UNDER THE BRIDGE: It was 54 years ago that New Orleans Parkway Commission workers arrived on North Claiborne Avenue with chainsaws and backhoes to remove the thoroughfare's magnificent oaks trees, in preparation for the construction of the elevated Interstate 10. The expressway has been lamented ever since for dividing a thriving Black neighborhood and destroying Black businesses. Now that President Joe Biden has targeted it for possible removal, we offer a rich look at the history of North Claiborne, from the 1820s to today.
UPTOWN NIGHTMARE: In a matter of seconds, an Uptown couple lost both their vehicle and their two young children when a thief hopped into the SUV and drove off with the kids while the parents were standing nearby trying to open the gate at their home. The vehicle was quickly found nearby and the children were not harmed, but the parents learned a terrible lesson: "You just have to be careful. You can't be vigilant enough."
CHARLIFTED: Here's your strange crime story of the week. The owners of a Faubourg Marigny tattoo parlor have been arrested in connection with the theft of the ornately carved, 500-pound Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair from a cemetery in Selma, Alabama. Police accuse the pair of hiding the stone monument in a storage room at their business while a group called White Lies Matter threatened to use it as a toilet in an extortion directed at the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which had commissioned the chair in 1893.
All this and much more are in today’s Front Page and on NOLA.com. Thanks for starting your day with us.
Two people accused in a bizarre ransom plot that involved a threat to turn an Alabama Confederate monument into a toilet have been arrested in New Orleans, and police said Friday they are searching for a third suspect. Read more
