of the French Quarter and other surface streets, and knowing that Esplanade was a ridge, I made my way up the elevated expressway and exited at Esplanade, encountering water at the bottom of the ramp but dry street once I got to the intersection with Esplanade. I drove up Esplanade to the Bayou, turned left, drove along the bayou until I got near my street. I waded home the block and a half, which was a lot closer than the miles I would have had to wade if the elevated I-10 hadn’t been there. It seems foolish to remove an elevated expressway that could be a conduit for first responders and a lifeline to the residents in a city that is prone to flooding during a strong spring rainstorm.

Suspicious Minds

Folks who have followed the “planning” attempts and processes have watched as certain ideas seem to gain currency, regardless of how unpopular they are, things like the “green dots” and other ideas for reducing our city’s capacity and population, while common sense ideas about growth have been ignored,  have made most folks suspicious of “planning” and “planners”

“New Urbanist” fashion.

Given that much of this mania to tear down the elevated expressway seems to be part and parcel of the “New Urbanist” fashion that is au currant in city planning it seems inadvisable to take a major step in reducing the capacity of our road system just because it falls in line with these “new urbanist” ideas that consistently ignore the actual urban reality of the city.

The Chief proponent.

Anyone who has followed the history of building roads in New Orleans, or almost any new project in New Orleans, finds that the chief opponent of moving the city towards a modern, robust, repopulated city is the chief proponent of removing the elevated I-10.

The preservationist mythology.

Much of the discussion surrounding this project has centered around the notion that if we make it difficult to access downtown then people will want to move downtown. This ignores the fact that much of the housing stock that makes up the area surrounding N. Claiborne and the elevated roadway is antiquated and of the type that modern New Orleans families have rejected for decades. Many of the preservationist proponents are dismissive of the needs of middle class families and hold out hope that those families are miraculously going to give up suburban living and bedroom doors that close to return to shotgun house living if we can just keep them from getting to their jobs. This attitude and the plans to remove the expressway impact significantly the middle class families of New Orleans East, families we should be working diligently to keep and whose lives we should be making more convenient.

Dave Dixon’s appearance does nothing to quell unease that “fix is in” on this study.

Since removal of the expressway ended up remaining in the city’s “Master Plan” despite vigourous protest, and given that Dave Dixon, who worked on the “master plan” for GoodyClancy seems to be involved in this effort, it give the appearance that “the fix is in” and that anything that comes out of this process is going to recommend removal regardless of what the real findings and concerns are. Many of us are remaining engaged despite this because these plans that continuously reduce our city’s capacity and undercut its ability to grow to the future are disturbing to those of us who feel that we need a strong city with increased capacity and focused primarily on growth.

And finally….

There are no magic oak trees. If oak trees made a street magic, Louisiana Ave would be a showplace, Washington Ave wouldn’t be depressed. We can’t make decisions about the future of New Orleans and whether it can be strong and grow based upon nostalgia for long-gone oak trees.

The full extent of the disastrous ‘Master Plan’ vote from 2008 is finally coming into focus. The latest poison pill to growth in New Orleans is the ‘Neighborhood Participation Plan’, which was inserted into the authorizing ‘Master Plan’ amendment. This will come as little surprise to anyone who has followed land use and planning issues, as the chief proponent and architect of the dubious notion of a ‘master plan with the force of law’ has been against EVERY new development and any change in this city for decades.

But now we are faced with a so-called “Neighborhood Participation Plan” which threatens to derail any and every new development requiring any sort of variance or zoning change. It adds time and expense and more uncertainty to almost every application to the City Planning Commission.

You can check it out here (this should pop open a PDF)

The draft of the “Neighborhood Participation Plan” includes:

- A “pre-application” process which extends the timeline for consideration indefinitely.

- A requirement that most zoning changes and some basic variances go through their own specific ill-defined “Neighborhood Participation Plan” that the applicant is expected to pay for and administrate.

- A requirement that the applicant must present, as part of their application, once it finally gets out of the ‘pre-application period, all of opposition and concerns to their application.

- Once the  application  is submitted it can be subject to endless public hearing requirements.

- It writes in special treatment for neighborhood associations which, traditionally, have been more opposed to new development and zoning changes than the public at large.

What it excludes is any protections against groups or individuals attempting to extort concessions that don’t touch specifically on the parcel in the application.

This new method of delaying zoning change requests indefinitely  will politicize to an even greater extent an already opaque, convoluted and onerous process. It will lead to needing your neighbor’s permission to use your property as you see fit. It will add an infinite amount of new rings to kiss. Watch for established businesses to manipulate the process to keep out competition.

All of this is against a background of a wholly inadequate zoning code that doesn’t provide flexibility for property owners and makes conditional uses and zoning changes necessary by failing to plan for the obvious notion that narrowly written criteria will exclude the great bulk of what people actually want to do with their property. But it is naturally New Orleans that the rules are put in place so that we can have the privilege of paying to have them relaxed.

So how we fix this, short of doing the smart thing and throwing the whole thing out and starting all over again?

- Remove the pre-application process and requirement.

- If there is a Project Neighborhood Participation Plan to be required, and why would there be, but if there is, it should be paid for and administered by the Planning Commission Office, using the District Planners. And it should be done within the application timetable.

-There should be no increase in fees associated with this Plan, instead it should come from the city’s general fund. It is not the fault of the applicant that the code didn’t take into account their plans.

- If neighborhood associations want special access to the process there should be fees for that special access.

- Remove the provision in the flow chart where an application can be subject to endless public hearings.

We have done enough in New Orleans to empower the endless opposition to growth and development. We are struggling as a city because of it. If we can’t remove this “Neighborhood Participation Plan” at least we can find ways to make it less destructive to the future of New Orleans.

The New Orleans “Master Plan” http://nolamasterplan.com/ was passed by a slim margin of voters to much ballyhoo by its supporters and a good deal of suspicion and skepticism by those of us who questioned the wisdom of giving a plan the force of law prior to any plan being drafted. When proponents trumpeted its ability to ensure “neighborhood input” in stopping development many of us just saw it has a way to empower the perpetual opposition that crops up with EVERY proposal. The bone they threw to people who want much needed development to come to New Orleans is that, for a project that met all the myriad of criteria, it would add more “certainty” to being able to develop.

That was a lie.

We were told it was going to bring a set of rules “unaffected by politics”. What we got was the empowerment of NIMBYs to stop everything anybody wants to build.

The latest case is Tulane’s new proposed stadium. You can read about it here.

The short story is: Tulane wants to build a stadium they can build under the current zoning rules. A dozen NIMBYs get up in arms. They appeal to a councilwoman, who made her ‘bona fides’ as a NIMBY, who is convinced that issues that can be handled simply with municipal code enforcement need to be handled with land use regulation. The councilwoman proposes an “interim Zoning District”(IZD) to throw sand in the works of Tulane developing a stadium despite overwhelming support for the stadium, protesting all the time that she doesn’t want to “impede progress”. Three other pandering councilwomen join in and the IZD passes.

And they use the “master plan”, which they tell us is supposed to add “certainty” to the land use process, to justify it.

What is clear is that the only way the “master plan” will be used is to guarantee the “certainty” that nothing can ever be built without either kissing the rings of self appointed neighborhood poo-bahs or paying off council people to ignore the perpetual opposition to change.

The post “master plan” world is one in which a project that wasn’t envisioned by the people putting together the plan, who made no secret they were under the influence of preservationists and other anti-development groups, will require a year of meetings, hearings and thousands of dollars in fees. But a handful of NIMBYs can stop a project that is ALLOWED by the plan just by whining to a sympathetic pandering councilwoman. A post “master plan” New Orleans is one in which NOTHING ever gets built again unless there is NO ONE who objects.  This is an impossible standard in a city where a debate on an issue between 3 people can bring 5 different opinions.

What we have now is a system where the opposition, the forces of NO, are always given deference and that will lead to a New Orleans where nothing can ever grow again.

One of the most beloved aspects of the “New Orleans Culture” is its embrace of music. Unfortunately for decades New Orleans zoning code was hostile to live music in the city. The only place that live music was a “Permitted” use under the zoning code was Bourbon Street, initially, and then Frenchman Street additionally. Outside of these two entertainment zones, live music was either “conditional” or not allowed.

The City of New Orleans is now rewriting its zoning code and we have the opportunity to expand & protect live music and the venues that host it.

Well, this a moment of opportunity. If you want to see Live Music thrive and grow in New Orleans you need to send in a note to the City Planning Commission.

A couple of key points to hit in your comments would be.

- A desire that live music be a “permitted” use in Commercial, Mixed Use & Neighborhood Business zoning categories provided the venue can operate within the municipal code’s sound ordinance.

- That live music is an integral part of the New Orleans economy as expressed through the “cultural economy” sections of the Master Plan.  And that not allowing live music to play a larger role in neighborhood economies is contrary to  the ‘spirit’ of the City’s master plan.

Public comments may be emailed to the CPC office at cpcinfo@nola.gov. Please type “CZO Draft” into the subject line.

The folks looking to shut down live music venues are already organized. New Orleans if full of NIMBYs looking to shut down anything they can’t specifically control or doesn’t specifically meet their needs. We have an opportunity to get live music as a permitted use enshrined in the zoning code if we act now.

Dear New New Orleans Resident,

We need to talk.

I am often treated by folks who just moved here about how New Orleans is so unique. I get to hear all about how New Orleans is the most European or the most Caribbean city. Some folks from elsewhere in America will exclaim to me, breathlessly, that “it’s not like being in America at all.”

But see, here’s the thing. It is like being in America. Our America. Our America is like most of the country in many ways and different in many ways. But this is the thing, it is still our America. Of course we have a lot of people who think there is some sort of homogeneous “American” experience, but of course that is a very narrow appreciation of the country and it’s basic diversity. The farm life in Kansas is very different than life in a New York City borough. There is a world of difference between the daily experience of someone in the Florida Panhandle and  streets of Chicago.  There are many Americas in this country. And even if there are things that are common to most of us it is very superficial to look at this as one culture.

And so we need to talk to you  about our America because there are things you need to know.

The big differences are the easiest. Mardi Gras is a given but everyone in New Orleans has their own Mardi Gras. It might be old line krewe, or masking Indian, or truck float riding, or French Quarter rambling, or escaping to the ski slopes. Every family has at least one local culinary specialty that they take some sort of pride in: red beans and rice, crawfish boil, gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee. In addition to that they have one family food specialty that reflects their own personal history; lasagna or meatballs, stuffed cabbage, mole.

We are not hung up on drinking. We are gamblers, as you would expect folks who lived in such a precarious place would be. We like our bargains. Before the collapse of our retail sector we shopped at both local and national chains. We have things that we will only buy from one specific store but for most purchases the bargain trumps any notions of loyalty.

We have watched for a long time the decline of our city as places like Houston took our jobs and Atlanta took our people. We recognize the folks in Metairie and St. Bernard and on the Westbank as our folks, even if we wonder why anyone would move to the country, by which we mean, the Northshore.

We are social people. As evidenced by the story a fire chief in Maryland who worked after the storm told me about people he came to rescue inviting him in for a drink.

But still, this is our America. It may have been different than the America you grew up in but it is still America. And as it is America, it still has all the need for things that the rest of America needs: good jobs, a stable population that can support themselves economically, a desire to progress and grow so that their people can maintain themselves. Well, the basic things that every thriving city all around the world needs.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that New Orleans is so “unique” that we can afford to ignore the basics of modern life, to do so suggests that it’s best days are in the past and it has no future outside that of a museum and a playground. New Orleans is better than that.

Our America depends on being able to grow and have a future.

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, the levee failures and the subsequent flooding there was lots of talk amoungst the uneducated about abandoning New Orleans and not rebuilding. Unfortunately for the city one of these fools was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert.

Smarter people prevailed, but the persistent notion of not rebuilding found its way into conversations that continued into 2006. The Bring New Orleans Back Committee (BNOB) in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute floated this idea and it proved to be some of the most contentious meetings in the post-Katrina landscape. 2006 was simply too early to discuss the viability of neighborhoods.  This conversation needs to happen now, but that is a whole ‘nother topic.

I feel that the infamous “Green Dot” debate stalled the impetus towards recovery in many of our neighborhoods. And it also gave rise to the premise of New Orleans as a “boutique city”.

The “Boutique City” was the idea that New Orleans was going to have fewer people and be happy about it. That those fewer people would be richer, probably, and therefore, theoretically shop at boutiques.

The concept of the “boutique city” and the fight against the concept, probably led in part to Ray Nagin’s infamous and divisive  “Chocolate City” remarks. Ironic, since it was his BNOB committee that pushed the concept forward and gave it its audience.

Well, the “boutique city” is a mistake.

It ignores the geographic strength of our location and exchanges it for the concept that we can live on our “charm”.  It is a concept that says not only will New Orleans not work to it’s potential but will deliberately short circuit progress to ensure that it is unable to thrive.

It is a failed vision, and unfortunately it is something we have been heading towards with each development that puts parks over productivity, quaintness over commerce, preservation over progress.

We should aim for a city that has a million hard working people all with good jobs. A city that attracts people on the basis of economic opportunity and holds onto its college graduates. A city that uses it’s geographic advantage astride the Mississippi River to create the growth necessary to sustain the city and its institutions.

Cause here’s the story. The investments necessary to protect New Orleans from the hazards of water are so costly that they will only be feasible if there are good financial reasons to do it. Being a major port with a population that has great jobs that is a vital player in the national and global economy is a good financial reason. Spending that money to protect a bunch of old buildings and unproductive folks either living on government assistance or on the money of their great-grandfather’s labor, is not a good financial reason.

Put simply: The “Boutique City”, in addition to being an enourmous waste of our city’s potential, will surely fail to be able to protect itself because the resources will not be allocated simply because we are striving to make ourselves “quaint” and “charming”.

The “Boutique City” pretty much guarantees we end up the next Atlantis. Growth and demonstrated financial strength and a critical and vital population means that we can live on perpetually.