Brad Pitt has been all over the news because of his involvement in building single-family homes in the hard-hit 9th Ward.
Now, the Make It Right project, started by a man who with Angelina Jolie is parent to three adopted and three biological children, is delving into multifamily housing. Indeed, Pitt certainly knows about the need for a spacious house.
The news should make some former 9th Ward residents happy. After all, the 9th Ward was home to extended families prior to Katrina. Make It Right’s duplexes might bring more of those families back to the 9th Ward.
“Families who want to come back to the Lower 9th have been asking us to build them so extended families can live together,” Make It Right Executive Director Tom Darden said in a news release.
So what will these duplexes look like?
According to the press release, the solar-powered, “highly energy efficient” homes will have interchangeable floor plans that allow families to change the size and configuration of the homes as their family size, needs or economic situations change; landings or stoops in the stairways to give families a place to gather; and designs that cut construction costs dramatically.
The first duplexes are scheduled to begin construction in August.•
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that seven states failed to enact budgets before Wednesday, when their new fiscal year began. The seven couldn’t agree on tax and spending agreements, according to the story.
Louisiana is not in that number.
In some places, such as California, budget deficits are so bad that states have begun issuing billions of dollars in IOUs to contractors and local governments.
Here are some excerpts from the story:
While California’s multibillion-dollar budget woes have become notorious, almost every state in the U.S. is facing severe financial problems. Sales- and income-tax revenues have plunged in the recession.
States that have passed budgets aren’t out of the financial woods. Revenues are shrinking faster than many had forecast.
Some states have made across-the-board budget cuts in 2009. Georgia, Louisiana, and Massachusetts made cuts in all seven major program areas identified by the National Governors Association, for example. Higher education was the area cut by the most states (31), while transportation felt the budget ax in only 15 states.
It’ll be a wonder if anybody truly can describe the details of what’s in the budget as the new fiscal year starts Wednesday. Legislative leaders could hardly offer more than generalities as they urged their colleagues to pass the spending plans in the final hour of the session.
Maybe within a few weeks – or months – they’ll be able to describe to their constituents what they did.•
Today, the Roosevelt Hotel opened in New Orleans, following a renovation of the roughly 115-year-old property. The site used to be the Fairmont Hotel, which closed after Hurricane Katrina and never reopened. Before it was the Fairmont, it was the Roosevelt.
The hotel opened to the public at 3 p.m. So, anyone who wants to check it out can. I got to tour it just before noon. Here’s a video I made from that tour.
The Legislature has approved a deal to keep the New Orleans Saints in Louisiana.
But not everyone is yelling “touchdown.”
The (Alexandria) Town Talk newspaper, in an editorial yesterday, criticized the deal, which involves the state leasing office space from Saints owner Tom Benson.
“The new deal, which was just approved by an extremely misinformed Legislature, still has us paying a hugely rich man with a hugely successful franchise — constantly selling out suites and seats — a yearly welfare check in the $6 million range as well as an extremely generous lease break on a New Orleans building,” the editorial says.
The editorial also criticized the Saints’ performance on the field.
Here’s an excerpt:
In Louisiana, we pay huge amounts of money for mostly bad pro football — two playoff appearances since 1993 — while our education continues to lose even more than the Saints.
The best sports in Louisiana life are free. LSU’s athletic department receives no state funds, much like all other NFL teams but Benson’s. Yet, LSU just won its fourth major national championship this decade last week — two in baseball and two in football. Over that span, the Saints have had only three winning seasons.
Yet the state money keeps rolling in to Benson and not to education and not to many other entities with much more need.
The editorial concludes with this:
Having an NFL team is a huge cash cow for Louisiana, particularly with another Super Bowl on the way in 2013 thanks to Jindal’s new deal. New Orleans will see most of that money, however.
Unfortunately, Louisiana is the only NFL state paying so much to make so much, which does not make much fiscal sense.•
This week, on WBOK, a black-owned New Orleans AM radio station, the hosts and callers were talking about the Legislature’s failure to pass a bill that would have allowed New Orleans voters to approve the city’s master plan.
Last year, a majority of New Orleans voters agreed that the plan should have the force of law. The master plan, a blueprint for future development in New Orleans, has not been formally adopted by the city yet.
The plan has its critics. One argument of the plan’s opponents is that some of the plan’s ideas will harm certain neighborhoods. Some say voters should have a chance to vote on the final plan. Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, cited those concerns as the inspiration behind his bill, which the House rejected Wednesday.
Some WBOK callers have been critical of the plan, too.
One black WBOK caller referred to the master plan as the “master’s plan.”•
Federal authorities yesterday confirmed that they have begun a criminal investigation of New Orleans’ technology office and crime camera contracts.
According to a story by The Associated Press, “FBI agents and investigators with the city’s inspector general’s office on Friday carried out ‘court-ordered searches and seizures of stored computer information at City Hall,’ (U.S. Attorney Jim) Letten and David Welker, the FBI’s special-agent-in-charge for the New Orleans area, said in a statement.”
Here’s more from the AP story:
The crime camera program has never lived up to the lofty hopes Mayor Ray Nagin once had for. It’s been known more for its nonworking cameras and severe cost overruns than for catching criminals. It has also spawned a civil lawsuit by two companies alleging the system they developed was misappropriated by people in and with ties to the city’s technology department. They also allege a conspiracy with Dell Inc. to sell the system.•
Record-high temperatures and dry weather are combining to make it hotter than hot in New Orleans.
CityBusiness reporter Emilie Bahr dug into how the heat is hurting local businesses.
“Right now, I wish I had a snowball stand out front instead of a rug store,” Greg Dombourian, owner of Dombourian Oriental Rugs on Magazine Street, says in Emilie’s story.
Mel Grodsky, president of the Lakeside Shopping Center merchant’s association, said the Metairie mall has been filled with people wearing T-shirts and shorts.
“We’re kind of like the Audubon Park and City Park right now,” he said.
Great quote.
Although the heat is hurting the business of some, if you’re in the ice cream business, the heat could heat sales up.
“It definitely doesn’t hurt our business when it gets hot,” said Bryan Gilmore, ice cream chef for Creole Creamery, an ice cream shop on Prytania Street.
I’m sure air conditioner repair businesses are keeping busy, too.•
A controversial bill that defines the word restaurants — which seems unnecessary in a state that loves to eat (judging by our girth, we seem to know exactly what a restaurant is) — cleared its last hurdle in the Legislature today.
Senate Bill 136 now heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s desk. The bill would allow people to keep their restaurant licenses if they receive at least half their income from selling food and nonalcoholic drinks.
The bill was born after some restaurants took issue with state Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Murphy Painter, who has fined restaurants he says operate as bars whenever they shut down their kitchens, offer drink specials and have live music events where only liquor is served.
Some in New Orleans are opposed to the bill, which is by Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport.
For example, Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates has been sending out e-mails at least since May to its members, calling the bill “a threat to all Louisiana cities, towns and neighborhoods.”•
The makeup of the board for a new teaching hospital in New Orleans has become an area of dispute between LSU and Tulane University.
According to The Associated Press, LSU’s Board of Supervisors wants to boost LSU’s representation on the board.
But Tulane has rejected an LSU board plan that gives LSU five appointees on an 11-member hospital board, according to AP.
Here are some excerpts from the story:
Tulane’s Board of Trustees last week approved a plan giving LSU four seats on a 12-member board. LSU board members amended the plan after voicing frustration that LSU would not have significant control over a project in which the school would be responsible for backing $400 million in bond debt for the 424-bed hospital, estimated to cost $1.2 billion.
“We’re the ones taking all of the financial risk,” board member Rod West of New Orleans said. “LSU … is the only one on the hook.”
What happens now? According to AP:
LSU’s move essentially sent the plan back to Tulane, though Tulane spokesman Mike Strecker said the board of the private New Orleans university is finished negotiating it.
Tulane issued a statement saying the LSU board’s move “indicates that Tulane and LSU have fundamental and philosophical differences with respect to the board composition and the appropriate safeguards and independent oversight of the proposed academic medical center.”
“Given the importance of the unresolved issues to the community and the state, Tulane believes the matter should now return to the Legislature and the administration for further action.”
Meanwhile, John Lombardi, LSU system president, tried to downplay the dispute, according to the story.
He said his board’s action was a positive sign: Only one significant point of disagreement remains, over how to manage the proposed hospital in downtown New Orleans.
Many people say the teaching hospital, which will replace Hurricane Katrina-damaged Charity Hospital, will be a major economic driver for New Orleans. For now, it’s driving a wedge between LSU and Tulane, it seems.
It’s also causing a delay in the project. Today, the state stopped the process for acquiring land for the hospital because of the disagreements over the board.•
If you’re looking for a job in Louisiana this summer, it might be tough if you want something in the restaurant industry.
That’s according to a National Restaurant Association report, which says Louisiana will add the lowest number of restaurant jobs of any state this summer.
The report says the state’s eating and drinking establishments expect to add only 100 positions for a total work force of 142,700 between June and August, which ranks Louisiana 25th.
Summer is typically flat in Louisiana and restaurants don’t normally add too many jobs during that time since tourism tends to be slower because of the weather, said Wendy Waren, vice president of communications of the Louisiana Restaurant Association.•
Louisiana’s May unemployment rate was lower than that of many other states, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today. It’s an indication that the state could be doing worse in this recession.
The national unemployment rate for May was 9.4 percent. Louisiana’s rate was 6.6 percent, up from 4.1 percent in May 2008.
Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia had a rise in unemployment from April to May. Nebraska had a decrease. Vermont’s rate was flat.
From May to May, jobless rates were higher in all states and the District of Columbia.
Louisiana’s May unemployment rate is low when compared with No. 1 Michigan’s 14.1 percent and No. 2 Oregon’s 12.4 percent.•
Realtors, like other business people, use Facebook to attract clients.
But Realtors should make sure their Facebook updates are not strictly business, if they want to use the site successfully, says Amy Chorew, a speaker at a Prudential Gardner Realtors presentation in Kenner today.
Realtors should mix personal with business on Facebook, she said.
“This is the cocktail party online,” she said. “What do you do at a cocktail party? You socialize.”
“I’m not saying you’re giving them your dress size,” she said. “Be smart on what you put on these sites. You have to do it as a business professional.”
Realtors should update their Facebook account at least once a day, she said.
Chorew’s presentation was geared toward helping Realtors learn how to use social media to grow their business.•
National real estate speaker Amy Chorew says today’s home sellers expect Realtors to use multiple forms of Internet marketing to help sell homes.
Realtors should be posting video and photos of homes, she said. Some Realtors post too few photos online, she said. A Realtor who posts many photos of a home will be more competitive than a Realtor who posts only one photo, she said.
It’s important for the photos to be good, she said. That means no clutter in the pictures.
“Your photos are your social networking,” she said.
Chorew spoke today in Kenner at a presentation by Prudential Gardner Realtors on how Realtors can use social media to grow their business.
I’m at a Kenner hotel this morning covering a Prudential Gardner Realtors presentation on how Realtors can use social media, such as blogs, to grow their business.
The speaker is Amy Chorew, who travels the country to teach Realtors how to use technology. Her blog is TheTechByte.com.
She began her presentation by admitting that Realtors are busy and, therefore, might have a hard time keeping up with technological advances.
“Some of us barely have time to eat a bagel at 3 p.m. for our breakfast-lunch,” she said. “How many of us have time to learn all of this? Many of us don’t have the knowledge base. To learn all of this could give some of us heart tremors.”
She said she is not asking the Realtors to use everything she will teach today, but to use what will work for them.
“Whether we like it or not the client is changing,” she said. “The client is our boss and the Internet has made them our boss.”
Check back with the blog for more updates from this event.•
Louisiana had the 24th most clean-energy businesses and the 22nd most green jobs. California ranked first in both categories, with 10,209 companies and 125,390 jobs, while North Dakota had the fewest jobs with 137 and Wyoming had the fewest jobs with 1,419.
“Louisiana is running in the middle of the pack when it comes to clean-energy companies and jobs,” the CityBusiness story also says.
The report says that Louisiana’s clean-energy job sector has grown much faster than total jobs in the state, even though there’s a lack of venture capital investment and little research activity in clean technology, according to the story.
Yesterday, The New York Times posted a story online about green jobs in New Orleans. Here’s a quote from Reed Dickson, director of the Conservation Corps of Greater New Orleans:
“In New Orleans, we can see the green economy right before our eyes,” Dickson said. “There’s a lot of discussion about whether green jobs will persist, but our experience is that they are here now.”•
Today, the Louisiana Lottery issued a press release about an LSU graduate who won $15,000 from a scratch-off ticket.
“Graduating from college is a great achievement, but facing the ‘real world’ can be daunting for graduates before starting a new job. That won’t be a problem for recent LSU graduate Darren Rome, however, who claimed a $15,000 top prize from a Louisiana Lottery Spades scratch-off ticket,” the press release says.
Clearly, the press release is designed to highlight Rome’s winnings. But, to me, the following is the most important line from the press release:
“Rome said he will use his winnings for moving and living expenses as he starts a new career in Houston.”
Maybe the potholes, endless construction and red-light cameras actually help make New Orleans drivers more tolerant.
According to the 2009 AutoVantage Road Rage Survey, New Orleans wasn’t ranked in the top five cities with the angriest and most aggressive drivers, which New York won. But we also didn’t rank among the most courteous drivers. That title went to Portland, Ore.
If only they would do a road satisfaction survey.•
It’s nice to know Mayor C. Ray Nagin isn’t the only official in the country to use the word “knucklehead” in reference to citizens causing trouble.
The Los Angeles police chief has blamed looting and vandalism that broke out in the city after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship on a “mob of knuckleheads,” according to an Associated Press story.•
After going to Google this afternoon and doing a search for news stories about New Orleans, this headline came up under search results: “Brad Pitt: Mayor of New Orleans?”
It seems UK publication The Mirror created a bit of a stir on the Internet when it ran a short story June 6 that said “The people of New Orleans want their most famous resident to stand as mayor.”
So who are the “people” The Mirror refers to?
The online story quotes one person, Thomas Bayer. “We need outside help getting the city fixed — Brad can get that done,” Bayer reportedly said.
I did some more digging online and found that there’s a Tulane professor named Thomas Bayer who is trying to drum up support to convince Pitt to run for mayor for the 2010 election. He lists 13 reasons why the actor should be mayor. Reason No. 13: “Stacy Head will be nice to the new mayor.”•
This week, a column by Mayor Ray Nagin appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper while the mayor was still under quarantine in China following a swine flu scare.
In the letter, published Tuesday, Nagin thanks Atlanta, where some New Orleanians evacuated to for Hurricane Katrina.
“We will never forget when many of you moved with real compassion for us in our time of need,” Nagin writes.
Nagin also raves about the “unprecedented economic boom” New Orleans is experiencing. The boom, he writes, is “predicted to last the next seven-plus years.”
“We still have challenges but we are among the best-positioned cities in America,” he writes.•
Lots of people like to say that Louisiana — New Orleans, in particular — is recession-proof, chiefly because of all the federal dollars sent to the state to help with the recovery from recent hurricanes.
But according the U.S. Labor Department, Louisiana had the second-highest rise in the number of newly laid-off workers filing jobless claims last week, The Associated Press reported. Louisiana had 809 new claims for unemployment benefits. Only Connecticut had more, 816.
Maybe things aren’t so rosy in the Pelican State.•
While Mayor Ray Nagin was under quarantine in Shanghai after a passenger on his flight was thought to have swine flu, he apparently was not sitting around doing nothing.
According to a story by The Associated Press, Nagin said he worked from China on a deal with Chevron, from whom the city wants to buy a building to serve as the new home for City Hall.
Here’s more from the AP story:
Late Wednesday, Mayor Ray Nagin said the two sides agreed on an $8 million price while he was in quarantine in China after being exposed to suspected swine flu. He said he expected a formal announcement Friday.
He said the price for the building rose as high as $9.4 million during talks but that the appraised value was $8 million.
“That’s what we offered, and they accepted,” he told The Associated Press from Australia. “They tried to get us up to $8.6 (million). But I wasn’t paying above appraised value.”•
New Orleans native Peyton Manning has become the pitchman for a tourism board. But it’s not in New Orleans.
According to a story today by The Associated Press, Manning, quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, will help promote that city for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association in hopes of luring tourists and conventions.
Here’s more from the story:
ICVA president and CEO Don Welsh said Wednesday that Manning will donate his time to the association and will be featured on its Web site and in direct mail, e-mail and printed advertisements to convention and leisure travelers.
Known for his many TV commercials, Manning says Indianapolis has been “tremendously supportive” throughout his NFL career, so he is happy to do what he can to promote the city he has “come to know and love.”•
Construction on the long-awaited Reinventing the Crescent project, which involves redeveloping an underused approximately 5-mile slice of the Mississippi riverfront from Jackson to Poland avenues, could begin in August.
That’s according to a story posted today on CityBusiness’ Web site.
The $30 million first section of the project involves street improvements along North Peters and Chartres streets, project officials said during a presentation last night at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. (For companies interested in getting a piece of the work, the project will go out for bid Oct. 1, according to the story.)
“The idea is to reconnect New Orleans to the riverfront. So many communities have already done this … we’re a little bit behind,” Sean Cummings, CEO of the New Orleans Building Corp., which is overseeing the project, said in a wwl.com story.•
Here are some adjectives that could be used to describe hurricanes: powerful, terrible, destructive.
Two New Orleans brothers-turned-entrepreneurs want to add a new one: delicious.
According to a story by The Associated Press, Russell and Stuart Adams, whose home was destroyed by Katrina, won $5,000 in the student division of the Mississippi Technology Alliance Business Plan Competition in Jackson with their “hurricake” idea.
More information on the cakes can be found at www.hurricake.com. Flavors include Cinnamon Surge, Chocolate City and Tropical Storm.
My question: Why would anyone want a cake shaped like a hurricane, a symbol of destruction and death?
The brothers provide their rationale the Web site:
The Hurricake idea was formed by Stuart Adams and Alexandra De Brock while eating a king cake during the 2009 Mardi Gras season. Stuart proclaimed to Alexandra how a king cake could easily be crafted to look like a hurricane. Alexandra agreed and replied with a further suggestion to make a cake for the hurricane season. Instantly the word Hurricake, a combination of the words “hurricane” and “cake,” came to Stuart and the excitement around the idea has since blossomed into the Hurricake Factory.•
Here’s an interesting note on spending out of Washington that could be of interest to Louisiana.
The Obama administration has said it will provide $3 billion toward an $8.7 billion tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City under the Hudson River. The Associated Press story goes on to discuss how the tunnel will increase direct routes between the two regions by eliminating a chokepoint.
Granted, this will be the third tunnel into the city, which already has countless bridges and ferries connecting the island to the outside world.
Isn’t the New York area supposed to have some of the country’s best public transportation? With Louisiana facing a minimum $14 billion backlog in basic and necessary road repairs, it would be nice for Washington to consider spreading some of their transportation money throughout the nation on projects that are vital rather than on something new that seems like duplication.•
Mayor Nagin heads back to China today, on an economic development trip that includes meeting with “four prospects interested in the possibility of locating their businesses in New Orleans,” according to a news release from his press office.
Nagin also went to China in April 2008 as part of a conference on world tourism involving 400 mayors.
I wonder what businesses are “interested in the possibility” of setting up shop in New Orleans.•
The New Orleans City Council gave its blessing Thursday to providing $2 million to a new public-private economic development partnership.
Here’s an excerpt from a story today by The Times-Picayune:
The public-private partnership is intended to replace what are widely seen as City Hall’s repeated failures under a series of mayors to conduct successful economic development initiatives. The effort has been endorsed by a long list of business organizations.
In a story on CityBusiness’ Web site, Jeffrey Finkle, president of Washington, D.C.-based International Economic Development Council, said the partnership “should assist the city in making economic development work better in New Orleans.”
I wonder why he used the word “should” instead of “will”?•
This week, I interviewed Jim Donelon, insurance commissioner for the state.
One of the questions I had for him was whether we’ll ever see homeowners insurance rates fall to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels.
That’ll never happen, he said.
It’s interesting, because he also said Louisiana poses a lower risk to insurers than before Katrina thanks to all of the repairs and upgrades that have been made to homes and the hurricane-protection system in the nearly four years since the storm.
Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, and much repair work remains nearly four years after the storm.
Despite the need for so much construction in New Orleans, Baton Rouge is seeing the second-highest job growth in the construction sector for a major region in the United States, according to an Associated Press story today on the findings of The Associated General Contractors of America.
According to the story, Baton Rouge has become the leading construction hub for the state, with 10,000 more construction jobs than New Orleans.
Baton Rouge’s 7.3 percent gain was beaten by Odessa, Texas, which posted an 8 percent gain.•
It doesn’t look good for Chrysler dealers in the New Orleans area who are among nearly 800 franchises the automaker wants to terminate.
Today, a federal judge overseeing the company’s bankruptcy case said the automaker has a good case for the termination of 789 franchises as part of its ongoing restructuring, The Associated Press reported. Tuesday is the last day the terminated franchises can operate as Chrysler dealers.
Chrysler has said that 17 of those dealers are in Louisiana, including John Furey Motors in Bogalusa, Orleans Dodge Chrysler Jeep and Madere’s Garage in Hahnville.
According to the AP story, U.S. Judge Arthur Gonzales said that under Chrysler’s plans, the 789 dealers, which represent about 25 percent of the company’s dealer base, will remain with the “Old Chrysler” collection of assets that are not scheduled to be part of Chrysler’s sale to Fiat.
Here’s more from the AP story:
Since those leftover assets won’t be making vehicles, there would be little use for the dealers that would go with them, Gonzalez said.
“If the sale would be consolidated, there’s a strong argument that no dealer network would be needed,” Gonzalez said at the beginning of today’s court hearing. “Nevertheless, I think it’s still important to have this hearing.”•
Here’s more evidence that Louisiana is not immune from the national recession.
According to a report released today by Manufacturers’ News Inc., the state lost 3,385 industrial jobs and 101 manufacturers from April 2008 to this past April. Industrial employment in the state fell 1.7 percent during that time.
Tom Dubin, president of the Evanston, Ill.-based publishing company, tried to put a positive spin on it for Louisiana.
“Due to its stronghold in the oil and gas industry, Louisiana’s losses are not nearly as severe as many other states,” he said.•
To encourage Louisiana residents prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, the state’s 4 percent sales tax was suspended this weekend.
But, according to some hardware stores, the sales tax holiday did not inspire shoppers.
“This past weekend not one person mentioned the sales tax, which was really surprising,” Bruce Foret, owner of Ace Hardware on Oak Street, said today in a CityBusiness story. “We talked about it a week before expecting significant business, but I completely forgot about it over the weekend because no one was buying anything.”
Stuart Schiff, manager of Johnny’s True Value on Mirabeau Avenue, had a similiar experience.
“Not one person came in and asked about (the sales tax holiday),” Schiff said in the story. “People in New Orleans wait until the last minute to prepare. It was the same as last year and the year before.”•
Today is the first day of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season.
As is to be expected, officials are urging the public to have a plan in case a major hurricane threatens them. But according to some experts, businesses — particularly small ones — aren’t prepared, despite the well-publicized destruction of recent hurricanes, namely Katrina and Ike.
In Arkansas, a study by Fayetteville State University conducted in the fall among 151 small businesses “found many were vulnerable for closure because they weren’t prepared for hurricanes, terrorist attacks or even pandemics,” according to a story in The Fayetteville Observer newspaper.
“Businesses in general tend not to be well-prepared for natural disasters, whether it’s lightning striking a building or a hurricane,” Scott Daugherty, executive director for the Small Business and Technology Development Center in Raleigh, N.C., said in the story.
Here’s more from the story:
The FSU study found more than half of the businesses could only sustain salaries for about a week and hadn’t developed an emergency plan for suppliers or contractors.
About 50 percent admitted they hadn’t planned for demand fluctuations of products or services after a disaster or during an epidemic.
Some businesses expect government disaster relief and insurance policies to help them, but that may not be the case, said Carol Chastang, an SBA spokeswoman.
In most cases, the Federal Emergency Management Agency won’t help unless the disaster affects a large number of businesses and homes, Chastang said. And the SBA doesn’t provide assistance unless at least 25 businesses and homes are affected, she said.
“Most business owners don’t carry adequate insurance, or they take for granted that someone will come in and help them,” she said.•
There will be some New Orleanians in need of housing really soon, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency wants people living in FEMA trailers to move out by the end of this month.
According to a WWL-TV story, the deadline applies only to people who got a trailer after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Those living in trailers because of hurricanes Gustav and Ike face a March 2010 deadline.
In Orleans Parish alone, there are nearly 800 FEMA trailers, according to the story.
According to a posting on southernstudies.org, there were more than 5,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama living in the trailers and in hotels financed by FEMA as of May 1.
Can local apartment owners expect an influx of business as these residents look for shelter? Can contractors expect the phones to start ringing as the evicted look for someone to repair their hurricane-damaged homes?
Maybe.
According to the WWL story, some trailer occupants in New Orleans East are rushing to repair their homes. But finding a contractor — and enough money to make the repairs — has been a problem, some say, according to the story.
But if money is the problem, apartments and contractors might not see a boost in business afterall.•
Yesterday, I posted a story by The Associated Press on the Louisiana Senate’s approval of a state sales tax exemption for Mardi Gras beads and other trinkets thrown during Carnival.
As the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority considers expanding streetcar lines, should the new lines benefit tourists more or locals?
It’s a question that’s arisen now that three extensions have been proposed:
– the Union Passenger Terminal/Howard Avenue loop, running from Lee Circle to Canal Street via Loyola Avenue;
– the French Quarter/Elysian Fields Avenue/Press Street loop, which would bring streetcar service into the Treme and 7th Ward; and
– a loop along Convention Center Boulevard and the Mississippi Riverfront, serving the New Orleans Morial Convention Center and adjacent hotels.
According to a story in this week’s issue of CityBusiness, Walter Brooks, executive director of the Regional Planning Commission, sees benefits to tourists in the Convention Center loop. For one, visitors wouldn’t have to walk as far to reach Canal Street, the French Quarter and major hotels, he said.
He also pointed out that recent developments, including Superdome upgrades and the city’s interest in relocating City Hall to the Chevron building, have heightened the appeal of the UPT/Howard Avenue loop.
But Jeff Schwartz, an urban planner and New Orleans native, said the Convention Center loop benefits a small number of tourists and businesses and does not service New Orleans residents or the bigger tourism picture.
Here’s more from the CityBusiness story:
A streetcar extension along Convention Center Boulevard would not add a new destination because it would duplicate the riverfront service, Schwartz said. Additionally, he said it would serve far fewer residents given the lack of population density along the route.
Schwartz questions why transportation and planning officials are “continuing to focus on this very sheltered, narrow-minded vision of what tourism can be.”
“When you go to a city like New York, Chicago or Boston, you want to go out and see all of the neighborhoods, right? And the public transportation there lets you do that,” Schwartz said. “(The French Quarter loop) would let people who come to the city, very easily with only one transfer, get all the way from Carrollton Avenue to the Bywater.”
According to the story, RTA chief executive Justin Augustine said the authority has not taken a stance on any of the proposals.•
When Mayor Nagin announced at his final “State of the City” address this week that he wants to relocate City Hall to the former headquarters of Chevron, it was news to more than just the general public.
Some members of the City Council said they had no idea of Nagin’s plans, according to media reports.
Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, said she recently toured the Chevron buildings with top administration officials. But she said she thought the building was being considered as a way to save money by centralizing city offices now housed in private buildings, including the Amoco Building.
During her tour, Hedge-Morrell said, someone mentioned the idea of relocating all of city government, but she added she was surprised to hear Nagin pitch it as a serious plan.
Council President Jackie Clarkson said she also has toured the Chevron site.
“It is a great building at a great price,” said Clarkson, a Realtor. But although she said she was aware of the idea of uprooting municipal functions to the new location, she did not realize plans were progressing so quickly.
The council’s other at-large member, Arnie Fielkow, and Councilwoman Stacy Head, whose district includes the current City Hall campus and the Chevron buildings, said they had no idea the purchase was being considered.
According to the story, members of the City Council would have to sign off on the purchase.•
Mayor Ray Nagin will give his final “State of the City” address tonight at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts.
Via a press release, Nagin’s press office has given a sneak peak at what the mayor will talk about. Portions of his talk should be of interest to the business community.
Here’s the press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 20, 2009
State of the City Address to Highlight Recovery, Economic Development and Race Relations
New Orleans, LA – Mayor C. Ray Nagin will deliver his annual State of the City Address tonight and will focus on issues important to the City’s recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the breached levees, such as the growth and stability of neighborhoods through increased homeownership opportunities and affording housing for seniors and working families.
Mayor Nagin also will honestly address the issue of race relations, including its impact on our community and future, as well as infrastructure improvements, public safety and economic development.
Finally, the Mayor will recognize the hard work of citizens who have returned and who strive daily to improve this city.
During the speech, Mayor Nagin will announce a number of new initiatives that the city will implement to maintain the momentum of this historic recovery.
The State of the City event will begin at 6 p.m. at the newly renovated and restored Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Mayor Nagin is expected to begin speaking at approximately 7 p.m.
Actor Wendell Pierce, a New Orleans native, will serve as master of ceremonies. Music will be provided by to local choirs-Franklin Avenue Baptist Church and First Baptist Church.•
I’ve been surfing the Internet today, looking for how the national media are covering New Orleans’ landing of the 2013 Super Bowl.
I came across the following string of comments on the Web site of the Sun Herald, which covers coastal Mississippi. The writers use the online names of Padauk and Sparta.
Padauk: All ticket holders should receive a free bullet proof vest and a 9mm. I wish you luck getting to and from your cars.
Sparta:That is if your car is still where you parked.
Padauk:LMAO!!! You got that right!
I wonder if these folks are from New Orleans. Or are they from Phoenix or south Florida, which New Orleans beat in the race for the Super Bowl?•
New Orleans will find out today whether it will score a touchdown in its attempt to land the Super Bowl in 2013.
Without question, the event would pump millions of dollars into the New Orleans economy, with hotels and restaurants the big winners.
But will Mardi Gras be a factor in whether New Orleans scores the game?
The Super Bowl reportedly is scheduled for Feb. 2, 2013. Mardi Gras will be held 10 days later, on Feb. 12.
The last time New Orleans played host to the Super Bowl was Feb. 3, 2002. Interestingly, Mardi Gras also fell on Feb. 12 that year. Here’s what a story by The Associated Press said at the time:
Even with travel and tourism still in a slump nationwide in the wake of last year’s terrorist attack, New Orleans had most hotel rooms in the city booked this weekend — and that was without the Super Bowl.
The disruption in the NFL schedule due to the attack pushed the game back a week and almost forced the game to be moved out of the Big Easy. The lack of hotel rooms to accommodate the game’s estimated 75,000 visitors was one of the biggest problems brought by moving the date of the game, along with an auto dealer’s convention that had been booked into the Super Dome for the weekend.
The story goes on to say this:
In the end, the game stayed put on the new weekend. Mardi Gras parades, the convention and other events were rescheduled for last weekend. But the strong demand for New Orleans’ hotel rooms means that the economic impact of the game is somewhat more limited than it would be at other locations.
“If you put a Super Bowl in Detroit in January, it does have a big positive benefit to the city — a significant fraction of those who attend and spend hundreds of bucks a piece wouldn’t be there otherwise,” said Roger Noll, professor of economics at Stanford University and an expert on the economic impact of sports on a city. “But if you do the same thing in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you’re just displacing people who would be there anyway.”
It makes you wonder whether the NFL decision-makers today might consider giving the Super Bowl to south Florida or Phoenix, because New Orleans will benefit economically from Mardi Gras around the same time. Then again, they’ve been generous to New Orleans in the past; the city has played host to nine Super Bowls already. Why not make it an even 10?•
Businesses in the New Orleans area will likely be glued to the Internet, radio and TV — perhaps all three — today to see whether the city will land Super Bowl 2013, which will have a major economic impact on the community that plays host to it.
The announcement is expected to arrive this afternoon. Also in the running for the game: South Florida and Phoenix.
Today, CityBusiness contacted local businesses and asked them about what the game would mean for them. The last time New Orleans played host to the Super Bowl was in 2002.
“It would probably be equal to two months’ worth of normal income,” Susan Bonomolo, part owner of New Orleans-based Bonomolo Limosines, said in the CityBusiness story.
According to a 2003 article I found online today, the Super Bowl consistently has an economic impact of between $220 million and $350 million.
Such an impact could help New Orleans’ tourism industry, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and now is coping with the effects of the recession.
As New Orleans businesses wait for the official word, a posting on nfl.fanhouse.com claims Saints owner Tom Benson is sure New Orleans will be awarded the game.
Here’s an excerpt:
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either; I’m all for “fair shakes” and “democratic voting” and whatnot, but New Orleans is a city that — more than most in this miserable economic state — could really use an infusion of revenue. It won’t happen (allegedly at this point) happen until 2013, but at least it’s some sort of faint glimmer of hope.•
Like developers throughout the U.S., those in New Orleans are faced with the difficulty of financing their projects. And, like in other parts of the country, some developments — the Trump project and Tracage, to name a few — planned for New Orleans have been put on pause until the struggling economy gets back on its feet.
In a story in this week’s edition of CityBusiness, reporter Jaime Guillet wrote about developers who “are faced with what to do with their property now that the economy has shut down most large-scale condo projects in the city.”
One developer, Shea Embry, who has had difficulty getting financing for a $42 million Bywater condominium and retail development, is giving thought to offers that she once passed over, such as those from the film industry, which could use her property as office space for boutique post-production facilities.
But, according to the story, some developers don’t have the luxury of leasing their sites to others until the economy heals.
Take The St. Raymond, a residential development once slated for the former Jefferson Plaza Shopping Center. When The St. Raymond project was scrapped last year, developer Jim St. Raymond put the site up for sale.
“To date the property has not been actively marketed, so there has been no action on it because it doesn’t appear to be available,” said Scott Rojas, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission.
Even after the economy takes the hancuffs off the developers, though, will there be enough residents to buy all of the condos slated for the New Orleans area?•
Today had to be stressful for General Motors Corp. dealers nationwide, including those in the New Orleans area, as they waited for letters letting them know whether they are among 1,100 shops GM wants to eliminate.
As of this afternoon, no New Orleans metro area dealers have announced that they are on GM’s list. GM is not publishing the names of the dealers being cut. Instead, the company is leaving it up to the dealerships to share the news with the public.
If you received a letter, it meant bad news. If you did not get one, well, your weekend just got a lot better.
Today, I spoke with a handful of GM dealers in the New Orleans area before, and after, they found out their fate. (To read CityBusiness’ coverage, click here.)
For dealerships in our area, it was a morning of waiting for the news.
Richard Flick, owner of Banner Chevrolet, at 5950 Chef Menteur Highway, told me he had a “false alarm” this morning when he received a FedEx package that he thought contained the dreaded news. But, luckily for him, that’s not what was in the package. Later in the morning, he knew that his dealership would be spared.
Joe Mossy, owner of Mossy Motors in New Orleans, also thought the news might come via FedEx. But the FedEx driver didn’t have a letter for Mossy. The mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service didn’t have a letter, either. Later in the morning, during a GM conference call from Detroit, officials said all dealers had been notified. Mossy still didn’t know anything about the future of his business. But he finally found out his dealership would be saved when someone called to tell him it was not on the chopping block.
New Orleans is among five U.S. cities that are “safe havens” from the U.S. real estate storm, according to a blog posting by The Christian Science Monitor’s The New Economy Blog.
Here’s an excerpt from the May 7 posting:
New Orleans – the city partially built below sea level – is one of the least “underwater” when it comes to real estate.
Only 3.8 percent of its homeowners owe more on their homes than those homes are worth, according to new survey released Wednesday by Zillow.com, an online real estate marketplace. That’s the second-lowest rate of the 160 metropolitan areas surveyed.
Of course, it’s easy to buck the trend when a major hurricane wipes out a good portion of your housing, pushes out a third of your people (especially the poor), and causes federal and state governments to pump in millions of dollars in aid.
The other four cities considered safe havens: Augusta, Ga., where 2 percent of homeowners are underwater; Cumberland, Md., 5 percent; Corvallis, Ore., 5.3 percent; and Oklahoma City, 6.3 percent.•
Chrysler today said it wants to eliminate 25 percent of its 3,200 U.S. dealerships. But it’s not clear if dealerships in the New Orleans metropolitan area, which is still recovering from hurricanes, will be affected.
Chrysler has not publicly announced which dealerships it wants to ax. The company wants to notify dealers before speaking publicly, Chrysler spokeswoman Kathy Graham said, according to a story by The Associated Press.
According to a story today in The Wall Street Journal, Chrysler dealers began receiving letters today telling them what will happen to their dealerships. The Journal said one dealer said Chrysler wants to close the dealerships within 30 to 60 days.
Here’s an excerpt from the AP story:
The company, in a motion filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, said many of the dealers’ sales are too low. Just more than 50 percent of the dealers account for about 90 percent of the company’s U.S. sales, the motion said.
The move, which the dealers can appeal, is likely to cause devastating affects in cities and towns across the country as thousands of jobs are lost and taxes are not paid.
When the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 30, New Orleans area Chrysler dealerships tried to look on the bright side.
“I think in the long run it’s going to be the only way Chrysler can survive,” Ray Brandt, owner of Harvey-based Ray Brandt Dodge Chrysler Jeep, said in a May 1 CityBusiness story. “I just think that this is the most positive move Chrysler could make at this time.”•
No one knows what will happen to Coconut Beach, the West End beach volleyball complex, as the Corps of Engineers considers acquiring some — perhaps all — of the site in the name of flood protection.
The corps wants to build a pump station in the area. The owner of Coconut Beach doesn’t know how much land the corps will acquire, but he said he learned this week that his entire site could be taken over.
“We have known for a while that they could use some of our land, and they’ve already told us they would use the least amount of land that they could,” Coconut Beach owner Bruce White told CityBusiness Wednesday. “We found out on Monday that the (corps’) acquisition department is trying to permanently acquire all of the land that includes all of the sand volleyball complex, all of the buildings that we use to house all of our equipment, the bar and grill and part of the parking lot.”
White, according to the CityBusiness story, said he and his business partners have spent more than $800,000 rebuilding and expanding the complex since Hurricane Katrina.
CityBusiness is waiting to get a comment from the corps.
It’s another example of businesses who face being put out of business as the New Orleans area is rebuilt. Mid-City businesses and residents are in a similar situation, facing a possible date with the wrecking ball to build a medical complex.•
The New Orleans area has lured a lot of filmmakers in recent years, and the success of films like “Ray” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has undoubtedly made the city attractive to others in Hollywood.
But the competition to attract the movie industry is heating up across the state, as well as in other parts of the country.
According to media reports, Shreveport will soon refund sales taxes companies pay when they shoot movies in the north Louisiana city. The rebates, which are up to $150,000, apply to films, TV shows and commercials and music videos with budgets of at least $300,000, according to a story by The Associated Press.
In this race to lure movie and TV productions, how much more are Louisiana governments willing to give away to attract the film industry?•
New Orleans-based Tidewater Inc. is in the news today after the government of Venezuela reportedly seized some of the company’s ships.
According to news reports, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has taken control of the assets of 60 oilfield service companies, including Tidewater, using a law passed by the national assembly last week.
“Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, is pressing foreign service companies to lower rates as growing debts hamper oil output,” The Times-Picayune reported.
In a CityBusiness story today, Tidewater spokesman Joe Bennett said the Venezuelan government is operating the Tidewater vessels. “This situation is very, very difficult to understand,” he said. “There are more unanswered questions than anything that’s been answered so far.”
The company is expected to talk more about the issue when it has its quarterly conference call, which just so happens to be scheduled for Thursday.•
The redevelopment of Lake Forest Plaza is one of those projects that has gone nowhere since Hurricane Katrina shut down the mall more than three years ago.
But is something finally happening at the eastern New Orleans site?
According to a story in The Times-Picayune, the owner of the mall agreed Friday to repay to the city a delinquent loan he and he former business partners owe.
Ashton Ryan Jr., president of First NBC Bank, bought Gowri Kailas out of the project this year and said he has assembled some investors who can repay the city and build a new shopping mall, according to the TP.
For paying back the city, the project could get some financial help. The TP story says the city has agreed to support the creation of a tax increment financing, also known as TIF, district at the mall. “The city also has agreed to forgive $1.2 million in interest and $165,000 in penalties owed by Ryan’s company, Lake Forest Plaza LLC, provided that it meets certain benchmarks for redeveloping the mall. Those benchmarks were not described in the agreement,” the story says.
That’s not the only support the city will give to the project.
“Nagin also pledged $1 million to relocate utility and sewer lines and to make other infrastructure improvements at the site. The mayor also agreed to support Ryan’s application for tax-exempt Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds, an incentive Congress created to spur private investment in the region after Katrina,” the story says.
I’d like to see the developers’ market analysis for this project. Are there enough residents back in eastern New Orleans to support it?•
By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
