tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132056322024-03-13T16:52:11.045-05:00Hurricane Radio"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning."
<em>-Frederick Douglass</em>Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-25610678328794034192020-07-02T08:38:00.000-05:002020-07-02T08:38:07.549-05:00July 2020 UpdateThanks to <a href="http://antigravitymagazine.com/">Antigravity Magazine</a> & their voter guide team for reminding me I need to check back in on my blog. It has been a minute since I've been able to sit down and write out some of the rambling, too much information posts you've come to love over the years, mainly because I've been putting my work up in other places. Twitter posts are a hell of a lot easier to think about & write than 3-7 page deep dives into New Orleans Master Plan amendments.<br />
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One other thing is that the folks at NOLA Messenger are kind enough to publish my op-eds on their site from time to time. I feel like I've got far better writing over there than I have on this site. Here's a few:<br /><br /><a href="http://gentillymessenger.com/viewpoint-sanitation-workers-are-essential/">Sanitation Workers are Essential, Gentilly Messenger 5/27/2020</a><br />
There's a strike going on in New Orleans, and for some reason City contractors being paid with our tax dollars can bring in coerced prison labor instead of negotiate with workers.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2019/07/08/patrick-armstrong-now-is-our-chance-to-help-shape-the-regions-public-transit/">Shape the Region's Public Transit, Mid-City Messenger 7/8/2019</a><br />
The New Links public input process was important to shaping the transit future of Metro New Orlenas, because it was one of the only official avenues to talk about transit with decision makers. Better to get in on the front end and make your voice heard than find out about changes in the news, like the proposed changes to the Canal Streetcar that caught everyone in Mid-City by surprise.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2018/03/20/patrick-armstrong-state-of-surveillance/">State of Surveillance, Mid-City Messenger 3/20/2018</a><br />
New Orleans spent $40,000,000 on surveillance cameras in crime hot-spots, but the closest one to where I used to live in Mid-City was over the Juan's Flying Burrito parking lot. I named it "Margari2D2" because that's how my mind works.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/07/19/patrick-armstrong-questions-for-candidates-volume-2-public-safety-number-one/">Public Safety Questions for Candidates, Mid-City Messenger 7/19/2017</a><br />
Here are questions about police & criminal system reform I encouraged people to ask of their municipal candidates for office back in 2017. That was 3 years ago. Every one of those questions could be asked again today with some light copy editing.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/06/13/patrick-armstrong-questions-for-candidates-volume-1-the-rent-is-too-damn-high/">Housing & Development Questions for Candidates, Mid-City Messenger 6/13/2017</a><br />
Questions about how municipal candidates for office plan to engage with the affordability crisis and gentrification issues. This was 3 years ago, and almost every one of these questions could be asked again today with light copy editing.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/04/26/patrick-armstrong-small-successes-on-a-long-road/">Small Successes on a Long Road, Mid-City Messenger 4/26/2017</a><br />
Checking in on the NOPD Consent Decree status a few years ago. Reading this again, it seems progress plateaued a few years ago, which is troubling considering the most recent Task Force reports from 2020.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/03/29/patrick-armstrong-longstanding-prohibitions-on-the-possession-of-firearms/">Longstanding Prohibitions on the Posession of Firearms, Mid-City Messenger 3/29/2017</a><br />
In the United States, individuals convicted of domestic violence are not allowed to own or possess firearms. This is true in Federal law as well as Louisiana law. Why doesn't law enforcement spend more time working to get guns out of the hands of domestic violence offenders?<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/03/15/patrick-armstrong-the-weeping-time/">The Weeping Time, Mid-City Messenger 3/15/2017</a><br />
This one is about Black history that is intentionally erased from our communities' conciousness, starting with what was hidden from us in my hometown. I have to wonder how different I would be if I grew up with more understanding of these tragedies, and how close they were to my home.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/02/23/patrick-armstrong-tragedy-of-the-neutral-ground/">Tragedy of the Neutral Ground, Mid-City Messenger 2/23/2017</a> <br />
In which I misinterpret the tragedy of the commons to describe bad behavior at Carnival parades in New Orleans.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2017/02/07/patrick-armstrong-rent-out-of-shape/">Rent Out of Shape, Mid-City Messenger 2/7/2017</a><br />
Writing about the rental registry & inspections that were proposed at the time. This was back when I thought we could regulate our way out of the housing crisis. While a rental registry could still be a good idea, our civic priority should be to use public resources to deliver safe, functional social housing to those who need it, so we do not have to rely on private investment or inherited properties, debt mechanisms, or profit motive to provide the critical public service of housing.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/12/09/patrick-armstrong-public-safety-wish-list/">Public Safety Wish List, Mid-City Messenger 12/9/2016</a><br />
Talk about an Overton window shift. A whole lot of my thinking about the criminal system has changed since I wrote this one, and I would disagree with so much if I saw someone write this today. I probably need to revisit this and offer some updates, including some descriptions on why my thinking has changed so dramatically.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/11/21/patrick-armstrong-peaceful-transfer-of-power/">Transfer of Power, Mid-City Messenger 11/21/2016</a><br />
I attend a lot of public meetings with NOPD. We talk a lot about the Consent Decree. At this meeting I asked about police response to demonstrations, how NOPD planned to respond (in 2016), and I was encouraged by the answers I got. This is why the use of tear gas on the CCC in 2020 was such a breach of trust.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/11/07/patrick-armstrong-election-specials/">Elections Never End in New Orleans, Mid-City Messenger 11/7/2016</a><br />
One strange thing about life in New Orleans is how many elections we have, forcing people to spend free time keeping up with politics or mentally checking out.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/10/25/patrick-armstrong-the-technocratic-party/">The Technocratic Party, Mid-City Messenger 10/25/2016</a><br />
It took me a long time to understand what "technocratic" meant in terms of political decision-making. Then I started following local development and zoning processes.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/10/12/patrick-armstrong-blood-on-the-avenue/">Blood on the Avenue, Mid-City Messenger 10/12/2016</a><br />
The infrastructure of tragedy on Tulane Avenue. This is still a problem today.<br />
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<a href="https://midcitymessenger.com/2016/09/30/patrick-armstrong-the-transplant/">The Transplant, Mid-City Messenger 9/30/2016</a><br />
I'd been living in New Orleans a decade when I wrote this one.<br />
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<br />Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-32789155541683674782018-11-08T22:37:00.002-06:002023-03-19T17:57:03.978-05:00Never Concede While Votes Still CountIf we really cared about American democracy as much as we all say we do, it would be perfectly normal for a political campaign not to concede electoral defeat until all the votes were actually counted. Instead, a refusal to concede quickly is almost always controversial. This is part of the cultural sickness that infects American political life: we'd rather bullshit each other than actually do the work to count the damn votes and figure out who won. Waiting until the votes are verified is considered bad sportsmanship, despite the fact that in the face of all our machines and broken processes, we don't actually know the final counts for days after an election.<br />
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But we're so socially obsessed with the perception of winners and losers, we want to see an immediate result, and we want to see it even if we know the process we used to get there was pure garbage. In order to pretend that garbage doesn't exist, our toxic culture bullies people into giving up early even if the score could be close. We would never accept that kind of behavior in sports, but we do it all the time in politics. That's because our society views sports as more comfortable competition than politics, and despite the hours of political news we see every day, that news is a mile wide and an inch deep.<br />
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One reason I am thankful for the transformative <a href="https://staceyabrams.com/">Stacey Abrams campaign</a>: every election cycle we see endless examples of our badly managed voting process from state to state. Just like clockwork, once every election cycle is over, the news rolls right past those critically important stories about our democracy breaking down. That sort of mass media amnesia helps give an impression of legitimacy to what are essentially preliminary election results, and generally keeps citizens from correctly identifying - and then fixing - those problems.<br />
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Not this time.<br />
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Even if Republican Brian Kemp ends up moving in to the Georgia governor's mansion eventually, the whole of his campaign - orchestrated from the Secretary of State's office that manages elections - <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/georgia-governor-kemp-abrams/575095/">casts a lasting shadow over the supposedly democratic process of electing leaders at the ballot box</a>. It is tough to take the election day faux pas trophy any time Florida goes to the polls, but Kemp pulled it off. Not to take anything away from him on that matter: Kemp has been dedicated to destabilizing Georgia elections for a long time.<br /><br />Promoting civic participation in voting should be the core mission of civil government, but Georgia under Kemp failed that test very badly. From the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/lawsuit-challenges-000-stalled-georgia-voter-registrations/PK3tylRO9Z1ICNzDcH0FyH/">byzantine voter registration rules that allow citizens to be thrown off the voting rolls</a>, to the <a href="https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-effort-clean-state-voter-rolls-underway/rpAkxxDXJ2LlaOXXJfioxH/">voting purges</a> that somehow started in the states of the So-Called Confederacy as soon as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html">Voting Rights Act was sunset</a>, to <a href="https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/why-did-some-voting-machines-sit-unused-busy-election-day/GEe491hw2FsEAKESx42TYM/">leaving voting machines in the warehouse</a> to ensure long lines in population centers and predominantly minority neighborhoods, to suspiciously <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/gwinnett-co-voters-wait-for-hours-after-workers-forget-power-cords-for-the-voting-machines/85-611764666">forgetting to include power cords</a> with voting machines that were actually delivered to population centers and predominantly minority neighborhoods, so many things contributed to put obstacles in the way of voter participation it strains credulity to believe these were accidents. This wasn't a new fight, either, as Kemp has spent years accusing Abrams of <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/battle-over-voter-registrations-set-stage-for-georgia-governor-race/zaPRJHP5sY0AjUQ8b9RgTN/">encouraging too many citizens to vote</a>. He even threw up a Hail Mary in the last days of the campaign, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/664271330/georgias-brian-kemp-announces-election-hacking-charge-against-democrats">accusing Democratic Party members of hacking voting machines</a> in a howler of a political attack so unsubstantiated it may have well been an interview for a job at Fox News.<br />
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Still, despite all of those structural advantages, Kemp is only the "apparent" winner of the Georgia governor's election. The decision itself was such a razor-thin margin, there are enough outstanding votes, provisionally cast votes, and absentee votes still uncounted, there's little faith in the actual outcome of the election at this point. And what happens when your Secretary of State has already vaporized his own credibility? How do you even trust the folks who are counting the ballots?<br />
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And that was Abrams' next big move: <a href="https://politics.myajc.com/blog/politics/dispatch-why-abrams-refused-concede/x0sSN5ObEIVERjQCR3y7SO/">she refused to concede until every vote was counted</a>.<br />
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A refusal to concede a razor thin election until every vote is counted is such an important stand for a Democratic candidate to take, it bears mentioning that Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum initially conceded his election chances before he even realized the margin was so thin, <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-ne-florida-governor-recount-close-20181108-story.html">Florida law requires an automatic recount</a>. It is almost as if every Democratic candidate has been more scared of being called a "Sore Loserman" than they were interested in actually winning elections. That's not a good look for the political party that should be making a bigger deal of counting every vote, encouraging more people to engage in American civic life, and investing policy solutions to address widespread structural voting obstacles.<br />
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Abrams is changing the culture on this point with her refusal to concede, and her affirmation that every vote must be counted. This is a critical stand to take, and a critical time to take it. With so many eyes on Georgia, she is focusing the lens on an issue our American public life would prefer to ignore. I hope future candidates and campaign workers are paying attention. Especially on the Democratic side of politics.<br />
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<br />Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-35006099737570674692018-02-19T23:17:00.004-06:002023-03-19T17:58:18.037-05:00In the Mail: Opposition to New Orleans Power Plant<i>Usually, when I send a letter to my elected officials, I feel calmer at the end of the process, because I have participated in my democratic institutions. For this one, I was angrier by the end of the letter than I was when I sat down to write it. </i><br />
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Sent to the Utility, Cable, Telecommunications, and Technology Committee (UCTTC) of the New Orleans City Council:<br />
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As someone who works and lives and pays a power bill in Orleans Parish, I would would like to go on record in opposition to the proposed New Orleans Power Station in New Orleans East. My opposition is founded in the unjustified higher cost of living approving the power plant will create for residents, a lack of demonstrated need for this power plant, and the environmental concerns made plain by the July 22 and August 5 flooding in my neighborhood.<br />
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One of the biggest issues of last year’s election cycle was the ever-increasing cost of living in Orleans Parish, and how these increasing costs are constantly squeezing residents. Despite our already-high power bills, residents and businesses also endure an unacceptable number of power outages every year. Entergy blames a shortage of local power generation, but the truth is that our power transmission infrastructure is simply not up to the standards of most American cities of New Orleans’ size.<br />
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I’ve lived here long enough to remember the Storm Restoration Charges that were supposed to assist recovery from damage done by Hurricanes Gustav and Isaac and improve our transmission lines, but those additional charges to consumers never seemed to translate into more resilient infrastructure. Looking forward, how much will rate-payers be asked to increase their bill in the inevitable event that a power plant in New Orleans East floods due to storm surge or a rain event? Rate payers will be stuck with the triple cost of Storm Restoration Charges, paying for the new power plant, and then paying additional money to repair future damage to the power plant. That’s a whole lot of money ratepayers could be stuck with, without a whole lot to show for it.<br />
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When it comes to this civic decision-making process, Entergy is a regulated monopoly. Rate payers like me do not have another option to choose when it comes to electricity delivery, and the only recourse we have is for our elected officials to hold the company to the highest possible standards. I have been following the issue as closely as I can in my free time, and I feel that Entergy has not made convincing case for this power plant. As my elected representative, I ask that you consider our needs and research in making this decision.<br />
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I also believe the decision is moving forward without adequate civic notice or understanding of the issue. While you may feel this is being done by holding the minimum required number of public meetings before Council committees – I’ve read various media reports that the process has been going on for over a year – many of my neighbors do not understand what decision is being made and how it will impact their cost of living. This feels like yet another public decision where the New Orleans City Council serves as a final arbiter of whether Entergy gets to stick us with a higher bill for this power plant, while few New Orleanians even know this issue is being discussed.<br />
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Workers in this city should not have to arrange to take time off work to attend the few hosted meetings while attempting to understand intricate impacts of a new power plant, especially when we are the ones being asked to foot the bill for a wealthy corporation. For a capital expenditure of this nature, Entergy should be required to make presentations to citizens across the city, and the City Council and Mayor’s Office should help facilitate those meetings. We know Entergy has the time and money for such meetings, as we can see their endless advertising on social media. I got yet another email from them today. It’s insulting to see Entergy use our hard-earned money to advertise a project with a guaranteed return on investment of 11% (from NOLA.com: <a href="http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2017/04/entergy_recharges_its_new_orle.html">http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2017/04/entergy_recharges_its_new_orle.html</a>).<br />
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My savings account doesn’t get that good of a rate.<br />
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Finally, there are numerous environmental concerns with the project. For a city that strives for resiliency in policy making, I’m not sure how the City can justify the location of a new power plant in the environmentally fragile area of New Orleans East, which is experiencing the highest rate of ground subsidence in the Parish. Power plants are major users of groundwater, a use that is unregulated in our state but that we know contributes to subsidence. We should be seeking to keep as much water in the ground as we can, not extract millions of gallons for a fossil fuel-dependent plant that will exacerbate climate change and relative sea level rise.<br />
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City leaders constantly refer to New Orleans as the “tip of the spear” when it comes to both our environmental risks and our innovations in sustainability; our risks from climate change and global warming, today and in the future, are existential crises. To green light a new fossil fuel-dependent power plant—to ask New Orleanians to pay out of their pockets for increased environmental risks—is unacceptable.<br />
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Thank you for your consideration,
Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-87145582710819762372018-01-20T13:21:00.003-06:002023-03-19T18:00:11.286-05:00The Brunch SceneA Democratic representative and Republican representative who have known each other for years meet for brunch one day...<br />
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Dem: "Let's order some eggs for breakfast."<br />
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GOP: "I'm not ordering food until you get folks at the next table to eat some Tide Pods. Those things look delicious."<br />
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Dem: "No way. Tide Pods aren't food."<br />
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GOP: "Well I guess you don't really want eggs, then."<br />
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GOP (loudly, to room): "THE DEMOCRATS DONT WANT ANY OF YOU TO HAVE EGGS!"<br />
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Dem: "You said to get eggs, we'd have to make the folks at that table eat Tide Pods." (points)<br />
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Folks at the Next Table: "We don't want to eat Tide Pods, that's dangerous!"<br />
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GOP: "But they look delicious!"<br />
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Dem: "Tide Pods may look delicious, but they're really laundry detergent. You can't eat them, you use them to wash clothes."<br />
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GOP: "Why can't we do both? You're taking away Real Americans' God-given freedom to eat Tide Pods!"<br />
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Dem (incredulous) "What?"<br />
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GOP: "WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?"<br />
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Dem (aside, exasperated): "This happens EVERY time we try to hang out."<br />
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Guy in MAGA Hat from Another Table: "One of my friends back home ate a Tide Pod once and he was fine. Said it was way better than bath salts."<br />
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(A NYT reporter suddenly appears and asks to interview Guy in MAGA Hat.)<br />
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Dem (loudly, to room): "OK folks I've looked up the list of ingredients in Tide Pods."<br />
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(Dem reads long list of complicated sounding ingredients in monotone voice. Adds emphasis to a word no one has ever heard of.)<br />
<br />
-Intermission-<br />
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(Dem finished reading list of Tide Pod ingredients.)<br />
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Dem: "And that's why you shouldn't eat Tide Pods." (Sits)<br />
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Guy in MAGA Hat (to GOP and NYT reporter): "Is she still talking?"<br />
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GOP: "Too focused on ingredient politics."<br />
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NYT reporter (writes) ::Tide Pods divide hurts Dems in Heartland::<br />
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Dem: "OK maybe we can work across the aisle and come up with a bipartisan solution. How about we compromise an a la carte Tide Pod with every order of eggs?"<br />
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GOP: "Nope. The Folks at That Table have to eat the Tide Pods, or we're not getting any eggs for brunch."<br />
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Dem: "The Folks at the Next Table don't want to eat Tide Pods for brunch! But maybe they'd agree to Tide Pods on their plate."<br />
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Folks at the Next Table: "No, actually we don't want Tide Pods anywhere near our food, thanks."
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Dem: "Sorry. The American people want bipartisan solutions."<br />
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GOP: "Well, actually, the American People want the Folks at the Next Table to eat some Tide Pods, and they want Democrats like you to stop obstructing the rest of us from eating eggs." <br />
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Guy in MAGA Hat: "Yeah!"<br />
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NYT reporter (writes) ::Are Dem Policies Creating Egg Shortage?::<br />
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-Scene zooms out to restaurant kitchen-<br />
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Server Working the F***ing Brunch Shift: "They. Are. Arguing. About. Eating. F***ing. Tide. Pods."<br />
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Line Cook Working the F***"ing Brunch Shift: "Those are the same ass****s who couldn't tell the difference between a s***hole & a s***house last week?"
Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-62451040553696206532017-01-04T22:24:00.002-06:002023-03-19T18:06:19.794-05:00Master Plan Amendments Part 3: Every Major StreetI started off with the easy stuff in <a href="http://hurricaneradio.blogspot.com/2016/12/new-orleans-master-plan-amendments-part.html">Part 1</a> and got into the bigger changes in <a href="http://hurricaneradio.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-orleans-master-plan-amendments-part.html">Part 2</a>. This is Part 3, and it is the last of this series to really deal with Master Plan Map changes. It will only involve one proposed change, but this one is a doozy.<br />
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While you read this, remember that City Planning has already scheduled their public hearings for <b>January 24 and 31</b>. If you want to get your thoughts to them about any of this, the deadline is coming soon.<br />
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Again, I want to make sure I first remind readers that I didn’t get all this information alone. Hours of reading through these Master Plan amendments was completed by individuals I would love to cite. Because I am doing what I can to spread the word about these changes on the internet, however, they have chosen to remain quietly in the background. Additionally, because my post is primarily an expression of my own opinion, it wouldn’t do to associate their work with my thoughts. Like many reasonable people, there are places where we disagree.<br />
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That said, I want to thank them. They know who they are, and they are doing tremendous work helping keep the community informed.<br />
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<b>The Change</b><br />
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Request by Councilmember Jason Williams to move every spot currently designated Mixed Use Low Density (MUL) to Mixed Use Medium Density (MUM), if it is located within 500 feet of a designated transit corridor.<br />
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This proposed change is so big and so sweeping it doesn’t even really have a Request number, and would affect the Master Plan land use map city-wide, but it would have a tremendous effect in Mid-City. The change is so far reaching, CPC staff just added it to the Planning District maps shaded in gray. You can see this here:<br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf</a><br />
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In Mid-City this affects almost every major transportation corridor.<br />
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<ul>
<li>On City Park Ave at the I-10</li>
<li>On City Park Ave from the Cemeteries to Bienville Street</li>
<li>On Carrollton Ave from Ulloa to Orleans </li>
<li>On Canal Street between Helena and Anthony </li>
<li>On Canal Street from Bernadotte to St. Patrick </li>
<li>On Canal Street from Hennessey to Galvez</li>
<li>Every block between Canal Street and Bienville Ave from Carrollton to Jefferson Davis Parkway</li>
<li>Jefferson Davis Parkway from Canal to Toulouse</li>
<li>Properties adjacent to the Lafitte Greenway from N. Anthony Street to N. Carrollton, from Conti to Toulouse Street</li>
<li>Between Toulouse and Orleans Ave from N. Carrollton to N. Cortez</li>
<li>Between Conti and the Lafitte Greenway from Jeff Davis Parkway to Claiborne Ave</li>
<li>Broad Street starting at Banks Street and going all the way out to O’Reilly Street (just this side of St. Bernard) </li>
<li>Between the Lafitte Greenway and Toulouse Street from the Bayou to N. Rocheblave, bumping out to St Peter Street along the way</li>
<li>Along Ulloa Street between S. Scott and S Telemachus</li>
<li>Along d’Hemmecourt between S. Clark and S. Lopez</li>
<li>Along Baudin from S. Dupre to S. White</li>
</ul>
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That’s a lot. And that’s just in the Mid-City area. But this is a city-wide change. I can’t believe more people haven’t heard about it, because this is a big one.<br />
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<b>But What Does This Do? </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
In Part 2, I talked about how the power in many of these Master Plan Land Use Map amendments come from the zoning designations they allow according to the law. While moving from the alphabet soup of MUL to MUM doesn’t sound like a whole lot, the trick is just how many different zoning designations come into play when an area is zoned MUM. This change is significant.<br />
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Here’s what to think about, when the Master Plan and CZO were adopted, the MUL designation already represented a move to larger scale (size), intensity (use), and density (how many people could live there). MUL would open zoning that allows smaller Neighborhood Business Districts (HU-B1 and HU-B1A), as well as a zoning designation called Historic Urban Mixed-Use (HUMU).<br />
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While everything is dependent on the size of the parcel, HUMU zoning allows three story buildings up to 40 feet tall, which could include up to 5000 square feet of ground floor commercial without requiring additional parking, and residential units (apartments or condos) on the second and third floor. When considering changes to MUL on the Land Use Map, a good example to think of is Freret Street between Jefferson and Napoleon, especially by Cadiz Street. (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-12#12-1">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-12#12-1</a>)<br />
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(Picture of what is <i>already</i> allowed.)<br />
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Any move from MUL to MUM opens zoning designations that go even bigger in scale, higher intensity, and higher density. While this would include the rather innocuous Multi-Family Residential Districts (HU-RM1 & HU-RM2), even those can put hundreds of apartments or condos on a block if the parcel was big enough and developers applied for high enough density bonuses. (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-11#11-1-D">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-11#11-1-D</a>). <br />
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But the big changes with MUM on the land use map comes from Medium Intensity Mixed-Use 1 (MU-1). This is the 60 foot tall, 5 story, ground floor commercial, above ground residential zoning that’s best Mid-City examples would be the American Can and the recently approved Edwards Communities apartments along the Greenway. (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-15#15-1-D">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-15#15-1-D</a>)<br />
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<b>My Thoughts</b><br />
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First of all, when they start talking about this proposed change, we’re going to hear a lot about lack of housing and affordability and how we’ll have a more equitable city if we can just add more (luxury) units in the inevitable condo towers and apartment complexes that will result from this change. Developers and builders will get “density bonuses” for adding affordable units that should help struggling renters, at least in theory. We’ll also hear a lot about “transit oriented development” and how important it is this city allow developers to pack as many people into 600 square foot apartments as possible. Real estate experts will trot out years-old market studies that say there are millions of millennials and young professionals with cash in their pockets who would move to New Orleans and help improve our city and expand our tax base if we just find places for them to live. They’re all supposed to show up without cars, hip to ride bikes and streetcars and buses and Uber to their jobs.<br />
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We’ll hear about how we need to upzone and deregulate and lower parking requirements, and that will be the key to New Orleans’ burgeoning economic revival.<br />
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I don’t buy that fairy tale for a minute. You know why? We already re-mapped, we already upzoned, and we already lowered parking requirements. All of that happened in the Master Plan and CZO years ago, and the promised development never showed up.<br />
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Oh, it showed up on Freret Street and Magazine Street. There are plenty of shiny new 2 and 3 story buildings with ground floor retail and residential apartments upstairs. Stuff like that is already eligible in every one of these MUL areas, provided it is zoned correctly. And based on how easily the city hands out zoning changes, anyone who applies pretty much gets what they want.<br />
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(Picture of what is <i>already</i> allowed.)<br />
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But in Mid-City? At major intersections (transit hubs), we got drive through pharmacies and drive through banks and new stand-alone ER’s and proposals for fast food joints. Land use and zoning isn’t the problem in our neck of the woods, because folks can already build a whole lot in all of these areas that area already mapped MUL.<br />
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And let’s not forget all the areas of Mid-City that are already remapped MUM. All the old warehouses over by the Greenway, where the Edwards Communities apartments are going to go? They were remapped MUM over 5 years ago and upzoned MU-1 in the CZO. Edwards was the first group of folks to take advantage of those rules, and they demanded density bonuses AND tax breaks to do it. The other spots that were remapped and upzoned the last time around were all along Tulane Avenue, and we’re only just now seeing the promised redevelopment over there.<br />
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What if the thing they were waiting for was the next Master Plan amendment process? With sweeping changes like this one, I have to wonder if the Master Plan having the “force of law” really has any meaning whatsoever.<br />
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Because this change puts properties in play you never thought would be in play. The brickyard between St. Patrick and Alexander? How much more is that worth as 300 luxury condominiums? All that city land between the Greenway and Lafitte Street? How long before we hear about some public/private partnership to put hundreds of luxury apartments like a wall between the neighborhood and the bike path? Who knows where else.<br />
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Some of y’all reading this are probably thinking “hell yeah, let’s build some more luxury condos in Mid-City.” That’s fair. But say so. My problem with all this is how it hides behind alphabet soup of designations and urban planning buzzwords. You want a bunch of 65 foot tall apartment buildings along the Greenway from City Park Avenue to Claiborne, say that and let the voters hear you say it.<br />
Because a lot of those theories aren’t holding up elsewhere when they run into the details.<br />
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How much pressure would this change put on empty lots and historic homes in that footprint? How much would this change affect the price of housing? It sure isn’t going to make it cheaper, that’s for sure. When the folks with the market studies tell me I’d be getting an affordable deal by spending $200,000 on a 700 square foot condo, we’re either living in a real estate bubble or it is time for me to move my middle-class address to a different neighborhood.<br />
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Thing is, this type of thing is going on in cities all over the country, and it isn’t working. What they’re starting to see is that potential property values are killing affordability. Think about it this way: if you’ve got a $300,000 Mid-City home on one lot and a $3,000,000 five-story condo tower down the block, how much is an empty lot in the middle worth? How much are those fixer-uppers in the middle worth? What incentive does a property owner have to maintain their old rental unit when they could just let it fall down or catch fire and get in on the 5-story luxury condo game? The MUL to MUM change puts an awful lot of dynamics like that in play. <a href="http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/10/23/portland-housing-prices">http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/10/23/portland-housing-prices</a><br />
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So, yeah. You could say I’m not a fan of this change. I didn’t move to Atlanta 10 years ago, I moved to New Orleans. And I didn’t move to the CBD or the Warehouse District when I chose a place in New Orleans to live. I chose Faubourg St. John, Parkview, and Mid-City.<br />
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Thanks for reading. This is all for the Master Plan Map changes. Amendments are up next.<br />
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Now, let’s be clear. Everything I just wrote is my opinion and my opinion only. If you see something on here you don’t like, or something that you do, don’t complain to me. I’m only some guy writing stuff on the internet. Ain’t nothing I can do for you I ain’t already done.<br />
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If you want to fuss at someone who CAN do something, contact a city decision-maker. For stuff like this, that’s the City Planning Commission and your City Council members. You don’t have to be some sort of expert. This is America, all you have to have to talk to your government decision makers is an opinion. We live in a participatory democracy, so feel free to participate!<br />
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To tell the CPC what you think, email <a href="mailto:CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV">CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV</a>. They’ll put your thoughts in the public record for any proposal. Full contact info here for letters & phone calls: <a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/</a>.<br />
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If you want to take it a step further, tell your City Council members: <a href="http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45">http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45</a>.<br />
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Remember that no matter where you live in New Orleans, you have 3 representatives on the Council, your district reps and the two at-large members.<br />
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And don’t forget to share your thoughts with your neighborhood organization. Neighborhood organizations don’t have any power and can’t do much, but they do host meetings and communicate with the city on a regular basis. Letting them know how you feel can go a long way to amplify your voice.<br />
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If you’re in Mid-City, you can reach Mid-City Neighborhood Organization at (<a href="mailto:board@mcno.org">board@mcno.org</a>).<br />
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<b>Citations</b><br />
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Back in 2008, the citizens of New Orleans voted to amend the City Charter and give the Master Plan the force of law. I was one of the folks who voted for it, because everyone I knew who was engaged in a land use or zoning situation complained about the capriciousness nature of the process and the mysteries that clouded every decision. Like so many reforms, the intent was to make city planning and land use decisions more transparent, easier to understand, more equitable, and more accessible. It was thought that giving the Master Plan the force of law would remove some of the ad hoc decision making from the process.<br />
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Some of these reforms worked. Others didn’t. But one thing the Master Plan did require was a formal amendment process. Guess what time it is? You got it. Amendment time.<br />
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City Planning has already scheduled their public hearings for January 24 and 31. You can see what amendments will be on which agenda on their website (<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a>).<br />
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I didn’t make any of this up, y’all. You can find all the information online at the CPC website. And if you’re not in Mid-City, don’t worry, there are plenty of Master Plan amendments for your neighborhood, too. You should talk to your neighbors about them.<br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments webpage:<br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a><br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments (itemized):<br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/</a><br />
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You can also view where the proposed Master Plan changes are on a map of your neighborhood. Go to the above link, scroll to the bottom, and click on your neighborhood map.<br />
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Mid-City is in Planning District 4 with Treme:<br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf</a><br />
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Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-78593976419498630882017-01-01T22:36:00.003-06:002023-03-19T18:08:39.319-05:00New Orleans Master Plan Amendments Part 2: Getting BiggerI started off with the easy stuff in <a href="http://hurricaneradio.blogspot.com/2016/12/new-orleans-master-plan-amendments-part.html">Part 1</a>, but here’s where we’re getting to the bigger changes, and I mean that literally. These are the proposed Master Plan changes to allow buildings that are bigger in scale (size), higher in intensity (more activity allowed), and higher density (more people). Each of these Master Plan Amendments are located in Mid-City, the neighborhood where I live. <br />
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First of all, I want to say something about the research that is the foundation of this work. Please keep in mind that hours of reading these Master Plan amendments is a task that was completed by individuals I would love to cite. Because I am doing what I can to spread the word about these changes on the internet, however, they have chosen to remain quietly in the background. Additionally, because my post is primarily an expression of my own opinion, it wouldn’t do to associate their work with my thoughts. Like many reasonable people, there are places where we disagree. <br />
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That said, I want to thank them. They know who they are, and they are doing tremendous work helping keep the community informed. <br />
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<b>Alphabet Soup</b><br />
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Before we really get into the proposed amendments themselves, it is important to have an idea of how the Master Plan Land Use Map directly affects your community and quality of life. Often when the community discusses Master Plan issues and the zoning allowances that result, we inevitably end up using an alphabet soup of acronyms that are sometimes difficult for citizens to understand. This is by design. The power in many of these Master Plan Land Use Map amendments come from the zoning designations they allow according to the law, but those allowances are anything but obvious to the casual observer. <br />
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Think about it this way, if you live in a neighborhood of traditional New Orleans shotgun doubles, and someone comes to you and asks if they can build a 60 foot tall, 5 story building with luxury condominiums with 5,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space that doesn’t require extra parking, you and your neighbors may immediately become alarmed and make time to call the City Planning Commission (CPC) and City Council about how you don’t like that idea. <br />
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On the other hand, if the same person comes to you and asks to change the “FLUM” in the Master Plan from “RDL-Pre” to “MUM,” you may not really know what that means, so you don’t say anything. You also may not know what it means six months later when they ask to change the zoning from “HU-RD2 to MU-1,” so you don’t say anything then, either. Fast forward a month later where you get invited to a community meeting and they show you the plans for that 65 foot tall luxury condo tower and the trendy restaurant they plan to open on the first floor. You and your neighbors become alarmed and go to the city, but the city tells you the applicant has been “working with the community for a year” and “nobody had any problems with this plan in the last 12 months.” <br />
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Then the city tells you that the zoning allows the applicant to build what they’re asking for. The applicant has already gone through the process, secured the proper land use map changes, and those changes made the zoning changes “consistent with the Master Plan,” and now there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about the decision. CPC and City Council approve the project, some folks on the internet complain about the “corrupt” process, but when you go back and look, everything was done within the letter of the law. <br />
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Now, if you ask me about this process, I would tell you there’s a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. My biggest problem isn’t in a “corrupt” system, it is in an obscure system where citizens and voters and taxpayers never really know what is going on in their community until it is too late to say anything about it. I personally find that incredibly undemocratic, and I believe processes like that tear at the fabric of strong communities. While that sort of thing is all technically above board, it breaks the public trust through omission and obfuscation, and citizens throw up their hands and take a fatalistic, disengaged attitude toward their own city government.
Sound like any place you know? <br />
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That’s why the following amendments are so important – they’re part of an alphabet soup of changes proposed to the Master Plan Land Use Map and they determine the zoning allowed in your neighborhood. These changes may not look like very much when viewed as a combination of letters on a public notice, but they mean a hell of a lot in the legal process of what zoning designations they unlock. <br />
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<b>Getting Bigger</b><br />
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Together the Future Land Use Map and the zoning designations they allow determine the scale of buildings (how big they are), the intensity of land use (how much activity they involve), and the density of land use (how many people can live in an area). The following items are on the agenda for the January 24th meeting of the CPC. A list of all Future Land Use Map changes can be found here: <a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1216_FLUM_Tables_Final.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1216_FLUM_Tables_Final.pdf </a><br />
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-6</u>: Councilmember LaToya Cantrell request to change the land use map for 2545-2627 Banks Street from Residential Low Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre) to Mixed Use Low Density (MUL). The big land use change any time you move from RLD-Pre to MUL is the “mixed-use” part, because that increases the kinds of commercial uses available for an area. This is primarily an increase in land use intensity, because commercial uses generate more traffic than residential uses.<br /><br />MUL would open zoning that allows smaller Neighborhood Business Districts (HU-B1 and HU-B1A), as well as a zoning designation called Historic Urban Mixed-Use (HUMU). While everything is dependent on the size of the parcel, HUMU zoning allows three story buildings up to 40 feet tall, which could include up to 5000 square feet of ground floor commercial without requiring additional parking, and residential units (apartments or condos) on the second and third floor. When considering changes to MUL on the Land Use Map, a good example to think of is Freret Street between Jefferson and Napoleon, especially by Cadiz Street. (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-12#12-1">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-12#12-1</a>)<br /><br />My main concern with this proposal is the encroachment of commercial uses into residential areas, and the pressures that will put on the residential units to become commercial units. Thing is, with the VA hospital a block away, Tulane Avenue redevelopment within 200 feet, the Broad Street commercial corridor on the same block, commercial use here may be a foregone conclusion.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-7</u>: Councilmember LaToya Cantrell request to change the land use map for multiple addresses bounded by Canal Street, S. Broad Street, Cleveland Ave, and S. White Street from a combination of Residential Low Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre) and Mixed-Use Low Density (MUL) to Mixed-Use Medium Density (MUM).<br /><br />Here’s a change where things could get really big in a hurry. The way this block is laid out already, you’ve got Mixed Use Low Density (MUL) along Canal and Broad, with Residential Low Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre) on several empty lots facing Cleveland and White and the smaller houses on the other side of those streets. Remember how MUL was described above, and think of Freret Street as an example. That can already happen here, but this proposal is asking to go even bigger.<br /><br />MUM opens up a lot of zoning designations that go bigger scale, higher intensity, and higher intensity. While this would include the rather innocuous Multi-Family Residential Districts (HU-RM1 & HU-RM2), even those can put hundreds of apartments or condos on a block if the parcel was big enough and developers applied for high enough density bonuses (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-11#11-1-D">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-11#11-1-D</a>).<br /><br />But the big changes with MUM on the land use map comes from Medium Intensity Mixed-Use 1 (MU-1). This is the 60 foot tall, 5 story, ground floor commercial, above ground residential zoning that’s best Mid-City examples would be the American Can and the recently approved Edwards Communities apartments along the Greenway. (<a href="http://czo.nola.gov/Article-15#15-1-D">http://czo.nola.gov/Article-15#15-1-D</a>)<br /><br />My opinion? I can see MUM working on Canal Street on the downtown side of Broad, where the monolithic hospital complexes and larger scale buildings are already located. It makes sense to see larger buildings driving towards the skyline downtown. Above Broad, however, the scale of traditional development along Canal is much less monolithic, and I’d like to see it stay that way. There’s already plenty of room and scale to develop property along Canal, since so much is already in the MUL land use map, which already allows a whole range of uses.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-17</u>: City Planning Commission request to change the land use map for 2644 Palmyra Street from Residential Low Density Pre-War (RDL-Pre) to Mixed Use Low Density (MUL). This is a change like PD-4-6 above, where a residential area is being moved to allow additional commercial uses. This actually increases my concerns about the commercial encroachment I mentioned before with PD-4-6, because this is on the other side of the same block. Though I have to wonder if this is more about the properties facing Broad that are already mapped MUL than anything about this individual property.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfF9t_veF3DHseReKMlGnzy0fooGXVLt1lohOhlmJqgF3utmSp6dZytxb_kriSO3x46_AzkVeTRWrIojFRDpJ8CZnv4NI2QIDEJ8CsZekoS1TvI5UhzIuhTOWrq6_Gao3HCgej6Q/s1600/MUL-to-MUM-CPC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfF9t_veF3DHseReKMlGnzy0fooGXVLt1lohOhlmJqgF3utmSp6dZytxb_kriSO3x46_AzkVeTRWrIojFRDpJ8CZnv4NI2QIDEJ8CsZekoS1TvI5UhzIuhTOWrq6_Gao3HCgej6Q/s320/MUL-to-MUM-CPC.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-18</u>: City Planning Commission request to change the land use map for multiple addresses bounded by S. Galvez, Banks, N. White, and St. Louis Street from Mixed-Use Low Density (MUL) to Mixed-Use Medium Density (MUM).<br /><br />This is a problem for me, because it makes a blanket land use map change on specific properties within a large area without really letting the folks that live nearby know what is going on. And let’s not mince words here, there are a lot of folks who live nearby one of the properties that will change if this is amendment is approved.<br /><br />When the Master Plan was adopted, the parcels along major thoroughfares were remapped and upzoned to encourage larger scale, more intense, and more dense development along those streets. This is why along Canal Street, Broad Street, Galvez Street, and the Greenway the land use map already has most parcels listed as Mixed Use Low Density (MUL). As I’ve already noted and Freret Street has proved, you can already develop an awful lot of residential and commercial spaces within the allowances of MUL land use.<br /><br />But since the adoption of the Master Plan and the CZO, that development didn’t happen. Now, in what I think is an attempt to incentivize investment, we’re seeing proposals like this one to allow even larger scale, higher intensity, and higher density uses. What we will be told is that “this isn’t a very big change,” but as I’ve shown above, MUM can get real big real fast.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-48</u>: Owner initiated request to change the land use map for 3100 Banks Street & 416 S. Lopez Street from Residential Low Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre) to Mixed-Use Medium Density (MUM).<br /><br />This one is another in a long set of proposals for this property. The owners have already submitted proposals for zoning changes separate from this Master Plan amendment. Those have been through CPC and will be on the City Council agenda soon enough. (<a href="http://cityofno.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2523&meta_id=353934">http://cityofno.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2523&meta_id=353934</a>)<br /><br />The thing is, making one lot Mixed Use Medium Density (MUM) right here in the middle of a low density residential neighborhood does not strike me as the intent of the Master Plan at all. Honestly, if there’s no rhyme or reason to Master Plan land use mapping, and the city will just approve changes like this without regard to the surrounding neighborhood’s historical development pattern, why on Earth do we have a Master Plan or a Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance at all? Proposals like this remind me how many people really just want New Orleans to be Houston where anyone can put any type of building anywhere for any reason.</li>
</ul>
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Now, let’s be clear. Everything I just wrote is my opinion and my opinion only on items of public interest and public policy. If you see something on here you don’t like, or something that you do, don’t complain to me. I’m only some guy writing stuff on the internet. Ain’t nothing I can do for you I ain’t already done. <br />
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If you want to fuss at someone who CAN do something, contact a city decision-maker. For stuff like this, that’s the City Planning Commission and your City Council members. You don’t have to be some sort of expert. This is America, all you have to have to talk to your government decision makers is an opinion. We live in a participatory democracy, so feel free to participate! <br />
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(Just make sure that when you do, identify your opinion appropriately according to the correct Request Number.) <br />
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To tell the CPC what you think, email <a href="mailto:CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV">CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV</a>. They’ll put your thoughts in the public record for any proposal. Full contact info here for letters & phone calls: <a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/</a>. <br />
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If you want to take it a step further, tell your City Council members: <a href="http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45">http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45</a>. Remember that no matter where you live in New Orleans, you have 3 representatives on the Council, your district reps and the two at-large members.<br />
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And don’t forget to share your thoughts with your neighborhood organization. Neighborhood organizations don’t have any power and can’t do much, but they do host meetings and communicate with the city on a regular basis. Letting them know how you feel can go a long way to amplify your voice.
If you’re in Mid-City, you can reach Mid-City Neighborhood Organization at (<a href="mailto:board@mcno.org">board@mcno.org</a>).<br />
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<b>Citations</b><br />
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Back in 2008, the citizens of New Orleans voted to amend the City Charter and give the Master Plan the force of law. I was one of the folks who voted for it, because everyone I knew who was engaged in a land use or zoning situation complained about the capriciousness nature of the process and the mysteries that clouded every decision. Like so many reforms, the intent was to make city planning and land use decisions more transparent, easier to understand, more equitable, and more accessible. It was thought that giving the Master Plan the force of law would remove some of the ad hoc decision making from the process. <br />
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Some of these reforms worked. Others didn’t. But one thing the Master Plan did require was a formal amendment process. Guess what time it is? You got it. Amendment time.
City Planning has already scheduled their public hearings for January 24 and 31. You can see what amendments will be on which agenda on their website (<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a>). <br />
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I didn’t make any of this up, y’all. You can find all the information online at the CPC website. And if you’re not in Mid-City, don’t worry, there are plenty of Master Plan amendments for your neighborhood, too. You should talk to your neighbors about them.<br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments webpage: <br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a><br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments (itemized): <br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/ </a><br />
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You can also view where the proposed Master Plan changes are on a map of your neighborhood. Go to the above link, scroll to the bottom, and click on your neighborhood map.
Mid-City is in Planning District 4 with Treme: <br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf </a>Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-301672908601049632016-12-24T18:33:00.001-06:002023-03-19T18:10:28.109-05:00New Orleans Master Plan Amendments Part 1: Smaller Changes for Mid-CityBack in 2008, the citizens of New Orleans voted to amend the City Charter and give the Master Plan the force of law. I was one of the folks who voted for it, because everyone I knew who was engaged in a land use or zoning situation complained about the capriciousness nature of the process and the mysteries that clouded every decision. Like so many reforms, the intent was to make city planning and land use decisions more transparent, easier to understand, more equitable, and more accessible. It was thought that giving the Master Plan the force of law would remove some of the ad hoc decision making from the process.<br />
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Some of these reforms worked. Others didn’t. But one thing the Master Plan did require was a formal amendment process. Guess what time it is? You got it. Amendment time. <br />
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City Planning has already scheduled their public hearings for January 24 and 31. You can see what amendments will be on which agenda on their website (<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/" target="_blank">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a>). <br />
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Wait. You didn’t know? It feels like nobody does. The most surprising thing to me is how few people even realize this process is going on right now and how important it is to your quality of life and cost of living. This is by design. At this point in the process, many of the amendments aren’t very clear about what they would do or how they would impact the lives of New Orleanians. Make no mistake, though, when folks start getting into the nitty gritty in the Spring and Summer, and these changes are closer to becoming law, you’re (hopefully) going to hear a lot more about them. I’m just trying to get ahead of the curve. <br />
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When I moved to New Orleans over a decade ago, there was a robust group of engaged citizens bird-dogging city planning and land use decisions. The front pages of now-defunct daily newspapers relayed proposals from this committee or that commission, talk radio shows were dedicated to what the future New Orleans would look like, neighborhood groups held meetings of citizens who were going door to door to tell neighbors what was going on, and bloggers would spend hours of free time pouring over public documents and connecting the dots between the deep pockets and city officials in a way that put many decisions in context.<br />
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Several of those profiles weren’t flattering. At one point, a former mayor told a press conference that the bloggers were undermining the recovery of the city. That mayor ended up in jail while bloggers and journalists won awards for reporting. Good times.<br />
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What I’m doing here is far more boring than that. It won’t win any awards and it hopefully doesn’t end with anyone going to jail. But the city of New Orleans is in the process of amending its own laws in ways that will affect my life and the lives of those in my community. Participatory democracy requires participation to function, and if you don’t participate, decisions will be made without your input. Complaining about it later won’t do too much good. <br />
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There’s also a lot of ground to cover, so I’m breaking it down into something less than a lecture. These are my opinions alone, based on research done by my friends and I, with links to public documents. This isn’t any official statement from any organization of which I am a part. I’ll do my best to describe what these amendments mean to me and what I think about them.<br />
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If you agree with me or even if you don’t, I encourage you to communicate directly with your city decision makers. The City Planning Commission wants to hear from you. Your City Councilmembers may not want to hear from you, but they’re the final decision makers. And if you want your neighborhood organization involved, you’ll need to tell them what you think about this stuff. No one can read your mind, and complaining on the internet can only do so much. You can bet the folks who want to change the laws are down at City Hall right now, talking directly to our civic decision makers. If you don’t like what they’re proposing, you’ve got to at least send an email or make a phone call.<br />
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I’m going to start with the easy stuff. These are the Master Plan Amendments for Mid-City, the neighborhood where I live. They also aren’t the whole list of Master Plan Amendments for Mid-City, just the ones I find the least controversial. After that 600 word introduction, I figure I’ll lead with some softballs. <br />
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<b>The Smaller Changes </b><br />
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Each of these items are amendments proposed to something called the Future Land Use Map of the Master Plan. This Future Land Use Map is supposed to help guide city planners, appointed officials, and elected city council members as they make decisions about the <i>scale</i> of buildings (how big they are), the <i>intensity</i> of land use (how much activity they involve), and the <i>density</i> of land use (how many people can live in an area). These are items on the agenda for the January 24th meeting of the CPC. A list of all Future Land Use Map changes can be found here: <a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1216_FLUM_Tables_Final.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1216_FLUM_Tables_Final.pdf </a><br />
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<ul>
<li><u>Request Number PD-4-12</u>: Councilmember LaToya Cantrell request to change the land use map for 2739 Palmyra Street from Residential Low Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre) to Residential Medium Density Pre-War (RLD-Pre). This request brings the Master Plan Land Use Map into alignment with a previously approved up-zone at this location that allows a higher <i>density</i> – more residential units – in the space.<br /><br />Context: the existing up-zone was inconsistent with the Master Plan, but approved in support the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (<a href="http://jpnsi.org/">http://jpnsi.org/</a>), New Orleans first public land trust. This project is an attempt to create permanently affordable housing in New Orleans, and is based on a model that has been successful in other cities. From a zoning and land use standpoint, there ought to be a better way for our laws to allow neighborhood scale multi-family residential developments like this one without unlocking the potential problems and legal allowances that come with designating it “medium density,” but for now no real middle ground exists. Zoning inconsistently with the Master Plan followed a few years later by lot-specific Master Plan amendments is probably not the best way to do this, but absent a better solution for this spot, here we go.<br /></li>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-31</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request a change to the land use map for multiple addresses at the intersection of N. Carrollton Ave and Dumaine Street. The lots in this area currently mapped as Neighborhood Commercial (NC) will be re-mapped Mixed-Use Low Density (MUL). As I understand it, this is part of a city-wide proposal to use the NC designation in more suburban neighborhoods and the MUL designation in the more urban neighborhoods. Despite the name change, the differences are relatively minor ones, as all these lots are already mostly “neighborhood commercial” and “mixed use low density.” If the shoe fits. (This is a similar type of change to PD-5-5 below, and changes like this will be found all over the city.)</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmJmhb7emqpflAXmteE6oI7eBW7u1eNKwekN7GtxIEhe65hnSuc-jHdP8a-H2CNUrCceBe-NyKpR_WmCScRhOXyt_7z9CSHgVPi3cP03VMSPOjRnk8RgKKMsA9L0xQJA9KwvSGlg/s1600/Dumaine-Carrollton.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmJmhb7emqpflAXmteE6oI7eBW7u1eNKwekN7GtxIEhe65hnSuc-jHdP8a-H2CNUrCceBe-NyKpR_WmCScRhOXyt_7z9CSHgVPi3cP03VMSPOjRnk8RgKKMsA9L0xQJA9KwvSGlg/s320/Dumaine-Carrollton.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-40</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request to change the land use map for 501 S. Bernadotte Street from Open Space/Parkland (OS) to Mixed Use Low Density (MUL). This is the triangle of property on the outfield side of St. Patrick Park, between the neighborhood and the railroad tracks and I-10. Remapping this space would allow the private property owner to do something with this property that could include residential or commercial uses depending on what zoning it applies for.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWS6H_kY_8UpLjGv3ie8Qbx2SBM-m6rRnBh-oO_AL2GcvrzzGu17afVW_hrqcfSGBqQUiwKpGYlzJCJuZ3Z6p9L_Us2zPr8ufLTkqvN7a-ywKagK-g8Fo5A9-ld44RxeeL6v3JMQ/s1600/501-S-Bernadotte.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWS6H_kY_8UpLjGv3ie8Qbx2SBM-m6rRnBh-oO_AL2GcvrzzGu17afVW_hrqcfSGBqQUiwKpGYlzJCJuZ3Z6p9L_Us2zPr8ufLTkqvN7a-ywKagK-g8Fo5A9-ld44RxeeL6v3JMQ/s320/501-S-Bernadotte.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-4-52</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request to change the land use map for 2901 Canal Street. from Transportation (TRAN) to Industrial (IND). This is the RTA HQ Streetcar/Bus Barn. This is a nominative correction to the map that should have little impact. I doubt the City of New Orleans is going to abandon this important public facility and sell it off to some factory. But the noise and activity involved with the streetcar and bus barn justify the “Industrial” designation from a land use <i>intensity</i> perspective.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunM7MBl_5D1_LU-VL5agU3tpLyAWKcmAQbrGSOgOU0btJbwO4ORAUnfioS9ZDVupcmn0n24m1v_G2qkU0pBdO-4zn30ewr7cUWR22qH_-lc_p2-VBp6NiSoSCx6A6inLdtYWoMg/s1600/RTA-Map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunM7MBl_5D1_LU-VL5agU3tpLyAWKcmAQbrGSOgOU0btJbwO4ORAUnfioS9ZDVupcmn0n24m1v_G2qkU0pBdO-4zn30ewr7cUWR22qH_-lc_p2-VBp6NiSoSCx6A6inLdtYWoMg/s320/RTA-Map.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-5-3</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request a change to the land use map for 5290 Canal Blvd from Cemetery to Residential Single Family Post-War (RSF-Post). Some of the land owned by the church probably got mapped into the cemetery, and this corrects that so the church can do something on their property. Yeah, it is outside Mid-City. This is across City Park Ave in Navarre, but you always want to look at proposed changes nearby.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCx5_MLHsrzbaPKu1tmmrKKSZ8LMFCTx-DNwlxOyi-kWLATg44C9-L0V4k8H9mW-EXSfS4JqzQH3qtWmudd6RJTtTS2wPYKCEn7qXFnnGVadqBuB2PBvY5g0C95GdylK2OjcSJPw/s1600/Church.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCx5_MLHsrzbaPKu1tmmrKKSZ8LMFCTx-DNwlxOyi-kWLATg44C9-L0V4k8H9mW-EXSfS4JqzQH3qtWmudd6RJTtTS2wPYKCEn7qXFnnGVadqBuB2PBvY5g0C95GdylK2OjcSJPw/s320/Church.JPG" width="316" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-5-5</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request a change to the land use map for multiple addresses between City Park Ave, N. Hennessy St, St. Ann St., and N. Murat Street. The lots in this area currently mapped as Neighborhood Commercial (NC) will be re-mapped Mixed-Use Low Density (MUL). As I understand it, this is part of a city-wide proposal to use the NC designation in more suburban neighborhoods and the MUL designation in the more urban neighborhoods. Despite the name change, the differences are relatively minor ones, as all these lots are already mostly “neighborhood commercial” and “mixed use low density.” If the shoe fits. (This is a similar type of change to PD-4-31 above, and changes like this will be found all over the city.)</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOFjOey_-cwFhJxUQ5Ui6oVH_Vz2OGaCnE9ItS3treTr89yljuK4nITyoM2pU3qePq9IT6teYoyxj30M8zOKupqMAxKlKryaGAChJAdY1QmOwHubgKbYh7vxjb2b7XKhQVaHTFA/s1600/City-Park-NC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOFjOey_-cwFhJxUQ5Ui6oVH_Vz2OGaCnE9ItS3treTr89yljuK4nITyoM2pU3qePq9IT6teYoyxj30M8zOKupqMAxKlKryaGAChJAdY1QmOwHubgKbYh7vxjb2b7XKhQVaHTFA/s320/City-Park-NC.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-5-6</u>: The City Planning Commission staff request a change to the land use map for 615 City Park Ave & 5501 General Diaz. This is Delgado Community College, and the change would remap from Open Space/Parkland (OS) to Institutional. Institutional is the designation usually associated with uses like colleges and hospitals. This is also outside Mid-City, on the other side of City Park Ave in Navarre, but you always want to look at proposed changes nearby.</li>
</ul>
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<li><u>Request Number PD-5-8</u>: An owner-initiated request to change the land use map for 5068 Pontchartrain Blvd. from Residential Single Family Post-War (RSF-Post) to Mixed Use Low Density (MUL). This is on the other side of the Interstate from Mid-City, so I don’t really have an opinion. Just looking at proposed changes nearby.</li>
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Now, let’s be clear. Everything I just wrote is my opinion and my opinion only. If you see something on here you don’t like, or something that you do, don’t complain to me. I’m only some guy writing stuff on the internet. Ain’t nothing I can do for you I ain’t already done. <br />
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If you want to fuss at someone who CAN do something, contact a city decision-maker. For stuff like this, that’s the City Planning Commission and your City Council members. You don’t have to be some sort of expert. This is America, all you have to have to talk to your government decision makers is an opinion. We live in a participatory democracy, so feel free to participate! <br />
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(Just make sure that when you do, identify your opinion appropriately according to the correct Request Number.)
To tell the CPC what you think, email <a href="mailto:CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV">CPCINFO@NOLA.GOV</a>. They’ll put your thoughts in the public record for any proposal. Full contact info here for letters & phone calls: <a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/contact-us/</a>.<br />
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If you want to take it a step further, tell your City Council members: <a href="http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45">http://nolacitycouncil.com/meet/meet.asp?id=45</a>. Remember that no matter where you live in New Orleans, you have 3 representatives on the Council, your district reps and the two at-large members.<br />
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And don’t forget to share your thoughts with your neighborhood organization. Neighborhood organizations don’t have any power and can’t do much, but they do host meetings and communicate with the city on a regular basis. Letting them know how you feel can go a long way to amplify your voice.
If you’re in Mid-City, you can reach Mid-City Neighborhood Organization at (<a href="mailto:board@mcno.org">board@mcno.org</a>).<br />
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<b>Citations</b><br />
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I didn’t make any of this up, y’all. You can find all the information online at the CPC website. And if you’re not in Mid-City, don’t worry, there are plenty of Master Plan amendments for your neighborhood, too. You should talk to your neighbors about them.<br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments webpage:
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<a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/</a><br />
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New Orleans CPC Master Plan amendments (itemized):
<br /><a href="http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/" target="_blank">http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/mpamendments/master-plan-amendment-submissions/ </a><br />
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You can also view where the proposed Master Plan changes are on a map of your neighborhood. Go to the above link, scroll to the bottom, and click on your neighborhood map.
Mid-City is in Planning District 4 with Treme:
<br />
<a href="http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.nola.gov/nola/media/One-Stop-Shop/CPC/2016_1007_FLUM_Amend_PD4-1_1.pdf</a>Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-64727604405495707722015-08-12T23:42:00.004-05:002023-03-19T18:14:03.527-05:00What These Monuments Stand ForSo I actually have a nuanced and complex opinion on the monuments and street names in New Orleans that honor the mythology of heroes to the so-called Confederate States, the cause they fought for, and the cause these monuments were built to celebrate. But since so many of the folks who want to keep these monuments and street names and all they represent, who defend them with bombastic and hyperbolic statements as if this is some simple issue, I feel it is only right that I return the favor with my own oversimplified position.<br />
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Throw these things in the damn lake and let them be buried in the mud.<br />
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These are monuments and honorifics that celebrate people who took up arms against the United States of America and for four years of open warfare attempted to destroy our nation. They fought for the "rights" and "freedom" of some human beings to own and enslave other human beings deemed inferior due to the color of their skin.<br />
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The period of open warfare did not achieve these political goals, and instead secured the Union, ensured emancipation, and provided for the expansion of civil rights to previously enslaved Americans. A period of insurgent warfare and terrorism followed, as adherents to the old system attempted to restore the old order of things, where the rights of newly freed citizens would again be diminished due to the color of one's skin. There are monuments celebrating this warfare as well, right here in this city. <br />
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These are not questionable assertions or theories. These are the facts backed up by the historic record, often written by the very hands of the men who fought to destroy the Union and the men who fought to destroy the rights of others after the Civil War ended. These writings and statements of purpose we considered so uncontroversial that the very organizations that would later hold these men up as paragons of Southern patriotism and pride would preserve the very writings and statements of purpose that make up this historical record. They would do so unashamedly. <br />
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They would be able to do so because the simmering and unending insurgency in the South became too expensive for white Northern sentiment to justify. White Northern sentiment, after all, was not a monolith thrown behind support of civil rights. In the end, the old temptations of power and money conspired to undermine the projects of Reconstruction and civil rights. In the end, certain interests in both the North and South realized what could be achieved with white sectional reconciliation, and what material wealth could be gained by keeping millions of citizens just above the institution of slavery, in the strangling arms of Jim Crow.<br />
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That white sectional reconciliation, that return to something close to the old order, was something to be celebrated. And what better way to celebrate the eventual "victors" of an issue than by building grand monuments to them, in places of public note? What better way to honor them than to have grand thoroughfares graced with their names? What better way to enshrine their "restored" legacy than to name schools for them? All of these are the ways our culture and civilization celebrate the giants among men.<br />
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What better way to say "we told you so" than to place the losers of a war in the highest pinnacles of cultural honor and, in the process, legitimize and polish away the ugly motivations behind the cause they fought for and attach some higher civic meaning to the military loss?<br />
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And once that higher civic meaning was attached, and the ugliness of "they fought to own other human beings" was washed away from their legacy with stories of defense of home and hearth and question of rights, all white Southerners were encouraged to buy into the fantasy (or discouraged from challenging it too fiercely). Many could now double down on the belief that superiority of skin color was real, that forces for "good" might have lost on the battlefield but won out in the end. Whole cults of personality grew up around the mythology of these men and reinforced the social hierarchy with laws, social behavior, and violence if anyone got too far out of line.<br />
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When monument defenders talk about the "history" they so desperately want to preserve, that is the history they are preserving whether they want to believe it or not. There are no footnotes of fine print on these statues and street names that say "we know this is complicated, but..." If such footnotes existed, if such context was added, then this may not be such an emotional issue for so many.<br />
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Look at the opposition, after all. The most popular online petition in support of keeping these monuments to heroes of slavery's cause demand the Mayor "stop talking about them." That's because even the civic conversation itself is dangerous - the very discussion of why these monuments were built puts the lie to the heroic mythology. Uncomfortable truths aren't usually welcome, and many individuals in the South are deeply invested in the bedtime story of what these men on those monuments represented. They aren't interested in the real context, the real history, or facing how the legacy of that history still runs deeply within our civic DNA to this day.<br />
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And those who would scold us for "erasing history" by moving these monuments out of their places of public prominence to places where appropriate historical context can be provided? They are defending monuments that served specifically to erase a more accurate accounting of history. They are defending monuments used to rewrite the cultural narrative of the South and celebrate the violent failure of Reconstruction's nascent civil rights project. They are defending trophies of propaganda to the Lost Cause. There are no footnotes or fine print on those statues and street names, after all.<br />
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There are plenty of places to put truth to the lies these monuments tell. General James Longstreet of the Confederacy moved to New Orleans after the Civil War and became a strong civic leader in this town. He was one of the officers in command of the integrated Metropolitan Police when the White League attacked the State House in New Orleans in 1874. He was pulled from his horse and was shot and injured. His actions for the Reconstruction government of New Orleans and Louisiana did not endear him to those who believed in the Lost Cause. Despite all his investments in New Orleans, there is no monument to James Longstreet in this town. But there is a monument to those who attacked him and his men at the Battle of Liberty Place.<br />
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PGT Beauregard of the Confederacy returned to his home in New Orleans after the Civil War. While he was no fan of Reconstruction or social integration, he grudgingly accepted political and economic rights of newly freed citizens. In the interest of calming New Orleans - violence was bad for business - he spoke eloquently on the topic. These words were not palpable to the Lost Cause, so do not appear on his monument on Esplanade Avenue.<br />
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Finally, at the corner of Carrollton and Banks, there is another monument. It is a plaque at the base of a flagpole, dedicating Carrollton as the "Avenue of Palms" to veterans of a different war, a forgotten war, Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. There is no proud US flag on the rusty flagpole, the plaque could use a good powerwashing to really make out the words, and the base itself is off-kilter and surrounded by litter.<br />
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You'd think that, with all these signatures and speakers loudly defending the history and deep meaning of New Orleans' monuments, at least of few of them would mention this humble bit of metal and concrete as worth of at least a little attention. But we know it isn't really about the monuments themselves, it is about what they represent. And uncomfortable truths aren't usually welcome.<br />
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<br />Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-42862509960272793952015-08-08T17:07:00.001-05:002023-03-19T18:15:06.085-05:00Letters to my Representatives: the Iran Deal After reading that former Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu has <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/mary_landrieu_joins_former_dem.html#incart_river_mobileshort" target="_blank">come out against the Iran Deal</a>, and seeing that sitting New York Senator Chuck Shumer is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-charles-schumer-announces-opposition-to-nuclear-pact-with-iran/2015/08/06/dd493986-3caf-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html" target="_blank">also making moves</a> to scuttle President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, I figured it was time to <a href="https://richmond.house.gov/contact-me/email-me" target="_blank">email my representative, Cedric Richmond</a> of New Orleans, and let him know how I felt about the situation. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Good afternoon, Rep. Richmond. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thank you for your work for Louisiana and New Orleans. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am writing to let you know I fully support the Iran Deal as negotiated through diplomacy by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
While I realize the deal has flaws and limitations, I believe it is in the best interests of the United States of America to see this agreement becomes official.
I believe that if Congress undermines this deal, the United States will be abandoned by our allies in Europe and by Russia and China over the issue of Iran. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
President Obama and Secretary Kerry have done an outstanding job keeping this strong coalition together and putting consistent pressure on Iran at the negotiating table. Undermining the agreement will only serve to undermine that important work and cause our nation to lose the credibility required to pursue diplomacy with our nation's rivals. If this happens, I believe the sanctions regime will crumble as the coalition does, and that the United States will be alone - and in a position of weakness - when attempting to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons in the future. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I also believe that, should the United States find itself in that weaker position, the chances of armed conflict with Iran is much greater. I fully support diplomacy over another military involvement in the Middle East, as our nation already remains engaged in several unresolved conflicts in the region. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am also keeping in mind that many of the loudest critics of the Iran Deal are also the very same individuals who promised that the Iraq War and Afghanistan campaigns would be "cakewalks" for the United States. And we all know how empty those promises and predictions turned out to be, and the terrible costs this country has borne because of that. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Please support President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and our allied nations' hard work in securing this deal through diplomacy. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thank you. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
-Patrick </blockquote>
Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-73409905283827687742015-07-11T22:50:00.002-05:002023-03-19T18:20:11.226-05:00The Lost Cause Winning Again Welp. Now that South Carolina has brought the Rebel Flag down, our "national conversation" on race and American history is ready to be turned back over to modern day believers in the Lost Cause. The full power of our larger, 150 year fairy tale history is rearing its ugly head in defense of our plague of Ozymandian monuments to <strike>Santa Claus</strike> <strike>the Easter Bunny the Tooth Fairy</strike> assorted mythological personalities created in the aftermath of the Civil War.<br />
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Not to say everyone contributing to this handover is a believer in the so-called Confederacy. Far from it, in fact. Most of the folks ready to man the battlements in the defense of imaginary Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the rest are simply holding on to the sentimentality of growing up in a region that cared more about heroic bedtime stories than it did with primary documents and evidence. <br />
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Others will appeal to the "history" - some to that of the South itself as if we are defined by 4 years of rebellion and 150 years of trying to cover up the real reasons for that rebellion, others as if the mere existence of a statue for a certain period of time should mean the thing itself is inviolate. Some defenders of the status quo are actually individuals who despise the so-called Confederacy and Lost Cause, but they dismiss any discussion of monuments and street names as "not focusing on the real problems," as if our larger social complexity is incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. As if so many of the larger social problems they'd rather we be talking about don't have their cultural roots in the fairy tale of the Lost Cause. <br />
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Meanwhile, the Lost Cause doesn't care if its defenders actually agree with it or not, semantically. It just keeps plodding along as it has since 1865, waiting for its opponents to argue with each other or change the subject before it quietly slips over to the desk and writes its own history when no one is looking or doing any fact checking. Before you know it, Bobby Lee is building schools for the children of his previously enslaved-Americans, and would have seen them all become productive voting citizens if those pesky carpetbaggers and scalawags hadn't come in and forced the South to turn to Jim Crow laws. Or something. I haven't checked the comments sections in the past hour, so I'm not fully up to date on all the new magical things Lee and Davis and the gang did to selflessly fix the country they tried so hard to break after they tried to break it.<br />
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The most successful defenders of the Lost Cause are currently getting everyone caught up talking about statues and place names for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. We've even gone off the rails so far in New Orleans that there's a "serious" discussion over the meaning of the fleur de lis and whether the city should abandon the symbol.<br />
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How does it help the so-called Confederacy to talk about bad parts of slave-owners? Well, despite their complex and often troubling places in American history, Washington, Jefferson, & Jackson were all Presidents of the <b>UNITED</b> States of America. There is definitely a need to further scrutinize their mythological histories with their historical realities, but not when the topic of conversation is focused on the so-called CONFEDERATE States of America and the cultural legacy of the Lost Cause in the South. Suddenly, you're rhetorically defending men who tried to destroy the United States through rebellion by referencing men who all used their office to <i>put down rebellions</i> or respond to threats against the United States.<br />
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Furthermore, consensus history already includes a lot about George, Tom, & Andy's slave owning, Native American fighting, and general hypocrisies. New Orleans already took names of theirs off local public schools. Most of us learn that the story of George Washington & the Cherry Tree is apocryphal - it is one of our first lessons in the difference between what we tell children at bedtime and what is the real story.<br />
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The Lost Cause, on the other hand, is a bunch of people holding onto the so-called Confederate States equivalent of that cherry tree story, holding their hands over their ears and yelling LA LA LA when someone wants to tell them their Christmas presents aren't actually delivered down the chimney by a Coca-Cola marketing campaign. The first rule of the Lost Cause is you do not criticize the Lost Cause.<br />
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As far as the fleur is concerned, history is full of appropriations and assimilations of symbols one way or another. I'm fairly confident, based on my limited experience in New Orleans, that the fleur de lis symbol long ago ceased to be one associated with French colonial black codes, and became far more inclusive among a very diverse population associated with living and participating in the culture of this city. As with all things, there is good reason to explore the history behind the symbol. But we can accept, in many cases, that history is not static and things can change, over time, in a culture.<br />
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Just like the United States flag flew over centuries of enslavement and Jim Crow and terrible things done to many ethnic minorities, as a symbol it has grown through the years to be more inclusive as the reality and aspirations of the nation became more inclusive. There is a reason it was carried at the front of the column as the marchers entered Selma, there is a reason it was waving on the steps of the Supreme Court as same sex marriage was legalized, and there is a reason it was seen on the steps of the South Carolina capitol as the Rebel Flag came down on Friday. If you weren't watching the live feed, you may have missed the audio of the crowd chanting "USA, USA, USA!"<br />
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It was easy to feel, in that moment, that things were changing. How gloriously & naively hopeful. While we're watching that flag come down, the Lost Cause has snuck in the back and started deleting paragraphs in the story we're writing right now. Listen close and you can hear which words they're typing in place: First the Rebel Flag, next the US Flag! First the Washington NFL logo, next the Saints' fleur! First Robert E. Lee's statue, next the Statue of Liberty! What about the black on black crime in Chicago? Which city will "they" burn to the ground next? The second rule of the Lost Cause is you do not criticize the Lost Cause.<br />
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Because that's what all this symbolism, the flags and the monuments, come down to. If Lee and Davis and the gang had spent as much real time on reconciliation as their mythology states, they might be worthy of the monuments and street names. They could have thrown themselves and their full clout into the project of Reconstruction, civil rights, and been remembered for building a better South and a better country after all, and it would have been in truth instead of in fantasy. Instead, they became the very symbols standing in the way of progress and reconciliation. The Rebel Flag was flown by rioting whites, the symbol of police dogs and firehoses, bombed churches and burning crosses, terrorism and night riders. Because of this, we've been going over the same old ground for 150 years, and the proof was in the pudding. Jim Crow won. The Lost Cause won. And we do not have the South the bedtime stories promised. We have nothing close, despite generations of work. So strong is the current we're working against. <br />
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That still doesn't stop the bedtime story from winning the day. The Lost Cause is upstairs putting the kids to sleep with it, while the other adults are still downstairs at the dinner table, arguing amongst themselves.<br />
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Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13205632.post-20869605640889862372013-04-08T23:41:00.001-05:002023-03-19T18:26:17.632-05:00In the Mail Dear <a href="http://www.landrieu.senate.gov/" target="_blank">Senator Landrieu</a>:<br />
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I am writing to ask you to <u>support</u> The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013 and to support whatever Senate legislation emerges that <u>includes the strongest possible language requiring background checks on all firearms purchases</u>.<br />
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While Louisiana has some of the most open firearms rules in the country, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-04/states-with-fewer-gun-laws-rank-among-most-violent-study-finds.html" target="_blank">this state is one that leads the nation in violence committed by firearms</a>. As a resident of New Orleans, violent crime is often on my mind and the minds of those closest to me. I find it shocking that up to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/02iht-letter02.html?_r=0" target="_blank">40% of the gun crimes in this area are committed by individuals who have been arrested previously for gun crimes</a>. Additionally, when it comes to domestic violence in this state, it is difficult to keep guns out of the hands of repeat offenders, <a href="http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/RemovingGunsfromIPVOffenders7Oct09.pdf" target="_blank">even in cases where authorities are aware that previous offenses or criminal records exist</a>. <u>Whatever is being done to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and domestic abusers is not working in Louisiana</u>.<br />
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While there are several enthusiastic lobbying groups who insist that “criminals will always find a way to get guns,” this does not mean we need to roll out the red carpet for them as we do in Louisiana. Right now, private sellers and vendors at gun shows are not required to run background checks on gun purchasers. And while it is nominally illegal for a seller to knowingly complete a transaction with a purchaser who is ineligible for firearms ownership, without the requirement of background checks, there is simply no way the seller has to know. <u>This means that, right now in Louisiana, it is harder to register to vote or apply for a driver’s license than it is to purchase a firearm</u>.<br />
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This has to change. Even if violent crime has diminished nationwide, <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/01/local_leaders_divide_over_obam.html" target="_blank">we are facing an epidemic of firearms violence in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans</a>. On this issue, I stand with individuals like Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas, and your own brother, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, in taking this issue seriously and personally. Additionally, I stand with President Barack Obama on the majority of his proposals, and I hope you will join him with your support and your vote in the United States Senate.<br />
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I also know that it will be difficult for you, politically, to oppose those enthusiastic and well funded “gun-rights” lobbying groups in Louisiana. As a born and bred Southerner, I know the political power being wielded by those lobbying groups who would take advantage of our shared cultural heritage of hunting, sportsmanship, and family traditions of handing down firearms as heirlooms. Those lobbying groups – the NRA chief among them - <u>do not speak for me and do not have my support</u>. I find their arguments against the proposed firearms legislation hyperbolic, overwrought, and based more on fabrication and mischaracterization than any realistic estimation. During the latest national conversation, I have found the behavior of such groups to be disgusting and repugnant, worthy of little more than disdain.<br />
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My beliefs on that are formed because I have <u>actually read the 2nd Amendment, current federal firearms laws, and related Supreme Court decisions</u>. Chief among these is Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in the <i><a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf" target="_blank">District of Columbia vs. Heller</a></i> decision (emphasis added):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Like most rights, <b>the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited</b>. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that <b>the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose</b>. For example, the majority of the 19th-century courts to consider the question held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues. Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, <b>nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms</b> by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, <b>or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms</b>.</blockquote>
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Furthermore, any substantive reading of the <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d099:S49:" target="_blank">Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986</a> satisfies any concerns I have that universal background check requirements might be used to create a national firearms registry (although I would personally support a national registry for owners of assault weapons, as an outright ban appears politically impossible).<br />
<br />
As a law abiding citizen who has passed several background checks for both employment and volunteering efforts, I fully support universal background checks for all firearms purchases because I know the only individuals that will be inconvenienced are citizens who are <u>ineligible for firearms ownership</u> or <u>unscrupulous firearms sellers</u> who would easily provide them with a way around the law.<br />
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Again, I ask you to use your voice and your vote to stand with the President and with the City of New Orleans on firearms legislation, so our nation, state, and city can do more to keep guns out of the hands of those who would do the most damage with them.<br />
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Thank you for your support.<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
Similar letters sent to: <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call#write" target="_blank">President Barack Obama</a>, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact-vp" target="_blank">Vice-President Joe Biden</a>, <a href="http://richmond.house.gov/" target="_blank">Congressman Cedric Richmond</a><br />
<br />
.<br />
<br />Cousin Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04445894373136726700noreply@blogger.com0