City of New Orleans Announces First 17 Target Recovery Zones
Dr. Edward Blakely, Executive Director of Recovery Management for the City of New Orleans, today announced the first 17 targeted recovery zones that will spur redevelopment and accelerate our recovery. The zones will be built around public assets in key business corridors in an effort to generate further private investment from developers.
Adding that New Orleans doesn’t “have a rich history of completing projects,” Blakely argues that instead of taking on several large projects, the city has opted to finance and complete seventeen relatively small ones. For once, I agree with him.
Two zones will be rebuilt, six will be redeveloped and another nine will be renewed. What do the three Rs mean?
Rebuild areas have experienced severe destruction of physical structures and social networks. These areas will require major rebuilding, or significant public and private investment in order to recover. Redevelop areas are places where some recovery components and resources are already present. They have a high potential for attracting investment and acting as a catalyst for further redevelopment and recovery of the affected community. Renew areas include specific projects that require relatively modest public intervention in order to supplement work already underway by the private and nonprofit sector.
Each development zone is approximately one-half mile in diameter, although the area can vary slightly. The first zones are:
Rebuild
1. New Orleans East Plaza
2. Lower Ninth WardRedevelop
1. Carrollton Avenue at Interstate 10
2. Harrison Avenue (Canal Boulevard to City Park)
3. Gentilly Boulevard at Elysian Fields
4. St. Bernard/ AP Touro at North Claiborne Avenue
5. Broad Street at Lafitte Greenway/Treme
6. South Claiborne Avenue at ToledanoRenew
1. Canal Street (Downtown)
2. Broadmoor (R. Keller Center and Library)
3. Tulane Avenue at Jeff Davis (Comiskey Park)
4. O.C. Halley Corridor
5. Bayou Road/Broad Street Cultural Corridor (Market Building)
6. St. Roch Street (Market and neutral ground)
7. Freret Street (Farmers Market)
8. R.E. Lee at Paris Avenue (Lake Terrace Center improvements)
9. Alcee Fortier Street (Street Beautification)
The recovery of all of these areas is a boon to New Orleans, but the ones most relevant to me are the renewal of Canal Street and the Oretha Castle Halley Corridor as they are very close to where I work and live. So, what do you think of this plan and do you think any of these projects will be accomplished and how? We must do something about these areas, but if we do, will they come?
I think, on the whole, this is a solid list.
Speaking only from my own Gentilly neighborhood point of view, I can say that if the other 16 sites are as indicative of their individual neighborhood’s planning as the “Gentilly Blvd./Elysian Fields” site is of ours, then there should be some happy people across the city right about now. From the time back in April of last year when we were holding the Duany-led Gentilly Charrette the redevelopment of the shopping area at that intersection was seen as being the main “big splash” project that we could somehow shoot for…as being both the “front door” and potentially the “town center” of Gentilly. http://www.dpz.com/project.aspx?Project_Number=618&Project_Name=Gentilly+Design+Charrette Although the owner of the complex (and one guy owns the strips on both sides of Gentilly and the one that stretches away down Caton street) has been anything but cooperative when approached by representatives of the Gentilly Civic Improvement Assn. (since that time he’s rebuffed their entreaties to consider speaking with those who might consider redevelopment of the site, instead moving to Texas and allowing the “pawn shop/rent-to-own/payday loan” types of businesses that were there before the storm to reopen) maybe this “official” designation will get something rolling there. Although I understand that while right after the storm he had the property up for sale for $3 mil but is now asking for $15 mil as the minimum offer he’d listen to from any developer….