NEW ORLEANS – For this week’s episode of Access Code, we head to the 70117 ZIP code, which includes parts of several neighborhoods including St. Roch, St. Claude, the Florida Area, the Bywater, Holy Cross and the Lower Ninth Ward.
The ZIP Code is bordered on the north by Florida Avenue and runs south into the Mississippi River. Angela Street is the border to the east, and Elysian Fields is the border to the west.
The population is just over 36,000 with only 398 businesses. There is an extremely high percentage of vacancies in the area, sitting at 37 percent. We sat down with one woman who was bothered by the vacancies and is working to make a difference.
About five years ago, Jeanette Bell got lost in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was an experience that actually inspired her.
“It bothered me for four or five months. And I thought,’But those people don’t have access to fresh produce. Why aren’t they using that land?’” Bell said.
So Bell decided to do something about it. A former floriculturist for the City of Detroit with the help of Habitat Humanity and Hands on New Orleans, Bell now operates five gardens throughout the Lower Ninth Ward. The goal: turning blighted lots into flourishing gardens called “Garden on Mars.”
Bell runs a “Beans and Greens” garden on North Miro Street, a flower garden and herb garden on Charbonnet, a fruit garden on North Prieur and a market garden on North Galvez. The market garden is where she teaches two classes starting with the “Kitchen Box class” that centers around a raised bed with 32 square feet of planting area.
“The other class is herb tasting because most people think they know what fresh herbs taste like, and they don’t,” Bell said.
She tends to the gardens on a daily basis, but she relies on groups (mainly college students from across the country) to do the heavy lifting, thanks to a volunteer arm of the United Way.
“In March of this year, I had eight groups from universities: San Bernardino, New York, Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Alabama,” Bell said. “I am affiliated with a recovery organization here who gets college students and other groups from across the country coming to work in the Lower Ninth Ward.”
But the days she says “changed the whole completion of the process” was in late 2014 when Ohio State was in town for a bowl game. The Buckeyes worked on the two Charbonnet gardens and were able to get so much accomplished in such a short amount of time.
“When they show up and there’s part of the band and the media, the mascot and then there’s the president, I knew at that point that I needed the involvement of a university,” Bell said.
The gardens have been set up primarily to support an urban agriculture curriculum.
“We actually have five gardens that would allow any instructor to put together a course outline and start teaching in the fall, literally,” Bell said.
There’s plenty of options locally, but Bell is targeting Tulane University. Here’s why:
“We have to go with a university that can attract students from across the country who want to study urban agriculture in New Orleans,” Bell said.
She is a community partner with Tulane, which means some students do their community hours there. Others have signed up for internships, but it’s not enough. She said one instructor and one full-time maintenance worker to run the gardens would bring her goal to fruition.
What started as a wrong turn, has changed Bell’s direction, and the community is better for it.
On our next episode of Access Code, we head to the 70051 ZIP code to check out the beautiful San Francisco Plantation. We will explore the history and what the plantation offers today. There’s a major project that has been in the works for nearly two decades.
If you want me to showcase your ZIP code, send an email to me with your ideas to lspoon@wwltv.com