Author: Ian McNulty

Broad Street Neon

There's a subtle addition to Broad Street that's mostly noticeable once the sun goes down.

Alliance for the River

To crib a motto from Las Vegas, what happens on the Mississippi River doesn’t necessarily stay on the Mississippi River. The conditions of the river and its access to shipping and goods, commodities and raw materials, all reverberate through the…

New School on the Block

The array of charter schools across the modern New Orleans public education landscape has created a great deal more choices for students and parents. But some education advocates say that the notion of the neighborhood school as a community hub…

The Early Option Shapes Up at Music Clubs

Remember when the party didn’t even start until 10 p.m., and when nothing really happened before midnight anyway? Of course you remember. It was when you were 22 years old. Who could forget the glory? But things have changed, and…

Where To Get a Daiquiri This Month

If the pint of beer is the trusty pick-up truck, and the craft cocktail the luxe town car, the daiquiri must be the crotch rocket speed bike – bright, loud, kind of crass and, even for those who profess to…

Coming Soon: South Market District

When Saints fans pour into downtown New Orleans this season, they may notice something new along erstwhile empty blocks near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome: progress. Namely, it’s the opening salvo of the ambitious South Market District retail and residential project. The…

Putting Students in the Director’s Chair

The film industry is big business in New Orleans these days, bringing top directors, famous actors and big-budget productions to the city. But quietly, and well behind the scenes, more local students are developing their own skills in filmmaking and…

Oyster Shells for the Coast

Whether they’re served on trays of ice or chargrilled, the shells from the oysters you have for dinner at select New Orleans restaurants may soon end up serving a new role along the Louisiana coast. This fall, the nonprofit Coalition…

'It’s a Love Thing' on Freret This Friday

Gasa Gasa is a brand new venue, but this Friday, July 26, it will be the location of an event tapping something that has long been part of the New Orleans cultural scene – the power of a community to…

The Art and Practice of Streetcar Watching

Here at the bottom of a New Orleans summer it’s advisable to get your strenuous physical activity in early. The latter day hours, after the streets, the sidewalks and everything you might happen to touch has a chance to really…

Something New in Tremé

A national nonprofit developer of real estate for arts organizations is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to transform a long-blighted Tremé school property into a center of arts and culture for its neighborhood. Artspace, which is based in Minneapolis,…

Assessing a New Orleans Inspector

It took years for New Orleans to appoint its first Inspector General, a position charged with rooting out fraud and waste in city government. But when it came time for the board that oversees this office to weigh in on…

Adding Up New Orleans’ Cultural Economy

The idea of New Orleans culture is central to the identity and experience of this city, though tallying what makes up that culture and measuring its precise impact on residents’ lives is open to interpretation. City Hall, however, has recently…

A Roving, Community-Minded Happy Hour

I confess that I was not expecting last Friday’s happy hour to take me to Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, but that’s where the instructions I’d received earlier that day pointed me. From the start I knew this was going to…

Music and Parties in the Park and at the Point

It can be easy to forget that Armstrong Park is a public resource, especially when it’s quiet and ringed by fences. But its potential becomes much more clear when the park is ringing with music, and filled from gate to…

Partying on the New Huey P.

When a road construction project wraps up, the normal response is a sigh of relief. But the completion of a project to massively expand one of the state’s iconic structures, the Huey P. Long Bridge, is inspiring a celebration. “We’ve…

Growing Jobs in Their Backyards

Small vegetable patches have long flourished in the backyards of Village de l’Est, a predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood in far eastern New Orleans, where many residents grow greens and herbs for their traditional home cooking. More recently, however, these gardens and…

Keeping Tabs on the Gulf

Oil flowed from BP’s Macondo well for 87 days following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, a wrenching ordeal of watching and waiting for people along the Gulf of Mexico. But a recent report from the National Wildlife Federation shows how…

Artist Profile: Carlos Zervignon

It was light – and the possibilities of manipulating it – that first led Carlos Zervigon to glass art, though by early 2005 his work had acquired a dark edge. Moved by the plight of the deteriorating Louisiana coast, the…

Pre-Gaming at Big Mama’s Lounge

Pre-gaming, it turns out, is not just for sports fans. The same impulse that sees people partying together before they head into the Superdome inspires friends to meet up before the concert, preferably at an inexpensive bar located near the…

Biking and Boogeying on the Bayou

Natural splendor is great and all, but in New Orleans we tend to get our kicks from cultural expressions more than scenic vistas. Of course, we have scads of the former and hardly any of the latter in our flat,…

Moving Slowly, and Socially, in the Post-Fest Afterglow

As each day of Jazz Fest ends, a great rush ensues, with buses and cabs, the SUVs of VIPs, flocks of bicyclists and thousands of pedestrians all pressing out from the Fair Grounds vicinity. People are headed home, to their…

An Intimate Gallery for a Unique Collection

The French Quarter offers many ways to explore the history and culture of Louisiana, including guided tours and fine meals. Recently however, a new exhibit space has been quietly showcasing that story through a one-of-a-kind art collection. The Laura Simon…

Louisiana Tunes in Library of Congress

Peek into the collection of an avid Louisiana music lover and you may find the country hit and official state song “You Are My Sunshine” sharing space with the Mardi Gras Indian anthem album Wild Tchoupitoulas. Now these two classic,…

Streetcars Heading Downriver

New Orleanians may still be getting used to the idea of a new streetcar line along Loyola Avenue. But the wheels are already turning on the next expansion of the streetcar system, the North Rampart/St. Claude Avenue streetcar line, which…

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