Friends of Lafitte Corridor has picked up over 1,000 pounds of trash from the neighborhoods surrounding the Lafitte Greenway over the past two months with the help of extraordinary volunteers!

On May 11th, graduate students from the LSU School of Public Health teamed up NOLA Trash Mob litter-fighters, Success Preparatory Academy teachers, and volunteers from Boston to clean up the Treme-Lafitte neighborhood. We are so thankful for their volunteer work to make the Lafitte Corridor neighborhoods clean and healthy!

Greenway supporters new and old came out to Bayou Beer Garden on April 16 to celebrate springtime and the planting of the Greenway. Thanks to all who battled the rain to join us!

Grab your bike to have yourself a more fun and healthy commute this April. New Orleans is celebrating the fourth annual Bike to Work Week, April 13-17. Bike to Work Week is for everyone, from new riders to daily commuters.

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.