- PRINT EDITION
-
- More Stories
- MULTIMEDIA
-
- Photos
- Photos
- BLOGS
-
- News Updates
-
• Senate votes to begin health care legislation debate 10:36 p.m. CT
• Oyster taste test highlights importance of where they are harvested 5:04 a.m. CT
• Processed oysters have a niche in national market 5:03 a.m. CT
• Atlantis astronauts take 2nd spacewalk of mission 4:25 p.m. CT
• NOPD veteran accused of shoplifting retires 4:18 p.m. CT
• More - Sports Updates
-
• New Orleans Hornets vs. Atlanta Hawks, by the numbers
• LSU tailback Keiland Williams suffers 'significant break' of ankle bone
• More - North Shore Updates
-
• Eddie Price fined $5,500 for campaign finance violations 8:06 p.m. CT
• Sexual abuse trial puts family's dirty laundry on display 6:53 p.m. CT
• Cedarwood School students in Mandeville learn geography for a good cause 4:54 p.m. CT
• More - Business Updates
-
• More
- FORUMS
- Sound Off
-
• tax deductions for... by rampartb• Mary, sweet Mary..... by farmertom• the money is nice by rampartb• More
- Hot Topics
Proposal moves juvenile center to 9th Ward
As a fight heats up over the design of a new juvenile detention center, developers and city officials have quietly floated a proposal to move the city-run Youth Study Center from Gentilly to the former Florida public-housing site in the 9th Ward.
But no one has consulted Florida neighborhood residents, who were stunned last week when they got wind of the idea.
"They should have let us know. That's the least they could've done," said Lawrence Lyons, 63, who's lived on Bartholomew Street for 40 years. His neatly painted house stands a block from the Florida development, 127 pastel-colored townhouses untouched since Hurricane Katrina.
Lyons' neighbor Gary Jones, 48, promised that the move would meet opposition. "There are some feisty little old folks around here that have worked hard for what they have," he said.
But Jones feared "backroom negotiations" might already have gone too far. "Before we know it, the deal could be done," he said.
Juvenile advocates argue that the current residential site is ideal for a state-of-the-art juvenile facility with 40 secure beds. In other cities, similar structures have become neighborhood assets, they say. But school officials and a few Gentilly neighbors ask whether even a top-notch detention center belongs on prime Bayou St. John land or across from the new McDonogh 35 High School planned nearby.
Bart Lubow, head of the national Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, said he's long been frustrated by the secrecy of Youth Study Center discussions. "People need to put their cards on the table," he said.
Delays in replacing the damaged facility will continue, Lubow said, until stakeholders publicly discuss what the facility should look like and where it should be. "New Orleans has kids housed in totally unacceptable circumstances while adults diddle," Lubow said.
Constant problems
The rundown 1950s-era Youth Study Center is surrounded by razor wire and its sometimes hapless management has been a flashpoint since Katrina.
