We are delighted to announce that, effective August 24, 2015, we are changing our name from Friends of Lafitte Corridor to Friends of Lafitte Greenway. As the grand opening of the Lafitte Greenway nears, our new name is a reflection of our renewed commitment to this, now real, public space.

For nine years, we have worked with the community, our members, partners, and public officials to advocate for the preservation of the open green space within the Lafitte Railroad “Corridor”—stretching through nine New Orleans neighborhoods—and its transformation into the “Lafitte Greenway”. Today, that transformation is nearly complete.

Our new brand reinforces our commitment to providing the programs, events, improvements, and advocacy that will make the Lafitte Greenway a vibrant community asset. We believe that by focusing our efforts on supporting the Lafitte Greenway, we will best serve the surrounding Lafitte Corridor neighborhoods. Friends of Lafitte Greenway looks forward to continuing to be your partner in building, programming, and promoting the Greenway as a great public space.

We invite you to visit our new website at www.lafittegreenway.org to get to know our new look. Let us know what you think by emailing info@lafittegreenway.org!

We want to thank Line 58 for their contributions that made this rebranding possible.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Sophie Harris
Executive Director
Friends of Lafitte Greenway

On August 11, our partners at FitLot launched a Katrina Commemoration Project to make New Orleans and the Lafitte Greenway community healthier. We're pleased to share it with you. 

FitLot is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to building public outdoor fitness parks throughout New Orleans. Hours ago, they launched a 30-day crowdfunding campaign to build their flagship fitness park along the Lafitte Greenway at the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center! 

Please take a moment to learn about FitLot's project by CLICKING HERE. Consider providing your financial support to bring an outdoor fitness park to the Lafitte Corridor.

If you like what FitLot is doing, please share this information with others through email, Facebook, or Twitter.

We've reached the 2,000 pound mark!

With the help of Café Reconcile students and other local volunteers, Friends of Lafitte Greenway was able to surpass the 2,000 pound mark for litter picked up since launching our volunteer program in April. Our latest clean-up volunteer day took place on Friday July 3rd. Volunteers started off their holiday weekend on a positive note by giving back to their community through neighborhood beautification. These volunteers arrived early with energy, loaded up on cold water, and set out to brave the New Orleans' summer heat. We cleaned up the Lafitte Corridor neighborhoods around the Sojourner Truth Neighbor Center.

The City of New Orleans Department of Public Works issued the following status update on July 9, 2015.

The Department of Public Works construction contractor, Durr Heavy Construction, has completed placement of the asphalt portion of the Lafitte Greenway bicycle and pedestrian path in Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5. The path in Area 1 is 85% complete.  The concrete path in Area 6  is complete. The contractor has completed installing all trail lighting except within the N. Broad St. median. The contractor will install wiring for the trail lighting in July. Lights are being tested as the wiring is completed.

The overall project is about 96% complete and scheduled to be fully open to the public in summer 2015. This schedule is weather dependent.

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.