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.

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.

We could have used this whole experience to fundamentally remake the city into one that provides opportunity for its citizens and perhaps create a new prosperous city. We could have used this to create a new New Orleans based upon economic opportunity but instead we are continuing to pursue the same methods that have led to our stagnation and decline.

Economic development sections put low wage tourism first and follows it with the dubious concept of the “cultural economy”. The rest of the chapter seems to be focused almost exclusively on the ‘public private” partnership. It almost ignores our place in the global economy and the benefits that has brought us over the course of our existence.

And all of this is premised upon a dubious new theory that contradicts millennia of observation on the growth and prosperity of cities. The planners brought to the table the idea that a diverse and cosmopolitan population will drive economic development instead of what has actually been the case since the dawn of civilization, that economic development will bring a diverse and cosmopolitan population. We didn’t get built on this swamp because our forefathers came for the culture, they were the culture, they came for the economic opportunity and that’s how real, vibrant cities maintain themselves.  We can’t pretend we can pay people to BE the culture, we have to recognize that we have a culture because people got paid doing other, more productive things.

The one thing this master plan desperately needed to do was to sweep away the 70s CZO that zoned our neighborhood businesses out of existence. The empty storefronts that dot our city are the legacy of a previous plan, more suited to Slidell, that painted on zoning with a paint roller rather than recognizing the diverse land-use mosaic that is our streetscape. This plan pays lip service to opening up these locations to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the city but it should be boldly declaring that these storefronts can be a force in our economic renaissance.

But of course they are being cautious, lest they upset the forces of NO, that are holding this city back economically because it may, possibly, make their lives the slightest bit less comfortable or not cater exclusively to their needs. Well, we have a whole passel of city ordinances to deal with any disturbances and better we use them than foreswearing commercial uses and leaving our city filled with vacant buildings.

In a city that is going broke, the Planning Commission gave themselves another 14 or so district planners. Instead of eliminating the need to “kiss rings”, the so-called Citizen Participation Plan adds another layer of rings to kiss as they empower the most obstructionist elements of our city to stand in the way of new development or request kickbacks from projects.

We have already seen this play out as a neighborhood association already requested a cut of the operating funds of the ill-conceived “Re-inventing the crescent”. Not only unhappy with getting a park that will further erode New Orleans’ raison d’etre they wanted to be paid. And this is a public project. How many developers looking to bring jobs and sales tax revenue will be similarly held up?

The plan is overly protective of the housing for 650,000 plus people that we don’t need and hostile towards the commercial property that we desperately need for the jobs and the sales tax revenue they produce. It has removed most commercial zoning west of the industrial canal unless it is adjacent to a housing project.

There seems to be notion in this town that we can complain about section 8 housing and property taxes and in the same breath stop the businesses that bring jobs and sales tax revenue as if these two aren’t linked. That we can call for more police and better schools without understanding how more and better employment opportunities help both these situations.

At a time when we are struggling to maintain and grow our population we should be making it EASIER for people to rebuild and businesses to open. But instead of a growth plan, this thing focuses on a preservation plan.  But here is the bottom line, without a robust economy there are no resources to preserve anything and without a prosperous population there is no reason to preserve anything.

Throughout the process there have been calls for “input” but when it comes to the actual plan it seems to stick pretty closely to the desire of special interest groups with their obstructionist agenda. So much so, that the Fairgrounds Racetrack isn’t mapped to be commercial, like it should be, but is mapped for doubles, like we need

yet more housing without jobs.

Additionally, have we told the people of Lakeview that a new massive interstate interchange is coming to their

neighborhood or the people of New Orleans East that we don’t really care if they can get to work downtown or the people of the Treme that Claiborne is probably going to be 8 lanes of traffic at highway speeds, if we keep the destruction of I-10 in the plan. The only thing that works in the plan is the new hospitals, which it gives rather tepid support to.

My wish? Send it back to the City Planning Commission with the notation to make the entire plan advisory only. Take the destruction of the I-10 out of the plan. Open up the “Citizens Participation” Groups to all comers and not just members of unelected neighborhood associations. Short of going back to the drawing board to build a plan that embraces progress and puts economic development first, without the fantasy that either preservation or culture is economic development, a plan that opens up the city for development and redevelopment rather than giving into the forces of NO and their desire to hold the city back. We needed to start with the idea that everything not explicitly forbidden is allowed,

rather than the other way around. We need to find ways to say YES. It is the only way for New Orleans to survive and thrive.  Thank you.

Prior to Katrina New Orleans had a housing crisis.

It may not have seemed like a housing crisis but it was. And it all related to our population numbers and our economy.

At the peak of our population we were close to 650,000 people. This was prior to most of New Orleans East being developed. Since those times in the early 1960s we have continually lost population and in the meantime we built probably a third more houses and apartments in the 1970s and 80s.

Add to this a form of housing, the shotgun, that dominates many older neighborhoods, that has proven itself extremely unpopular with a modern American family that wants bedroom doors that close. Finally moving out of a shotgun house was for many lower middle class New Orleans families proof that you could sustain yourself in some fairly comfortable manner.

The rents, pre-Katrina, were fairly cheap and based upon two things:  An owner who didn’t need to pay off a mortgage but didn’t really spend that much on upkeep and tenants who couldn’t afford much working in the low wage, tourism based economy.

The storm, and the subsequent housing shortage in the immediate aftermath, drove up rents, but we also saw wages rise to meet the new financial reality.

Now both wages and rents are falling.

More and more apartment complexes are coming online, many of them financed by disaster recovery funds.  This in turn is driving down rents for the small landlord.

The small landlord, in contrast, has new debt and new and prohibitively expensive insurance. If the rents reach pre-Katrina levels, and in many places they are approaching that, there will be no incentive to maintain these houses.

Meanwhile, the population has not kept pace with the growth in housing and the economy  is failing to produce the jobs for the citizens so that they can afford rent.

The growth in new housing development undercuts the need to save any marginal old houses that dot our city streets with blight.

But, even now we have two city agencies fighting over whether we keep blighted houses or remove them.  The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) has been continually stymied by the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee (NCDC) in demolishing houses.

So, here’s the question? Just when can we get rid of houses that no one wants to live in, that have been empty for years, when it is likely we won’t have a population to fill all of the houses we have unless we significantly remake our economy into one where people have the resources to take on expensive projects like renovations of blighted property?

It’s clear to me that we are going to have to reimagine a New Orleans that perhaps doesn’t have the street density it once had. Or one that mixes new construction and design in with older buildings. But we can look at a block that in the future has 10 stellar houses with side yards rather than 15  half fixed/half blighted houses.

We have to adjust our thinking. Vibrant cities change constantly. But unless we attract more people on the basis of economic development, there will be little reason and fewer resources to address blight by any other mechanism except demolition.

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.

This is just a set, in concise form, of many of the themes, backgrounds, motifs and issues that are going to be central to this forum going forward. I expect that these will change over the course of writing in more detail. And who knows, my mind may change on some of these in the future. But now, just now, these are some of the more important points I’ll be working on with posts here.

- The River. The reason New Orleans is here, the reason our city was built here, and the reason we are still important to the rest of the country is due, primarily, to the river. Forget this and you will suffer for it.

- International Trade. We built a lot of things and grew when trade was central to our life in New Orleans. We began to ignore it and we began our decline.

- Tradition may or may not be a problem. Insularity almost always is.

- Romanticizing New Orleans and thinking that it is so “unique” that it doesn’t need to participate in the U.S. or world economy is one of the most damaging things you can do to the city. The people of New Orleans make it unique and if the people can’t sustain themselves then New Orleans dies as they leave for economic opportunity elsewhere.

- If you think national retail chains and large scale business are somehow incompatible with New Orleans, you haven’t been here long enough.

- Those who complain that they don’t want New Orleans to be like “Houston or Atlanta”  don’t seem to realize 1) Both those cities started out trying to be like New Orleans (in terms of economic primacy) and 2) that a lack of opportunity for our citizens will have them moving to places like Houston or Atlanta.

- Historic preservation is fine in small doses and when completely voluntary. When it becomes compulsory and preservationists become strident it becomes stifling.

- The combination of strident preservationists and an insular ruling class combine to be like a bad jealous lover for the city of New Orleans. They don’t want you to change and they don’t want you to meet anyone new.

- I will struggle to remember that you can get into a lot of trouble speaking in metaphors and similes in New Orleans.

- Neighborhood Organizations can be a double edged sword in a community, providing a method for disseminating crucial information and being a catalyst for positive neighborhood projects but oftentimes being resistant to change, a self appointed cadre of the NIMBY-minded with a reflexive NO towards most new development.

- Basic code enforcement, or rather the lack of it, is impacting economic development.

- In New Orleans, oftentimes, something is restricted so that you can have the privilege of paying to do it or have it done. More regulations generally just mean more opportunity for corruption.

- Almost every new development that has been built in the city in the past 50 years has had a positive impact on the areas around them. In the cases where you think they haven’t you need to perhaps look closer at what is causing the decline.

- Concentrating poverty has failed miserably.

- And to paraphrase Ernie K-Doe. “When you got your money in your pocket, that’s your money.”  That pretty well underscores how important individual economic opportunity is and why we should do the things we need to do to make sure that we build a prosperous city.

So… these are it… mostly, in a couple of bullet points what we will be talking about here.

The proposal- Turn the old New Orleans Charity Hospital into a
biomedical business incubator.

The background – For a decade New Orleans has been looking to promote
the biomedical industry as a growth sector for its economy. As new
facilities for medical services are planned and come online there are
concerns about the disposition of legacy buildings. Amongst these is
the old New Orleans Charity Hospital. Concern about the fate of the
building is affecting discussions about the new modern,
state-of-the-art hospital facilities that are more suitable to the
practice of modern medicine than the Depression era, WPA inspired old
Hospital. This proposal seeks to, at once, provide and answer to that
question AND attract jobs and investment that are sorely needed in an
economically depressed and hurricane recovering New Orleans.

The plan – Use Old Charity Hospitals square footage as research space
for biomedical startups. Give over entire floors or wings to research
on a per square footage basis that starts at a very low cost and over
the course of a set term increases to market rate.

The mechanisms – A possible way this can be approached.

1 – An authority is set up to handle the building and research space
applications.  For sake of this exercise it is called the Old Charity
Biomedical Incubator Authority. (OCBIA)
OCBIA would be responsible for:
-       Basic building maintenance.
-       Processing applications for space
-       Tenant management
-       Building management.
This can be a city-state partnership, a private-state partnership, a
city-private partnership. But whomever the partners were they would be
responsible for restoring basic systems to the Old Charity Building.
The composition of the OCBIA board should be from the research and
financial sectors with a couple seats to represent city and state
interests.

2 – A biomedical start up would apply for space. – There would be a
form that would ask several questions to see if qualifying criteria
were met.
-       Type of research.
-       Committed funding sources. Grants, venture capitalist, private sources,
-       Projected square footage needed both at the beginning and at height
of research. To plan for future expansion of the research project.
-       Demonstration of ability to handle build out expenses and first
years lease payments.

A committee of researchers and financial administrators either would
evaluate the proposal on several criteria.
-       Long term prospects of success.
-       Added value to local economy of successful research.
-       Ability of the management team to see research through to conclusion.
-       Long term viability of the company.

3- Once chosen the start up would be responsible for:
-       The build out of their raw space
-       Lease payments
-       An annual report on progress of their research

The organization handling the process would be responsible for:
-       Providing a basic electric, water and sewerage service as well as
maintaining elevators and common areas.
-       Overseeing the build out of each research space to ensure there
weren’t permanent alterations to the building, or that any permanent
alterations didn’t undermine the building.
-       Managing tenants, contracting for shared services, like waste disposal.
-       Handling disputes between tenants.

4 – The start ups would be housed in the incubator for a set period of time.

After a suitable time, businesses would “graduate” from the incubator
to the local real estate market. This period can be 5 to 10 years.

A condition of participation in the incubator is that upon
graduation they would commit to continue to locate their business in
New Orleans.

The benefits-

New Orleans can be expected to reap several benefits from this proposal
-       Biomedical research jobs at good wages for an educated workforce.
-       The ability to attract and retain a college educated information workers.
-       A revitalized local real estate market for both research space and
market rate housing.
-       Enhanced economic positioning and increased economic diversity.
-       An adaptive reuse project for an outdated building.
-       A new industry built on a foundation of innovation.

Like everyone in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding affected my thinking about my city and my relationship with it.

Prior to the storm I had very little interest in local politics and the policies and personalities which ran the city. I was more focused on national issues.

But you can’t see your city in ruins, your fellow citizens either suffering or running wild in the streets, on national television for a couple of weeks without thinking that we must have been doing something seriously wrong to get us to this point. So, while the levee failures were the engineering failure that wrecked havoc on the physical infrastructure, we had economic and social failures that stretched for years and decades prior that had wrecked havoc on the lives of the citizens..

I started to look at Katrina through the lens of our economic decline and how that played into the problems before, during and after the storm. How lack of economic opportunity left folks vulnerable because they lacked the resources to choose their own path, how the lack of good jobs slowed the recovery and still continues to slow the recovery.

It is a big change for a self-identified “art guy”. I’ve gone from writing screenplays to thinking about zoning policy. The drive towards making up stories has been supplanted by the need to attempt to do the things needed to ensure New Orleans’ economic sustainability. If you had told me 10 years ago I’d be this “pro-development” I would have laughed. But things change and it changes you.

Central to this is the idea that people need jobs, in general, and good jobs, in particular in order to put their lives back together. They need economic opportunity and a good shot at career advancement to meet their obligations to their families and have the resources to enhance their lives and their community. And if they don’t find it in New Orleans they will leave to find it somewhere else.

As a result of this I have become extraordinarily sensitive to anyone who stands in the way of our city’s economic development. It is a “jobs first” outlook. It has made me very sympathetic to those who are bringing jobs to the city and fairly hostile to those attempting to obstruct those who are bringing business and jobs to the city.

Put simply- I will generally support those who are doing something and oppose those who look to stop them. To borrow a baseball rule, the tie goes to the runner.

New Orleans can only survive in a meaningful way if we work diligently to make its economy strong. Not just for its own purpose but because it allows its the city to retain and attract its population, it allows it to access the resources from the nation it needs to protect itself from hazards when it can demonstrate it is economically important to the nation. It allows the citizens to maintain themselves and be in a position to make their own choices.

And this is why I am working towards a future for New Orleans. Not just one that is a whisper or pale reflection of the past, but one that finds us, once again a world economic center.