I’m all in a tizzy because of the recent news reported by Squandered Heritage. It seems there’s a ton of houses on Bienville that are on the city’s “imminent threat” list for demolition. These are supposed to be houses that pose an immediate threat to health and safety.
And some of them are. Some are clearly in need of immediate demolition.
But there’s only a couple like that. Many appear to be in decent shape. Consider this one, right around the corner from me:
Rock solid. These “raised basement” style houses weathered the flood pretty well. I should know because I’m living in one.
Furthermore, there’s ample evidence that many of the owners don’t want these properties demolished.
So what the hell is going on? I don’t know, but something ain’t right.
Here’s Councilmember Stacy Head’s reaction:
Bienville will be left NAKED and BARREN. I am at my wits end with so many irrational decisions here and I need help. Carla and I will press the city to STOP but we will need pressure from you too. This will be HORRID for Mid City!!!!!
The good folks at Squandered Heritage have also put up an interactive map of the Bienville properties.
Unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Looks like someone is planning a commercial corridor. That’s my guess. Every neighborhood is under threat of a land grab.
Looks like they’ll knock a hole in Mid-City big enough to drive three Targets and a Best Buy through.
This is very odd.
However the commercial corridor, or “godzilla” big box conspiracy makes no sense here. Were the demolitions taking in 10-20 full blocks, not sides of the street, there might be something there. But there would still be a massive and very public zoning change, as well as buying out, or if you really want to go in for the “evil developer” illuminati thing, expropriation of upwards of a hundred properties. Which would be pretty insane even for the developer illuminati when there are miles of disused commercial and derelict industrial tracks that could be had for far less and far more easily.
But this is still very odd. A bad/outdated/erroneous list? If someone had he addresses they could check the ownership of some of the properties on the assessors web site and see if there is a pattern. http://www.opboa.org/Main/Home.aspx
Is Lindy Bogg’s Med Center also a target? According to the map that’s the only structure near the pin. I was hoping this facility would return.
Welcome to the pawnshop. Mayor Nagin famously said the city can seize any property within 18 months, I guess this is one of their tools. I’m floored Ms. Head doesn’t appear to know what developments might be happening? Let’s brainstorm. The mayor just *loves* to negotiate publicly, so why don’t we all too? At least until he gets his shit together about the crime, which you know would really drive investment down… hmm.
Carrollton 500 investors, Victory’s partner, is established at the same Baton Rouge address as LSU Health Services, which I guess owned Lindy Boggs, right? Early May real estate transfers showed a lot of 3500 block Bienville purchases by Carrollton. Now, 8550 United Plaza Blvd is a large complex which also houses the likes of Cisco Systems, Smith Barney and Veritas Wealth Advisors. Cisco, where have I heard that before? And:
http://www.veritaspa.com/individuals/realestate.html
As usual, I have absolutely no idea where this is going. I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m just a muse, tee hee. But if Canal has the streetcar, what would you need a back corridor for? Trucks? The light rail to BR? Just land banking for future use?
Not that this related, maybe in a way, I don’t know. Anyway, I thought I’d bring up a friends house on Bienville. They (the friends) are trying very hard to restore/renovate it, uncovered a beautiful mural in the first room but it won’t matter if the house next door isn’t very carefully taken down. It’s literally leaning on their house. They finally got fed up trying to work with the city and called wwl, things are finally in motion, but still moving slow, hopefully the leaning house moves slower. I understand it’s not directly related to the conversation above, and I debated with myself as to whether or not I should even add a comment. I didn’t see the house on the list, although I am baffeled as to why not.
[…] what I said about Bienville being just the tip of the iceberg? There are 1700+ properties on the “imminent threat” […]