We Like Good Neighbors

To the New Orleans City Council

We respectfully call on the City Council to deny the application for Amendment to Ordinance No. 29,359 MCS, which would expand the services at 2400 Napoleon Avenue (The Josephine, formerly Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church).

Our opposition is grounded in the following:

Existing Issues Must Be Remedied First

Before considering expansion, the problems described below — with the existing venue — must be addressed through a legally binding Good Neighbor Agreement.

A Flawed and Deceptive Community Engagement Process

The approval process has been neither transparent nor conducted in good faith. Neighbors have made sustained, sincere efforts to participate, only to discover that developers bypassed community dialogue by submitting provisos directly to our Council Member — and falsely representing that the neighborhood was “on board, except for a couple of outliers.” This characterization is false and dismissive.

Adding insult to injury, our District B Council Member declined to meet with concerned residents after the CPC hearing and before the May 21st Council vote, calling such a meeting “premature.” Residents deserve a process that is honest, inclusive, and accountable.

Parking and Flow of Traffic

Since opening as a venue — with potential to hold weddings, corporate events, and non-profit ticketed events — our neighborhood has experienced measurable, ongoing harm from vehicle congestion, unsafe driving, and total absence of on-site parking.

There are zero designated parking spaces at 2400 Napoleon Avenue. The 56 off-site spots secured by the venue are located four blocks away — an inadequate and impractical solution for a high-occupancy event space.

There are 5 types of existing parking and traffic problems, which would worsen with an expanded venue:

Neighbors have already experienced drunken driving from venue attendees and side-view mirrors being swiped by delivery vans. This combination currently impacts our quality of life and will only worsen under the current operators and developers.

No Benefits to the Local Neighborhood

This proposed change only brings burdens to the surrounding community. There are no direct benefits for us.

Cumulative Impact

Our neighborhood has undergone many changes over the past 15 years and they have a cumulative effect on the fabric and culture of our community. With this change — in addition to Trader Joe’s — our near neighbors could experience an increase in light, noise, and air pollution from multiple businesses and traffic, almost 24 hours a day.

Proposed mitigations still fall on local neighbors to enforce (e.g., calling parking enforcement). This is not an acceptable solution.