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New Urbanist in New Orleans


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A volunteer effort is occuring this week in the Gentilly neighborhood with DPZ and many other new urbanist volunteers. Many or the issues they are working on are technical and not terribly exciting, but necessary. The best thing that is happening is the strengthening of the idea of neighborhoods within Gentilly, and the recognition that New Orleans is a city of the future, with the infrastructure in place already for mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods.

To follow what is going on see http://www.gcia.us/

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Thanks for the link...I have been hearing about charrette's around town...particularly in St. Bernard Parish. These are the key to real discussion on bringing neighborhoods back and I'm glad to see Gentilly getting in on the action. The charrette neighborhoods will be the one's the come back quicker, better, and more organized than any of the others...expect to see real action in these neighborhoods before the end of the Summer (some things have already begun in St. Bernard Parish, which has been having various charrette's for several months).

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Hmmmmm.....it appears Mr. Duany has a "public square" planned for about two-thirds of my block....

http://www.gcia.us/Charrette/DaySevenDiary.htm

It's important to realize that the plans are both conceptual and specific. There are ideas that respond to specific situations (existing retail, houses, parks) and iceas that are conceptual (parks within 5 minutes). The public square on your block would not necessarily be there or anywhere at all. What he is showing is an idea that could be implemented by the residents of each neighborhood. The details would be up to the local residents.

This plan has no legal enforcement basis - unless the residents vote or encourage their representatives to vote for its adoption. And there is much time left for additional input.

I would encourage residents to not be against "the plan" if they are against one part of it - instead work on that one part to be refines and modified - this process welcomes the input.

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It's important to realize that the plans are both conceptual and specific. There are ideas that respond to specific situations (existing retail, houses, parks) and iceas that are conceptual (parks within 5 minutes). The public square on your block would not necessarily be there or anywhere at all. What he is showing is an idea that could be implemented by the residents of each neighborhood. The details would be up to the local residents.

This plan has no legal enforcement basis - unless the residents vote or encourage their representatives to vote for its adoption. And there is much time left for additional input.

I would encourage residents to not be against "the plan" if they are against one part of it - instead work on that one part to be refines and modified - this process welcomes the input.

LOL...I understand the nature of the plan is not specific...and the plan showed a square for the "other" two-thirds of my block, which isn't all that bad for me anyway. I made all of the public presentation talks (including the one blacked out by the electrical storm..LOL) given by Mr. Duany, and almost entirely bought into his team's plans. As he described the "square" concept, it would be used where all of the homeowners on a designated city block either didn't plan on coming back or could be persuaded to "swap" their property for some other similar parcel in a block where most of the residents ARE coming back. I know, however, from going back and forth to do some work on my house that a fair number of the folks down at that end of the block are already working on their homes as well, and in fact a number of them are already living in their FEMA trailers in front of their homes.

A more specific proposal that I'm all in favor of is the team's plan for a Gentilly "town square" and "urban" shopping center at the intersection of Gentilly Blvd. and Elysian Fields. Plans can be viewed at the same Gentilly Civic Improvement Assn. website (www.gcia.us) as earlier mentioned.

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