Saturday, December 28, 2013

Swing and a Miss: Tennis in New Orleans

I moved here from a town of tennis aplenty.  Free, public, city ran courts were everywhere, and lessons and community outreach programs dotted every other court.  That was North Carolina, and as we planned our move to New Orleans it never even dawned on me to check on that state of tennis in this city.

After two years of searching I'm not much further on my quest.  First, I found free courts in Jefferson Parish (4 courts at a school, at least half an hour drive), Atkinson-Stern in Uptown is nice, it is at least a little cheaper for paid spots at $7 an hour, with seven clay courts, although they can be a little dry and don't expect them to be swept.  I have occasionally seen children's lessons here and they have Mixed Doubles on Tuesdays, woo.

Audobon has seven clay courts that cost $11 an hour.  They offer group lessons and clinics, are ran by four tennis professionals, and have absolutely no information about any other programs they run for juniors or adults on their website.

Now, we move onto the big tennis balls on campus-City Park Pepsi Tennis Center.  I have to say, the facilities are on the whole quite excellent.  There are 26 courts, 16 hard, 10 clay, and they are $12 an hour to play on hard, $15 for clay (also, do not expect these to be swept, but do expect to see remnants of group lessons to be left all over the courts, such as ball tubes, balls, trash, etc.).  They run a Friday night doubles the first and third Friday of the month-laughable.  That is all the information they have on their website for programs available for the public to participate in.

By this point we are already at a piss poor standing as far as programs, availability, accessibility, and outreach, but my friends, I have saved the best for last. We live in the St. Claude area and after searching Google maps for at least an hour looking for public courts I stumbled across the Oliver Bush Playground in the Lower 9th Ward.  The park features four free hard-courts that were just recently resurfaced and reopened in September of 2012 after seven years of dormancy from Katrina.  I visited these courts last week, about 14 months after the park was completely re-done, and they are the worst tennis courts I have ever been forced to play on.  I say forced, because usually if I ever have run into courts this bad, there were always other options, I don't really feel like paying $12 for just an hour at City Park, so we really had no other choice.  There are NO courts nearby.


It began with us canvassing the courts to find the one with the least amount of glass shards, which proved a difficult task.  A Miller Lite forty was smashed between two courts, a Bud Lite box in the corner, lighters, female deodorant, and fast food trash littered each court.  We kicked away the trash and glass, and cleared up a court enough to play.  Within thirty minutes we had five kids sitting on the bleachers asking if we had extra balls and racquets. After an hour and a half we had nine kids show interest in playing, they cheered us on, asked the rules, and all asked if they could play.

It is bad enough that there is such a complete lack of free public courts in a city of this size, but to allow what little we have to go into such disrepair is despicable.  It would take one hour, ten racquets, and a basket of balls to bring a little something special to these courts.  It would take the city not just using the reopening of a park in the Lower 9th as a publicity stunt, but to actually service what they have built to assist the community.  You never know who the next Williams sisters or Roddick will be, and you never will the way things are going in New Orleans.



Tuesday, December 10, 2013

St. Roch Market: Here's What We Know

If you were unable to attend the meeting at the Charles J. Colton KIPP school on St. Claude tonight regarding the potential plans for the St. Roch Market, here is what we know.

The Market is owned by New Orleans Building Corp to negotiate a lease with a thrid party entity, etc. the city wanted it off their hands, and NOBC started receiving bids from potential leasers.  St. Roch Community Partners, Inc. entered a bid and is led by owners of local businesses, specifically, Faubourg Wines, St. James Cheese Co., Cleaver & Co., Redmellon Restorations and Developments, and Bellegaurde Bakery.  We do not know if anyone else has put a bid in, and this group does not know when they will receive a response from the NOBC, or even what their rent will be.

They hope to create a non-profit organization that runs and manages the market, consisting of a Board of Directors and a Board of Advisors that will have a representative from either one or multiple local neighborhood associations.  Tentatively, at least, these are the fuzzy plans. 

There will be 12 stalls available for rent, under a 6-12 month lease, and each representing a different facet of the market needs.  So there will potentially be a fish monger, a Maitre Fromager (a cheese guy), a butcher, a baker and so on.  Emphasis also being on the knowledge that these vendors can impart on their customers as well as the interpersonal relationship formed with shoppers in general.

The city also built a restaurant in the back of the market, that might be used in a similar since to Cafe Reconcile.  There is space upstairs that they might utilize for community events, and parking is going to be a serious issue that the board will need to addressed, although no solution has been put in place as of yet.

In attendance were members of Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association and the St. Roch Improvement Association.  The St. Roch Association expressed concerns over affordability, which were addressed by St. Roch Community Partners as something they are taking into account.  They responded that although their businesses might be considered 'gourmet', they have a range of products they will offer to meet varying incomes.  They emphasised their concern over the affordability of their products, but until they know if they even got the bid or how much the rent will be we will not see price ranges. 

I officialy live seven blocks from the market, and I must say that I think what these guys are trying to do is great.  They are offering us something we don't have.  I just made it to Cleaver & Co two days ago and I've had a gift certificate for the place for almost a year--I don't leave my neighborhood!  We can't get seafood anywhere close by that I would trust to eat, not even from the Co-Op (and hopefully they will up their game some at the Co-Op). Half the people I see get a lot of their groceries from Family Dollar, Walgreens, Save-A-Lot.  Sometimes you have to put a little more money to get a quality product.  With Circle Foods opening soon we will have another option, and maybe Roberts will decide to get on it sometime soon.  Are we giving them grief because this is our ONLY grocery option nearby?  Maybe once Circle Foods and Roberts open the St. Roch Market will be filling a more fitting niche.

Think about this, we don't even know who else has put bids in, and shouldn't we be a little more fearful of those unknown entities.  This group is really attempting to involve the neighborhood, and I hope they continue to be a strong community gathering place and promoter, and that they keep their word concerning affordable options--that is, if they get the bid.


IF YOU WANT TO HELP SUPPORT THIS BID FOR THE ST. ROCH MARKET PLACE, EXPRESS YOUR SUPPORT TO KRISTEN PALMER kgpalmer@nola.gov