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The Odyssey Of A Neighborhood To Save Itself

Esplanade Avenue stretches from the front entrance of the New Orleans Museum of Art to the old U.S. Mint and the Mississippi River. It is a heavily tree-lined avenue with stately and modest homes, chic businesses, iconic restaurants, bars, cemeteries, a high school, laundromats and grocery stores.

Throughout its history Esplanade has been considered the equivalent of the more socially affluent grand avenues, on equal footing with those in some of the more pretentious Uptown sections of the city.

Esplanade is also an open oasis for everyone from the wealthy to the wanderer. It runs through the Mid-City section of the city, and on any given day can be found bikers, walkers, people strolling with their dogs or others sitting outside a local coffee shop enjoying their morning brew and engaged in conversation. A major bus line runs along most of it until North Rampart and for those who live in the surrounding neighborhoods, it is the umbilical chord that leads to such notable sites as the French Quarter, Louis Armstrong Park, Canal Street and Treme.

Now there’s a move afoot to alter the fragile cultural landscape of a section of Esplanade Avenue that for years has been plagued with civic and public neglect, urban blight, economic uncertainty and in what was probably the most egregious blow and closet call to a neighborhood’s death, being sliced away from the river portion of the French Quarter by Interstate 10.

To be sure, the area of Esplanade Avenue between North Claiborne and North Broad is one of four major thoroughfares in New Orleans–St. Bernard, Ursuline and Orleans avenues being the other three - that are sandwiched by two federal highways and that have suffered urban blight brought about by horrific civic and public policy, poor public planning and insensitive and anti-neighborhood sentiment through the location of foreign owned gas convenient stores and other mom and pop like establishments that many consider hostile to African-Americans.

The move in question–and one meeting intense neighborhood opposition–involves turning the old Bethany Home at 2535 Esplanade Ave. into an apartment complex “for persons in drug rehab, persons who have aged out of foster care, and the perennially homeless,” according to a letter sent to the New Orleans City Council by Michele Braden, president of the Esplanade Ridge/Treme Civic Association (ERTCA), which strongly opposes the project.

Prior to Katrina, the Bethany Home was a nursing home. It’s red brick facade often served as a marker for those looking for street parking during Jazz Fest, its tree-lined front providing much needed shade from the intense New Orleans heat.

Now the heat is on Odyssey House, which operates out of 1125 N. Tonti St., not far from the Esplanade location and already servicing 126 individuals, for being part of a grand plan to convert the former Bethany Home into a “supportive housing facility” for those who fit the profile and demographic makeup of Odyssey House’s primary clientele.

“They’re not being up front with the kind of people they will have in there,” said Michele Braden, president of the Esplanade Ridge/Treme Civic Association. She added that many of the residents for the units would be people who need medications and would be required to see counselors. Moreover, they would, according to current plans, be able to “come and go”as they please with no lockdown requirements.

“They don’t want to say this because they would only be able to have 15 apartments. Now, they have no restrictions on two persons per unit. If there are any problems, the neighborhood has to step up to the plate, and the police will get tired. They’re just waiting for that occupancy permit to get them there.”

Braden said Odyssey House and GCHP have “been trying to get around” the controversy by skirting the area’s multi-family-residential use. She said in the final analysis, someone is getting paid while the neighborhood is paying the price.

“It’s a rouge. They have never been honest with that (number of people involved). More people equals more vouchers.”

Taking advantage

The entire redevelopment of the Bethany Home is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, which obtained the site through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during a very trying time For New Orleanians and a disturbingly corrupt period for HUD. The deal was considered a first for the then-controversial HUD, led by George W. Bush appointee Alphonso Jackson, who himself was mired in political scandals involving questionable deals with key supporters.

According to Braden and ERTCA, Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP) chose Odyssey House as the perfect non-profit to get the building donated, a well constructed building that carried an appraised value of $2.5 million. The objective was to use the tax credit funds from the government. Eventually, Odyssey House was joined by Unity of New Orleans. For its part, Odyssey has been in the drug rehabilitation business in New Orleans for decades.

All of this negotiating for a prime piece of Esplanade Avenue real estate occurred in 2006, not long after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and left many nearby homeowners marooned in other cities. Despite their love for their city and their desire to return home as fast as possible, they were far enough away that they were unable to monitor the many behind the scene strategies that were being plotted in what was considered by many - and admitted by a few - a takeover of New Orleans from the predominantly African-American community and into the hands of the whiter, Uptown elite and its so-called “good government” and “watchdog groups.”

GCHP was notified of ERTCA’s opposition via certified mail. ERTCA also solicited, unsuccessfully, the ear of Elliot Perkins of the Historic District Landmarks Commission. The group also petitioned twice the Board of Zoning Adjustments, which makes its recommendations to the New Orleans City Council.

In a strongly worded letter to Perkins and cc’d to Mayor Mitch Landrieu (whose father, former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu was a former HUD secretary under President Jimmy Carter) and two city council members, Braden and the ERTCA expressed their frustrations with the process. The following is a copy of that letter”

June 1, 2010

Elliott Perkins, Director
HDLC
Amoco Bldg.
1340 Poydras St., 11th Floor
New Orleans, LA 70130

Dear Elliott:

Since attending the HDLC meeting on May 13th, I have struggled to appreciate your actions on behalf of the Odyssey House proposal. On numerous occasions you attempted to reverse the position of many of the Commissioners after each in his or her own time expressed objection to their desire to demolish a section of the brick structure when no final plans had even been submitted.

You were aware that they were denied the variances they needed to create additional parking in the area and that they were denied the right to pave over virtually all of the green space on North Dorgenois to accommodate parking. You were also aware of the strong objection to the project as a whole that was the position of the neighborhood association.

Your actions dictate a need to require an oath from all city employees. In that oath they would declare themselves committed to the ultimate good of the city and the neighborhoods in particular.

I could not be more disappointed in your lack of concern about the negative impact this proposed project would have overall. I do not believe the city wants to portray an image that shows a lack of concern for the property owners and residents of its historic districts.

That you would speak out on several different occasions to advocate the demolition of a section of a brick building in a historic district by a group that was denied the necessary variances to go forward, who, if allowed to proceed, would lower the property taxes of the properties around it, raise the crime rate in the area, and diminish the quality of life overall, demonstrates your allegiance not to the city or the neighborhoods but to a group of people who feed at the public trough and have obviously become your good friends.”

Very disappointed,
Michele B. Braden
Pres., ERTCA

CC: Mayor Mitch Landrieu
Councilperson Susan Guidry
Councilperson Kristin Palmer