What Is UNOP?: You Must Attend The Unified New Orleans Plan Meeting This Sunday
The upshot of this post is that if you don’t make it to the New Orleans Community Support Foundation meeting this Sunday, your neighborhood will have a planner picked for you. The abject lack of advertising for this very crucial meeting doesn’t sit well with me. You may ask, “So what if a planner is picked for my neighborhood?” Your input was not actively solicited, it’s supposedly a city-wide meeting and where’s the democracy in the process if it isn’t advertised far and wide.
From the website of the Unified New Orleans Plan of the NOCSF:
A city-wide meeting will be held on [Sunday, July 30] from 12:00 noon until 4:00 pm [at] Pavilion of the Two Sisters at City Park (same location as the Festival of Neighborhoods). This meeting will begin the process for community members to be involved in the selection of the technical assistance teams of professionals to support them in neighborhood, district and city-wide planning. Attendees will establish criteria for working with the assistance teams, define neighborhood boundaries and confirm projects for each of the 13 planning districts. Everyone is encouraged to attend. Refreshments and childcare will be provided. You can sign up online here (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Why should you go? The following Tuesday evening comes time for Sunday’s participants to:
select their top three choices for technical assistance teams to support their planning process. The site is [again] the Pavilion of the Two Sisters at City Park. Participants will be able to visit tables for each of the teams to ask questions from 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm. Beginning around 6:00 pm, each of the teams will conduct formal presentations. Each team will present twice from 6:00pm until 9:00pm allowing participants enough time to listen and review these teams. Following this meeting and until 5:00pm on Friday, August 4, participants will have the opportunity to select their top three teams.
It is with this planner that your neighborhood has a voice and chance to get some of the LRA and Rockefeller money allocated to rebuilding New Orleans. Without your input and choice, the decision will be made for you. When I inform friends and colleagues about this, however intelligent, active, educated and informed they are, they invariably ask, “What’s the NO Community Support Foundation? What’s the Unified New Orleans Plan?” This is something that should be blared from the TP, nola.com, TV and radio stations and flyers all over the city and evacuation centers. As a friend remarked today, “So much for democracy.”
It’s short notice even for me, but please make it out to City Park on Sunday between noon and 4pm and be active on behalf of your neighborhood. Whatever else you may be doing, it’s that important.
The Pavilion of the Two Sisters
1 Palm Dr (in City Park)
New Orleans, LA 70124
(504) 488-2896
Also read Becky Houtman’s post on the topic and learn more about (and add to) the Unified Planning Process at the Think New Orleans Wiiki.
Update: Yesterday’s Bayou Buzz echoes my thoughts in this article (nothing about this in the TP).
Last Friday, a group of city planners and others were chosen from a very competitive process called the Rockefeller Grant being administered by the Greater New Orleans Foundation. However, many of these “winners” are reportedly totally frustrated with the entire process for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include timing, disparities of evaluations and the lack of communications strategies which could result in a very small minority making decisions for the very large majority. Also, another problem is the ultimate “beauty-contest” down the road. The neighborhoods will choose who they want to plan their neighborhoods out of a pool of recommended “authorities” previously chosen by the Greater New Orleans Foundation. We do not know [sic] should be speaking for the neighborhoods. Herein the confusion begins.
Related posts:
We will be filming the event on the 30th and the 1st and will post the video to the UNOP site and to youtube.com
In case folks can’t make it or will not be in town.
But of course being there and participating is best. Spread the word.
I expect this meeting might be the beginning of a slew of lawsuits due to lack of proper advertising and planners being arbitrarily chosen.
The meeting at City Council Chambers was a blood bath.
The UNOP Team was revealed to have no proper P.R. and a criminal lack of awareness of what has happened and what is happening.
For instance they have Planned an Important Meeting on the same night as Night Out Against Crime.
As one of the Citizens said “Why don’t you all come to us, come to my Neighborhood.”
The anger was palable.
They offered NO TIMELINE.
.
3.5 Million dollars and they have no clue.
Who will Hold GNOF accountable? Who will hold the Rockerfeller Foundation accountable.?
For better or worse OUR EELECTED City Council has spoken for us. If we have a problem with what they say then we need to contact them.
My neighborhood Organization has been shut out of the process