Please download our pdf list of events:
Katrina 2nd Anniversary Events

NEW ORLEANS, LA (August 27, 2007) - A three-day Recovery Center opens today at Gallier Hall, with representatives from various organizations on hand to provide information to citizens about programs and initiatives that can support their efforts to rebuild. Recovery tours also will be held each of the three days. Citizens are invited to board buses to see areas of the city slated for recovery and to discuss the status of efforts.

The recovery fair and tours are part of the City’s commemoration of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Center will be on the third floor of Gallier Hall, 545 St. Charles Ave. from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. today, August 27 through Wednesday, August 29.

The Recovery Center incorporates more than 20 agencies and organizations. Among them are the American Red Cross, the Welcome Home Center and the First Responders Furniture Program. In addition, a five minute slide show illustrating some of the highlights of the City’s recovery during the last two years will run continuously.

The recovery bus tours will begin at Gallier Hall. Today, buses will depart at 5 p.m. and the tour will continue until 7 p.m. It will end at the Candlelight Vigil on the Levee in the 9600 block of Haynes Boulevard. Tour participants will then be transported back to Gallier Hall.

Tuesday’s tour will be from 5 until 7 p.m., beginning and ending at Gallier Hall. On Wednesday, buses will depart Gallier Hall at 8 a.m., stopping for the Hurricane Katrina Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony and the Ceremonial Bell Ringing at 5056 Canal St. The tour will continue after the program and will end no later than noon.

STAIR (Start The Adventure In Reading) Announces Tutor Training Schedule
for the 2007-2008 School Year

Children’s Literacy Program Seeks Volunteer Tutors Who are Ready to Step Up
and Serve

NEW ORLEANS, La. – STAIR (Start The Adventure In Reading), a nonprofit
children’s literacy program is seeking tutors for the fall 2007 semester. Tutor
training begins Wednesday, September 5 through Wednesday, October 17 at locations
around the greater New Orleans area. Training takes only two hours and no
experience is necessary. Tutors volunteer after school or on Saturday mornings at
STAIR sites in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes.
(more…)

Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. on WYES, FOX8 News anchor John
Snell leads an in-depth discussion about how the Citywide Strategic Recovery and
Redevelopment Plan will be put into action to begin RE-SHAPING NEW ORLEANS.

Dr. Edward Blakely, Executive Director of the Office of Recovery Management
for the City of New Orleans and Louisiana Recovery Authority Board Member,
David Voelker, will field questions from professional and citizen planners who
helped craft the city’s recovery blueprint.

Is the Citywide Strategic Recovery and Redevelopment Plan more than just
thoughts and words on paper?

Can it really serve as a practical, workable blueprint to rebuild the city
into the community that all residents and neighborhoods want?

YOUR THOUGHTS, COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS ARE WANTED. E-MAIL TO
RESHAPINGNEWORLEANS@WYES.ORG

Links:
http://www.squanderedheritage.com/
The City’s List http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?tabid=118

NEW ORLEANS, LA (August 21, 2007) - Tomorrow, the City of New Orleans will begin a four-day drive during which New Orleanians whose properties have been cited as imminent health threats will be able to provide the required documentation to inspectors to qualify for removal from the Imminent Health Threat demolition lists. Citizens may participate whether they are currently living in New Orleans or elsewhere.

This four-day drive is part of the Imminent Health Threat Demolition Resident Assistance Program. The program was launched on August 15 and is designed to educate property owners on the process and criteria for removing a property from the Imminent Health Threat demolition list.

Property owners may bring proof and documentation of remediation to two locations in New Orleans Wednesday through Saturday and one location in Houston on Saturday. Documentation also may be sent by certified mail.

Property Removal Criteria

Property owners must provide proof and documentation (photos, in mail or in person, that shows the following:

* The property has been gutted and contents have been removed
* Grass is cut in the front, back, and side yards
* All doors closed and secured

Locations

From Wednesday, August 22 through Saturday, August 25, property owners may submit their documentation at the following locations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.:

New Orleans, LA

Office of Code Enforcement

1340 Poydras Street, Suite 1100

St. Bernard Recreation Center

1500 Lafreniere Street

Houston, TX

Journey Home Center

3611 Ennis Street, Suite 113/114

Houston, TX 77004

By certified mail to:

Office of Code Enforcement,

1340 Poydras Street, Suite 1100

New Orleans, LA 70112.

STATE OF LOUISIANA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT
PO BOX 94064, BATON ROUGE, LA 70804-9064

1-877-453-2721 • www.nolapublicschools.net

SUPERINTENDENT PASTOREK RELEASES DRAFT CRITERIA FOR “QUICK-START” SELECTION OF NEW SCHOOL SITES IN NEW ORLEANS – CALLS FOR COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek is urging residents of New Orleans to take part in determining where construction should begin on 5 new or “as good as new” schools by the end of the year. He has released a draft of the criteria to be used to select the sites as part of the “Quick-Start” plan, and he is asking for community input. To make suggestions, visit the Recovery School District website at www.nolapublicschools.net or the State Department of Education website at www.louisianaschools.net, click on the purple box on the left, and give your comments on the proposed criteria to select the locations.

The “Quick Start” process will result in the selection of five locations for either new construction, or renovation to “as good as new” condition, of five new schools. Construction would begin on these schools by the end of 2007.

(more…)

A Day Of Presence’ in Support Of Gulf Coast Recovery: We Matter, We Care, We Act

NEW ORLEANS — Appalled by the lack of progress in the Gulf, a group of prominent business, civic and entertainment organizations have joined forces to mobilize Americans to converge upon New Orleans on August 29, the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The event, “8/29, A Day of Presence,” will take place on August 29 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ernest N. Morial Conventional Center and is intended to force the government to act swiftly to create a Marshall Plan to restore New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

Those being invited to speak include Susan L. Taylor, Essence magazine; Marc Morial, National Urban League; Thomas W. Dortch, Jr., 100 Black Men of America; Melanie L. Campbell, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; author and professor Michael Eric Dyson; Rev. Jesse Jackson, Operation Rainbow PUSH; Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network; Iyanla Vanzant, author, radio host and spiritual leader; as well as all presidential candidates.

“Enough is enough!” said Taylor, during the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. “It’s the shame of the nation,” she said before tens of thousands gathered in the Superdome, “that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have been abandoned and are suffering without the most basic necessary supports while our tax dollars are directed toward war.”

(more…)

Fighting for the Right to Learn:

Report on Results of the Public Education Experiment in New Orleans Two Years after Katrina

There is a massive experiment being performed on thousands of primarily African American children in New Orleans. No one asked the permission of the children. No one asked permission of their parents.

Here is what’s being done.

The First Half

Half of the nearly 30,000 children expected to enroll in the fall of 2007 in New Orleans public schools have been enrolled in special public schools, most called charter schools. These schools have been given tens of millions of dollars by the federal government in extra money, over and above their regular state and local money, to set up and operate. These special public schools are not open to every child and do not allow every student who wants to attend to enroll. Some charter schools have special selective academic criteria which allow them to exclude children in need of special academic help. Other charter schools have special admission policies and student and parental requirements which effectively screen out many children.

Click for full article 

Squeezing Public Education
History and Ideology Gang Up on New Orleans

When Hurricane Katrina (or,
more accurately, the failure of
the levees) washed away the
New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) at the
end of August 2005, there was relief in many
quarters. Within days of the storm, the acting
public school superintendent, Ora Watson, declared
that the “fiscal crisis of the New Orleans
Public Schools” was now over. In hastily
assembled meetings, members of the State
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
(BESE), state and local politicians, and leaders
of the state’s education bureaucracy convened
to examine the situation… Read the full article Squeezing Public Education

New Orleans Survivor Council and Residents of Public Housing:

* Vanita Roger, Lower Ninth Ward low-income homeowner, New Orleans Survivor Council Leadership Committee. (504) 208-7290
* Theophilus Moore, B.W. Cooper member of Residents of Public Housing Leadership Committee and New Orleans Survivor Council Leadership Commitee. (504) 609-5725
* Odessia Lewis, Lafitte member of Residents of Public Housing Leadership Commitee and New Orleans Survivor Council Leadership Committee. (504) 975-0753
* Ishmael Muhammad, 6th Ward renter and member of New Orleans Survivor Council and Residents of Public Housing Organizing Committee, People’s Organizing Committee. (404) 664-3009 cell

On August 28, 2007, starting at 12 noon, we have a group of public housing residents who will be occupying the HANO/HUD building on 4100 Touro Street. They will be taking over those offices with a list of public housing units that will be opened before they leave those offices . . .