Today I spent the entire day in the City Council chambers listening to the Lambert planning presentations. Having spent that last 8 months attending a grueling number of hours of my ‘free’ time attending meetings in every neighborhood after having been in these same neighborhoods in January doing the population estimate, I realized how much I have learned about all the various neighborhoods in our city. I went with the idea that I would go for a couple of hours and see how much I could stand. I am as burned out on the process as most people. I have also attended a couple meetings with the new Unified Planning teams, starting the whole process over again. One reason I wanted to go was to determine if this whole other level of planning is necessary. Some neighborhoods would benefit from having more details added to their portion of the plan, like the 7th ward. They need help. The Tulane/Gravier plan, a critical area in District 4, is not quite complete. But residents here have done enough work to complete the formal presentation with Lambert in the next couple of weeks and have a plan consistent with the rest of District 4.

The meeting today started about an hour late. First they had to have a prayer. Which ended with, “and everybody said, ‘Amen’.” Cynthia Willard-Lewis delivered a speech which is probably being broadcast on WWL as we speak because it bordered on a sermon designed to pump up the population in her ravaged sector of the city. Then the mayor spoke, which was kind of worth it, just to see him in person but he was his usual ineffectual self and spoke free of notes. He reiterated the city’s need for the early action portions of these plans. Consistently, each neighborhood asked for infrastructure improvements as their top priority. Nagin said that while he is somewhat discouraged, he is optimistic that 60 billion dollars will be spent in the region and that it will lift us up out of our minimum wage existence and that opportunities for citizens are on the horizon.

Paul Lambert then explained their overall approach, which was that they operate as technicians, merely facilitating the planning districts. He also explained that each plan hinges on certain assumptions, like the levees being rebuilt to 1 in 100 year storm levels and the Federal Flood Insurance program’s commitment to insuring homeowners. One element of the presentation that was particularly useful were the funding matrixes. Each one was broken into 3 categories, Early, Mid and Long Term action. Logically, you expect to see the larger monies in the first category because these are recovery priorities. Some of the numbers were staggering. For example, Lakeview’s matrix calls for 91 million dollars in early action money, mostly for street pavement, signage and the like. Lakeview’s total cash demand is for 118 million dollars. By comparison, Gert Town’s total spending matrix for early thru late action plans asks for 50 million dollars. These numbers do not include any Road Home money for critical housing restructuring. The figures also leave out projects that would be privately funded, like job training centers, such as NYAC (National Youth Apprenticeship Center) which would be a skilled labor training facility sponsored by various labor unions. Nor do these matrixes account for highway reconfigurations which are Late Term Action monies. The average expenditure per citizen amounts to $23,000, keeping in mind that 2.3 billion dollars has been appropriated at this time. Notably, the top demand in each neighborhood was for street improvements.

As the presentations went on, I stayed. I felt that it was important for me to be there, that I was as competent as anyone to evaluate Lambert’s work because I have been closely involved in many neighborhoods over the last year. Today I felt like my time was not wasted in attending the many, many meetings over that past year, in neighborhoods I don’t even live in, just to be sure that the planners were doing their job and monitoring the players. A couple neighborhoods need a little more work, and Lambert should finish their work in these areas and I spoke to Paul Lambert afterward and he is willing to do this. I think it would be unfair not to let them take a little more time to do that considering enormous scope of their task. The question I needed to answer for myself was whether we need to begin the process all over again with the Unified Plan sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. The answer is no, we do not need to drag this process out any longer. The Lambert team has produced a product that can be evaluated at the larger city level for any projects that touch multiple interests, these are ready to be consolidated and presented to the City Planner, the City Council and then, finally, the state.

The report I received at the Rockefeller meeting was that their plan would be ready in early next year. We cannot afford to wait that long and now that I have seen the entire Lambert series of work, I know it would be a perilous waste of resources. I propose that the Rockefeller plan money be redirected to leverage savvy economic development in neighborhoods which is something neighborhoods cannot do on their own. The clout of Rockefeller would be better spent leveraging our plans to spark large and small business interests within the city which would work in tandem with the gradual release of Road Home money and the federal funds we desperately need for infrastructure right now to begin rebuilding our streets, sewerage, and quality of life needs such as crime prevention infrastructure, including personnel and facilities to monitor state of the art systems other cities already benefit from, like Washington D.C. Paul Lambert told me at the last Treme meeting that they have learned that New Orleans leaks it’s 10% sales tax revenues at an alarming rate, to Jefferson Parish which was part of the reason Wal Mart was so adamant about their development on Tchoupitoulas. He’s right. I am hearing it over and over again from residents that we want Linens and Things and World Market and more Starbucks and Kinkos and Ikea and Barnes & Noble, in the city. We need this three-pronged approach. We don’t need to go back to square-one with the UNOP.

In addition to listening to the plans, I watched the crowd. I saw Alan Gutierrez from Think Nola for the first few presentations but no other bloggers I recognized. After Lambert’s overview and the first presentation, which was New Orleans East, 55% of the audience and the media left. I was there the the whole time along with Alan Eskew of the UNOP and I could tell he really wanted to leave but I was staying so I think he felt compelled. The presentations started late, so the first many presentations were done as ’speed presentations’ and then they got caught up right about when Clifton James got up to give the Gert Town presentation, which then felt excruciatingly slow by contrast. I was used to the faster pace and it was more comfortable. The air conditioning started to get to me too, later in the day. By the time the final presentation, the St. Roch/Florida/Desire plan was being presented, I was done. I have to give a bow to the planner for the Ninth Ward, he did a great job for the residents there.

Ok, well, my neighborhood is in the middle of another shootout, this time they started on Bienville and I heard them going right to left down the next block and cops are running up and down all the surrounding streets but I haven’t eaten today, so I don’t have the energy to care. So, I’m signing off. But wait, I have a quiz for y’all. The first person to tell me the most exact boundaries of the neighborhood called Indian Village gets my free movie passes. No PRC people are eligible.

Here’s the link to what’s available so far and the main link for final plans were promised to be on NOLA.com.
http://www.nolanrp.com
NOLA.com
http://www.unifiedneworleansplan.com/home/

Stay safe. And Go Saints.

Related posts:

1. Neighborhood Planning
2. What Is UNOP?: NEIGHBORHOOD Planning
3. What Is UNOP?: Sunday’s Unified New Orleans Plan(ning) Meeting
4. What Is UNOP?: The History Of Post-K Planning and Sunday’s City Park Meeting
5. Council Passes Endymion Resolution