Friday, February 12, 2010
NOLA Art House: The Fire Department's Side
Posted by Alejandro de los Rios on Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 5:51 PM
By the looks of the comments section, this little incident has caught quite a stir in our little community. First, and foremost, I'd like to ask that people remain civil. As I've said before, name calling is not productive and while we encourage lively debate, it seems like the comments are sliding down a spiral of vitriol and racial tension. The Art House is home to a wide variety of people from different ethnic backgrounds just as is the Treme neighborhood, so trying to pigeonhole one as a "hipster commune" or the other as just "the ghetto" is completely unfair and unproductive. Come on, people, its Mardi Gras and the Saints are Super Bowl Champs. Let's just try to get along.
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In any event, the New Orleans fire department sent out a press release regarding the situation at 1614 Esplanade. It mentions the cease and desist order and the numerous code violations but makes no mention of the tree house structure or why the residents remain without power.
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Also, the art house residents have set up a blog for taking donations to help raise money to fix all of the code violations found in the house (and which, quite frankly, could be found in most houses in New Orleans).
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EDIT: Here's the relevant quotes from Fire Chief Norman Woodridge on the subject of the code violations from Doug McCash's article:
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As [Woodridge] explained, some electrical circuits in the Art House were overloaded and some terminals were “basically exposed.” In addition, the house lacked a fire alarm system, posted emergency instructions, lighted exit signs, and acceptable escape routes from all of the quarters.
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At 8:20 p.m., Woodridge issued a news release saying Thursday’s “cease and desist” order stemmed from the failure of the property owners to correct safety and code violations found in the Jan. 25 inspection. The violations were “based on change of use or occupancy, primary means of escape, electrical code infractions and the lack of detection, alarms or communications system.” The news release emphasized that the department had not ordered anyone out of the house or off the property.
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“It’s a residential property. It’s being used more like a boarding house,” Woodridge said in an earlier interview.
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He said the coming cold snap made things especially hazardous. If “a space heater or something like that overloads a circuit, that could be devastating,” he said.
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The full text of the Fire Department's press release is after the jump:
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New Orleans Fire Department
Charles Parent, Superintendent
317 Decatur Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Date: February 11, 2010
Contact: Chief Norman Woodridge
Phone: (504) 658- 4713
Weekend and Holidays: (504) 671-3939 for PIO duty person
Fax: (504) 565- 7848
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Code Violations, 1614 Esplanade
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New Orleans, LA. – On Thursday, February 11, 2010 the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) issued a Cease and Desist order for the property located at 1614 Esplanade Avenue due to code violations. The NOFD was notified by the New Orleans Health Department with concerns of fire code violations.
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On the January 25, 2010, the NOFD inspected the property at 1614 Esplanade and found numerous fire code violations that would put the occupants in harms way in terms of bodily injury and property damage. The life safety and code violations are based on the change of use or occupancy, primary means of escape, electrical code infractions, and the lack of detection, alarms or communication systems to name a few. A copy of the statement explaining these violations was issued to the project property manager on January 25th. An inspection was conducted today and none of the violations were corrected.
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The NOFD at no time ordered the occupants out the house or off the property. The NOFD concern is strictly and exclusively life safety due to the cold weather conditions predicted for the up coming days. The NOFD also forwarded contact information for emergency housing to management of the property.
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Comments (42)
Showing 1-25 of 42
"As I’ve said before, name calling is not productive and while we encourage lively debate, it seems like the comments are sliding down a spiral of vitriol and racial tension. The Art House is home to a wide variety of people from different ethnic backgrounds just as is the Treme neighborhood, so trying to pigeonhole one as a “hipster commune” or the other as just “the ghetto” is completely unfair and unproductive." Absolutely. We're not going to become a comment sewer like...well, not going to name names. But we're not going down that route.
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lol @ Alex writing "Chalk this up as one of the absolute worst decisions made by a city government in, well, ever." No name-calling necessary, there... some statements speak for themselves.
"to fix all of the code violations found in the house (and which, quite frankly, could be found in most houses in New Orleans)" - This is advocacy, not reporting. What code violations were found? What evidence shows most houses in New Orleans have the same violations? I wish Gambit would assign a reporter to this story, rather than a friend of the Art House occupants, and an obviously interested party. That's no slam on de los Rios; it's just not great journalism to have a story filtered through someone who clearly has a position on the issue.
This appears to be simple: 1) Call it Art House, but it's really just a party house, with major violations. 2) People (enough of them anyway) who think they are creating some sort of pseudo-anarchist-art-Fight Club house redux while forgetting the first rule: "Don't talk about Fight Club!" They shouldn't have said a word to Doug Maccash (sp?).
@ Beth: The code violations that were found were summed up in Doug McCash's article that I linked to in the original blog post (the one with all the updates) and involve everything from exposed electrical outlets to using space under stairs as storage. I've lived in three houses in New Orleans with similar problems and none of those attracted the attention of the fire department. While its true that I sympathize with the Art House residents, take note that I have presented the concerns of both the Treme Civic Association and the Fire Department. So far, these are the only people that have made statements on the matter and no one has commented on why the Art House had its power shut off. I mention that most houses likely have these types of code violations because, well, they do. The Art House has gained notoriety because of their parties, but the they find themselves without power because of exposed light sockets. Things don't add up.
@Beth, upon further review, I see that the code violations in the Art House aren't necessarily ones that would be all that common due to the nature of the house and the amount of residents in there. However, I do stand by the statement that many a New Orleans residence has code violations, the only difference is that many a New Orleans residence doesn't host 800-person parties.
Beth is right. This is no longer journalism. How can there not even be a "no comment" in the Gambit's reporting from the owner of the house, Mr. Orgon? What about "We contacted Entergy, but they had no comment?" Alex seems to be simply sitting back and waiting for comments to show up in his inbox instead of pounding the pavement and asking questions. Where is a copy of the original cease & desist order? How about the Jan. 25th inspection report? How about just saying you went looking for it? There's a ton of information on the house's owner(s) online at free databases that provides more leads: - Safety & Permits' Accela database of permits - Orleans Parish Assessor's database of property owners - Secretary of State database of corporations Heck, googling the owner turns up the possibility he (or someone with the same name) filed for bankruptcy around the same time the parties started last summer: http://www.trollerbk.com/bankruptcy/CA88BE6C-AAAA-F4BA-5807C1376A31C011.html These are easy leads to follow up on, rather than making blanket statements that "most houses likely have these types of code violations."
On the subject of Journalism: First of all, this is a blog, as such it has limited resources and contributors work on a limited budget. Had I all the time and money in the world to dig through every lead in this story, I would. Reality prevents me from doing so, unfortunately and I must update posts as I have time or as people I've tried to contact get back to me. If I was putting together this story for Gambits print edition, the reporting would be presented in a different matter to say the least. Secondly, the reporting has not been made easy (though that's no surprise) by the city government. Multiple inquiries into City Hall and related services have thus gone un-returned. There is definitely another side of the story, but it has been slow coming out if at all. Note that I dedicated whole posts to the Fire Department and the Treme Civic Association when they did take the time to respond and have linked to any stories that have been able to dig up that information as it comes along. As for all the other documents and where they are, if you look through all the posts you'll see that in them (as well as in the comments) there's been multiple mentions of the fact that neither the cease and desist order nor the violations have been made available to us or the Art House residents. The permits were posted in the comments section and, barring some ridiculous need to make THAT into its own post, I felt readers could check those out on their own. If you have any other problems, go check out some other local site that's given this regular coverage. Oh wait...
From the comments section of the Times-Picayune article: (http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/02/nola_art_house_goes_dark_and_c/2580/comments-2.html) "Posted by Entergy Responds February 12, 2010, 12:59PM I am a communications representative for Entergy New Orleans, Inc. Just for clarification - Under the service regulations that Entergy New Orleans must follow by order of our regulator, the New Orleans City Council, Paragraph 5 states: "The Company may decline to serve an Applicant/Customer .... (c) iv. where a condition exists that is hazardous to life and property. vi. Upon direction of an appropriate legal or governing body." This last sentence means that when so ordered we must disconnect the customer. At 3:07 pm Thursday, Feb. 11, Entergy New Orleans received an order from the Fire Marshall to disconnect the house in question. We did so, as directed, at 5:42." looks like the FD's press release might contain a few factual errors.
As an editor at Gambit, I would like to point out that once a party has been notified by the city of code violations, that party may comply or contest them through proper channels. Pointing out other code violators is irrelevant. One may reach for the very high bar of proving a pattern of unequal enforcement, but that likely will take considerable time and effort. Gambit has covered other such zoning conflicts in the past. The situation at the now closed King Bolden's on N. Rampart Street comes to mind. There are many examples of clubs operating in areas not zoned for live music. One of the most important factors in continuing to do so is getting along with the neighbors. If the neighbors object to a particular usage of the property that's not zoned or permitted properly, it's not easy to stay open.
I live at 1614 and have a lease. Prior to yesterday afternoon, when we informed by several police & fire department officials that we had to leave by four thirty, we had received no word from the city as to what specific violations needed to be fixed. We are working to fix all violations, but this is only made harder by the fact that we have no lights or heat in here at the moment... luckily we are well equipped with flashlights & headlamps, but we could still use donations of candles, blankets, or food, as all of our food will soon spoil. We have many friends in this city and the response so far has been tremendous, we are tremendously grateful to everyone. I realize that most of our problems have stemmed from communication failures both between us & our neighbors & between the fire department & other city officials & the house. WE WANT TO COMPLY. WE ARE TRYING TO COMPLY. In the meantime, I believe that it is inappropriate for the city to hinder us, or for anyone else who does not know what goes on here to weigh in without having any real information or solutions to offer. I have lived here Since the beginning of November, and I have a legal contract with my landlord. I am an illustrator/art student, I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art. I have used this place as a base of operations & am currently working on setting up a design firm with a friend called Wong-Johnson-Productions specializing in poster art, album art, and stop-motion animation, and live-art for music shows. We have many friends among the musician's community in New Orleans who have been looking forward to collaborating with us. I love living at this house... there is a truly vibrant & sharing atmosphere that has stimulated & delighted me & led me to create some of my best work. I don't know what I would do if I was forced to leave. I rode a bicycle here from Richmond VA, and right now my life is to big to fit on a bicycle again at a moment's notice. I would love to talk to anyone who wants to know what life is really like at the tree house. I can be reached on Facebook under Owen Francis Johnson.
I'd also like to thank Alejandro De Rios & Gambit for making this discussion possible.
ONE MORE TIME: Criticize another poster's argument, fine. Criticize another poster: no, no, no. We're not going to let this turn into a comment swamp.
Who is going to blogs expecting straight, hard news journalism? This writer is clearly biased in favor of the tree house (isn't he the same guy that wrote the cover story a while back?) but it's not like he's neglecting the city's side of the story. Anyone who's dealt with the City of New Orleans knows that they should just be called the City of NO. Good looks on those google searches though, goes to show the power of an inquisitive mind in the internet age.
Hey Matt, why don't you start a blog and post your reporting if this site doesn't live up to your standards? And Beth, my shotgun has three exposed outlets, a faulty meter and exposed wiring in a ceiling fan. You gonna call the fire marshall on me?
Hey, if you are going to censor and delete comments, how about you delete "Micah's Momma" and ban the name. Look at what they wrote about me in the last article about the treehouse. If you delete their's, you may delete my response too. Don't be one sided about this, though.
Yeah, why should anyone expect this site to have news? http://blogofneworleans.com/about/ "Blogofneworleans.com is a satellite site of Gambit Weekly and Bestofneworleans.com featuring daily contributions from Gambit staff members and freelancers. Regular coverage includes arts and entertainment, news, politics, health and sports. The blog pledges to rail on the Saints only until they miss the playoffs."
go around to the lot in the back of the house and check out the tree house from that perspective. it looks like a rat's nested junkyard. might look good at night all lit up and if you are wasted. but check it out sober in the daylight, that is a different picture.
HST, what is your point? You ought to take $10 and a few minutes to cover up those outlets, though. It's not hard to do. A little electrical tape will fix that exposed wire, too.
Thanks for replying, Alejandro. I do acknowledge that you're posting other sides of the story.
I basically see this as three issues: 1. The Art House. 2. The Tree House 3. The Parties Let's deal with each separately: 1. The House. Here the issue is code violations. I don't doubt what Mr. Rios said in regards to a considerable proportion of housing in New Orleans being below code. I am certain that you could pick out any ten residents in this area of the city, and probably find that at least 4 or 5 of them were substandard with respect to codes. It is my view that code violations would tend to disfavor the poor most, as wealthy people, say in mansions along St Charles Avenue, would have the resources to keep their properties in tip top shape. So the big issue in citing code violations such as these is, as much as anything else, one of class. Poor artists are far less likely to be able to keep their homes "up to code" than say, the CEO of Entergy. In any case, many of the people who support the eviction of these artists from their homes would be outraged if the same had been done to a poor family in the Treme, and rightfully so. With all the talk of "hipsters" this and that, I would have to wonder if at least part of the problem the neighborhood association has with the art house, is the class of people who lived there. In this case the class is "hipsters." 2. The Tree House. From my understanding this structure has been there for quite some time. If I am reading correctly, it has been there a few years. This is where the notice from the Treme neighborhood association comes in. It doesn't appear to be an organic outcry by local residents that have them objecting to the presence of the Tree House, or else these complaints would've been aired before Mr Rios' article drew attention to the Tree House. Most certainly, the fact that the leaders of the neighborhood association had to solicit complaints demonstrates that no one truly had a problem with the presence of the Tree House. 3. The parties. Many of the arguments that apply to Tree House apply here as well. But here, there is even a stronger case to be made that there isn't organic outrage by the Art House neighbors over the parties. The thing that sticks out to me, is that so many people are only learning about the Art House parties now (after Mr Rios filed his report). If the parties were really a focus of discontent in the neighborhood, Mr Rios wouldn't feel the sense of guilt he currently does for bringing the parties to the light of day. What would've happened if these parties were really causing trouble is that we would've read articles in the paper, about arrests, the police being called to break up parties,etc.. The police would answer the media's queries with respect to this incident with a stack full of filed police reports and arrests and citations made at 1614 Esplanade. Apparently, no such records exists. Again, where is the organic outrage of the activities at the Art House? We see none. Look, ordering the owner of the property to bring the property up to code is not particularly astounding. That would seem to be the wise thing to do. But ordering an eviction seems to be a bit too much, especially without any serious notice. Never mind the cruelty of such a thing on a cold and rainy night. It seems to me that the parties and the tree house could, if operated properly, be a long term good thing for the area. It is a depressed area, and bringing people to the area can't be a bad thing.
If the government wants to enforce such stringent codes, then maybe they should pay for the necessary upgrades. I'm by far no socialist. I'm a Libertarian. I don't believe in the codes either. Live and let live. But, if the government wants to enforce codes they should pay to bring places into compliance. God knows they hand out enough to useless sources already. Look at the bank bailouts! The banker gets to keep his yacht, but the artist is on the street. America is a very flawed place, and I despise every level of government.
I've lived in NO since 1995 and have been to or known about at least half a dozen secret, illegal neighborhood nightclubs - Spellcaster, Pussycat Caverns, the Pearl, Madam Ginslinger's, Palace of the Dreamers, the Angel, that goth place on Decatur above the bookstore ... not counting tons of illegal one-off house shows. Some are still around and thriving, because they keep a low profile and get along with their neighbors, and thus wind up becoming part of the weird, awesome fabric of the city instead of hipster interlopers. Seriously, the Spellcaster is older than the Mother-in-Law and I'm just as attached to both. I feel for the tree house kids, but seriously - "speakeasy" means keep freakin' quiet.
Tens of thousands of people lived in this city without power, water, or FRESH FOOD for MONTHS after Katrina. I myself, had no electricity for 8 months and no hot water/heat for almost a YEAR in my home. At the time, I was still paying over $1000 a month in rent. In fact, if you talked to your neighbors they probably went through the same thing. i am an open-minded, liberal social worker and I promise there are people TODAY sleeping on the streets of Nola. You are not going to starve---isn't there a convenience store ACROSS THE STREET. Your self-pity party is honestly offensive to us New Orleanians that have been through REAL loss and REAL tragedy. Maybe you should get back on your bike and go back to Virginia---and back to college, because you obviously learned NOTHING about responsibilty and accountability.
