Talk heats up about SUNO, UNO merger

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

As the state, which is facing a $1.3 billion drop in revenues next year, tries to find ways to cut costs, the future of Southern University at New Orleans is in question.

State Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, has suggested merging some of Louisiana’s colleges as a cost-cutting measure.

“We have community colleges across the street from four-year colleges,” Schroder said in a WWL story Tuesday. “We need to move those two-year colleges on the same campuses. There is no need to run all this overhead, bricks and mortar we’re paying for as taxpayers. Everything needs to be on the table.”

The idea of merging the two schools has some people fired up. Yesterday, it was a big topic on at least two local AM radio stations, WBOK 1230 and WIST 690.

On WBOK, a station that addresses issues important to the black community in New Orleans, there was concern that closing SUNO could result in more people going to jail, because, according to those on the show, the school’s admissions requirements are not as tough as other schools in the area.

On WIST, Kaare Johnson, who is white, was in favor of closing SUNO. Johnson, who went to Louisiana State University, earlier this year brought up the idea of eliminating some Louisiana colleges and universities, including Nicholls State University, saying the state has too many.

But some say SUNO is needed. For one, it provides an affordable option, they say. New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley, a SUNO graduate who teaches there, was on WBOK yesterday supporting keeping the school open.

(For a list of other SUNO graduates, click here.)

With all the talk about merging SUNO and UNO going on, SUNO today released an economic impact report that says the state gets $7 for every $1 spent on SUNO.

“SUNO generated $111.5 million on a budget of just more than $16 million from the state budget during fiscal 2009, meaning each dollar the state allocated to SUNO is multiplied about seven times,” reads a CityBusiness story about the report.•

You know it’s Jazz Fest when …

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

You know it’s Jazz Fest when you see musicians everywhere.

Today, at Luke restaurant, some musicians were sitting at a nearby table. At one point, one of them pulled out a black guitar and began showing it off to the others. I don’t know who they were, but one of my lunch companions said one of them is a drummer whose work he was familiar with. I can’t recall his name, though.

Readers, have you spotted any famous musicians in and around New Orleans during Jazz Fest? Who? Where? Tell us about it. Leave a comment.•

Can’t please ‘em all

By Christian Moises, News Editor

You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

The American Heart Association only takes its conference to smoke-free cities, while the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association said today that it probably will not come back to Louisiana for conventions if the Legislature passes anti-smoking bills.

So now the smoking debate becomes more interesting, as an economic development card has been played.

While the American Heart Association didn’t specifically cite the city’s smoking policy in their decision to opt out of a 2012 visit, the cigar and pipe retailers group — naturally — would be hurt by this.

While health and a level playing field among all food and drinking establishments have been cited as reasons for the bills, now that the tourism industry is showing its vulnerability, what will happen now?•

Does Jindal regret pay raise veto?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

About a year ago, it appeared Gov. Bobby Jindal was not going to veto a pay raise for the Legislature, even though the proposal was controversial with many in the public. Indeed, talk radio stations were filled with angry callers who said the governor was ignoring the will of the people.

Jindal, in a surprise move, reversed course and vetoed the raise.

But does the governor regret his decision?

Here’s an excerpt from a piece that ran Monday on the Web site of The Town Talk, a newspaper that covers the Alexandria area:

Some lawmakers acknowledged that the governor recently told a meeting of the Republican legislative delegation that he regretted vetoing the raise.

“It was at a delegation meeting that I missed,” said Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe. “But I heard about it.”

Asked about the governor’s comment that he made a mistake, Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, said “I believe he was talking the vetoes of members’ projects – and the pay raise, too.”

Today, I asked Melissa Sellers, communications director for the governor, whether the governor regrets vetoing the raises.

Here’s what she wrote in an e-mailed response:

Just as the Governor has said, vetoing the pay raise was the right thing to do. As he said the day he vetoed it, there were mistakes made in the process of initially telling legislators that the administration would stay out of the bill. But, most important, as he stressed yesterday, this is a time to look ahead and work together with the legislature to address the serious challenges facing our state.•

Welcome to New Orleans

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

A man who built a solar car and was driving it across the Americas hit a snag when he came to the Big Easy Sunday.

According to a story today in The Times-Picayune, “an hour after he parked on a busy, well-lighted French Quarter street, someone broke into the van and stole passports, laptops, credit cards, cash, a digital camera and a portable hard drive.”

What a way to welcome a visitor to our city. Hopefully he didn’t hit any potholes while he was here.

But if anything good came out of what happened to Marcelo da Luz, it’s the outpouring of support he received from New Orleanians. Here’s an excerpt from another T-P story that also ran today:

First NBC board member David Anderson presented a $500 check to da Luz and his crew to compensate them in part for the things they lost.

The group also received $500 from the company South Coast Solar; $160 in individual donations, and a laptop computer from a local doctor.•

To cut taxes, or not to cut taxes?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The Louisiana Legislature went into session today, and, by the looks of it, it won’t be an easy one for lawmakers.

Lawmakers have to consider more than 1,000 bills in a session that must end by June 25. Some of these bills aren’t light and fluffy stuff, such as proposals to tweak the homestead exemption, a sacred cow in Louisiana.

CityBusiness’ editorial this week says, “Add in the usual assortment of localized measures and those likely to stir controversy, and you quickly realize this session is fraught with peril for legislators and Louisiana taxpayers alike.”

But like Baton Rouge television station WAFB reported, “discussions are likely to revolve around House Bill 1, which deals with the state budget.”

The state is facing a $1.3 billion drop in revenues next year, a problem lawmakers will grapple with over the next two months. They will consider which programs to cut, and by how much.

Even though revenues are projected to be down by a whopping 10 figures, some lawmakers are considering cutting even more taxes.

Here’s an excerpt from an analysis piece by The Associated Press:

Lawmakers are proposing more tax breaks, everything from minor cuts with tiny price tags to bills that would eliminate the state’s entire income tax and crater the budget. More than 200 tax cut proposals are filed as the Legislature opens its regular session today.

Are they oblivious to the state’s money woes, truly committed to the notion that tax breaks would improve the state economy, trying to get a conversation going about a tax cut that could be years away from passage or just engaging in political posturing?

We are interested in how our readers would handle the state’s budget challenges. Weigh in on our Question of the Week.•

The legend of 1140 Royal St.

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Yesterday, CityBusiness was the first to report that actor Nicolas Cage has put his three-story home at 1140 Royal St. up for sale for $3.55 million.

It was a news item that caught the attention of a lot of our readers; it was the most popular story in our morning e-mail.

Since reporting the story of the sale, I’ve researched the legend of the house, which, like many homes in New Orleans, is said to be haunted. Lots of Web sites about haunted places include the Lalaurie Mansion.

Legend has it that the home was owned by Dr. Louis Lalaurie and his wife, Delphine. The couple reportedly lived the good life and held lavish gatherings at their French Quarter home.

Delphine allegedly tortured the slaves who worked in the home.

According to www.prairieghosts.com:

The finery of the Lalaurie house was attended to by dozens of slaves and Madame Lalaurie was brutally cruel to them. She kept her cool chained to the fireplace in the kitchen where the sumptuous dinners were prepared and many of the others were treated much worse.

One incident involved a young slave girl who “was brushing LaLaurie’s hair in the upstairs bedroom when the comb hit a snag in her mistress’s hair, enraging LaLaurie,” according to wikipedia.org. “LaLaurie whipped the twelve-year-old slave girl, who tried to escape but fell off a balcony overlooking the courtyard and died.”

There are other allegations of much more severe — in some cases gruesome — brutally against the slaves.

Here’s an excerpt from www.angelfire.com. (Warning: Some might find this too disturbing).

Many former slaves were deceased and still chained to walls or strapped to makeshift operating tables. One woman’s mouth was allegedly stuffed with animal excrement and sewn shut. Some were still living, like praying for death to claim them.

Also online, I found some photos that are supposed to contain images of ghosts in and around the house.

Readers, if you have any links or stories to share regarding the house, please post them.•

Economy blamed for delaying N.O. condo projects

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The economy apparently continues to take its toll on major condo projects slated for New Orleans.

In February, an attorney for developers with Trump International Hotel & Tower New Orleans said the project was on hold because of the economy.

Today, I spoke with one of the developers of the Tracage condo project slated for the Warehouse District. That project, too, is on pause because of the economy, the developer said.

Tracage, like the Trump project, has been the topic in online forums.

On hornetsreport.com, for example, someone using the name AlbertR, on April 12, 2008, said, “I believe that Tracage is still a live project; however, if lawsuits drag out the start of construction, then the cost for the project might make it prohibitive.”

That same day, Alon504, writing about Tracage, said, “This is a pretty sure bet from all I’ve seen and heard.”

Readers, do you believe these two projects will see the light of day?•

Six Flags still a big empty

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

In the more than three years since Hurricane Katrina struck, much of New Orleans has bounced back: homes, schools, the Superdome.

The Six Flags amusement park in eastern New Orleans has not.

CityBusiness has reported quite a bit on the park’s post-Katrina status.

On March 20, 2006, we reported that “Six Flags New Orleans is closed for the 2006 season and possibly for good due to substantial damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, officials said.”

Almost a year later, on Feb. 14, 2008, we reported that “city officials have issued a request for proposals seeking a planning and engineering firm for a feasibility study of the eastern New Orleans site vacated by Six Flags after taking a hit in Hurricane Katrina.”

A year after that, on Feb. 27, we reported that “development of the former Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans East lies dead on the tracks as negotiations with the company are at a standstill.”

Today, we reported that Mayor Ray Nagin plans to meet with the president of Six Flags to discuss plans for the site.

I can’t wait to see what we’ll be reporting about Six Flags a year from now. Readers, what do you think the news will be by then?•

Would Hines’ plan work?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

A state lawmaker from New Orleans has a strategy for keeping young, educated people from fleeing Louisiana for better opportunities in other states.

Walker Hines, a Democrat, has proposed a bill that would eliminate state income taxes for residents ages 18 to 29 who are in college or have a college degree. I guess Hines doesn’t care about retaining 30-year-olds like me.

(On an interesting side note, Hines, who on his Web site says he was born and raised in New Orleans, went to the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.)

Today, I asked Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret what he thought about Hines’ proposal. Moret said he had not heard of the bill. But, Moret said, by and large the reason young people leave Louisiana is better job opportunities elsewhere.

On the CityBusiness poll this week, we’re asking our readers to weigh in on Hines’ bill. As of 3:17 p.m. today, 76.39 percent of 144 voters don’t like the bill.

Maybe that’s just because they’re all 30 years old and older. •

Lawmakers propose ban on traffic cameras

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Traffic cameras have become part of the New Orleans area over the past year or so. They popped up first in Jefferson Parish, which goes after red-light runners, then New Orleans followed suit by rolling out cameras that catch drivers who ignore red lights as well as those who speed.

Officials from both parishes say the cameras are making streets safer. Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young, for example, is a supporter of the cameras. New Orleans public works director Robert Mendoza has touted the lower number of violations since the cameras were rolled out.

Interestingly, some lawmakers want to do away with the cameras.

State Rep. Cedric Richmond is among the camera opponents.The New Orleans Democrat’s House Bill 480 would prohibit “local governments from using mounted traffic cameras to issue traffic violations,” according to a description of the bill on the Legislature’s Web site.

Some portions of the state are already banning the devices. Earlier this month, 86 percent of Sulphur voters rejected the cameras.

Louisiana is not the only state where bans on the cameras have been proposed. Lawmakers in Arizona, for example, have considered banning cameras that catch speeders.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the Legislature, because while some lawmakers want the cameras to be outlawed, others are looking for a slice of the revenue they generate.•

Plan to cap TOPS needs tweaking

Christian Moises, News Editor

It seems like higher education in Louisiana is the whipping boy right now.

With the millions in funding cuts facing the state’s colleges and universities, state Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, wants to add insult to injury by capping the base TOPS scholarship at $3,200.

Gautreaux’s proposal would still be enough to cover tuition costs at every state public college except LSU and the University of New Orleans. The new base would only make students pay an additional $294 and $28, respectively, but why shake up a system that has been working for nearly a decade?

LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said the limit in Gautreaux’s bill would punish LSU students. LSU is, by leaps and bounds, the state’s most popular university. Is this an effort to spread the wealth — and talent — among other state universities?

NolaDr2B posted the following on nola.com in response to the proposal:

Way to go, punish the kids that are trying to make a difference in their life and better themselves. If you really want to cut the cost of TOPS make it where if you don’t finish school then the TOPS grant turns into a student loan. That will keep the students in school till they finish and recover the cost of paying for student who do no want to better themselves.

If saving money is the motivating factor, this could be the best alternative. It’s better than paying nearly $9,000 for a student to drop out after their third year, not earn a diploma and have that money to waste.•

N.O. condo project’s future unclear

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

“Living in the Warehouse District (and Central Business District) is the future of New Orleans.”

That’s what a co-developer for the Tracage condo project said in a CityBusiness story three years ago.

But what is the future of Tracage?

Today, the project remains on the drawing board, much like the Poydras Street condo project involving the name of Doland Trump.

The project was supposed to be built by now. On Dec. 11, 2006, CityBusiness reported that a bulldozer on Nov. 30 had “punched through a concrete warehouse at the corner of Annunciation and John Churchill Chase streets, clearing the way for the $60-million Tracage luxury condo development.”

“The 127-unit Warehouse District condo project is expected to be finished by the first quarter of 2009,” the story said.

Today, there’s a large fence around the site, a dirt lot with no construction going on.

The Tracage project has signs of life elsewhere. It has a Web site, a sales office at 711 Tchoupitoulas St. and a media contact. CityBusiness earlier this week contacted the media contact to get an update on the project and is still awaiting an update. I tried to reach one of the developers by phone this morning, but my call went to voicemail.

Will construction begin? When? Is the project going to fall by the wayside, like some other condo projects have since Hurricane Katrina.

The most recent story about the project I could find on CityBusiness’ Web site is from April 9, 2008. According to the story, plans for the project were on hold because of a lawsuit challenging the project.

“Joshua Rubenstein, an attorney with Forman Perry Watkins Krutz and Tardy and a resident of Lengsfield Lofts, which is located next to the Tracage property, has filed a lawsuit in Orleans Parish Civil District Court in regards to zoning irregularities and specific issues with the setback on the property,” the story says.

To be sure, it is hard for construction projects to get financing these days, thanks to the national economic downtown. And it’s not unheard of for projects that were planned long ago to be put on the scrap pile because of inability to get financing.

But little is being said about the project these days, so it’s anybody’s guess as to whether, and when, Tracage will finally be a part of New Orleans’ skyline.•

You can’t spell ‘hip’ without I-P

Commentary by Greg LaRose Managing Editor

It wasn’t your typical chamber of commerce event. Actually, it was just a straight up party Thursday night when the founding tenants of the IP unveiled their new digs.

The five-story Intellectual Property building at 643 Magazine St., home to the McGlinchey Stafford law firm for 25 years, will now house six companies — a roster flavored heavily with entrepreneurial and tech-driven businesses. They include the Carrollton Technology Partners, Couhig Partners law firm, iSeatz.com, Launch Pad, TurboSquid and The Idea Village, which collaborated with the economic development entity Greater New Orleans Inc. to create a shared space for creative, upstart businesses.

Developer Brian Gibbs bought the 85,000-square-foot building from McGlinchey Stafford and gave it a cutting-edge feel with his makeover. At iSeatz.com, an online travel reservation service, the common area looks more like a swanky spa or lounge than an office.

That’s a good fit for Kenneth Purcell, iSeatz.com CEO, who is relocating from his former office space at Canal Place.More of a flip-flops guy than a coat-and-tie type, Purcell and his fellow IP tenants are decidedly laid back.

TurboSquid’s cast of creative digital media professionals should also feel much more at home in their new environs rather than the conservative Texaco Center. The IP has even been declared a dog-friendly environment.

Will Donaldson typifies the spirit behind the IP. The Tulane MBA student is one of the partners in The Launch Pad, which will provide workspace and meeting facilities at the IP for fledgling entrepreneurs who aren’t ready to commit to a long-term office lease.

And if one of these new businesses or an Idea Village-backed venture need legal guidance, Rob Couhig’s firm is positioned ideally to provide counsel. Carrollton Partners is capable of handling their Web needs.

GNO Inc. chief executive Michael Hecht envisions similar collaborations under one roof throughout the 10-parish metro area. But given the collection of creative and entrepreneurial types calling New Orleans home these days, there are probably enough prospective tenants in the city to fill IP 2 through 10.

We’ll see if Gibbs in game.

When Jindal travels, we pay for it

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Bobby Jindal’s travels outside of Louisiana since becoming governor have earned him praise and criticism.

Some say the trips — some of which are for fundraising for himself and other Republicans, others for Louisiana business –  are good for Louisiana, because the governor is spreading the word about the state.

Others say the governor — considered to be a rising star in the Republican Party — has his eye on the White House and should stay home and do the job he was elected to do.

Here’s a factoid that’s sure to fuel Jindal’s critics: Whenever the governor travels, no matter the reason for the trip, the state has to provide police protection for the governor and his family. That’s Louisiana law.

According to a story by The Associated Press, “The state has paid at least $52,000 in trooper costs for Jindal’s fundraising and political travel. That’s more than half the state-paid trooper expenses on all Jindal out-of-state travel.”

“It’s unclear, however, whether the state could accept reimbursement from Jindal’s campaign fund for campaign-related travel expenses. Neither Jindal nor the state police have sought ethics board guidance on the subject,” the story says.

This story comes at a time when the Jindal administration is proposing budget cuts for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Some of those cuts involve health care.•

Louisiana passed over for movie studio

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Louisiana has lost a $146 million movie and television studio to Allen Park, Mich., which has better film incentives.

The Unity Studios complex will be built on 105 acres and feature a 750,000-square-foot facility with eight sound stages and other facilities to produce and edit movies, television, game shows and other productions, according to a story by The Associated Press.

The story says Michigan has been drawing more moviemakers since its tax incentives — a refundable movie tax credit of up to 42 percent on production expenses — went into effect last year.

The Louisiana Legislature OK’d incentives for the state in 2002.

According to www.fbtfilm.com, Louisiana offers an investor tax credit that consists of a transferable tax credit equal to 25 percent of the investment greater than $300,000 for all Louisiana-based production expenses and a labor tax credit that provides an additional 10 percent tax credit based on total payroll of Louisiana residents employed for the production.•

Coastal loss solution as clear as mud

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

For years, experts — heck, even ordinary members of the public — have suggested a way to stop the loss of the state’s coast: Pump Mississippi River sediment into the wetlands to rebuilt them, rather than let it get slung into the Gulf of Mexico.

It seems now that the idea will be put into action.

The Associated Press reported that “a first-of-its-kind project will pipe mud dredged from the Mississippi River into a section of south Louisiana’s badly eroded wetlands to help fight the state’s staggering land loss, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Tuesday.”

According to the story, the project involves laying a pipeline from the Mississippi to Bayou Dupont on the east side of levees protecting Plaquemines Parish. A containment dike will be built around 500 acres. Then, mud from the river will be used to fill the area.

Here are some more excerpts from the story:

Jindal said using mud from the Mississippi and other rivers passing through south Louisiana was a fast and cheap way to make land along the receding coast, where hurricanes and rising seas have combined to threaten fishing villages, ports and entire cities. Since the 1930s, south Louisiana has lost about 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands.

“This is simply one of the most effective, economic ways to reverse this land loss,” Jindal said at a ceremony in Belle Chasse, a town south of New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish on the edge of the marshland. “Dumping tons and tons of sediment every year in the deep waters of the Gulf or just piling it up in inland areas is a just a waste.”

Many Louisiana residents are probably thrilled by this news; wetlands are an important barrier to storm surge.

But you can’t help but wonder what took so long for the common sense idea to be put into practice.

The media certainly have reported on how much wetlands-building mud is lost every year.

For example, WDSU-TV last year did a story on how “each year, millions of cubic yards of sediment dredged by the Corps of Engineers from the Mississippi River are wasted when crews dump it into the Gulf of Mexico, rather than onto our wetlands.”

To be sure, although the mud is free, engineering and infrastructure are not. And costs to pump sediment into wetlands easily soar into the millions.

Better late than never, I suppose.•

LSU firing of scientist raises questions

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The firing of LSU scientist Ivor van Heerden, who was often quoted by the media after Hurricane Katrina as a critic of the Army Corps of Engineers, is a hot topic these days. And some people are even trying to do something about it.

On Thursday, The Times-Picayune reported that van Heerden, “the outspoken coastal scientist who led the state’s independent Team Louisiana investigation into Hurricane Katrina levee failures, has been notified by Louisiana State University that he will be terminated as a research professor in May 2010.”

The firing has left some scratching their heads. Sandy Rosenthal, the founder of Levees.org, a grassroots group that has been a critic of the Corps, wants to meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal to discuss the issue.

Rosenthal called van Heerden a “renowned hurricane expert” and said “Louisiana is now at risk because, from now on, there will be no independent expert’s voice on hurricane issues.

Today, I got an e-mail about a Levees.org rally to protest the firing of van Heerden. The rally will be held at LSU’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans at 10 a.m. Thursday.

LSU apparently has not said why it is terminating van Heerden.

Here’s an excerpt from the T-P story:

Van Heerden said the university would not give him a reason, either. David Constant, interim dean of LSU’s College of Engineering, told him the decision “wasn’t due to my performance. But he couldn’t tell me why, ” van Heerden said.

And here’s a really interesting excerpt from the story:

In November 2005, he (van Heerden) was called to a meeting with two LSU assistant chancellors who van Heerden said told him to stop talking to the press, because it threatened the university’s ability to get research dollars from the federal government.

According to the T-P story, former  LSU Vice Chancellor for Communications Michael Ruffner in a June 2006 letter to the newspaper wrote, “During fall 2005 an issue with Professor van Heerden arose relating to his technical and professional expertise to comment on levees and construction matters because he is trained in geology and botany, and not civil engineering.”

The New York Times, in a May 2006 story, reported on a book van Heerden wrote about the failure of federal levees in Katrina and how his outspokenness “has gotten him called on the carpet for threatening the institution’s (LSU’s) relationship with the federal government and the research money that comes with that.”

So what’s the real reason for van Heerden’s termination? Is it because LSU didn’t want to lose federal dollars? Or it is because van Heerden spoke about subjects in which he had no training?

What do you think, readers?•

City has camera priorities confused

By Christian Moises, News Editor

Anyone else find it ironic that the city is expanding its camera system to catch speeders but the crime camera network still remains defunct?

Yes, dredging up the crime camera system is almost worse than beating a dead horse, but it’s an issue the city needs to continue hearing.

Unfortunately certain city officials seem to be more concerned with making money than solving our crippling crime problem, but this, too, is a topic as redundant as beating a dead horse.

Maybe the money from the camera tickets, which work so well and are extremely detailed based on personal experience, can be used to get the crime cameras up and working.•

(To weigh in on the issue of cameras, vote on CityBusiness’ poll question this week.)

Audit: Government failed HANO

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

In 2002, the federal government took over the Housing Authority of New Orleans, after audits found problems with management.

But it turns out the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development did not improve the operations of HANO, according to a report released Wednesday from HUD’s own inspector general.

The report is filled with criticisms of HUD’s management of HANO. For example, HUD managers could not show that the takeover improved HANO’s performance before and after Hurricane Katrina, the report says, adding that HUD did not structure the takeover properly or maintain documentation.

You can read the full report by clicking here and then opening the PDF link.•

Recession-proof New Orleans?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

It’s hard for a day to go by and not hear someone say New Orleans is immune to the recession that the rest of the country is struggling with.

The city that care forgot apparently is also the city the recession forgot.

CityBusiness this week asked readers to answer the following online poll question: The term recession-proof is often applied to New Orleans. How has the recession impacted you as a metro area resident?

As of 1:15 p.m. today, 50.22 percent of 229 voters said, “My job and pay have not been negatively impacted,” while 21.40 percent said, “As a business owner I am hurting.”

The Los Angeles Times recently wrote that “New Orleans, it seems, has largely dodged the Category 5 recession pummeling the rest of the country, thanks to its unique post-Katrina economy.” Newspapers across the country picked up the story.

It wasn’t the first publication to report on the recession and how it’s impacting, or isn’t impacting, New Orleans.

BusinessWeek last year named New Orleans among “the best places to live during a recession.”

“New Orleans has plenty of challenges as it recovers from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The population has shrunk, putting pressure on university enrollments and hospitals. And tourism is way down. But the unemployment rate remains low. The city’s banks, which did not make a large number of risky loans during the housing boom, are relatively healthy. And firms are investing heavily in construction projects in the city, rebuilding levees and building a new refinery,” BusinessWeek reported.

In February, two Irvine, Calif., brothers called the Crescent City recession-proof after coming here for Mardi Gras, the Orange County Register reported.

Late last year, a University of New Orleans economist said the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina will allow the area to weather the economic downturn that is expected to saddle the rest of the country.

Then, in January, Time ran a story with this headline: Still waiting for the recession in New Orleans.

“Much of America’s news in recent months has been dominated by the gravest economic and financial crisis in decades. But parts of this region continue to experience an economic boom mainly driven by recovery efforts related to Hurricane Katrina,” Time reported.

The press can’t get any better than that for New Orleans.

So why aren’t our elected officials and those in the tourism industry promoting our apparent recession-proof status to the rest of the country? Perhaps it could lure residents and businesses here.

Maybe they are making that pitch. If so, I haven’t heard about it.•

Survey: Louisiana ranks low for contracting disclosure

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The (Baton Rouge) Advocate newspaper published an interesting story a week ago today on a survey that ranked Louisiana low for online disclosure of state contracting information.

“Louisiana is among seven states listed as the worst offenders in full online disclosure of state contracting information, according to a survey issued today by Ralph Nader and the Center for the Study of Responsive Law,” the story says.

The six other states: Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

According to the story, the center looked at state government Web sites to determine how much information is published about contracts and processes.

It brought me back to Jan. 15, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s first day in office, when he held a press conference to announce his signing of four executive orders.

One order called for greater transparency in government.

Here’s a portion of his order for transparency:

SECTION 3: To insure transparency and accountability in state government, I hereby establish the following goals:

1. Issue annual public reports online of all state grants and contracts by funding source, agency, parish, and type of service provided;

2. Improve public access to the current grant and contract databases to make it a state-of-the art, easy to navigate resource that provides full disclosure of grants, contracts, and bond allocations of the state;

3. Improve transparency of Louisiana’s regulatory process;

4. Facilitate interoperable systems that enable Information Technology projects to expand among agencies;

5. Create an online state spending database;

6. Redesign Louisiana government’s web site with a focus on transparency.•

Web surfer seeks pot at Jazz Fest

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

It’s always interesting to see what people are typing into search engines to get to our blog. (There is a feature with our blog that allows me to see this.)

Yesterday, for example, someone got to our blog by searching for “where to find marijuana for jazz fest” on the Internet. I guess that person will be partaking in more than music at the event.

Also yesterday, someone got to our blog using the search term “mark st. pierre, new Orleans.” That person was obviously interested in the recent controversy surrounding a trip to Hawaii taken in 2004 by former city technology chief Greg Meffert and Mayor C. Ray Nagin. St. Pierre, a Meffert friend and contractor for the city, paid for the trip, a revelation that has raised ethical questions.

Here are some other search terms people used to find our blog yesterday: “Mexican,” “homeless bum,” “top 5 murder capitals in 2008 us” and “roop raj leaving wdsu.”

The person apparently never found their “homeless bum” yesterday, because they looked for it again today.

Here’s the most interesting item from today’s search terms: “bare midriff.”•

Nagin gave Meffert a lot of control

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

In reading former city chief technology officer Greg Meffert’s Nov. 19 deposition, it’s clear Mayor C. Ray Nagin had no problem giving Meffert oversight of a large number of city functions.

Meffert came straight out of the private sector — he had never held a government job before — when he began working as tech chief for the city in 2002 at the beginning of the Nagin administration. (In the deposition, Meffert said he began work in May 2002, on the same day the mayor took office.)

Meffert, whose activities while at City Hall are now under scrutiny, said he did not know Nagin before he worked for the city. He said the Nagin administration approached him for the job, and Nagin created the technology position for him.

In the deposition, Meffert said his initial responsibility was to oversee Management Information Systems.

“And over time the mayor, um, gave me oversight over some other departments,” Meffert said. Those three departments included City Planning, Safety and Permits and Taxi, Meffert said.

One of Meffert’s responses in the deposition suggests that it was difficult to handle the workload.

“Did you maintain authority or supervisory responsibility over those three until you left in July of 2006?” Meffert was asked.

“I tried,” Meffert said.

Meffert also said was assigned to oversee Historic District Landmarks Commission and the Board of Zoning Adjustments.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Meffert said he also did work in the private sector while he had the City Hall gig. For example, he ran a bed and breakfast in Convent.

It sounds like a lot of work for one person. Should Nagin have given so much control to the person who was hired to oversee technology?•

New Orleans’ image will need cleaning up

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

When Mayor C. Ray Nagin was elected in 2002, he was seen by many as the businessman who held lots of promise for New Orleans.

Until his second term, it seemed, Nagin ran a scandal-free administration, although he has been widely criticized as an ineffective leader since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in August 2005.

But as Nagin wraps up his last term — he is due to leave office in 2010 — it seems a new controversy pops up almost daily, which is not a good thing for a city still trying to recover from a storm and lure and retain businesses. It’s to the point now where every morning you wonder what today’s headline will be.

From the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. investigation to the Veronica White e-mail controversy to the crime camera debacle to former technology director Anthony Jones to contracting transparency to take-home vehicles to the latest flap involving former city technology director Greg Meffert and a questionable trip to Hawaii, the Nagin administration has found itself with a lot of explaining to do.

All of this does not help the efforts of Greater New Orleans Inc. and others involved in economic development. Every time one of these negative headlines splashes across the front page, it’s like turning up the incline setting on the treadmill for those trying to grow our economy.

The Nagin administration made the French Quarter cleaner, but it is doing a good job of trashing the image of City Hall.•

Nagin might be done with Texas home criticism

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say Mayor Ray Nagin really lives in Texas.

In 2007, for example, The Times-Picayune reported that “rumors that Mayor Ray Nagin was looking to buy a house in Texas have been rampant since Hurricane Katrina.” According to the newspaper, the mayor bought a 1,700-square-foot townhouse in Frisco, about 25 miles north of Dallas, on May 31, 2007.

Nagin also owns a home in Park Island in New Orleans. Despite that, some people have insisted that the mayor calls Texas home more so than he does New Orleans.

Now it turns out the mayor could lose his home for not paying more than $1,500 homeowners’ association fees.

According to a T-P story today, the mayor’s house is scheduled to go on the auction block today if he doesn’t pay up.

Maybe Nagin is purposely not paying the fees. After all, for a mayor facing so much controversy these days, maybe he just wants to rid himself of one more headache, one more source of public criticism.

What do you think?•

Meffert’s star loses its luster

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

He was seen by many as a whiz when the Nagin administration brought him on to bring City Hall technology into the 21st century.

But now, nearly three years after he left his post as City Hall’s top techie, Greg Meffert is being scrutinized for his activities, from a trip he took to Hawaii with the mayor to his dealings with contractors, among other things.

Today, the Times-Picayune reported that a trip to Hawaii that Nagin and  Meffert and their families made in 2004 was paid for by a company owned by Meffert friend and city contractor Mark St. Pierre, according to court documents made public today.

According to the story, Meffert, in a sworn deposition, said NetMethods, a company St. Pierre owned, paid for the trip.

Here’s more from the story:

The new court filing raises new questions about the already-controversial business dealings between the city and its technology vendors, dealings that have attracted keen interest from federal investigators. The motion also brings Nagin deeper into the maelstrom, which so far has mainly swirled around St. Pierre and Meffert, one of the mayor’s top aides and most trusted advisers until he left City Hall in 2006.

Then there’s an Orleans Parish Civil District Court lawsuit that “alleges that Meffert and his private-sector subordinates conspired to take business from Southern Electronics and Active Solutions” — companies they oversaw  in a contract to install crime cameras in the city, the T-P reported. Southern Electronics and Active Solutions, crime camera contractors for the city, filed the lawsuit. (By the way, Meffert’s aforementioned deposition was released by the court because of the T-P’s intervention in the lawsuit.)

“The suit, which targets Meffert, St. Pierre, Nagin, and the city, among others, claims that in their capacity as city employees or contractors doing city work, Meffert and his tech-savvy pals filched the blueprint for a wireless crime-camera setup from the two companies,” a March 25 T-P story says.

The March 25 story listed Meffert’s accomplishments as the city’s technology head.

He installed new computers and phones, offered city services on a redesigned Web site, and launched an intriguing crime-fighting tool: surveillance cameras in violent neighborhoods.

But since Meffert left City Hall in 2006, the luster has come off some of those monuments. None is more tarnished than the crime-camera system, the target of two recent scathing audits and one of the Nagin administration’s most nettlesome failures. Not only have the cameras rarely worked, the project has been marred by allegations of favoritism and patronage of the sort Meffert once decried.

This is not the first time Meffert has garnered negative press. Followers of Meffert media coverage will recall stories about yachting.

One more thing: I’ve been told that Meffert’s full, three-day deposition will be released tomorrow. No doubt, many in the public are very interested to see what’s in it.•

Is now the time for a higher homestead exemption?

You would think real estate professionals would jump at the chance to give a potential homebuyer a $1,500 incentive in order to spur sales in a stagnant market. But in Louisiana, Realtors say it’s not as simple as raising the state’s homestead exemption because business owners — and potentially middle-class homeowners — end up absorbing the cost of the so-called break.

State Sen. John Alario, D-Westwego, wants to increase the homestead exemption from $75,000 to $160,000, arguing that middle-class homeowners now more than ever need the relief. Plus, the exemption level hasn’t been changed since 1980 to reflect inflation.
But Realtors say the cost just gets passed on — and eventually back to the homeowners it was meant to benefit.

“Louisiana Realtors understands and supports programs like the homestead exemption that help individuals obtain home ownership,” said LR President Judy Burkett of Baton Rouge. “But raising the homestead exemption at this time would harm businesses and the state’s economic development efforts, thus impairing the overall real estate environment in the state.”

Burkett said meaningful tax changes should only be considered after a thorough examination of the state’s entire tax structure.
She pointed to data from the Louisiana Association of Business Industry that shows an increased exemption will result in the largest tax increase on business in the history of the state.

The Louisiana Realtors group has made it known where it stands, but it would be interesting to find how the rank and file feels about the homestead exemption proposal. Is now the time to seriously consider any measure that would stimulate home sales, or is the long-term cost of raising the exemption ultimately harmful to the real estate industry?

— Greg LaRose, Managing Editor

Jindal turns down more stimulus money

Gov. Bobby Jindal, after turning down $98 million from the federal stimulus package to expand unemployment benefits, has decided to reject aid for public health.

According to Health Secretary Alan Levine, accepting the money would commit the state to spending another $20 million over the next two years.

Specifically, the stimulus money would pay for Transitional Medical Assistance, a program that provides up to a year of family Medicaid coverage for individuals who leave welfare for work. States that accept the stimulus could extend the coverage to 18 months.

Jindal turns down the money at a time when Louisiana has a $1.3 billion budget shortfall, and health care is one of the prime areas where cuts will be made to balance the state’s ledger.

Is Jindal making the right decision by turning down the stimulus money?