On June 15th, Friends on Lafitte Greenway put on a community cleanup event in partnership with the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center (STNC) and the National Park Service to celebrate the kickoff of the 50 Cities Initiative- New Orleans. Leaders from the Department of the Interior, City of New Orleans, NORDC, the Dryades YMCA, and FOLC's Executive Director, Sophie Harris, spoke on the importance of learning outside of the classroom and volunteering. We then led two groups of eager youth volunteers to clean up the playground and open fields around the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center. With everyone’s help we were able to raise our total amount of trash collected this spring to 1,500 pounds!

See WDSU's story for more information on the 50 Cities Initiative-New Orleans.

Come work with Friends of Lafitte Greenway! We are hiring a Community Health Program Coordinator to develop and implement community health programming and engagement activities in the Lafitte Corridor. Applications are due Monday, June 22. Click here to learn more.

On May 30th, Friends of Lafitte Corridor teamed up with Bike Easy to hold a Bicycle Repair Workshop & Lafitte Street Group Ride. Bike Easy's Program Director and bike mechanic guru, Anneka Olson, taught a group of over 40 attendees the basics of bike mechanics including how to fix flats, adjust brakes, and maintain chains. After the workshop, we rode together down Lafitte Street, seeing and learning about the Lafitte Greenway, now over 94% complete. Thanks to everyone who came out to the event, and Mid-City Market for the space, snacks and support!

Please RSVP at http://bit.ly/TRUEGRID

Parkway Bakery and Tavern is utilizing a permeable pavement system called TRUEGRIDⓇ to manage rainwater that falls in the parking lot. Urban Conservancy's Front Yard Initiative (FYI), Water Wise NOLA, and the Greater New Orleans Water Collaborate are organizing a 1 hour presentation for architects, developers, contractors, planners, engineers, homeowners, etc. to demonstrate how this permeable paving system functions. This workshop will be worth one credit hour towards AIA licensing requirements.

The City of New Orleans Department of Public Works issued the following status update on June 5, 2015.

Placement of the asphalt portion of the Lafitte Greenway bicycle and pedestrian path is 100% complete in Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5.  The path in Area 1 is 80% complete.  The path in Area 6 will be concrete and is 95% 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 94% complete and scheduled to be fully open to the public in summer 2015. This schedule is weather dependent.  

What a success!

Last week Friends of Lafitte Corridor held a two day community discussion and stakeholder workshop to develop a community plan to increase access to healthy local food and reassess interest in future community gardens and farmers markets along the Lafitte Greenway. Not only was interest still there two years after the development of the Lafitte Greenway Master Plan, but the number of attendees who turned-out motivated to see these projects come to life was tremendous.  With over 80 community members in attendance representing a diverse group of organizations and neighborhoods, you can imagine the amount of great ideas that resulted from the discussion. Technical support was provided by the Local Foods Local Places initiative helping the community turn those ideas into action plans. Below is a recap of the two days.

The Department of Public Works is starting construction in May on two infrastructure projects that will improve the pedestrian, cyclist, and motorist experience around the Lafitte Greenway. On May 7, 2015 DPW and the Sewerage and Water Board held a public meeting at the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center in which they shared the following details about the St. Louis Street and Broad & Lafitte Streetscape Projects.

Broad and Lafitte Streetscape--Aesthetic and safety improvements, landscaping, and traffic calming measures on N. Broad St. between Orleans Ave. and Bienville St.

• Broad St. will be transformed from 6 traffic lanes to 4 traffic lanes between Orleans and Bienville;
• Bike lane will added to between Orleans and Bienville, connecting to the existing Broad Street bike lane;
• New trees will be planted on the neutral ground and along the sidewalk;
• There is a traffic plan for Broad Street during the construction to allow for safe pedestrian and transit-rider access;
• Project cost: $713,315.00;
• Construction is scheduled to begin in May and last through fall, 2015. In general construction crews will work from 7:00am to 5:30pm, Monday through Friday.

St. Louis St. Repaving--removal and replacement of the existing asphalt roadway, replacing damaged sidewalks and installing American with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps between N. Claiborne Ave. and N. Broad St.

• Sidewalks will be widened from 4 feet to 5 feet on St. Louis Street between Broad and Claiborne;
• All intersections within project limits will have crosswalks;
• Project cost: $1.5 million;
• Construction is scheduled to begin in May and last through fall, 2015. In general construction crews will work from 7:00am to 5:30pm, Monday through Friday.

Families and groups of friends brought out their blankets and lawn chairs to kick off memorial day weekend with a free outdoor movie screening of Annie.

Held on the lawn of the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center, right alongside the new Lafitte Greenway, the screening was a partnership between Friends of Lafitte Corridor, the New Orleans Film Society, the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center, and Providence Community Housing. 

Annie by Director Will Gluck is the 2014 reboot of the Broadway classic, starring Louisiana native Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) in the title role and Jamie Foxx as mayoral hopeful Will Stacks, an update of Daddy Warbucks.

The screening was part of the New Orleans Films Society's Moonlight Movies Series. Click here for information about NOFS's upcoming screenings.

New Orleans celebrated Walk & Roll to School Week on May 9-15. Friends of Lafitte Corridor partnered with Bike Easy and the Tulane Prevention Research Center to celebrate the students that walk and bike to two great Lafitte Corridor schools--Success Preparatory Academy and Phillis Wheatley Community School. We joined our partners in passing out snacks, drinks, and safety equipment to students, and participating in a walking school bus!

The Root Beer Float Float made its maiden voyage at the 2015 Bayou Boogaloo, May 15-18. Friends of Lafitte Corridor members and volunteers staffed the floating stand throughout the weekend, selling brimming root beer floats to festival-goers arriving by foot or by paddle.

The Root Beer Float Float is a partnership between Friends of Lafitte Corridor and the MotherShip Foundation, host of the Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo. 

Friends of Lafitte Corridor extends a giant thank you to the over 40 volunteers that made the Bayou Boogaloo weekend possible!

Local artist, sculptor, and design business STUDIO3 inc. designed and built the watercraft, equipped with a giant root beer float sculpture. Expect to see the float back out on the water at the 2016 Bayou Boogaloo.