Neighborhood associations love to draw attention to prime properties in their area. The newly formed South 7th Ward Home and Garden Society is no exception.
Its first event — the Cat’s Claw Award Gala, scheduled for June 6 at 6 p.m. at the corner of St. Anthony and Villere streets — will bestow its top honor on one of the more, ahem, noteworthy buildings in the community.
The falling-down eyesore at 1387 St. Anthony St. takes top prize as one of “the most egregious cases of blight gracing our neighborhood,” said Austen Ward, founding member of the tongue-firmly-in-cheek society.
The group’s press release, eloquently written by Ward, says it best:
The building at 1387 St. Anthony St. will receive the top prize at the South 7th Ward Home and Garden Society’s Cat’s Claw Gala, a humorous event designed to draw attention to blight in the area.
“The abandoned structure at 1387 St. Anthony St. is one of the South 7th Ward’s finest specimens, heralded as the prime embodiment of decontructivist architecture in the American south. It is truly unparalleled, just like its clapboards. 1387 St. Anthony has steadfastly excelled in no fewer than these nine judged categories: sanitation, weeds and plant growth, rodent harborage, exterior surfaces, paint or protective treatment, siding and masonry, studs, weatherboards, exterior walls. It takes one’s breath away to behold its emerald majesty. Really, it stinks badly. We beholding our breaths when we walk by. 1387 St. Anthony features a striking second-story smattering of Cat’s Claw vine (macfadyena unguis-cati)… Like those in its cohort, this impressive property has flourished in the face of adversity; weathering innumerable hurricanes in-place, and serving as the shelter of last resort, as well as a year-round resort, for hordes of native commensal mammals.”
Spoofy as it may be, the Cat’s Claw Gala is a real thing. Neighbors will gather at the site, using humor, theater, media attention and “gentle shaming” to try to get the issue of blight brought to the forefront.
While the South 7th Ward Home and Garden Society is satirical, its members aren’t really kidding. Many of them also are founding members of the more serious South Seventh Ward Neighbors, a group organized after the 2013 Mother’s Day shooting in the area.
“The people who founded (the South Seventh Ward Neighbors) and who have joined since it started, our basic aim was to get to know each other better and have closer connections and, in that way, hopefully affect these bigger issues of violence and blight,” Ward said. “We’ve compiled a list of 80 or so blighted properties and reported them in this massive blight report to the city.
“We really are serious about trying to get attention for these places, and we haven’t had a great amount of success going through official channels,” he said, adding that he’s met with a city code enforcement officer. “They seem very engaged, but then nothing happens. Maybe with a little gentle shaming, we’ll see things improve for the people who live here.”
As for the Cat’s Claw Gala and award ceremony, it will be handled with appropriate pomp and circumstance. Those in attendance should expect some theater, humor and a hand-written certificate presentation.
“I would be happier not seeing these historic buildings being torn down, but instead see someone step in with the resources to take care of them,” Ward said. “But if that doesn’t happen, we’d rather not have them remain drug havens and major eyesores in our neighborhood.”
Article source: http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2014/05/seventh_ward_neighborhood_grou.html