Parkway Bakery is greening its parking lot and installing innovative stormwater management systems to prepare for the Greenway's opening directly across the street this summer. 

Jay Nix, Parkway owner (and Friends of Lafitte Corridor Board member), says that "Parkway is going the green way," pun intended. Where the parking lot was once the forgotten back of the building facing a vacant strip of land, it will now be the front yard for people walking and biking the Greenway. Jay want his business to embrace the Greenway, to be green, beautiful, and inviting.

Michel Varisco's Turning will be the first public art installation on the Lafitte Greenway, as winner of the 2015 Civic Design Pitch Competition. At Water Challenge Day, a feature of New Orleans Entrepreneur week, three finalists pitched their proposals for a $25,000 art installation at the intersection of the Lafitte Greenway and Jefferson Davis Parkway on theme of 'Living with Water.'

Varisco's Turning is sculpture that will contain a series of three large, stainless steel cylinder that viewers can spin, reminiscent of Tibetan prayer wheels. The cylinders will reveal patterns of the Mississippi River, reflecting its initial free-moving curvature and later levee restriction. At night, holes punched into the barrels will allow solar-powered electroluminescent panels to show through. The base of the cylinder will be decorated with mosaic- applied imagery, revealing the pattern of an unencumbered snake-like Mississippi River. Low chimes will emerge from the cylinders when spun, as a "gentle call to action."

Future Greenway riders now have a place to pump up their bike tires, change flats, and make basic repairs. Last week, Mid-City Market installed a brand new bicycle repair station along the Lafitte Greenway.

The station has a manual bike pump and tools for minor repairs, from changing a flat to adjusting brakes and derailleurs. The tools and air pump are securely attached to the stand with stainless steel. While making adjustments, you can hang your bike from the station's hanger arms that allow the pedals and wheels to spin freely.

BROAD + WATER is a creative place-making project of the Arts Council of New Orleans and Broad Community Connections that will contribute to the city's conversation about living with water through a public art installation at the intersection of Broad Street and the Lafitte Greenway.

On March 11, 2015, the Arts Council and Broad Community Connections issued a call to artists, requesting proposals for an artistic installation/sculpture framed around New Orleans' water challenges. 

The City of New Orleans Department of Public Works issued the following status update on March 16, 2015.

Placement of the asphalt portion of the Lafitte Greenway bicycle and pedestrian path is 80% complete in Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  The path in Area 6 will be concrete and is 50% complete.  The Department of Public Works construction contractor, Durr Heavy Construction, has completed installing most of the trail lighting fixtures in Areas 2, 3, and 4, and continues installation of trail lighting in Area 5. Lighting wiring will be installed toward the end of the project construction, when the project is ready for public use.

The overall project is about 86% complete and scheduled to be fully open to the public in early summer 2015. This schedule is weather dependent.

Share your thoughts on green space and parks in New Orleans. WWNO 89.9FM/the Listening Post wants to know where you hang outside in New Orleans, and what your dream park looks like.

Text "hello" to 504-303-4348 to let them know what you think, and they'll share responses online, listeningpostnola.com and on the radio Thursday, March 19.

The Listening Post is a community media project that aims to start a conversation about local news in New Orleans. Every week on the Listening Post radio segment, they talk about issues ranging from healthcare to WhoDat, tattoos to transportation.

Friends of Lafitte Corridor teamed up with NOLA Trash Mob on Sunday, March 8th to hold a Great American Cleanup of the Lafitte Corridor. Over 30 volunteers helped to pick up over 500 pounds of litter from New Orleans' streets.

We want to give a special thanks to the students from the University of Georgia Impact Program, who kicked off their week of volunteering in New Orleans by helping us keep the Lafitte Corridor beautiful. 

Photos from the Great American Cleanup are posted below.

Friends of Lafitte Corridor and NOLA Trash Mob are hosting a Great American Cleanup of the neighborhoods surrounding the Lafitte Greenway. Join us for coffee and pastries, and a great cleanup of the Corridor.

Help select the first public art installation on the Lafitte Greenway by attending the Water Challenge Art Pitch. In January, Arts Council New Orleans and Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation issued a call to artists to propose designs for a $25,000 art installation for the Lafitte Greenway at Jefferson Davis Parkway on the theme of living with water. 

The New Orleans Track Club will host a 5K Resilience Run/Walk on August 29, 2015to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and celebrate New Orleans’ perseverance and spirit. FOLC is honored to be one of ten official nonprofit beneficiaries of the run! 

Please register here to run with FOLC!