People United for Armstrong Park - Meeting Notes and Agenda 6.16.11

Updates

Meeting Recap from Last Thursday

Opening of Jazz National Park

Fiscal Agent

Volunteer Facilitators

Review of proposed Logos

Meetings from past week: New City, Lafitte Corridor, Choice Neighborhood Initiative

Pressing Business

1.      Armstrong Park connection to Lafitte Corridor

2.      Committee Assignments

3.      Vision Plan Drafting Process 

General Business

4.      Possible City Council Armstrong Steering Advisory Committee

5.      Membership/Outreach Drive

6.      Coalition Building - Parks and Parkways, New City, HFTA, Rampart Main Street, RTA Street Car Extension, Lafitte/Jazz National Park, FOLC, New City, African American Museum, Backstreet Cultural Museum, others?

7.      Communications & Infrastructure - website, blog, phone number, office space, video, marketing material

8.      Fund Raising, Grants, and Development

9.      Event Planning and Advocacy (Second Lines, Open Houses, Celebrations, etc)

10.    Summer Meeting Schedule and upcoming meetings 

Meeting Notes:

Attendees:

Shani Armbrusler

Matthew Plummer

Fernando Polo

Al Jackson

Luther Gray

Shane Lief

Pat Evans

Jeff Schwartz

Michi Hagler

Francie Guevara

Alonzo Know

Ben Harwood

Introductions

General

Reflection on success of last week’s celebration. Treme 200 anniversary next year

Pat Evans update from Councilmember Palmer: Mayor still intends for a hard opening of all the park by December. There should be a formal ceremonial opening. Electrical work to be done first, last thing will be the installation of the statues. Last Friday the councilwoman asked the administration for up-to-date drawings for the park and weekly status reports.

Logos

Logos are presented to group, Ben to email out for comment, to discuss next meeting.

Discussion of the creation of a board and incorporation as a 501c3

Pat Evans: prefers our working group to be composed of “Tissue paper taskforces”

Would be ideal to keep having fun at our meetings, consideration that having a formal board might hinder our fun by imposing too much structure on our operations, better to stay a loose collective focused on achieving specific results around particular issues.

Al, Luther and Alonzo more in favor of creating a formal structure, 501c3 Corp and want the group to exist for a long time rather than just a short period. Emanuel also thinks we should be here for a long time.

Discussion of Mission Statement. Members to draft something for consideration at next week’s meeting. Luther suggests our group is a coalition of support, where we provide resources and support other people’s efforts. “We don’t speak for people, we lift people up.” General agreement of this direction for the mission statement. Alternate Mission statement – We support organizations that are working to fix and restore the park. Emanuel to craft something and email out to the group this week.  

Discussion of Lafitte Corridor Project  501c3 FOLC, steering advisory committee. Ben brings up the possibility of emulating FOLC and steering advisory committee, established by the city council to provide official recommendations.

Discussion of membership drive.  We need one, and an effort to create more partnerships with related organizations. Idea of having a second line event to drum up more support and membership.

Discussion of HRI involvement – Emanuel says that HRI is a force that we have to reckon with, Iberville redevelopment is going forward and they are our neighbors. HRI presence at New City standing meetings about Treme/Lafitte/Gravier - 70 organizations, notice to be in Basin street working group. Meetings are open for all to attend.

Committee Assignments

We need to create working committees and formalize committee heads. Volunteer facilitators to work with committee members to draft plan text and other visual plan content as needed.

Committees to meet weekly

Shane –interested in working on Congo Square but will support and help out with other things

Sculpture Garden - Luther

Lafitte Connection – Fernando, Frances, Sheryl Austen, Frances,

Auditorium - Ben and Emanuel, Frances, Fernando

Congo Square – luther, shane

Jazz National Park – Get Carol Clark – park superintendent – involved.

Community Center – Luther, Al, Alonzo (will assign volunteer facilitator)

Community Center Discussion

Luther and Al will talk to Jerome, Alonzo suggests we need to research into current state things, review plan sets, talk to Jerome and see what he needs, if things are missing from the bids, suggestion that the center is being “nickel and dimed” by the city

Trouble getting the city to respond to our requests for information. Luther suggests we send Certified letter – to Vincent Smith and Miriam Lemann– Project/grant managers at the city. If they don’t respond we need to get the mayor and media’s attention that the community is being stonewalled out of public information regarding our neighborhood.

Next Meeting: Thursday 6.23.11 at 6:30, 740 N Rampart Street - Golden Feather Restaurant - email harwoodb@gmail.com to get on the meeting announce list.

From the Archives: Times Pic 2009 Story on the MA

Municipal Auditorium still festers, despite renovation next door

Published: Wednesday, January 07, 2009, 9:55 PM     Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009, 11:16 PM

 By Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune 

As throngs of music lovers pour into the refurbished Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts tonight for the playhouse's first show since Hurricane Katrina, another once-grand, city-owned gathering space at Louis Armstrong Park will remain dark.

More than three years after the flood, the Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Municipal Auditorium remains a ruined shell of the Italian Renaissance Revival structure that for decades played host to some of New Orleans' most important events, from operas and dance recitals to graduation ceremonies and Carnival balls. City officials shy away from suggesting when it might reopen.

Though the 6,000-seat auditorium sits on high ground in Treme, its basement, like the ground floor of the Mahalia Jackson Theater, flooded in Katrina, causing major damage to electrical and mechanical equipment, said Cynthia Sylvain-Lear, the city's deputy chief administrative officer. A retaining wall also buckled in the storm, allowing rain to pour in through the roof, she said.

"There was water from below and water from above, " Sylvain-Lear said.

Though city officials quickly tapped $200,000 in federal money to stop further deterioration of the crippled building, efforts toward its full restoration have lagged as other recovery projects took precedence, Sylvain-Lear said.

"We prioritized public safety first, " including police stations and firehouses, she said, adding that community buildings like libraries came next. "The theater had specific priority because the performing arts groups just didn't have other options, and for them to survive, they really needed the expanded ticket sales."

Architects and engineers hired to plan the restoration of public facilities across the city have continued working on plans for the Municipal Auditorium, Sylvain-Lear said, but the project remains far from the top of the list. She declined to speculate on how soon the curtain may rise again.

As the auditorium has festered, the Mahalia Jackson Theater has seen $22 million in renovations, including installation of a cutting-edge sound system, a digital cinema screen, enhanced lighting, a new orchestra shell and a state-of-the-art ballet floor.

Tonight's New Orleans all-star revue, featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Kermit Ruffins, Ingrid Lucia and others, kicks off a week of performances by artists including songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and gospel singer Yolanda Adams with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, violinist Itzhak Perlman and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo.

In addition to the revival of the Mahalia Jackson Theater, about $5 million has been pumped into replacing lighting and restoring the grounds of Louis Armstrong Park, the 32-acre sanctuary of lawns and lagoons off North Rampart Street at the edge of the French Quarter.

Though the festivities mark the culmination of the restoration effort, quarreling continues over who will foot the bill. Local tax dollars have paid for the bulk of the work, and Mayor Ray Nagin has said the Federal Emergency Management Agency owes the city about $20 million in reimbursements.

But so far, FEMA has committed to pay only about $9.5 million. Under federal law, the agency must repay local governments for the cost of returning facilities damaged in disasters to their prestorm function, though not for upgrades.

Very early estimates for repairing the Municipal Auditorium set the cost at $7.9 million, Sylvain-Lear said. But she cautioned that structural and electrical damage to the building far exceeded that at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. As architects and engineers dig deeper into its problems, the sum is likely to grow and probably will eclipse the theater's price tag, she said.

FEMA has earmarked just more than $4 million to repair the auditorium, including the initial mitigation money, spokesman Andrew Thomas said. FEMA will consider all requests by City Hall for reimbursements, he said.

Built in 1929 for $2.5 million, the Municipal Auditorium was intended as a memorial to World War I veterans. Its elegant gathering spaces soon became a center of civic life. Rex and Comus hosted concurrent balls there, and their courts held the traditional Mardi Gras night meeting there.

Through the years, the building also welcomed auto shows, hockey games and conventions. Along with nearby Congo Square, it hosted the music festival that grew into the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and in 1996, it served as the temporary predecessor to Harrah's New Orleans Casino.

Known originally as the Municipal Auditorium and Exhibition Hall, the building was renamed in 1994 for Morris F.X. Jeff, a teacher and coach who established recreational and educational programs for black children before integration of the city's public buildings and programs.

. . . . . . .

Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.

Original article published here...

Sign the Petition!

Please support the cause by signing our petition to City Council!

The Petition

Dear Councilwoman Palmer,

As people who care deeply about the city of New Orleans, we are concerned about the current condition of the Municipal Auditorium, Armstrong Park, and Congo Square. These public facilities are very important to us and we have been discouraged to see them vacant and unusable since Katrina. The neighborhood kids need a park to play in; we miss the concerts, balls and other events that residents used to walk to; we need Congo Square to be open and accessible as a national heritage site. 

Many of us have voiced our concerns, in the past and again recently, about the sad state of these public spaces and facilities to the members of the Treme Neighborhood Association. Now we respectfully request that the gates to Congo Square be opened immediately. Congo Square is not damaged and everybody should be allowed to use it. We want the gates at St. Peter, Rampart, and St. Ann Streets opened now. We are also requesting that Armstrong Park be reopened. We know that nothing happens overnight, but almost six years is just too long. The residents and voters of Treme want Armstrong Park and Congo Square to be opened this summer, and for the City to begin the restoration of the Municipal Auditorium into the proud performing arts facility it used to be. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter. We hope you will take our calls for action seriously and help champion the cause!

Sincerely, 

Sign petition

FoMA on Good Morning New Orleans WGNO - 5/26/11

Check out the full interview here.

People United for Armstrong Park - Meeting Notes from Thursday, May 12, 2011

   - Pat Evans spoke with Councilwoman Kristin Palmer on Tuesday, May 10th.  As of that date, Councilwoman Palmer had contacted the Administration to confirm the Municipal Auditorium was not part of the 100 capital projects but that they were "actively moving forward to get an accurate estimate of Katrina-related damage."  No RFP is prepared or released at this time, nor are any proposals by the Administration out there to re-bid the project.

   - Luther Gray spoke to a representative at Park and Parkways, who were having a meeting Friday, May 13th with the contractor(s) and told him to call back to follow up this coming Monday, May 16th, at 10:00am.  It was noted that the Jazz Heritage / Congo Square Rhythm Festivals were of the few that actually pay to use park space.

   -  Hearsay currently is that the Mayor's Office/City Administration has hired two other contractors (one is Cajun Construction) to oversee the continuing work of A.M.E. on Armstrong Park's renovation and repair.

   - Questions remain as to why only one gate has been opened for now.   It was noted that having only one point of entry/egress to Armstrong Park, or any park or public space, is a significant public safety issue in cases of emergency.  This could help in the push to open another gate (ideally all gates) more quickly.

   - End of the month/early June event to celebrate the heritage and history of Armstrong Park and Congo Square, as well as the recent rededication of Congo Square with its official name.  A possible time to formally present the petition to City officials, including Mayor Landrieu and the City Council was discussed.  We are currently aiming for Wednesday, June 8th, possibly at Shaka Zulu's Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Museum and Restaurant.  Beth and Marie will meet in the near future to hammer out the details of the event and related invitation. Damon offered to help with arranging entertainment for the evening. 

   - In addition to a public celebratory event in early June, it was also noted that a private meeting with the Mayor could be effective to elicit a positive response to our campaign.

   - As a reminder, Luther will be leading the drumming circle at Congo Square this Sunday, May 15th, from 2:00pm-4:00pm.  All are welcome!

 

  More information as we continue to work on these endeavors. A wonderful weekend to all!

          - Marie

FoMA on FOX8 Morning News

Interview Here

Community Meeting 5/5/11 - Summary Notes

Good afternoon,

   This past Thursday, May 5th, 2011, we met at the Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant at 6:30pm to discuss the condition of Armstrong Park as well as the facilities and space within it - namely, the Municipal Auditorium, the other buildings located within the park's boundaries, and Congo Square.  A big and hearty thank you to Shaka Zulu for his generosity in letting us meet in his colorful, vibrant space.  The food was excellent, too!

   We acknowledged the work of historian Freddi Williams Evans on her recent book, "Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans" and her contribution to bringing further attention to Congo Square and the push to give the space the official name it has long deserved, as approved by City Council last week.

   We then discussed Mayor Landrieu's recent announcement that parts of Armstrong Park are to be reopened on Monday, May 9, 2011.  The announcement was vague with details, and there is a general confusion as to what will actually happen on Monday, as there was no mention of a ceremony.  The idea of forming different committees for different forms of contact in order to keep the pressure on the Administration was discussed, but the current plant was decided that Emanuel Lain would e-mail the Mayor's Office and Councilwoman Palmer, Pat Evans would call Mayor Landrieu and Councilwoman Palmer, and that Luther Gray would call Park and Parkways (Ann McDonald) to get more details and report back to this group.

   The second part of Mayor Landrieu's announcement was that all of Armstrong Park would be open by the end of the year.  No details in the form of a work schedule or timeline were released.  The meeting conversation turned to the topic of a reasonable timeline and highlighted the following events as target times to open the park:
        - End of July 2011
       - Satchmo Fest (August 4-7, 2011)
       - Congo Square Rhythms Festival (September 24-25, 2011)
       - Fall/October 2011
There were differences in opinion within the group as to when we should reasonably expect to have Armstrong Park open, but there was absolutely a consensus that we wanted transparency and accountability of the stages of its renovation.

   To keep our momentum going, we also discussed drafting a letter to the Mayor's office, a new or revised petition, another cultural parade (with signs), and requesting a meeting with Mayor Landrieu (May 26th was suggested as a target date). Sondra, Luther, and Emanuel agreed to work together to compile information on the kind of economic impact a reopened Armstrong Park would have on the community as additional evidence as to why the Park must be opened ASAP.  It also should be noted that the idea of residential and cultural equity could play an important role in the push to reopen Armstrong Park and Congo Square permanently; this should also carry over to the ultimate use of a restored Municipal Auditorium.

  To that end, we closed the meeting by giving each person the chance to speak briefly about what they would like to see for the Municipal Auditorium's future as well as for Armstrong Park.  A range of ideas and visions were shared, with the common ground being that the local community's best interests and ideas must be taken into account when any decisions are to be made.  Lastly, we established that the working name for this current collective group of us is to be People United for Armstrong Park.

   We are aiming to have another meeting this coming Thursday, May 12, at 6:30pm, with the venue to be announced in the coming days.  A reminder e-mail notice will be sent.

   Thank you to everyone who attended this past meeting, and we look forward to the next.

             Sincerely,
                   Marie Chinappi, FoMA