Historic Faubourg Treme Association

On Sunday, April 6,2008, the Tambourine and Fan (Downtown Indians) will have their Super Sunday event. The Downtown Indians and various second line groups will gather at Moss Street and Orleans Avenue for a pre-parade party. After the pre-party, they take the following route to St. Bernard and N. Claiborne Avenues (Hunter Field).
 
Parade Route:

Start at Moss and Orleans Avenue. Orleans Avenue to N. Claiborne Avenue, left turn.

N. Claiborne Avenue to St. Bernard Avenue, left turn.

Stop at Hunter Field for the after parade block party.  The event is scheduled to start at the formation at 2:00pm and the parade will start at 3:00pm.  

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Please be reminded that NORA (New Orleans Redevelopment Authority) has scheduled to meet with us at Thursday, April 3rd at 5:30 pm at Charbonnet’s Funeral Home.  NORA will be giving a PowerPoint presentation for us to view and comment.  I hope that we will have good representation from the blight committee and the board.   After the presentation, that the blight committee will have a brief meeting (no more than 30 minutes). 
 
For background information on what NORA has been doing throughout the city, please review information on this link - http://www.noraworks.org/cip_homepage.htm.  

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The next general meeting of the HFTA will be Thursday, March 13th at the Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home in the Inseparable Friends meeting hall at 1607 Ursulines St. from 6-7:30 pm.  Please come, voice your concerns,  touch base with your neighbors and get caught up on the progress in Treme.

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Tree Planting Event II Saturday, March 8th at 9:00 am.

The residents of Treme will be heading out to plant the second batch of trees donated to the neighborhood from  Parkway Partners.  We will be meeting at St. Philip and N. Robertson streets and fanning out to designated areas to plant trees where residents have committed to taking care of new sappling trees until they are stable and healthy. 

Planting trees and maintaining green space in our community sends the message that we care about our neighborhood.  A recent study by Kuo & Sullivan at the University of Illinois at Ubana-Champaign’s Human-Environment Research Laboratory studied 98 randomly selected public housing buildings in Chicago and the police reports from those buildings.  Using aerial photos to study canopies, they found a relationship between crime and greenery.  Buildings with high levels of greenery had roughly half as many violent and property crimes. 

Green spaces bring people together outdoors and offer respite from the harsh summer sun while cleaning the air around us. All of this can help reduce our stress levels.  Vegetation that allows for visibility, flowers and empty lots free from debris send a message that the people of Treme care about our neighborhood and the people who live there. 

We hope you’ll join us on this project Saturday to make a real impact that will be enjoyed for years to come.

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The townhall meeting for Dist. C was held on Saturday March 1st to give residents an update on projects in their area. 

The meeting was dominated by a speech from Mayor Nagin.  Nagin provided details about rebuilding projects that are a priority – namely Louis Armstrong Park and the Municipal Auditorium.  Mayor Nagin was accompanied by key members of his staff. 

Naydja Bynum, HFTA president, asked about whether there was any assistance to neighborhoods with regards to economic development.  She mentioned that we had 17 ABOs with virtually no service businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, bookstores, etc.  Ed Blakely responded that we now have a representative from his office designated to our area, Jerry Williams.  Mr. Williams mentioned that a request for proposals that seek technical assistance to help communities develop economic development plans may be coming soon.   Blakely also mentioned the website which is available to track the progress of the many projects associated with the rebuilding process.

City of New Orleans Recovery Website

Blakely’s representative for our area, Mr. Williams, advised that it would be good if HFTA worked with a community development corporation to develop an economic development plan.  Mr. Williams stated that he would be willing to come to an HFTA meeting. 

Many residents brought up key quality-of-life issues which are still challenges for the Tremé neighborhood; crime and blight.  Strong complaints about violent crime in the FQ were heard from two residents, describing incidents of neighbors and visitors being beat up real bad. Riley tried to respond.  Riley’s response wasn’t new to residents of New Orleans.  He stated that they are still trying to increase the number of police and assure that NOPD salaries are competitive with officers from other cities in the region. Riley also reminded us that NOPD now has the state of the art equipment to catch the criminals including high powered guns, lasers to identify hiding criminals.  Several cameras are up, some are not.  Riley offered to check on the status of the one on N.Robertson St.

Regarding the issue of blight, no one from NORA was present but Nagin did mention the pilot program of selling off blighted properties in Uptown and that his administration’s pushed for stronger blight ordinances.  Jessica Knox, Blight Chair, provide a list of properties in Tremé that have long been adjudicated and other properties that we have inventoried to Councilman Carter. 

Blight complaints about that from a few sources.  Jessica mentioned that we have over 150 blighted or vacant buildings/houses or lots. Nagin and Carter mentioned how complicated it is to resolve some of them, but they are working on it.  Also, NORA now is in a better position with to resolve some of the problems.  They have been allocated resouces now to do so.
 
Asked about what’s happening with Circle Food Store:  Blakley said that the owner is not sure if he want to come back.  Jerry Williams will get with representatives of HFTA to discuss economic plan for Treme.   

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The Beautification Committee along with Parkway Partners, with the assistance of inmates from Sheriff Gusman’s office, planted over 30 trees on N. Robertson St.  More trees will be planted on Saturday, March  8th.  Thank you to Adolph and Greg for taking the lead on this project which has been months in the making. It has involved mapping out the locations for the various types of trees and working with homeowners who much commit to watering and caring for the trees for the first year.

The area of N. Robertson St. and Ursulines has been in decline in recent years and a ‘hot spot’ for drug dealing and violence.  Properties which were marginal are being renovated along Ursulines and everyone is pitching in to bring this area back into commerce.  Our hopes are that this spark will spread and we can begin focusing this similar strategy in other areas to improve the quality of life in Treme.  

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The French Ambassador to the U.S., Pierre Vimot,  will be visiting  Treme. Members of HFTA and the community are  invited to participate  in two of his stops in Treme. 
 
Friday, February 22, 2008 
 
2 pm – 2:30 pm Wreath laying at the tomb of the  Unknown Slave  (Faubourg Treme), at the Governor Nicholl’s side of  the St Augustine  church, on the occasion of the Black History Month.

Arnie Fielkow,  President of the City Council & James Carter, Council member of New 
Orleans District C will join Fr. Moody, pastor of  St. Augustine’s Church at the corner St. Claude & Gov. Nicholls  Street.

 2:30 – 3: 30 pm Visit to the Passebon Cottage, one  of the African  American Museum buildings, which France has been  providing  significant financial support to have it restored.  This building is  located at the corner of Ursuline and N. Villere  and 1418 Gov.  Nicholls Street where the visit will occur.

France has taken an interest in helping the Treme neighborhood and  has provided financial support to help repair  buildings in the  greater and historic portion of Treme in addition to helping to  restore the Passebon Cottage.

 The French are continuously working on raising money to help our  city. Please come out for this one-hour period of  time and show your appreciation in their interest in our city and our  neighborhood.

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Mike Bordelon bought this house on Kelerec this Spring and has been working on the renovation. Mike had just begun a courageous renovation of this badly damaged home when someone stole  the milled cornice detail above  the windows on his house.

Mike sent out a plea for help to people in the preservation community for suggestions on how to recoup his stolen items.  At their suggestion, he went to the various salvage stores to find the cornices that belonged to his house using photos he had as proof of ownership.  Mike got his cornices back! However, a few weeks later, thieves struck again and stole the cornices as well as the new ones he had bought for replacements. This time they took his pocket doors too.  Mike continues work on the house and is closing up the walls of the house which will be divided into two units.  Mike said he can’t believe he is the owner of this beautiful home.  He would like to someday live here but in the meantime he will rent it at an affordable rate of between of $600-$800 a unit. 

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Work along the N. Robertson St. and Ursulines corridor continues. A number of local people have made a commitment to Treme by buying and renovating property in a collective manner to fight blight and crime at this critical intersection. This landmark has undergone a drastic transformation since Katrina thanks to the hard work of residents who understand the importance of our architectural heritage.

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Adolf Bynum, Beautification Committee Chair, Initiates Treme Cleanup Day

Since Katrina, Naydja and Adolf Bynum have spearheaded a new, very solid neighborhood organization in the Treme, an icon to the culture and history of the city. Treme’s cultural assest include the Backstreet Cultural Museum which is dedicated to the history of the Mardi Gras Indians, St. Augustine Church, the African American Museum, and Charbonnet’s Funeral Home, and we were also the home of Joe’s Cozy Corner, where Kermit Ruffins spent a good deal of his time. We also have Armstrong Park, home of Congo Square and we can claim the old Treme Market as part of our colorful past as well as Storyville.

Pre-Katrina, Treme suffered from a rash of drug violence which has been plaguing the second line scene for the past few years.  North Robertson street still suffers as a persistent hot spot but we  could see that the storm had created a vaccuum of leadership and for a while, crime. We decided this was the time to get start a very solid and very professionally managed neighborhood organization that would welcome all residents, erasing the past bad feelings that existed and make a positive impact in the area. After Katrina, the blighted ghetto looks more like a slum. The Historic Faubourg Treme organization is dedicated to the smaller historic area of Treme and focused on our main problems of Crime, Blight and Grime. In order to be successful, we have to keep our mission very focused, we want to make a measurable difference.

Trash is a big problem citywide right now. People can’t seem to remember what a trash can is used for, throwing household trash in the street in grocery bags. Debris, which is everywhere was being picked up by the Army Corps of Engineers but we need to get residents back into the habit of renting dumpsters for construction debris.

We cleaned up a couple blocks of N. Robertson in late July preparing for our first ever Night Out Against Crime. This, the day after a quadruple murder on St. Ann and
Claiborne. But we hosted a very nice Night Out event and the media showed the good things happening in our neighborhood. We’re a determined group.

On Aug. 20,2006 Adolf hosted a cleanup of most of the neighborhood that included many many residents and the city’s sanitation department provided staff and trucks.
It was another great step toward our mission.

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