“As I’ve said before, name calling is not productive and while we encourage lively debate, it seems like the comments are sliding down a spiral of vitriol and racial tension. The Art House is home to a wide variety of people from different ethnic backgrounds just as is the Treme neighborhood, so trying to pigeonhole one as a “hipster commune” or the other as just “the ghetto” is completely unfair and unproductive.”

Absolutely. We’re not going to become a comment sewer like…well, not going to name names. But we’re not going down that route.

lol @ Alex writing “Chalk this up as one of the absolute worst decisions made by a city government in, well, ever.”

No name-calling necessary, there… some statements speak for themselves.

@tmm d-block Sometimes a little hyperbole is fun.

“to fix all of the code violations found in the house (and which, quite frankly, could be found in most houses in New Orleans)” -

This is advocacy, not reporting. What code violations were found? What evidence shows most houses in New Orleans have the same violations?

I wish Gambit would assign a reporter to this story, rather than a friend of the Art House occupants, and an obviously interested party. That’s no slam on de los Rios; it’s just not great journalism to have a story filtered through someone who clearly has a position on the issue.

This appears to be simple: 1) Call it Art House, but it’s really just a party house, with major violations. 2) People (enough of them anyway) who think they are creating some sort of pseudo-anarchist-art-Fight Club house redux while forgetting the first rule: “Don’t talk about Fight Club!” They shouldn’t have said a word to Doug Maccash (sp?).

@ Beth: The code violations that were found were summed up in Doug McCash’s article that I linked to in the original blog post (the one with all the updates) and involve everything from exposed electrical outlets to using space under stairs as storage. I’ve lived in three houses in New Orleans with similar problems and none of those attracted the attention of the fire department.

While its true that I sympathize with the Art House residents, take note that I have presented the concerns of both the Treme Civic Association and the Fire Department. So far, these are the only people that have made statements on the matter and no one has commented on why the Art House had its power shut off.

I mention that most houses likely have these types of code violations because, well, they do. The Art House has gained notoriety because of their parties, but the they find themselves without power because of exposed light sockets. Things don’t add up.

@Beth, upon further review, I see that the code violations in the Art House aren’t necessarily ones that would be all that common due to the nature of the house and the amount of residents in there.
However, I do stand by the statement that many a New Orleans residence has code violations, the only difference is that many a New Orleans residence doesn’t host 800-person parties.

Beth is right. This is no longer journalism. How can there not even be a “no comment” in the Gambit’s reporting from the owner of the house, Mr. Orgon? What about “We contacted Entergy, but they had no comment?” Alex seems to be simply sitting back and waiting for comments to show up in his inbox instead of pounding the pavement and asking questions. Where is a copy of the original cease & desist order? How about the Jan. 25th inspection report?
How about just saying you went looking for it?

There’s a ton of information on the house’s owner(s) online at free databases that provides more leads:

- Safety & Permits’ Accela database of permits
- Orleans Parish Assessor’s database of property owners
- Secretary of State database of corporations

Heck, googling the owner turns up the possibility he (or someone with the same name) filed for bankruptcy around the same time the parties started last summer:

http://www.trollerbk.com/bankruptcy/CA88BE6C-AAAA-F4BA-5807C1376A31C011.html

These are easy leads to follow up on, rather than making blanket statements that “most houses likely have these types of code violations.”

On the subject of Journalism:
First of all, this is a blog, as such it has limited resources and contributors work on a limited budget. Had I all the time and money in the world to dig through every lead in this story, I would. Reality prevents me from doing so, unfortunately and I must update posts as I have time or as people I’ve tried to contact get back to me. If I was putting together this story for Gambits print edition, the reporting would be presented in a different matter to say the least.
Secondly, the reporting has not been made easy (though that’s no surprise) by the city government. Multiple inquiries into City Hall and related services have thus gone un-returned. There is definitely another side of the story, but it has been slow coming out if at all. Note that I dedicated whole posts to the Fire Department and the Treme Civic Association when they did take the time to respond and have linked to any stories that have been able to dig up that information as it comes along.
As for all the other documents and where they are, if you look through all the posts you’ll see that in them (as well as in the comments) there’s been multiple mentions of the fact that neither the cease and desist order nor the violations have been made available to us or the Art House residents. The permits were posted in the comments section and, barring some ridiculous need to make THAT into its own post, I felt readers could check those out on their own.
If you have any other problems, go check out some other local site that’s given this regular coverage. Oh wait…

From the comments section of the Times-Picayune article: (http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/02/nola_art_house_goes_dark_and_c/2580/comments-2.html)

“Posted by Entergy Responds
February 12, 2010, 12:59PM
I am a communications representative for Entergy New Orleans, Inc.

Just for clarification - Under the service regulations that Entergy New Orleans must follow by order of our regulator, the New Orleans City Council, Paragraph 5 states: “The Company may decline to serve an Applicant/Customer …. (c) iv. where a condition exists that is hazardous to life and property. vi. Upon direction of an appropriate legal or governing body.” This last sentence means that when so ordered we must disconnect the customer.

At 3:07 pm Thursday, Feb. 11, Entergy New Orleans received an order from the Fire Marshall to disconnect the house in question. We did so, as directed, at 5:42.”

looks like the FD’s press release might contain a few factual errors.

As an editor at Gambit, I would like to point out that once a party has been notified by the city of code violations, that party may comply or contest them through proper channels. Pointing out other code violators is irrelevant. One may reach for the very high bar of proving a pattern of unequal enforcement, but that likely will take considerable time and effort.

Gambit has covered other such zoning conflicts in the past. The situation at the now closed King Bolden’s on N. Rampart Street comes to mind. There are many examples of clubs operating in areas not zoned for live music. One of the most important factors in continuing to do so is getting along with the neighbors. If the neighbors object to a particular usage of the property that’s not zoned or permitted properly, it’s not easy to stay open.

I live at 1614 and have a lease. Prior to yesterday afternoon, when we informed by several police & fire department officials that we had to leave by four thirty, we had received no word from the city as to what specific violations needed to be fixed. We are working to fix all violations, but this is only made harder by the fact that we have no lights or heat in here at the moment… luckily we are well equipped with flashlights & headlamps, but we could still use donations of candles, blankets, or food, as all of our food will soon spoil. We have many friends in this city and the response so far has been tremendous, we are tremendously grateful to everyone. I realize that most of our problems have stemmed from communication failures both between us & our neighbors & between the fire department & other city officials & the house. WE WANT TO COMPLY. WE ARE TRYING TO COMPLY. In the meantime, I believe that it is inappropriate for the city to hinder us, or for anyone else who does not know what goes on here to weigh in without having any real information or solutions to offer. I have lived here Since the beginning of November, and I have a legal contract with my landlord. I am an illustrator/art student, I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art. I have used this place as a base of operations & am currently working on setting up a design firm with a friend called Wong-Johnson-Productions specializing in poster art, album art, and stop-motion animation, and live-art for music shows. We have many friends among the musician’s community in New Orleans who have been looking forward to collaborating with us. I love living at this house… there is a truly vibrant & sharing atmosphere that has stimulated & delighted me & led me to create some of my best work. I don’t know what I would do if I was forced to leave. I rode a bicycle here from Richmond VA, and right now my life is to big to fit on a bicycle again at a moment’s notice. I would love to talk to anyone who wants to know what life is really like at the tree house. I can be reached on Facebook under Owen Francis Johnson.

I’d also like to thank Alejandro De Rios & Gambit for making this discussion possible.

ONE MORE TIME: Criticize another poster’s argument, fine. Criticize another poster: no, no, no.

We’re not going to let this turn into a comment swamp.

Who is going to blogs expecting straight, hard news journalism? This writer is clearly biased in favor of the tree house (isn’t he the same guy that wrote the cover story a while back?) but it’s not like he’s neglecting the city’s side of the story. Anyone who’s dealt with the City of New Orleans knows that they should just be called the City of NO. Good looks on those google searches though, goes to show the power of an inquisitive mind in the internet age.

Hey Matt, why don’t you start a blog and post your reporting if this site doesn’t live up to your standards? And Beth, my shotgun has three exposed outlets, a faulty meter and exposed wiring in a ceiling fan. You gonna call the fire marshall on me?

Hey, if you are going to censor and delete comments, how about you delete “Micah’s Momma” and ban the name. Look at what they wrote about me in the last article about the treehouse. If you delete their’s, you may delete my response too. Don’t be one sided about this, though.

Yeah, why should anyone expect this site to have news?

http://blogofneworleans.com/about/
“Blogofneworleans.com is a satellite site of Gambit Weekly and Bestofneworleans.com featuring daily contributions from Gambit staff members and freelancers. Regular coverage includes arts and entertainment, news, politics, health and sports. The blog pledges to rail on the Saints only until they miss the playoffs.”

go around to the lot in the back of the house and check out the tree house from that perspective. it looks like a rat’s nested junkyard. might look good at night all lit up and if you are wasted. but check it out sober in the daylight, that is a different picture.

HST, what is your point? You ought to take $10 and a few minutes to cover up those outlets, though. It’s not hard to do. A little electrical tape will fix that exposed wire, too.

Thanks for replying, Alejandro. I do acknowledge that you’re posting other sides of the story.

I basically see this as three issues:

1. The Art House.

2. The Tree House

3. The Parties

Let’s deal with each separately:

1. The House. Here the issue is code violations. I don’t doubt what Mr. Rios said in regards to a considerable proportion of housing in New Orleans being below code. I am certain that you could pick out any ten residents in this area of the city, and probably find that at least 4 or 5 of them were substandard with respect to codes.

It is my view that code violations would tend to disfavor the poor most, as wealthy people, say in mansions along St Charles Avenue, would have the resources to keep their properties in tip top shape. So the big issue in citing code violations such as these is, as much as anything else, one of class. Poor artists are far less likely to be able to keep their homes “up to code” than say, the CEO of Entergy.

In any case, many of the people who support the eviction of these artists from their homes would be outraged if the same had been done to a poor family in the Treme, and rightfully so.

With all the talk of “hipsters” this and that, I would have to wonder if at least part of the problem the neighborhood association has with the art house, is the class of people who lived there. In this case the class is “hipsters.”

2. The Tree House. From my understanding this structure has been there for quite some time. If I am reading correctly, it has been there a few years. This is where the notice from the Treme neighborhood association comes in. It doesn’t appear to be an organic outcry by local residents that have them objecting to the presence of the Tree House, or else these complaints would’ve been aired before Mr Rios’ article drew attention to the Tree House.

Most certainly, the fact that the leaders of the neighborhood association had to solicit complaints demonstrates that no one truly had a problem with the presence of the Tree House.

3. The parties. Many of the arguments that apply to Tree House apply here as well. But here, there is even a stronger case to be made that there isn’t organic outrage by the Art House neighbors over the parties.

The thing that sticks out to me, is that so many people are only learning about the Art House parties now (after Mr Rios filed his report). If the parties were really a focus of discontent in the neighborhood, Mr Rios wouldn’t feel the sense of guilt he currently does for bringing the parties to the light of day.

What would’ve happened if these parties were really causing trouble is that we would’ve read articles in the paper, about arrests, the police being called to break up parties,etc.. The police would answer the media’s queries with respect to this incident with a stack full of filed police reports and arrests and citations made at 1614 Esplanade. Apparently, no such records exists.

Again, where is the organic outrage of the activities at the Art House? We see none.

Look, ordering the owner of the property to bring the property up to code is not particularly astounding. That would seem to be the wise thing to do. But ordering an eviction seems to be a bit too much, especially without any serious notice. Never mind the cruelty of such a thing on a cold and rainy night.

It seems to me that the parties and the tree house could, if operated properly, be a long term good thing for the area. It is a depressed area, and bringing people to the area can’t be a bad thing.

If the government wants to enforce such stringent codes, then maybe they should pay for the necessary upgrades. I’m by far no socialist. I’m a Libertarian. I don’t believe in the codes either. Live and let live. But, if the government wants to enforce codes they should pay to bring places into compliance. God knows they hand out enough to useless sources already. Look at the bank bailouts! The banker gets to keep his yacht, but the artist is on the street. America is a very flawed place, and I despise every level of government.

I’ve lived in NO since 1995 and have been to or known about at least half a dozen secret, illegal neighborhood nightclubs - Spellcaster, Pussycat Caverns, the Pearl, Madam Ginslinger’s, Palace of the Dreamers, the Angel, that goth place on Decatur above the bookstore … not counting tons of illegal one-off house shows. Some are still around and thriving, because they keep a low profile and get along with their neighbors, and thus wind up becoming part of the weird, awesome fabric of the city instead of hipster interlopers. Seriously, the Spellcaster is older than the Mother-in-Law and I’m just as attached to both. I feel for the tree house kids, but seriously - “speakeasy” means keep freakin’ quiet.

Tens of thousands of people lived in this city without power, water, or FRESH FOOD for MONTHS after Katrina. I myself, had no electricity for 8 months and no hot water/heat for almost a YEAR in my home. At the time, I was still paying over $1000 a month in rent. In fact, if you talked to your neighbors they probably went through the same thing. i am an open-minded, liberal social worker and I promise there are people TODAY sleeping on the streets of Nola. You are not going to starve—isn’t there a convenience store ACROSS THE STREET. Your self-pity party is honestly offensive to us New Orleanians that have been through REAL loss and REAL tragedy. Maybe you should get back on your bike and go back to Virginia—and back to college, because you obviously learned NOTHING about responsibilty and accountability.

Three points: 1) I speak not only for myself but several others when I say that the Party House rankles a great deal and smacks of arrogance and racism for white kids (mostly) of privilege thinking that they can go into a lower-income black (mostly) neighborhood and then play and do whatever they want and no one should care. I would hope that some posting horrible here things to the effect of “What does it matter, it’s the Treme, New Orleans is a nasty ghetto anyway, Treme is Port-au-Prince, etc” (which further confirms my opinion held above) are not indicative of the mindset of the majority of those associated with the house. (Racism from Ron Paul supporters is to be expected, though, along with littering the quarter/marigny/bywater with signs informing us all that “Capitulizm Kills–Boycotte Mony”.)
2) Perhaps I am missing something, but why would there be a fundraiser for tenants (who are presumably able-bodied enough to get jobs or actually sell their art) when the landlord is the one responsible for any upgrades and code violations?
3)These people will, for the most part, all be gone from New Orleans in a year or less anyway. Why is this even in the news? I typically dislike the “Well then, why don’t you leave” mindset, but in this case, let me echo NOLA Native and say, “Your self-pity party is honestly offensive to us New Orleanians that have been through REAL loss and REAL tragedy.”

Three points: 1) I speak not only for myself but several others when I say that the Party House rankles a great deal and smacks of arrogance and racism for white kids (mostly) of privilege thinking that they can go into a lower-income black (mostly) neighborhood and then play and do whatever they want and no one should care. I would hope that some posting horrible here things to the effect of “What does it matter, it’s the Treme, New Orleans is a nasty ghetto anyway, Treme is Port-au-Prince, etc” (which further confirms my opinion held above) are not indicative of the mindset of the majority of those associated with the house. (Racism from Ron Paul supporters is to be expected, though, along with littering the quarter/marigny/bywater with signs informing us all that “Capitulizm Kills–Boycotte Mony”.)
2) Perhaps I am missing something, but why would there be a fundraiser for tenants (who are presumably able-bodied enough to get jobs or actually sell their art) when the landlord is the one responsible for any upgrades and code violations?
3)These people will, for the most part, all be gone from New Orleans in a year or less anyway. Why is this even in the news? I typically dislike the “Well then, why don’t you leave” mindset, but in this case, it’s apt. Kudos to Kibbles and NOLA Native for spot-on comments.

Wait just a second with that “white kids of privilege” nonsense. These are young people the city tried to ship off to homeless shelters yesterday. That’s hardly indicative of privilege.

Stop race baiting, it really gets boring, and it makes it seem like it is you who are the racist.

“This stuff about “get back on your bike and go back to Virginia” is the kind of nonsense that gives New Orleans the reputation of being “insular.” Cut it out. It’s not useful to the dialogue.

When I read comments “hipster interlopers” who are “white kids of privilege” who need to “go back to Virginia,” it only affirms my belief that this is about the “kind of people” there, and not that it is an authentic problem.

Again, if the Art House/Tree House were a problem where are the police reports from neighbors filing noise complaints? Where are the citations for violations of noise ordinances? Where are the records of arrest for disorderly conduct? Why is there no formal complaint until after the article ran in the Gambit? Further, when my neighbors are making too much noise, I don’t need my neighborhood association to tell me it is time to complain.

Further the complaint that these are “Ron Paul supporters” who are naturally racist, while posting signs that they dislike capitalism demonstrates a strong lack of understanding of Ron Paul and his movement. Ron Paul is the quintessential supporter of capitalism. Therefore, we can presume that if the Art House residents dislike capitalism, they are not the “expected racist Ron Paul supporters.”

It certainly is not race baiting to point out racists as being such. Simply reading the comments on these stories as well as nola.com shows that several Party House supporters are blatant racists with a contempt for Treme. I would agree that Ron Paul supporters demonstrate a strong lack of understanding, but I still find the perspective curious that government becomes the big socialistfacistcommunistnazi enemy once Obama became president. And a simple question for Alejandro: Did you possibly think that a Gambit cover store wouldn’t produce all of this? It was bound to happen anyway but you slammed the door open. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad, but it seems naive. NOLA is really laid back…until it’s not.

And by the way, how can one read Alison’s comment, miss the point about “shhhh–keep quiet”, and latch onto “hipster interloper”? Just be glad the post wasn’t filled with more Lady Gaga nude beach stories.

1st. Nola.com is a comment sewer. I wouldn’t take any of that seriously. Nor view any comments there as indicative of the average Art House supporter. The racism there is so obvious. If the Art House residents were mostly black, and the neighbors were mostly white, each and everyone of them at NOLA.com would switch their opinions in a second. They aren’t real supporters of anything, they just want to be on the white side.

2nd. The right wing in this country has always hated government. I have no love of the tea party people whatsoever, and won’t be defending them. And I will add that the right wing’s rhetoric has become more vitriolic since Obama is in office. But I don’t see how that’s related to this topic.

3rd. While I understand Alison’s comment just fine, I’ve seen the “hipster” slur thrown around quite a bit since this story broke. It is clear to me that there is an issue that goes towards the kind of people who reside at the Art House as much as, if not more than, anything else.

4th. I am going to ask again. If those at the Art House were so disruptive, why are we just hearing about it now? Why didn’t complaints arise until after the article was printed? Again, one doesn’t need a “civic association” or a news article to know they are being disrupted. Where are the complaints about the parties before the article was printed?

Regarding 1st, why don’t you read through some more of the Party House-related stories’ comments from the last few days on this specific website. It will surely be interesting to read what certain Party House supporters have to think about our city and one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in this country. I’ll be happy to excerpt a few if you can’t find them.

3rd. Those using the term “hipster” did not force the Gambit to do a cover story on the Party House, force the Party House residents to throw parties, or keep the homeowner from being up to code. Point being that use of the term didn’t have anything to do with the crackdown.

2nd & 4th: Ah, strawman points just like the other two.

I’ll just add this, then I am moving on: nothing worth having in all of human history was ever created within the confines of conventional rules and codes.

1) The real issue probably has to do with Code Violations…NOT just in the house… but exactly as said before, IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, while yes there might not have been things said before… but while the art house has parties…it’s also made up on SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCIES, which changes the zoning of the neighborhood and many don’t like that.
2) I agree that it is pretty pathetic that they’re acting like their life is over and they will starve if people don’t help. Yes, it sucks… it’s a cool place, but it also is the landlords job to make the building meet the standards of the city, not the tenants. It’s not their building, it’s not like they will live there forever and they own the place, maybe they should look into taking out a loan and buying a place and making something of their own… instead of depending on others, if this lifestyle is so serious to them.
I also think it’s embarrassing the way they dealt with the show/fest being canceled… they helped bring this upon themselves.
IF you get a notice to STOP, you don’t then say well… we will just do one day, and as a benefit for what?
GROW UP and stop crying for attention. Get your landlord to fix the problems, isn’t that in your lease?

Hey Momma, I would agree that non Ron Paul supporters demonstrate a strong lack of understanding.

Robert, the rules and codes here are not seeking to create anything. They are seeking to preserve what already exists, specifically life and property. I’m sorry, but a requirement that the house have viable escape routes in the event of fire is not being oppressed by the man, and failing to having a fire alarm is not creative rebellion.

As for your why you’re just hearing about this now, that’s because you simply weren’t paying attention. Perhaps if all you community minded folks actually attended the meetings of any of your three neighborhood groups, or the monthly NONPAC meetings where this was discussed you might not be so surprised now. You can’t be oblivious and legitimately complain when things take you by surprise.

Who would be blamed if there was a fire and a bunch of “hipsters” died?

My guess is the NOFD.

Why doesn’t the Art House use some of its thousands of dollars that they make off of all the willing participants at some of their recent parties to pay for the violations. I know people who have lived in that house, and there is some major manipulation & tyranny going on over there. Don’t be fooled people.

Why doesn’t the Art House use some of its thousands of dollars that they make off of all the willing participants at some of their recent parties to pay for the violations. I know people who have lived in that house, and there are some major manipulation & tyranny going on over there. Don’t be fooled people, this place is a self serving enterprise masquerading as something community focused. Art means nothing to these people because they have no regard for their community. We’ve seen it all before. This city has real problems, we don’t have time for your tragic youthful nihilism.

So did these artsy fartsy hipsters get kicked out yet? I can’t wait to see this eyesore gone. By the way kids, this is my neighboorhood too and all you’ve done is trash it. You all should have taken some of the money you made off these lousy parties to hire a cleaning crew afterwards! Too bad, so sad!

the leader of the art house, scott, did the same thing in baton rouge - took a beautiful historic home and trashed it, cut walls out, built a slide, illegally connected power, and threw loud, messy parties. i believe he got thrown out after the landlord found out….so then he decides to do the same thing on a grander scale in new orleans? unbelieveable - i can’t believe the landlord would let these vagrants ruin a historic house like that.

I have been to the house. I was trying to do an appraisal of the property but since it was in my opinion a boarding house, I had to decline the assignment for my own reasons. I did have fun climbing in the treehouse so it was worth the trip. The people there really do seem to just be in it just for fun. Is there money made off of the parties??, sure I guess so, but my impression was that it is all for fun. As for the impact on the neighborhood that is hard for me to comment on since I don’t live near there. I suspect it is not as bad as you think since there were no fight or police problems before the cat got out the bag in Gambit magazine. The owner John Orgon really does care about art and even let an artist totally take over the fascade of another nearby house as part of a large project for lead paint abatement in New Orleans. I have appraised HUNDREDS of houses in New Orleans and that house was in no worse shape “code wise” than 80% of the houses I have appraised before. They are just an easy target and New Orleans cannot actually run anything well, but they know how to grind things to a halt when they want to.

John