New Orleans Community Support Foundation?
July 24th, 2006
It’s come to my attention that last Friday, the New Orleans Community Support Foundation selected its contenders for the technical help teams that neighborhood and planning district groups will be able to choose from. Since the NOCSF was set up to administer use of a $3.5 million Rockefeller Foundation planning grant and direct the use of the recovery funds Congress has approved, this is hardly a small matter. This meeting also established the schedule and procedure for community members to get involved – a meeting on Sunday, July 30, 2:00-6:00PM was announced (location To Be Determined) at which residents can meet the prospective planners, settle on criteria for working with them, and determine their neighborhoods’ and/or districts’ official boundaries. A second meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 1, at which attendees can pick their top three choices for their groups’ assintance teams. Again, not trivial things. But where was this announcement made? As far as I’ve been able to determine, the only local media to publish the date and details was BayouBuzz. The Times-Picayune did cover last Friday’s panel meeting, but nothing further about meeting times or agendas, despite generalizations about the “strong voice” neighborhoods will have in their own planning processes. As for other local media, I’ve poked around a bit, but haven’t turned anything up as of yet. There doesn’t seem to be much extra room in the “Local News” segments these days when Dr. Anna Pou is on the loose. To their credit, the NOCSF did post the meeting info on their website, and they say they’ve disseminated the information to untold numbers of community groups – I hope they have. I hope they really are serious about including our numerous community groups in their own rebuilding efforts. I’m pleased to see how many local firms made the list – that’s a step in the right direction. But I’m still a bit concerend – where are the other local media on this? Where is the NOCSF when it comes to leaning on the local media if they won’t pick it up on their own? How much faith can we put in a planning commission whose primary outreach tool is a content-shy website that already needs some of its links retooled (try navigating off the “Contact Us” page, for example)? How far can we rely on an organization that doesn’t even have a location settled for a meeting less than a week away? That gives the community less than a week’s notice for that meeting? Cross your fingers, and register to attend…
July 25th, 2006 at 12:22 am
Hey, wait until you see some of the folks they picked! My personal homework tonight for the Mid-City recovery planning group (city council plan) was Torre Design Consortium. Results are on http://wetbankguide.blogspot.com. And welcome to the NOLA Blogosphere. We’re actually not quite a sphere yet, but we’re hoping to get some LRA money to straighten that out.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Thanks I will link to this..This is a crucial event and the TP is absent, wonder why..
July 25th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Thanks! Maybe it’s a blogo-debris-cloud right now. Seems apt in so many ways.
When I checked this morning, the meeting still wasn’t listed in the
Times-Picayune “Meetings” section, unless I’ve got a big blind spot. Curious, since instructions for submitting a meeting look pretty clear. Didn’t see it in the Metro headlines either, but I haven’t gone through cover-to-cover.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
thanks for the catch of the contact us form links not working. we missed that. fixed.
July 26th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
[...] and to read more go here [...]
July 27th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Thanks, humidhaney – it looks like you’ve updated some other links as well.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Becky,
I believe you pick the planners on Sunday and interview them on Tuesday. In essence: Formal must-attend on Sunday at Pavilion of Two Sisters in City Park and informal getting-to-know-you on Tuesday.
July 27th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Thanks Maitri – My first impression was that the planners were being picked on Sunday, but my understanding got fuzzier the more I read. Right now the Unified New Orleans Plan meetings page (Arrrgghh!!! They changed the URL for this page since Monday!) has the somewhat woolly-sounding:
“This meeting will begin the process for community members to be involved in the selection of the technical assistance teams of professionals to support them in neighborhood, district and city-wide planning”
as the agenda for Sunday, and presentations by the teams as well as “allowing participants to select their top three choices for technical assistance teams to support their planning process” listed for Tuesday, with the actual selection deadline on Friday.
I’m still not sure what they mean by “begin the process to be involved in the selection” on Sunday – are there some criteria community members/groups have to meet to be “involved”? Sunday seems to be the crucial day anyway, whatever they’re planning.
July 28th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
They have created no timeline. We are virtual hostages in this situation. With the lack of communication and clear timeline we feel we can not leave town in fear that we will miss an important event.
July 28th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Good point, Karen. It also shuts out people still living elsewhere – how many people can afford to plan travel with less than a week’s notice?