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‘Problem’ house in Marigny torn down Was demolition appropriate or just easiest answer?
BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
The empty lot at the corner of Canal and North Rampart streets in New Orleans is recognized as a historic landmark because of the F.W. Woolworth’s Department Store sit-in in 1960 and the Hard Rock Hotel construction site collapse in 2019.
New Orleans building site deemed historic Location of Hard Rock collapse, Woolworth’s granted designation
Over months, the scene at the little blue cottage on the corner of Port and Royal streets had spiraled out of control. Furniture and bike parts formed a tangled heap on the porch, and neighbors became accustomed to dodging debris and trash that spilled onto the sidewalk, including, at one point, a bucket of human waste. Then, one day, the house was gone. With a bulldozer in tow, the city’s Office of Code Enforcement set off to the Marigny neighborhood this month to put an end to over a year of complaints ranging from drug use to stolen property to illegal electricity tapping. Neighbors breathed a sigh of relief. But the now-vacant lot has spawned new discontents, as city officials face pushback from regulators, preservationists and even some of those same neighbors, who say the mid-19th-century historic home should have been saved. “The building was innocent in all of this and it’s the one that gets destroyed,” said Chris Costello, president of the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association. “It’s heartbreaking that a historic building was torn down because … different departments that are responsible for the enforcement either do not have the ability to enforce, or
ä See HOUSE, page 4A
BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE | Staff writer The intersection of Canal and North Rampart streets, where the proposed Hard Rock Hotel collapsed and killed three people in 2019 and where civil rights activists held sit-ins at the former Woolworth’s in 1960, has been named a historic landmark. The Central Business District Historic District Landmarks Commission granted a historic designation to the site last week, a decision that followed a push by the City Council to commemorate the space. The designation comes nearly six years after the building supports at the now-demolished Hard Rock construction site gave way, sending the top three floors of the 18-story proposed hotel tumbling, killing three workers and injuring dozens more. The collapse, which triggered widespread scrutiny of the city’s Safety and Permits Department, remains under investigation. And it comes 65 years after seven local college students staged the first sit-in protest of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans at the former Woolworth’s lunch counter, which was demolished, along with the retail building, in 2014. The move is meant to honor two important parts of the city’s history, council members said this week. “The decision by the commission marks a powerful step forward in honoring the layered history of this location — a place that remembers both the undeniable courage of the Civil Rights Movement and the sorrow of lives lost too soon,” City Council Vice President Helena Moreno said in a statement on Monday. Moreno and District C council member Freddie King both pushed for the designation. The council members’ request for the designation came after family members of the victims
Lake Maurepas plan faces new battle STAFF FILE PHOTO By RALPH URIBE
An unidentified New Orleans police detective stands behind protesters Jerome Smith, from left, Ruth Despenza, Joyce Taylor, Hugh Murray Jr., Archie Allen and William Harrell as they take part in a Congress of Racial Equality sit-in, which lasted almost five hours Sept. 9, 1960, at the segregated Woolworth’s department store lunch counter in New Orleans.
ä See SITE, page 6A
After the 2019 Hard Rock Hotel collapse, which killed three construction workers, Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration promised big changes at the Department of Safety and Permits. STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Opponents compare carbon capture work to now-banned activity
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL | Staff writer A new battle is shaping up over Air Products’ controversial plans for carbon injection wells beneath Lake Maurepas, with the extensive digging required now coming into focus and stirring fresh opposition to the project. The carbon injection and storage field is expected to require enough underwater digging that the removed mud could fill LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center nearly twice over, company estimates show. The digging will help make way for a network of underwater pipelines for carbon dioxide, natural gas and fiber optic cables that will form roughly the shape of two “T’s” touching end to end, plans show. Air Products announced its plans to build the first carbon capture and sequestration operation in Louisiana nearly four years ago, but the extent of the work has come into sharper focus with recent permit applications.
ä See PLAN, page 7A
Ex-Karr football standout dies in Tenn. shooting After state championship win, Corey Adams was attending Ole Miss
suffered Saturday night, according to a release from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee. Adams, a top player on the Karr football team that won a state championship last season, was found by deputies in a vehiBY CHRISTOPHER DABE | Staff writer cle after a shooting that took place before 10:15 p.m. outside a residence in Cordova, Former Edna Karr football standout Tennessee. The deputies attempted “lifeCorey Adams died from gunshot wounds saving measures,” the release said, but he
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was pronounced dead at the scene. Adams, listed as a freshman on the football team at Ole Miss, was among five shooting victims, the release said. The other four arrived in personal vehicles at hospitals and are listed in noncritical condition, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found multiple
ä See ADAMS, page 6A
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
Former Edna Karr football standout Corey Adams died from gunshot wounds suffered Saturday night, according to a release from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee. STAFF FILE PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD
12TH yEAR, NO. 343