By Jeanne D’Arcy, Mid-City Messenger A decade ago, the control junction box for the traffic light at Tulane Avenue and the newly renamed Norman Francis Parkway was tagged and covered with graffiti. The ground around it was strewn with litter. That all changed after the junction box became an art box, featuring a blues guitarist. Read More…
By Katherine Hart, Mid-City Messenger The area around Norman Francis Parkway and Bienville Street, surrounding the hulking former Lindy Boggs Medical Center, has been booming over the past decade or so. At the Lafitte Greenway, there’s a bright art-filled plaza in front of the old brake-tag station, which has been turned into a pavilion. There Read More…
By Katherine Hart, Mid-City Messenger The stage is almost set for a jazz club on the corner of North Broad and Toulouse in Mid-City. The building’s owner, Sam Smith Jr., built that stage himself. Piece by piece, he has been steadily pursuing his dream of operating a jazz club in New Orleans. He wants to Read More…
Mid-City knows what it means to lose parades; it was a major route before the parading krewes were all sent Uptown. All, that is, except Endymion. This year, Mid-City house floats along the parade’s route are displaying their Endymion pride. Three adjacent homes along Orleans Avenue, for example, got together to make a strong statement Read More…
By Marielle Songy, Mid-City Messenger Hieu Doan was at a crossroads. It was the middle of July 2020 when the owner of Namese, the beloved Vietnamese restaurant on Tulane Avenue, announced the restaurant’s closure. Like so many other businesses, the popular spot for pho had become a victim of the coronavirus pandemic. “We were forced Read More…
Spend enough time around Bayou St. John and you might have a story about an alligator sighting — or a near sighting anyway, or a friend who saw one. Normally, the sightings are rare. From now until Mardi Gras, however, alligators are everywhere in the Bayou St. John neighborhood. There are dancing gators, saxophone-playing gators Read More…
By Marielle Songy, Mid-City Messenger Park Island Brew Coffee House, on Gentilly Boulevard across from the Fair Grounds Race Course, is all about family and neighborhood. Kevin Davis, a 7th Ward resident, owns the building that houses Park Island Brew. He and his business partner, Chachera Brantley, first had the idea to open the coffee Read More…
City Park’s raccoon population is infected with canine distemper, posing a threat to dogs and cats but not to humans, WWL-TV has reported. City Park officials brought in Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries to investigate reports of erratic raccoon behavior, such as disorientation and wandering aimlessly, and they confirmed the animals are sick with distemper. Dog Read More…
By Jeanne D’Arcy, Mid-City Messenger Home Malone has installed its storefront float, “Ice Cream Truck,” in keeping with the Mid-City Krewe of House Floats’ theme “Truck Parades.” Kristin Malone created this “Ice Cream Truck” float with some help from another Mid-City business, Stronghold Studios. Stronghold fabricated the silhouette “revelers,” also popularly known as “Throw Me Read More…
By Jeanne D’Arcy, Mid-City Messenger “You can’t keep a good New Orleanian out of a costume or from glittering,” said Lisette Constantin, co-owner of NOLA Craft Culture. Now in its second year, the shop is nestled in a Mid-City residential neighborhood. The house where NOLA Craft Culture is located on South Solomon Street just off Read More…
