Monday Nights in Mid-City New Orleans

A group of New Orleanians committed to having a voice in the rebuilding of our Mid-City neighborhood have been meeting every Monday night from 6:30-8 PM (often longer) at Grace Episcopal Church since the end of May. This started when my friend, colleague, and neighbor Bart decided that Mid-City needed a recovery plan. He came up with the first draft, a few of us collaborated on draft two, and then we met the larger neighborhood and formed committees. I was chair of the education committee. Each committee wrote their portion of our recovery plan, and we worked with Lambert and Associates, planners hired by the City Council. Recently they presented their final plan for our recovery, and we compiled an "Addendum" to be read in conjunction with the Lambert plan. Then last night we did something monumental. We agreed to stop meeting every Monday night. Not even a 12-step-program, just completely cold turkey. Each committee will now work to implement their plan. For the education committee, that means we will be working hard to get a public library in our neighborhood and more important, quality public schools. My neighbors and these committees will start meeting the first Monday of every month under the umbrella of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization. That sounds like good news to me, and I would like to thank all of my neighbors for working so hard to rebuild our great and historic Mid-City neighborhood here in New Orleans.