Main Street program hopes to bring commerce, development to the Lower Ninth Ward
14th February 2022 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Lower Ninth Ward resident Debra McHenry is excited to see the progress being made in her neighborhood; progress that includes the growth of the Louisiana Main Street Districts, a program through which neighborhoods can spur economic development and community rebirth with the help of government support.
The Lower Ninth Street Main Street District will be anchored by a brand new Fresh Stop Market and culinary training school at the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Forstall Street, where dozens of residents, community organizers and government officials gathered to hold a ceremony last Thursday morning to mark the grocery’s impending arrival and the growth of the new Main Street District.
For McHenry, the Main Street project is already bearing fruit, figuratively and quite literally.
“It won’t be a food desert here anymore,” McHenry said. “We won’t have to go across the bridge to get fresh food anymore.”
The Rev. Jack O. Battiste, pastor of the New Testament Baptist Church in the Lower Ninth Ward, also attended last Thursday’s ceremony, and he came away with the same level of optimism as McHenry did.
“We are seeing things growing, businesses opening and money flowing into our community,” Battiste said. “We’ll have opportunities coming forward, and it provides a sense of our history here, and a sense of pride within this community.”
Keynoting the brief gathering was Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who said he feels a personal passion for the Lower Ninth Ward; although he was raised on the West Bank of New Orleans, he noted that his father’s shrimping business brought the young Nungesser to the Lower Ninth frequently to deliver food and service to its residents and businesses.
As a result, Nungesser said, he is glad to provide his office’s support and logistical help to the local Main Street effort in a neighborhood that was devastated by the flooding of Hurricane Katrina and still is struggling to return to its full, former glory.
“I’m committed to doing whatever we need to do in marketing and advertising the district,” said Nungesser, whose office handles economic development, tourism and historical preservation for the state. “We’ll do whatever we need to do to bring this community back.”
The Louisiana Main Street effort is part of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a network of hundreds of neighborhoods and communities across the country that work to promote a sense of place in those districts and to create preservation-based economic development. The National Main Street Center serves as a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Lower Ninth Ward Main Street is one of five such districts currently operating in the city, and it’s the second to be accepted into the Lagniappe Community process, a program that provides neighborhoods with intensive 12- to-18-month capacity-building support to establish a pathway to the Main Street America program.
Ground will soon be broken on the construction of the Fresh Stop Market that will serve as the centerpiece of the Lower Ninth District. When completed in May, the market will cover 1,600 square feet and contain a health-focused corner store offering an array of fresh produce from local growers, and it will host a community learning kitchen.
Once it opens, the Fresh Stop will be the only area convenience store to supply fresh fruit and vegetables on a consistent basis.
The Lower Ninth Ward Main Street effort is being led by the Sankofa Community Development Corporation, whose founder and executive director, Rashida Ferdinand, also spoke at last Thursday’s event. Ferdinand said a large group of officials and volunteers have worked for a year or more to make the Main Street district and the grocery story a reality.
She added that the project strives to preserve and honor the history of the Lower Ninth Ward and to enhance and enrich its future. Ferdinand said the effort helps modern residents inherit a sense of continuity and belonging from those who came before “by connecting the past to the future.”
“We invite people to come visit and stay in our neighborhood and enjoy its beauty,” she added.
Another community organization involved in the Lower Ninth Main Street development has been the NOLA Business Alliance, whose interim president and CEO, Norman E. Barnum IV, also spoke at last week’s ceremony. Barnum said the Main Street project, with the assistance of governmental bodies and resource allocation, is restoring the vibrancy of the neighborhood’s arts and culture.
City Councilman Oliver Thomas also spoke, asserting that the project is “an opportunity to show what this community was, what this community is, and what it can be.” He added that the youth of the neighborhood, especially Black boys and girls, benefit greatly from knowing the history of where they live and how it can inform and enrich their futures. He said the effort to connect the past with the future reflects “the hope, sustainability, persistence and faith in this community.”
Jeff Schwartz, the director of economic development for the city of New Orleans told those gathered last week that the figures involved in creating the Lower Ninth Ward Main Street District deserve much credit for coming together as a team to make the neighborhood stronger.
“We know this is no small feat,” he said.
Schwartz added that the Main Street effort is “a place-based approach to revitalizing the community,” and said that the project’s acceptance to the Lagniappe Community program is “a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. It’s a step of a process that began a decade ago.”
Schwartz called it “a testament of hard work that comes from the bottom up. I think we can all see the momentum that’s building.”
Representatives of Congressman Troy Carter and State Rep. Candace Newell, whose respective electoral districts include the Lower Ninth Ward, were also present last week.
This article originally published in the February 14, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
