Mayor Nagin and Ed Blakely Announce Plan

The Mayor and his recovery chief, Ed. Blakely, have announced a plan for spending $1.1 billion to spur private investment in 17 target zones within the city. The Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Director says the plan is consistent with the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) and the City Council supports it.
The plan calls for $742.2 million (60% of the total) to be spent city-wide. Funds would be spent on "blight removal" projects: the Good Neighborhood Program (house-by-house inspections and court sanctions for property owners who fail to gut, clean and board buildings), capital projects (neighborhood parks, streets and traffic signals), rent-to-own housing, neighborhood retail incentives and historic preservation incentives. The above projects do not have detailed explanations or dollar figures.

The remaining 40 percent of the $1.1 billion would go to the 17 target zones, 14 of them located west of the Industrial Canal. The zones include:

1. Area near the former Lake Forest Plaza
2. Holy Cross
3. Carrollton Ave at I-10
4. Harrison Avenue, Canal Blvd. to City Park
5. Gentilly Boulevard at Elysian Fields
6. St. Bernard Avenue at N. Claiborne Avenue
7. Lafitte corridor, Galvez to Broad
8. S. Claiborne Avenue at Toledano
9. Canal Street downtown
10. Broadmoor, R. Keller Community Center/Library
11. Jefferson Davis Parkway, Comisky Park
12. Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard
13. Bayou Road/Broad Street Cultural Center
14. St. Roch Street, market and neutral ground
15. Freret Street, Farmers Market
16 Robert E. Lee at Paris Ave, Lake Terrace Center
17. Alcee Fortier Street/commercial corridor

Blakely intends to have financing in place by June and "cranes on the skyline" by September. In addition to the $1.1 billion in federal and local money, City Hall will ask the State Legislature to earmark $47 million for capital projects in seven of the 17 target zones. The largest chunk of money -- $19.2 million -- would go to rehabbing streets, sidewalks and lighting around tourist hubs such as the French Quarter and the Ernest N. Morial convention Center.


This article was excerpted by Marti Speights from two Times-Picayune articles: "Leaders stand united behind recovery plan" on Friday, March 30, 2007 and "New Orleans asking state to chip in on plan", on Thursday, April 5, 2007.