(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . City leaders celebrate new marketplace under Claiborne Expressway [1] ['Josie Abugov', 'More Josie Abugov', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-04-18 City and federal officials, local artists and economic development leaders gathered on Wednesday (April 17) for a ribbon cutting to commemorate a new event space under the Claiborne Expressway — the first phase in a large-scale planned revamp of North Claiborne Avenue. The new “Backatown Plaza” sits on North Claiborne Avenue between Orleans Avenue and St. Louis Street. The renovated portion of the street will hold space for more than 30 vendors, string lights, a portable stage and green infrastructure to help mitigate flooding on North Claiborne. The plaza forms the first portion of a 22-block renovation to transform the corridor into a bustling marketplace for businesses, performances and celebrations. Local leaders present, including New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and several city councilmembers, said the revitalization project serves as a way to begin to remedy the loss of hundreds of Black businesses and the division of Treme when the 1960s construction of Claiborne Expressway cut the nation’s oldest Black neighborhood in two. Nyree Ramsey, the executive director of the Ujamaa Economic Development Corporation, the organization spearheading the large-scale renovation project, said that the aim of “reclaiming the space beneath the bridge” has been a dream 50 years in the making. “This is about how we reclaim space, how we invest in space, and how we put it back into the hands of the people who deserve it the most,” Ramsey said. The marketplace will open to the public with a weekend celebration on Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21 from 11 a.m to 7 p.m. Visitors will be able to purchase food, plants, jewelry and other goods from local vendors. The marketplace unveiling represents a righting of historical wrongs, Cantrell said. The event reminded her “of the promise that we made to rebuild, but to build back better than we were before Katrina,” she said. For City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, attending the event struck a personal chord. He recalled old Treme families who anchored the neighborhood as well as his own family members, including his paternal grandmother and great-grandfather, who owned a sandwich shop in the area. “I didn’t really come here for a political event,” Thomas said. “I came here so the souls of my ancestors could see that we’re giving something back to a place that gives us life.” Cymande Ford, the owner of the jewelry shop UglyBettyBoyCrush, is one of the four inaugural vendors at the plaza. Ford said she appreciates how the revitalization effort is helping up-and-coming businesses while also improving the look of the underpass. Cymande Ford, the owner of the jewelry shop UglyBettyBoyCrush, is one of the four inaugural vendors at the “Backatown Plaza” marketplace under the Claiborne Expressway between Orleans Avenue and St. Louis Street. Credit: Josie Abugov / Verite News For the next phase of the project, the Arts Council of New Orleans will commission local artists to paint trees on additional columns under the Backatown Plaza section of the underpass. The organization is applying for a grant from the National Endowment for The Arts to fund these commissions, said Arts Council President and CEO Joycelyn Reynolds. Ujamaa will also be seeking Environmental Protection Agency funding for additional stormwater management measures, Ramsey said. The completion of Backatown Plaza followed years of delays for the Claiborne corridor revitalization project. The city received a federal grant of $820,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2017 to develop the North Claiborne corridor into a cultural innovation district. But various disasters — the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel, the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida — slowed progress, as Ramsey, the former arts and tourism director in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, has previously said. Costs for the project swelled beyond the initial $1 million budget. City-issued bonds later covered a financing gap of more than $1.5 million from the initial budget. In 2022, the city and the state also proposed a $95 million revitalization plan for the corridor in response to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act from President Joe Biden’s administration, which flagged the expressway’s historic harms in New Orleans. Last year, the federal Department of Transportation awarded the state $500,000 for the project. Before the crowd dispersed for music and food from Cobbeanie’s Catering, Sunni Patterson, artist-in-residence at Ujamaa, closed with a poem. “What happens when you fuel a dream?” Patterson recited. “Look around. You can see the results. This is how we press forward. How we get through to the other side. We get through with culture, we get through with partnership, and we get through with funding.” Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/04/18/claiborne-expressway-backatown-plaza-revitalization/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/