Mayor LaToya Cantrell is floating a plan to move New Orleans City Hall.
It reportedly includes using two abandoned buildings in the city.
One is the Municipal Auditorium at Armstrong Park. The other is the former Veterans Administration Hospital.
As part of her efforts to move the plan forward, she reportedly met with Friends of Armstrong Park leader Leo Watermeier this week.
He says the meeting did not go well.
"It was a setup to bully and I felt bullied," Watermeier wrote in a letter WWL Radio obtained that was sent to members of the Friends of Armstrong Park.
Watermeier explained that things started well, but went downhill quickly.
"My one-on-one meeting with LaToya Cantrell and 4 members of her staff Monday afternoon started off cordially but got rather heated when it became clear I did not support her plan to relocate City Hall to Armstrong Park."
He says things kept getting worse as he became critical of the plan.
"She became irate and lectured me on how hard she worked for the City while wagging her finger at my face after I suggested she might not understand people’s attachment to the Municipal Auditorium because she’s not originally from here."
Watermeier says before the meeting began he asked if the mayor wanted his honest opinions, and she said she did.
His understanding of the mayor's plan is that Cantrell wants to use $41 million dollars in FEMA money tied to Municipal Auditorium to help renovate the shuttered structure that has not been occupied since Hurricane Katrina. Cantrell reportedly also wants to use the sale or lease of city hall and other funding mechanisms to generate about $150 million to move city hall.
He says that he advised the mayor and her team that relocating part of city hall to Armstrong park would not work.
"I told them it would be inappropriate to locate a large office building in Armstrong Park and the City’s zoning code and master plan would prohibit a private office building in the park."
The leader of the Friends of Armstrong Park says that was not received well, and the meeting ended on a sour note.
Disappointing Meeting with Mayor Cantrell
Before the meeting started, the mayor was all smiles – her mood changed.
Mayor’s Plan would create 2 City Halls –1 in Armstrong Park and 1 in the old VA Hospital
My one-on-one meeting with LaToya Cantrell and 4 members of her staff Monday afternoon started off cordially but got rather heated when it became clear I did not support her plan to relocate City Hall to Armstrong Park.
As our meeting began I asked if she truly wanted me to be honest and she insisted she did.
But later she became irate and lectured me on how hard she worked for the City while wagging her finger at my face after I suggested she might not understand people’s attachment to the Municipal Auditorium because she’s not originally from here.
So much for speaking truth to power.
I wasn’t looking forward to this meeting. I asked to bring one or two people with me but was told I had to come alone.
It was a setup to bully and I felt bullied.
It was hard to get facts.
When I asked for specifics, they often said they just had concepts at this time.
This email is my best attempt to summarize what I learned. (If anyone in the mayor’s office notices a factual error, please let me know and I’ll share your correction.)
FEMA will give the City $41 million to renovate the Municipal Auditorium.
The mayor claims it would cost $90 million to restore it to its original use and the City doesn’t have that much money.
Instead she wants to combine the FEMA money with other funds – it gets vague here – historic tax credits, bond funds, the sale or lease of the present City Hall to a developer, etc. She thinks this could generate the $150 million or more that would be needed to relocate City Hall.
She claims a new City Hall is urgently needed because conditions in the existing City Hall are so bad workers are getting sick and it is energy inefficient - yet she thinks its valuable enough the City can sell or lease it in order to help pay for the new City Hall.
But one fact emerged - the Municipal Auditorium is way too small for a new City Hall.
The mayor’s plan splits city government into 2 buildings a mile apart.
The renovated Municipal Auditorium will provide less than 200,000 square feet of space, considerably smaller than the 360,000 square feet at the present City Hall, and the total of 650,000 square feet the City presently uses by leasing additional office space.
The mayor’s plan solves this shortage by creating a 2nd City Hall at the former VA Hospital building, which is about a mile away from Armstrong Park.
She and her team are now trying to determine which offices would go to Armstrong Park and which would go to the VA building.
That’s right - 2 City Halls a mile apart
Municipal Auditorium
They could not explain how relocating City Hall would better Armstrong Park.
I told them it would be inappropriate to locate a large office building in Armstrong Park and the City’s zoning code and master plan would prohibit a private office building in the park.
I predicted this project will never get built and compared this proposal to Marc Morial’s 2002 lease with WWOZ to build a 15,000 square foot building in the park, and Ray Nagin’s 2010 scheme to convert the Municipal Auditorium to a sound stage, a cooking school and various offices – both of which were stopped because of public opposition.
I even walked to the windows in the mayor’s office and pointed out an empty Duncan Plaza and asked how the impact of having City Hall in Armstrong Park would be any different.
They answered by saying City Hall is not an office building but a civic and cultural building.
I mentioned the successful community opposition to locating the new Obama presidential library in Chicago’s Jackson Park.
I offered an alternative 5 point plan for the park, including:
- restoring the Municipal Auditorium to its original use using the FEMA money,
- issuing Requests for Proposals (RFP) for the Jazz Complex buildings and the Fire House,
- restoring the Congo Square fountain,
-and appointing an Armstrong Park advisory committee.
They insisted no one would respond to a RFP for any park building because of the dilapidated Municipal Auditorium.
I suggested they give it a try to find out.
I’d also suggest they use FEMA’s $41 million to stabilize and restore the exterior of the Municipal Auditorium and get parts of it back in use until more funding is located.
I proposed we work together on this instead of fighting over her City Hall relocation plan.
They weren’t interested and I was shuffled out the room.
People understand Parks are for Recreation not Office Buildings
The mayor’s misguided plan will be defeated.
No one I’ve spoken to supports this plan.
One long time Central City preservationist friend summarized it perfectly yesterday in 1 word: Absurd.
It is the product of a mayor with a strong ego surrounded by people who support her totally – I was reminded at times of the obsequiousness of Mike Pence and others during cabinet meetings with our “Dear Leader” president.
I brought a copy of the political satire Animal Farm and offered it as a gift as our meeting ended.
The mayor said she’s read the book already and wouldn’t accept it.
Save Armstrong Park
Please help spread this information by sharing this email with anyone interested.
Leo Watermeier