New Orleans pushing for new retail, including grocery stores, in Lower 9th Ward
By Joni Hess | Staff writer
The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority is launching a study in the Lower 9th Ward that will try to find ways to bring new retail activity to an area still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Funded by a $2 million allocation from the City Council, the study will first explore strategies to support a full-service grocery store in the area for the first time in at least 20 years. Funding will also go to financial assistance programs for new and existing neighborhood businesses and future redevelopment projects.
At the Tate Etienne and Prevost Center on St. Claude Avenue this week, NORA held a public forum where residents discussed wide-ranging neighborhood issues that could affect the success of a grocery store in the future, including affordable housing and a dwindling population.
"We talk about these grocery stores, but we don't have the people here like we used to. They're building townhouses and three-story homes. What about more single family homes?" said Freddie Hicks.
In the nearly two decades since Hurricane Katrina decimated homes and businesses and pushed out thousands of long-time residents, boarded-up buildings and empty lots still cast a shadow over the area.
Designated a "food desert" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gas stations and small stores, including the Lower 9th Ward Market and the Fresh Start Market, are among the few grocery options available to residents.
During the public forum, some area residents recalled a neighborhood with grocery stores on every corner, pharmacies, restaurants and multiple Black-owned businesses in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lifelong resident Keisha Hnry, 46, said prior to Katrina, people invested much of their own money into launching new businesses, as she and her family did when they opened the now-shuttered Cafe Dauphine restaurant.
After the storm, new residential zoning codes imposed by the city were a blow to many small business owners. Many operated their businesses on the same property of their homes, but a change to "residential only" in some areas meant they had to close up shop.
“People would have their business on one side and operate on the other. It was easier. Less overhead,” Henry said, adding that getting residents to invest in the community again should be a driving factor in the study.
NORA has partnered with Washington, D.C.-based firm &Access to conduct the study, expected to be complete by early 2025.
Over the next few months, the firm plans to engage residents, homeowners associations and other stakeholders on grocery store concepts that fit the needs of the community, said Access strategist and founder Bobby Boone.
Boone said they will collect resident grocery receipts to understand shopping patterns, speak with major grocers about their location preferences, and use data collected as the backdrop to attract more commercial development.
“We want a grocer rooted in community, rooted in the culture while making certain that whatever is put here is viable,” Brenda Breaux, executive director of NORA.
Breaux said the goal of the overarching project, called the St. Claude Revitalization Program, is to grow the Lower 9th Ward without displacing residents — an event witnessed over the last 10 years on the other side of the Industrial Canal.
In the Upper 9th Ward west of the canal, St. Claude Avenue is a bustling strip of bars, eateries, and short-term rentals. A Starbucks and Robert’s Fresh Market sits on the corner at Elysian Fields Avenue, and a food co-op nestled within the New Orleans Healing Center offers organic produce and prepared meals.
But this redevelopment came at a price. As home prices, rent and property taxes rose, much of the majority Black residents could no longer afford to stay, and many crossed over into the Lower 9th Ward.
"I don't think a community has to do better by pushing the people who are there out," said City Council member Oliver Thomas, who's district includes the Lower 9th Ward. "I think the community can be better by everybody banding together and investing in that community and fighting for the same thing that everybody wants."
Email Joni Hess at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
