Grand Palace Hotel Demolition Eco farm

 Beth and I rode our bikes to the abandoned grocery store on the corner of Broad St. and Bienville Ave.  I think it was a Robert's or a Schweggmans.  Now the location is a 2 acre lot that has a concrete parking area in front of the building, and also has parking on the roof accessible via a ramp.  When we arrived at 7:40, we were the only people at our spot, but by the time the building imploded, 8 or 10 people had joined us to watch.

Beth brought her binoculars.

The building imploding

Huge dust plume that grew even more in size

Graffiti

This ladder was across a couple of inches of water that had accumulated on the flat roof.

top of the roof. I altered this picture's color.

  

unaltered picture

 The oasis of water on one side of the parking lot struck a chord in me. Water reflected the high clouds.  Grass and dirt collected in the joinery of the cement panels.  Dragonflies buzzed over the water and around the grasses.  Things wriggled in the shallows.  Long legged birds hunted the wrigglers.

Surrounded by cement, Nature constructed something organic on top of what man had built and then abandoned.

This would be a great site for an urban farm. It could be an oasis in the concrete.  I imagine aquaponics, microgreens, rice, herbs, and fish flourishing.  Mushroom cultivation could go on the ground floor.  Any takers, any visionaries?

Step 1) Pull the property records of who actually owns the building.  I'm on it.

Beth did pull property records, but was unsuccessful in locating this property.  A week later we were treated to an article on nola.com detailing a development deal on this property.  One of the goals?  To make an organic urban farm on the property!

 http://broadcommunityconnections.org/?page_id=70