Thanks, Rios, for getting the report on this one. Jeez Louie!
Can we get a Witnaaassss???
WTF?
This city does not need to fall prey to that Congenital Gentrification Defect (CGD) of snapping down everything to code. That is very much like one of those Boulder, or Sante Fe artistic continuity ordinances.

Maybe we could defend the Tree House on the grounds (ha!:) of Flood Safety. I mean, really, that is why I cried when first seeing it. It isn’t simply a flimsy little wind-chime hanging in the wind, and will probably be there after the next big storm. Even the Framing would be useful safe above the flood waters.
As I realize that the levees and floodwalls have an 80% chance of failing again in a Direct Hit, I think of The Line.
I think these people should be awarded a frigging medal.
We need to protect those who know The Line, discount those who forget The Line and disregard the rest.

Thanks again for this story.

here’s the thing… of COURSE the tree-house isn’t legal. Of COURSE they could never get the “required” insurance or code approval for such a wonderful structure.

Who’s crazy enough to think that?

Are people so wilfully naive about how things work, let alone how things work in New Orleans? If the Treehouse had kept a lower profile, this might or might not have become an issue. By making themselves wildly unignorable, they made it impossible for NOPD (for instance) to continue turning a blind eye. The Art House brought down heat on itself.

I wish the Treehouse the best, but ya can’t have your cake & eat it too. There is some serious political immaturity in evidence here.

Yes, build and do amazing creative things, please! But don’t expect the establishment to frickin’ slap an endorsement on it just because it’s beautiful, and don’t waste time crying when your awesomely code-violating Lothlorien goes front-page and is shut down as a result.

You can hew to the letter of the law, our you can follow your creative vision. Only a child or someone with a childish worldview would expect those paths to be compatible.

Oh and fuck “Legalizing” anything.

As a resident of the Treme I’m going to have to side with my neighbors on this one and say that that Tree House is ill suited in its present area. This is not an anything goes area - this is a historic neighborhood, the oldest Black neighborhood in the country mind you, and we work very hard to preserve it and to eliminate crime, bad cops, and other quality of life issues. That said, these parties have produced major issues for many of my neighbors - People peeing in their yard, trash, loud music and other noise at all hours of the night, guests of the treehouse drunk and mistakenly walking into the homes of their neighbors. Granted, this is not happening on my block which is a good thing for them cause if you know anything about me, you know that I AM NOT THE ONE to tolerate that kind of BS at all. We do not pay mortgages and struggle with the city and 100+ year old houses and contractors and crime and all the other challenges we face to maintain a great neighborhood to be have all that eroded because some folks wanna move in and have a Woodstock free for all. Not happening.

JazzFest gets permits. ChazFest gets permits. Ingrid Lucia’s fest gets permits. Block parties get permits. So why do these Treehouse folks think they should somehow be exempt?

Have the festival, just get permits. No big whoop.

Red Cotton, when you say you are preserving Treme, yet there is only one place to hear live music in Treme, what are you preserving? I’m not going to argue with you that what you say you are preserving is important, and you live there, so I don’t have a leg to stand on to criticize you, but when music is in some ways the essence of Treme and there is no Little People’s Place, no Joe’s Cozy Corner, no Caldonia/Kermit’s Place, then in terms of Treme, then what do you have?

Again, I am just asking this question as food for thought.

Maybe I’m too suspicious after the post-Katrina years of trustifarians colonizing the 9th Ward, but this sounds like out of town hipsters thinking New Orleans is a playground for their super coolness.

Just saw that the city’s kicking these folks out on a cold, wet night. That’s no good. I still think it’s foolish of the house residents to think there wouldn’t be some crackdown, but the city holds the cards here and can at least keep the lights and heat on while they enforce their codes.