The resort has a shuttle boat

It used to be a public ferry. Commuters would use it. You could bring your car. It was a dollar to take it into town and free on the way back. They decided not to run that anymore, though, figuring there would be more money in finding a private patron to serve instead. 

Costello and members of the Algiers Point Association both said they would like to see the existing terminal remain and receive minor upgrades, such as a paint job or new art on its walls.

While there is little money available for any sort of improvements, the RTA hopes to attract private dollars under a partnership that would need to be cleared by the state Legislature, Augustine said.

Under such an arrangement, the agency would issue a request for proposals. A private developer then could agree to finance improvements or build a new terminal in exchange for receiving ferry fare revenues or some other form of payment from the RTA.

The Legislature passed the law permitting such a partnership just yesterday. It awaits the Governor's signature.  Today we learned more about who the potential partner might be.

Gulf Properties LLC, led by developer Pieter Stoffels, is presenting plans for NOLA City Beach, which would sit on a newly constructed elevated wharf, most of it covered with sand. The property would house a pool and lounge area, a two-story building with a restaurant and upstairs multi-use venue and festival grounds overlooking the river with a movable stage for performances.

Stoffels declined to say how much the project will cost. He said he has secured a 99-year lease for the privately owned property near the Algiers ferry terminal.

So what's the deal? Are the beach and pool bar people going to paint the terminal, at least? There isn't enough information.

Stoffels said his team is in talks with the Regional Transit Authority and Transdev, the RTA's private operator, about extending ferry service hours because of the anticipated increased demand from NOLA City Beach. He estimates 60 percent of customers would arrive via the ferry, including tourists staying in downtown hotels.

All that says, really, is the little pedestrian ferry might run a bit later to meet the venue's needs.  Of course it would close at 11 PM so we're still not any closer to a late night ferry that might help service industry types get home from the Quarter after a shift. But why would we build a transit service that prioritizes getting residents around town over getting tourists to attractions anyway?

Beach town of the future

I'm as puzzled by this WWL-TV report as anyone.

Now, one developer has plans that could change that serene feeling. On YouTube you can find an animation of a project that a company called Gulfwater Properties presented to the city and Algiers residents back in February. Shortly after Eyewitness News inquired with the company about the project, the video was taken down.

Instead of quiet views of the city skyline, the project would offer a restaurant, seminar room, snack bar, raised deck, swimming pool and even a beach.

Yeah, a beach on the river makes zero sense now. But remember this is about the future, or something.

Others, like Wayne Munster said change is inevitable. "I think it's the future. Future’s so big that you're not going to be able to stop it."

Maybe they mean the future when the actual Gulf Of Mexico is located in Algiers because that is coming. But who knows? Again, we really have no idea what this is about since we're reading a report about a deleted YouTube video and some man-on-the-street reactions to it and no other context.

We do know that around this time last year, there were plans in the works for that strip of Algiers riverfront.  Here's how that discussion was going.

Landrieu informed the Algiers residents that New Orleans is the hottest real estate market in the country and that waterfront property in every city is considered prime real estate. As for height restrictions he says you can either have long, skinny buildings along the river where "no one can see anything" or you can have tall buildings (I suppose suggesting that these tall, skinny buildings are somehow less of a hindrance to viewing the river).

He then went on to break the bad news to the Pointers (Algiers) about "what's not going to happen". The residents of the Point were not going to be able to say "I gots mine and nobody else can have theirs"...essentially confirming their worst fears about what probably "is going to happen" regarding development plans for the batture.

Interesting he would frame it that way. Right now the batture is green space that everyone can share. The Mayor's logic seems to be that the residents of Algiers Point are selfish for wanting to keep sharing it that way.

Beach or no beach, it sure sounds like some publicly shared space is fixing to go "back into commerce" one way or another.

They've agreed to be yelled at some more

The Algiers riverfront rezoning was scheduled to go to City Council tomorrow. It's been pulled.

A controversial proposal in Algiers Point to rezone the Misssissippi River batture from open space to maritime industrial will be pulled from the New Orleans City Council agenda Thursday. Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey, who represents the area, is returning the amendment to the Planning Commission to hold a public hearing, said Kara Johnson, Ramsey's chief of staff.

No action will be taken at the council's meeting, Johnson said.

So OK go yell at the Planning Commission if you get the time. But, remember, Mitch has already said it probably won't matter. 

The rent and the too damn high being of the rent

We're number two.

In New Orleans, for instance, 35 percent of renters dedicate more than half of their pay to housing, the second highest share for the cities studied. Many people working in tourism and hospitality, a major industry for the area, might have low-paying jobs that make it harder for them to afford the median rent bill of $900, Boyd says.

Last week we talked a little bit about the fallacious attempt by high-end developers to blame this on "NIMBYism."   As in, the rent is too high because you won't let us build more high rent housing.  This is a preposterous lie for numerous reasons. At its heart, though, is an implication that once a piece of land becomes profitable for an investor, then the poor people living on it are obligated to move out of the way. You could call it a sort of eminent domain of capitalism.

But it's also an eminent domain of government working hand in hand with developers. This is where Dambala picks up with the first in what he's calling a "Neighborhood Journey" exploration of New Orleans neighborhoods threatened by gentrification. In this case he's talking about the Algiers waterfront where Mitch Landrieu and Nadine Ramsey seem to believe a "hot real estate market" absolutely dictates the conversion of common green space into high rise condos.

What was really fascinating, in respect to  the city budget meeting, was the Mayor's response to the batture zoning issue.

Landrieu informed the Algiers residents that New Orleans is the hottest real estate market in the country and that waterfront property in every city is considered prime real estate.  As for height restrictions he says you can either have long, skinny buildings along the river where "no one can see anything" or you can have tall buildings (I suppose suggesting that these tall, skinny building are somehow less of a hindrance to viewing the river).

He then went on to break the bad news to the Pointers (Algiers) about "what's not going to happen".  The residents of the Point were not going to be able to say "I gots mine and nobody else can have theirs"...essentially confirming their worst fears about what probably "is going to happen" regarding development plans for the batture.

Interesting he would frame it that way.  Right now the batture is green space that everyone can share. The Mayor's logic seems to be that the residents of Algiers Point are being selfish for wanting to keep sharing it that way.

Public park = "I gots mine nobody else can have theirs." So make way for tall buildings full of nice things for rich people.  They gots to have theirs and there's nothing you can do about it.

"The Union must and shall be preserved"

The dream of Wanklandia is now Jeff Arnold's lost cause.

Algiers' push to break away from New Orleans was halted by a Louisiana Senate committee Thursday (June 4). House Bills 235 and 744 were deferred by the Committee on Local and Municipal Affairs

Amusingly, that is exactly how he is treating it.

As the longest-serving House member, he scored the support of his colleagues the second time around in the 2015 session. But on Thursday (June 4), a Senate committee blocked the framework for the West Bank community to incorporate, dealing a fatal blow to the dean of the House in his final term.

"The fact of the matter is we are viewed differently by the general electorate. We have to do things to draw attention to Algiers,'' Arnold said after the vote. "We are not the French Quarter. We are not the lakefront.

"We are a bedroom community, with small businesses, a few medium ones, that wants what everybody else has. We don't garner the attention of the city as the other communities do.''

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with the suggestion that the not-so-heavily touristed corners of town get neglected. But it's hard to see how Algiers is any special case in this regard compared to, say, East New Orleans. Heck, even Lakeview feels like they don't get enough attention. They're wrong about that, of course, but at least they don't want to run off and be their own redundant city-within-a-city over some potholes.

Meanwhile. in Baton Rouge.

The anti-St. George group Better Together said Thursday it believes the Registrar of Voters Office was off by as many as 239 signatures in validating the initial 18,000 signatures submitted on a petition to create a new city.

St. George organizers, hoping to secure a vote, turned in their first round of signatures on a petition with the goal of collecting support from 25 percent of registered voters in the proposed city.

The Registrar’s Office announced at the end of March that it had finished validating the more than 18,000 names that were turned in and found that only 15,156 were valid — creating a shortfall of about 2,700 names.

Better Together is suggesting the gap should be larger, closer to 2,900 names, based on its own review of the registrar’s work so far.

What.. is that still going on? St. George is likely to fail just like the City of Algiers did. But it's hard to escape the general atmosphere of devolution all of this evokes. Why not just go the whole nine and scrap the State of Louisiana in favor of 4 million independent sovereign citizens?  Maybe that will allow each of to accept our own Medicaid expansion .

Wanklandia Lives

Huh. Jeff Arnold's goofball Algiers secession bill made it out of committee.

Still has to pass in the legislature, which probably won't happen. (But then those people are pretty crazy.)  Then it has to pass a statewide ballot.  Then they have to get some signatures on a petition.  And then they have to have a local election.  So that's a lot of stuff that needs to happen but just passing it out of committee seems pretty wacky.

Arnold said Algiers would not be withdrawing but reincorporating. Algiers, Carrollton and Jefferson were separate cities until the 1870s, when the Legislature dissolved them without a vote of the people and made them part of New Orleans, he said.

Arnold said some residents are still angry about that.

Huge if true. That's some pretty intensely maintained institutional resentment they've got going over there. Who in Algiers even remembers that far back?  Maybe Jackie Clarkson. 

Yes well good luck paying for your ferries now

We might have to slap the tolls back on the bridge.  Or maybe start requiring visas.

Algiers could become its own city again under a measure proposed by state Rep. Jeff Arnold for the 2015 session of the Louisiana Legislature. He envisions a community led by a mayor-council form of government, with the current New Orleans mayor and council transitioning to a parish president-parish council entity.

The driving force behind the measure, he said, is the same as when he introduced the idea a decade ago: a lack of attention from New Orleans officials. "If we had a government in Algiers, it would better serve people in Algiers. We will still be in New Orleans. You'll still be a New Orleanian,'' Arnold said. "But if you have a street problem, you'd go to the Algiers courthouse as opposed to going to City Hall.'

Of course it's a stupid idea. But that probably means it's got a chance.