[StBernard] Times-Picayune Highlights Progress in New Orleans

[Westley Annis]

>From time to time the LRA shares articles or opinion pieces about issues surrounding the recovery. The Times-Picayune issued the following round-up Friday, October 26, 2007, highlighting recovery progress in the New Orleans area. 


Times-Picayune Highlights Progress in New Orleans

Signs of recovery
The Times-Picayune
October 26, 2007

Evidence of recovery can be seen all over the metro New Orleans area. Those signs brighten our mood and show that we are on the mend. We'll be watching for these harbingers of rebirth and taking note of some of them every week. Friday, October 26, 2007

-- Tulane University's new Turchin Stadium hosted its first event, a fundraiser for the athletic department Thursday night. Construction on the new stadium, which began before Katrina, was delayed by the storm. The official opening will be next year, but the Hullabaloo Homecoming, which includes a tour, is the first time the new facility has been put on public display. 

-- A report based on September mail deliveries found that the New Orleans area has regained 86 percent of its pre-Katrina households. The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center found that New Orleans has regained 70 percent of households, Jefferson Parish is at 98.2 percent and St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes have more households than before. 

-- Vendor and restaurant participation for Saturday's Voodoo On the Bayou is up from last year and organizers expect bigger crowds for the event that benefits the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association. The area has seen a surge in civic involvement since the storm, and the association has landscaped Fortier Park and put plantings along the bayou's edge. 

-- Walgreens CEO Jeff Rein said that the drugstore chain expects its number of stores to be back at pre-Katrina levels next year and on pace for expansion. He called New Orleans "a strong and vibrant market for us" at the grand opening of a Walgreens store on South Carrollton Avenue. 

-- Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes mixed soil from the former Lower 9th Ward campus of Holy Cross School with soil from its future Gentilly address in a ceremony marking the rite of passage for the 150-year-old school. The soil and a magnolia tree will be planted on the new campus. 

-- The Laketown Festival debuts in Kenner this weekend. The new celebration, which features music and food, is sponsored by the city of Kenner and Kenner City Events, a nonprofit organization created to raise money for the Laketown waterfront park in north Kenner.

To view the editorial on the Times-Picayune Web site go to: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/119337723120490.xml&coll=1 <http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/119337723120490.xml&coll=1>  

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated South Louisiana, claiming 1,464 lives, destroying more than 200,000 homes and 18,000 businesses. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is the planning and coordinating body that was created in the aftermath of these storms by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to lead one of the most extensive rebuilding efforts in the world. The LRA is a 33-member body which is coordinating across jurisdictions, supporting community recovery and resurgence, ensuring integrity and effectiveness, and planning for the recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana. 

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