Hollygrove

We had lunch with the people from AARP and further discussed the partnership between them and us. They have done a lot of the leg work in collecting data on the community, conducting surveys of the residents and mapping the area. The Hollygrove neighborhood is located within the Carrollton area of New Orleans, near Uptown. If you know your current pop culture, Lil’ Wayne grew up in Hollygrove, he raps about it. It was also the first community in Orleans Parish that African-Americans could own homes. Part of the mission of AARP is to position Hollygrove as a transit hub between the Uptown, CBD, French Quarter and the Riverfront. Currently, Hollygrove has bus lines that run around its perimeter and one that runs directly through it. However, there isn’t really a bus schedule, the buses kind of just run whenever and people have to wait at a stop hoping that it will eventually show up. I think part of that is the New Orleans lifestyle and part of it is the existing disorganization of the city after the storm. I couldn’t find a bus map anywhere and the ones online don’t correspond to any maps of the city. I guess I am just spoiled by Portland’s easy public transit.

After lunch we toured the Hollygrove neighborhood researching places to potentially put in a bus shelter. At one point someone in a pick up truck stopped, asked if we were volunteers and if we needed a ride – that’s how friendly people are and how grateful they are to have people caring about what happens to their city. Then we went to a neighborhood rally protesting the closure of one of their neighborhood schools. The city has deemed Hollygrove a Phase 2 neighborhood meaning that they won’t be receiving significant aid until 2013. The city has promised to rebuild them a school in 2013 after this one is demolished this year, but the city hasn’t given the community any sort of plan or information on this which is what they are riled up about plus the fact that everyone from that neighborhood went to that school. The community history here is incredible, I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like it. The families that live have been here forever, their parents lived here, they lived here, their kids and grandchildren live here – all within the same neighborhood. It makes for a really rich cultural fabric.