A Place Where People Want to Be

Jeff Schwartz with Broad Community Connections is making Broad Street a place where people want to linger.

Broad Community Connections was founded in 2008 on the premise that we wanted to make Broad Street somewhere that people wanted to come to. BCC’s overarching vision is to create a vibrant place that maintains the cultural resonance of the Tremé, Faubourg St. John, Mid-City and Lower Mid-City neighborhoods.

BCC was formally designated as an urban Main Street in December 2008. The Main Street model is an attempt to think holistically about what revitalization means, and it’s firmly rooted in the built environment, knowing that you’re not going to have a pedestrian-oriented district without doing basic things, like providing benches and trees and a feeling of safety. There are now six Main Streets in New Orleans, and that’s all a post-Katrina innovation. All of them are grassroots nonprofits.

Grocery stores are one of the first things people want to have in a neighborhood before they return. We’ve worked toward this in a variety of ways: We started a monthly flea market that offers not only arts and crafts but fresh food; we’ve worked with a corner store to get some fresh food into it; and we are planning to put an offer down on the old Schwegmann’s in the hopes of turning it back into a grocery store. Our vision for the site includes putting a commercial food service kitchen in the building, where the tenants will be healthy food service operators for public and charter schools. And we hope to create an urban farm on the rooftop as a community space where kids can learn about healthy food.

We are also involved in a number of other projects, including working to make Broad more pedestrian and bike friendly; helping to make sure the hospital development plans on Tulane Avenue include local businesses and benefit the community at large; and increasing community dialogue in the house-moving conversation by linking the Builders of Hope folks to the preservationists, which we hope will create affordable housing from the 100 historic houses that will be moved out of the way of the VA footprint.

We also started the Broad Street Brew Ha Ha, an annual festival that celebrates the brewing traditions in New Orleans. Broad Street and Tulane Avenue are the old brewing districts of New Orleans, and this festival is not only culturally and historically relevant, but it also gives people a reason to come hang out in a place that they never would think about otherwise.

Economic and social value comes from being in a place where people want to be. A lot of that is just tied to simple things, like having garbage cans and trees. So we’ve stepped in and partnered with other groups to provide these things for the community. Ultimately, it’s a pretty simple vision that can transform a neighborhood.

This post is part of a series, “In Their Own Words”, that acknowledges the role that nonprofit leaders have played in the region’s recovery. Five years later, they’re still at work.