Guys, I am inundated with information coming into the blog right now. There was a previous post which brought up land grab issues in Algiers....could someone please pick up the torch there and run with it? I don't do the real estate, permit, copper salvage thing very well and I'm too busy with the city portal issue at the moment. Can we move that whole discussion over to someone else's world, please? It seems to be a hot potato, but I just can't handle all this right now. Gracias.
Somebody grab this thing and run....i defer.
12 comments:
Props to you AZ. nola.com has a lead story on Meffert's link to MAO.
Your work has really borne fruit.
Read NOLA.com AZ you have shed new light on how deep Mefferts and Nagins activities go. How could the City be so stupid and that new IT Director what hell is he doing. How long will it take him to get things in order. Have that sorry City legal department sue for the codes I'm sure we have paid for them 100 times over. Hey Boyd where you at oh I forgot on the second floor hiding oopppss secret out again. By the way what the hell is he doing down there when Technology is on the 3rd floor.
the Zombie claims that the city BOUGHT the source code for the web applications. So the former contractor could be in deep trouble for business interference and breach of contract.
Of course, I have to remark that the City's web portal seems like a giant kludge, to judge by the usability (or rather, the lack thereof). The system frequently times out, exhibits strange behavior, and repeatedly fails to fulfill basic expected functionality. It's very easy to make a mistake and have to start any of the "functions" on it all over again due to the shoddiness and fragility of the programming.
In the meantime, where can I place my bet on when Meffert will get arrested by the Feds?
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/
wwl090309cbtech.1465abc1f.html
Keep in mind how valuable property in Algiers is going to become in a few years:
http://www.nolafederalcity.com/
http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Homes-Lifestyles/March-2009/Old-Metairie/
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Algiers Crossing: Blaine Kern’s Vision for Algiers Point
Most New Orleanians who have heard of Blaine Kern know him as Mr. Mardi Gras, a flamboyant float-builder in his 80s whose imagination runs to bigger-than-life-size papier-mâché King Kongs and fiber-optic Bacchus figures dripping with grapes.
But Kern’s vision has now turned from fantasy figures to real estate development, and he is busily putting together a new development on the site of the old Mardi Gras World in Algiers called Algiers Crossing. Fourteen acres of contiguous waterfront property offer a master-planned layout with incredible views of New Orleans’ French Quarter and downtown area from across the Mississippi River. One- and two-bedroom residences are priced from $325,000 to $575,000. The 1,500-plus residences are expected to be built in four phases –– with the first phase of 324 residences now more than 50 percent pre-sold.
What vision does Kern have that prompts him to roll out a development in New Orleans’ soft post-Katrina market? The creation of the Go Zone Act (formally known as the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act). Through the act, owners of investment properties such as this one in the Gulf Coast are entitled to 50 percent bonus depreciation in the first year. Plus, investors buying a unit for rental income enjoy significant tax incentives.
Not only that, but just a mile from Algiers Crossing, Federal City, also known as Pentagon South, is being developed to house a high-tech security campus of offices for the U.S. Marines, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and other nonfederal tenants. With more than 10,000 employees expected within a few years of its opening, demand for housing will surely increase in this area.
To free up the Mardi Gras World land for his Algiers Crossing development, Kern leased nearly 300,000 square feet across the Mississippi River at the Robin Street Wharf and the now-vacant former River City Casino building to triple the footprint of Mardi Gras World. He’s not about to give up on Algiers, however.
“I am a proud seventh-generation Algerine, and I want to make Algiers a destination to visit and to live,” Kern says. “I want to do things here that will help New Orleans and that will become part of a bigger, better New Orleans. In the end, I want to be known as a philanthropist, not just a float-builder.”
Kern’s new development, Algiers Crossing, should ensure that just that happens.
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- the Zombie claims that the city BOUGHT the source code for the web applications
Actually no, Matter. I don't know that. I'm not sure if we licensed it or actually bought it. But therein lies the pickle. If I stated that as fact, I was wrong....I think the original MAS contract was to license it....not buy it. But I don't know for sure.
Congrats, Zombie. I haven't read the story in the paper yet, but your work really flushed those birds.
Thanks to the poster who posted again about Kerns and Algiers. I am interested in that story and I would like to have some of the questions asked here (and over at "the undead thread") answered.
But if I were Zombie, I'd want a break, too.
I don't have a blog to offer as the new home for such inquiries, and I don't think I'm one of the people who knows things worth knowing.
I am inspired by the person (MoPositive from the nola.com threads?) who posted the Notarial Archives lists, and by the map Sparky made to plot those properties.
If other foundations are [buying up]* land, a thing to do might be to get the lists and plot the properties again, to give everyone a clear visual about how their community is being changed in the backrooms.
Other questions, such as those about permits and who gets the salvage contracts, should be simple to answer. If they are not simple to answer, that seems fishy to me. City Hall people reading this, can you answer them?
*Land is apparently being donated and the title isn't clear. Is there someone reading this who has the real estate skills to explain this?
If people want to see those questions answered, the suggestions offered above might be good tasks.
Now, does someone else have a blog that could host the results of this kind of digging?
Dambala, thanks again. Hope you get to chill out with your wife and kids and dog for a little bit, maybe go golfing.
I had two more small thoughts:
One, whole developments of one and two bedroom pads is going to get you a whole comunity with one demographic. Where will the kids sleep? Other cities have kicked themselves for this kind of condo development.
Two, is some of this legwork stuff that smart young law students at the Southern Poverty Law Center could do? They might be good at navigating archives.
My apologies for buggin' ya more, Dambala.
The Eyebrows of Inquisition looks at the numbers Meffert's boys are raking in:
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl090309cbtech.1465abc1f.html
Re: Licensed vs. Bought.
Then the question is, if it was licensed, what was the license term? Was it a limited time, or perpetual?
Often times, buying the code (eg, a "buy-out") means the customer owns it 100%, whereas a licensing type deal means the vendor can re-use it. These are general scenarios, of course.
The key question is whether the license terminates with the prior contract.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/blaine_kern_gets_love_from_new.html
So scummy he doesn't even see it..
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