Shark alert

It's been a busy couple of days with little time to do much yellow blogging but we would be seriously derelict in our responsibilities if we did not note the Metal Shark ferries (well, one of them anyway) are finally going into service. The early reviews are positive.

After two years of delays, a sleek new passenger ferry began plying the Mississippi River between Algiers Point and Canal Street on Saturday, in journeys that are faster, calmer and better for the environment.

“It was real smooth, very relaxing. It doesn’t rock up and down,” Christina Burrle, 24, said as she exited the ferry near the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.

Real smooth and relaxing sounds pretty good. I kind of remember one of the problems with getting these boats certified had to do with the safety equipment. So we don't want things getting too rough out there.  On the other hand, since the boats are no longer free to pedestrians, some of us might want our $2 each way to buy us a thrill or two. Maybe that's possible. The deckhands seem to think so, anyway. 

Guiding the ferry straight across the river might seem like a simple task, Burris said. “But it takes a lot of technique, practice and great ship-handling capabilities when you get high river stages and the currents starts moving at five, six, seven, eight knots. You can catch yourself in an eddy, kind of like a blender, and you can flip yourself all the way around.”

Can't wait to try it out.

Do do do do do do

I guess because it is almost June now, we are getting a look at RTA just a few months away from when its October 1 divorce from Transdev is finalized. By that point we probably will have seen the last of Transdev for a while, although it's possible we may be welcoming its former parent Veolia back into town when and if we decide to privatize Sewerage and Water Board.  But that's a problem for another time.  For now, let's just take one more look at the subcontractor we're still waiting on results from.

Public furor had also sparked around Transdev's failure to monitor a subcontractor's performance on the construction of two ferries, which that were supposed be ready in 2018 but have yet to enter service. 

The Metal Shark boats were supposed to be ready in time for Mitch Landrieu's Tricentennial celebration.  I think he was planning to end his last day in office by riding off on one like Frodo leaving Middle Earth or something.  My goodness so much has happened since then.

The Six Million Dollar Men

We now know who picked up the six million dollar contract to operate the ferries.  Linguists will ruminate for decades over the commonalities in corporatespeak nomenclature that produce trash Mcfuture names like "Transdev" (the company RTA just fired from this gig) and "Labmar" the entity who they have just hired.  Labmar is apparently a portmanteau of Laborde Marine. But it also includes these people.

Labmar, which is a joint venture made up of Laborde Marine, Circular Consulting, Royal Engineers & Consultants and MSF Global, beat out HMS Ferries, a firm based in Washington state, for the contract.

The firms' proposals and the scoring sheets from the agency's evaluations of them were not made available Monday.

There are so many Labordes to keep track of in this town. J. Peter Laborde Jr. is one scion of the Ocean Drilling-Tidewater Laborde offshore oil and support services fortune and is pretty much carrying on that Uptown family's traditional business. Royal Engineers are familiar city contractors on several projects including the Canal Street Ferry terminal so now they will be managing the boats that land there. MSF Global is the tech services company who built RTA's app.   

Anyway it looks like one result of the RTA/Metal Shark ferry debacle is a couple of RTA contractors and a classic New Orleans plutocrat get to pick up a bit of a windfall. They say in the article that it also means ferry services could be restored as early as this week.  So everybody wins, really.

I'm guessing Duck Tours?

RTA is supposed to vote this coming Monday on a charter boat operator who will provide temporary ferry service until either the broken down old boats get back up and running or Metal Shark's tin can catamarans ever pass a Coast Guard inspection.

Some of the council members like Kristin Palmer, who district includes the French Quarter and Algiers, displayed signs indicating it's been 67 days with no ferry. "The management system was flawed, deeply flawed," Palmer said. "The operations and maintenance of the ferry system has been deeply flawed. So, we're hear to get some answers."

RTA Board Chairman Flozell Daniels' agreed. "The process was managed poorly," Daniels said. "There was not as much accountability as there should have been The contractor did not do what we thing was the right job to make sure it was managed appropriately."

Daniels promised the RTA is now trying to do better for the public. Two new ferry boats, delivered about 18 months ago have yet to pass Coast Guard inspection. The $10 million vessels were supposed to replace two older boats, neither of which is currently in working condition. People who rely on the ferries to get to work are hurting.

"We've ignored the fact that this is a commuter problem," commuter Fabienne Keenum said. "This is public transportation and I and other service industry and lower income workers rely that ferry to get across."

It's good to see something being done about the "commuter problem," at least. Last week, the city seemed more focused on compensating Algiers Point business owners for our sudden inability to deliver tourists for them to cater to.  There's no doubt those businesses have suffered, of course. But for some reason the city always seems to consider workers as an afterthought. (Did you know, this week, an American city implemented fare-free transit for its riders? Can you even imagine New Orleans RTA currently helmed by a "fare enforcement" specialist considering such a thing?)

Anyway, why won't they name the charter boat operator? Obviously they have somebody in mind.  Please don't tell us we can "Ride The Ducks" across the river anytime soon. You laugh, but thinking about public transit exclusively in terms of amusement rides for tourists is exactly how Mitch Landrieu got us into the Metal Shark problem in the first place.  Here's a public post by Clark Thompson that's been making the rounds on Facebook. I assume it's okay to share here, in a different public part of the internet. He introduces it as a letter to the mayor he wrote in 2016.  Basically, the style of boat that Mitch ordered was never fit to operate on the Mississippi River.

I am not a bidder on the RTA ferry project, therefore I am late to the game, but I recently learned some details of the RFP (for some reason the document is not publicly available).

As a long time ferry user, a USCG licensed captain, a Naval Architect, a builder of aluminum boats, and a principal investigator on marine building materials for Army Research Labratory, I have grave concerns regarding this RFP.

This RFP requests a high speed, catamaran hull, fabricated from aluminum. Such a vessel is well suited to the long runs on the Hudson River, and in Sydney Harbor. Such a request flies in the face of hundreds of years of experience of operations on the Mississippi River.

First, this is a short run, and a high speed boat will have no time to get up to speed before it must slow back down. The medium speed diesel engines will not have time to blow themselves clean, and will end up running dirty. This will in turn lead to considerably higher than projected maintainence costs and downtime. Furthermore, in order to obtain the required speed, larger engines must be selected, further driving up total cost of ownership.

Second, catamarans have poor low speed manuverability. The complicated eddies on the east bank ferry landing require a highly manuverable boat. Bow thrusters are a poor substitute for a proper initial design and are another item of maintainence that will further drive up total cost of ownership and downtime.

Third, aluminum is a poor material for impact. While this lightweight material is acceptable for the garbage strewn waterways of the Hudson or Sydney Harbor, it is ill suited to the frequent impacts with whole trees, oil drums and other large debris carried by the Mississippi river. Look along the waterfront and you will find centuries of experience dictate steel as the prefered material for watercraft along the Mississippi. Only small response boats are build in aluminum here. This flawed material specification will result in a high risk of downtime for the ferry, and much higher than projected total cost of ownership.

I address this message to you as a lover of the city and the river. Our city will suffer with the impact of a bad decision on this contract for 30 years or more and it is critically important to get it right.

Please consider delaying this contract award until the RFP has been corrected to properly request a boat suitable for the Mississippi River operating environment.

We've also noted previously and repeatedly, the various concerns with the contractor itself.  I think this post has most of that in one place.  But the overriding factor seems to be that Mitch thought the catamarans were cool. So that's what he bought.  Let's hope the charter contractor is chosen according to more reasonable criteria.

Do do do do do do

Well now there's a lawsuit.  Surprised it took this long.

The suit, filed in Orleans Parish Civil District Court by Algiers resident Skip Gallagher, claims the Regional Transit Authority shirked its duty when it ignored Gallagher's requests for more information on what's been keeping the boats from service on the Mississippi River.

I like that the person suing over the seaworthiness of the boats is named Skip. Anyway, assuming most people reading this already know enough of the Metal Shark background saga now. So let's skip to the end of this story where we see Skip is actually asking about the part that's been missing from that so far.

Gallagher wanted to know more about the whole ordeal, including what RTA and Transdev executives were saying to each other about the boats via email.

He also wanted to know who was responsible for selecting Metal Shark and whether that team had any expertise in boat construction management.

We've learned a lot about why what Metal Shark built can't pass inspection. But what we haven't heard enough about yet is why was that faulty product ordered in the first place? We did note back in May a pair of stories about RTA board member Al Herrara, who was forced to resign over a conflict of interest wherein a company he owned sold parts to Metal Shark.  Herrara went on to allege “questionable bidding and billing practices" at RTA in response.  I don't know if anything else has been learned since then.  Maybe Skip's lawsuit will find some emails about it or something.

Meanwhile, the city says they are looking at ways they might be able to compensate Algiers business owners affected by the ferry outage. No one has any idea what can be done for transit riders who may have once relied on these ferries.

Some days the shark eats you

Late last week we learned that, once again, the aluminum catamarans built by Metal Shark for RTA had failed an inspection and were not yet ready for duty.  But at some point someone does have to ask why we're building aluminum catamarans to operate on the Mississippi anyway. In other words, maybe this is at least in part the fault of the people writing the orders. That seems to be what RTA has decided, anyway.  Today they fired Transdev from the ferry business.

But in July, Metal Shark’s boats were again rejected by the Coast Guard. That appeared to be the last straw for the RTA board members who agreed Wednesday to seek bids from new ferry operators. 

That move will strip Transdev of at least $6 million a year it had been getting to manage the ferry service, Wiggins said. In all, the firm has been paid more than $80 million annually.

Mitch Landrieu wanted to get a lot of projects approved in a hurry as the clock ticked down toward the Tricentennial celebration and his departure from office. Maybe meeting those deadlines was never really the point in comparison with just shoveling out the money as quickly and with as little scrutiny as possible.  Was Veolia/Transdev really the best choice to oversee RTA's first ferry operation?  Or did they just happen to be the contractor of convenience? 

Mitch also happened to think Veolia would have been a great choice for privatizing Sewerage and Water Board management.  Apparently Mitch was trying to sell the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad off to Veolia at one point too.  That company sure did have a good friend in Mitch.  Wonder what that was all about.

Do do do do do do..

Another inspection, another chance for the the boats to be found "lacking on multiple fronts" 

Two trouble-plagued ferries that were supposed to go into service a year ago for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority still don't meet federal standards, and it’s unclear when they will start carrying passengers across the Mississippi River.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said Friday they inspected the boats in July and found them lacking on multiple fronts. To remedy the problems, the RTA said it will hire a project manager.

The new RTA head wants you to know it's not as bad as it sounds.  To be clear, they didn't fail the inspection. They withdrew from it before that could happen. 

In an interview, new RTA CEO Alex Wiggins disputed the idea that the boats had failed inspection, saying the process was paused at his request after the Coast Guard found issues on the boats on the first day of inspections. But Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Rachel Ault said it's standard practice for the Coast Guard to stop an inspection midway when it's clear that a vessel isn't ready for service. The Coast Guard did just that on July 25, she said.

This is, of course, after the boats weren't ready in June, which is after they weren't ready for Jazzfest.  And, of course, all of that was well after they weren't ready for the Tricentennial celebrations.

Three years later, the agency entered into a contract with Metal Shark for two new high-speed, catamaran-style vessels to handle the Canal Street-to-Algiers Point run. Transdev, the RTA's private contractor, managed that process.

The boats were supposed to arrive by May 2018. That deadline was later advanced to March to align with some tricentennial celebrations and former Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s tenure at City Hall. But neither deadline was met, after inspections revealed numerous problems.

So, much like the airport, the ferries are something else that aren't ready at least in part because Mitch wanted them rushed in time for his big party. Not that we can say for certain this is why Metal Shark was hired. But we are pretty sure that was a less than great idea.   

Do do do do do do

And the latest bit in the Metal Shark saga is......

No, the boats aren't ready yet.

Two new ferries built for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority have again failed inspections, yet another setback for a project that has been delayed for over a year.

The inspections, outlined in a June 3 report by an RTA consultant, have kept the boats out of service well after one RTA official's prediction a few months ago that the boats would be in operation by the time of the 2019 Jazz Fest at the end of April.

Oh well. Maybe they'll be ready in time for Gretna Fest instead.  Better make sure the gator-proofing is up to standard, though.

GRETNA, La. — The City of Gretna has a warning about large gators. The warning comes after several gators were spotted along the riverfront.

Mayor Belinda Constant ordered the posting of signs that say "Caution! Alligators have been sighted in the river in this area."

Constant is nervous that a child or pet could be snatched up.

"We received another picture of the alligator actually sunning himself on the concrete part of the levee," Constant said. "The most important thing for us is just having people aware that there is an alligator close by."

 Anyway it's good to see there's another looking at the boats now.  That should.. help?

Shipbuilder Metal Shark did fix some issues with the boats within 45 days of receiving roughly $959,000 from the RTA, as was agreed to in a March deal between the two parties, RTA attorney Sundiata Haley said.

But Greenwood Marine Management of Morgan City found the company still had not addressed other problems, including issues with the boats’ rescue equipment and fuel tanks.

I don't know who Greenwood Marine Management is. But it looks like they are different from The Shearer Group who RTA had hired to review the Metal Shark work just back in December.  No idea if this is getting the boats on the water any faster but, hey, it's a living.

Maybe someone can explain all of this better at one of these public input meetings.

Public meetings to redesign the public transportation network across Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes kick off Monday evening in New Orleans. Where people live and work in the New Orleans area changes over time, so the public transit authorities need to periodically update their transit systems in order to efficiently move people around the region.

Under a yearlong program called New Links, transportation planners are studying existing transit lines and holding public meetings to get input from riders. Information gleaned from that process will be used to propose an entirely redesigned transportation network for Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard Parishes, according to information on the New Links website.

Or maybe they can't. Either way, it means more consultants get paid which I am beginning to think might be the actual point. Still, if you think it's worth your time, most of these meetings are in July. Here is the schedule.

Do do do do do do

Hey what do you know, the Metal Shark boats still aren't ready.

NEW ORLEANS — Two brand new ferry boats arrived in New Orleans about a year ago to replace the 60-year-old, oft-broken down ferry boats that traverse the waters between Algiers and New Orleans CBD.

 They have yet to transport ferry patrons and no one seems to know when that will change.

 “RTA and Metal Shark owe an explanation and a clear timeline of when we can expect the vessels, which have been delayed for more than a year, to go into service,” said Council member Kristin Gisleson Palmer.

This is a bit of an oddball TV story in that it treats the matter as though it were a sudden discovery.  There's actually been a lot of local reporting on the ferry saga. I compiled much of it here a few weeks ago.

Anyway it's been pointed out to me that the problem could be as much RTA's lack of experience determining and enforcing the terms of its contract as it is the shipbuilder's ability to fill it. Which is to say it could be a Transdev issue. Is Transdev going to be in charge of that part of the business under the restructuring?

Mitch and his deadlines

The general project timeline of the Landrieu years was always about beating the clock to something. (Last year we called it Beat The Clock Doctrine.) First it was a bunch of stuff needed to be rushed through in time for the Superbowl. Then it was a bunch of stuff needed to be rushed through in time for #Katrina10. After that there were things Mitch wanted done in time to take photos in front of during the extra few months added to his term for the Tricentennial parties.    It was a great way to jam through a bunch of stuff you might not want scrutinized too closely. 

For the most part, Mitch made it work for him.  He didn't always make his deadlines, though. The airport still isn't ready.  (The road to the airport really isn't ready.)  The WTC remodel got bogged down in a bunch of legal wrangling and shenanigans (some of that of Mitch's own making.) Also the ferry terminal is late and way overbudget.

Oh and now we think maybe it's not such a great idea in the first place.

About $3.8 million has already been spent on design and engineering for the terminal, an amount Palmer said she thinks is too high. She has called on the RTA to stop any further spending on the design process, and said she's concerned about oversight of the project.

"I'm opposed to any more money put to this project," Palmer said.

"I don't have a lot of faith that this project can be done well at this point," she added.

And, you know, Kristin is probably right.  At least the existing facility actually has the covered walkway that people have been asking for. Maybe just figure out how to clean that up and use it.  Sometimes it pays to miss a deadline or two. 

Palmer said in an interview that she is suspicious that the project was rushed to demolish the terminal in time for the city's tricentennial this year. Its original construction schedule had demolition scheduled for July 2017.

The ferry terminal remains standing.

Whither Ron Forman's big expensive video board?

Oh look we're "pressing pause" on something again.

New Orleans officials are pressing pause on plans to demolish and rebuild the Canal Street ferry terminal, having dramatically underestimated construction costs.

Though the Regional Transit Authority budgeted $14 million for the first phase of the terminal project, the lowest bid for the work came in at $26.6 million, forcing the agency back to the drawing board.

Officials said they will come up with a new, more affordable design over the next few months. And the terminal, initially on track to be razed in September, will instead be bulldozed by this time next year.

It's the phrase of the year. Off the top of my head I can recall LaToya wanted to "press pause" on her appointment of Warren Riley to Homeland Security. Kristin Palmer said she wanted to "press pause" on short term rental licenses. Sewerage and Water Board recently recently hit the "pause button" on a bond sale. Can we please press pause on pressing pause for a while? I think we have hit the quota.

Anyway, this pause is kind of a surprise. At least to me it is.  The whole course of this ferry re-fit has looked like spending more money on providing worse service. Why (sorry) press pause on that now? The explanation in the article has it that difficulties arising from the location of the construction site and the timing of the project caused the price to go up.  Also they go out of their way to say it is definitely not Audubon's fault.

The higher cost estimate does not factor in the addition of the $7.3 million bridge, a project that is being managed separately by the Audubon Institute.

That implies Audubon was paying for the bridge. I don't think that's true but I could be wrong. This says the city was planning to pay for it out of "(Hurricane) Katrina insurance proceeds that were unobligated." And this says that Audubon had asked to spend $2 million of that on a "video board" which Forman later said they wanted in order to "'dress up' the bridge with 'artwork, lighting or whatever it is.'" We have no idea whether or not that's ever going to be part of the plan now. We do like what Kristin Palmer has to say about that, though. 

Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, one of the most vocal proponents of adding the pedestrian bridge, said the agency should consider simply renovating the old terminal rather than rebuilding it. She said the focus should be on helping commuters rather than building something that might impress tourists.

“I’m not so concerned about the tourists having a pretty vista,” Palmer said. “I am more concerned, quite frankly, about getting people to work.”

Meanwhile, Forman has plenty of other ways to suck money out of the city via the riverfront as Audubon has a cooperative endeavor agreement to operate whatever they do with the Esplanade wharf area. Walter Isaacson says there's gonna be some sort of music venue there. He also says he made that up. 

Isaacson tells Gambit he doesn’t know what the plans are and was pointing to the park project as an example of the city’s vision of tourism expansion, with the wharf turning into something “like Crescent Park or the Moonwalk or other public parks, where there’s venues for art and music and tourism.” As for its specific use as a music venue, “I obviously don’t know for sure, because there have been no hearings or proposals on it,” he said.

We were supposed to hear more about that at a City Council committee hearing today. No word on how that went yet.  More to come after the pause, I guess.

Update: Here is where the money is supposed to come from to develop the new park. 

The deal between Audubon and the city calls for the nonprofit to develop the site as a park and raise $15 million for its development.

So far, Audubon has put together $13 million: $9 million from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center; $2 million from New Orleans & Co., the city's rebranded convention and visitors bureau; and $2 million from Audubon itself.

The port is expected to help raise the remaining $2 million from private sources.

They don't know what it's going to look like yet but they say there will be "significant public input" before that happens so be on the lookout for some 10 AM meetings on a random Wednesday or whatever in the future.

Upperdate: Another point from that article is that the neighborhood associations are already worried about the "disruptive" effects of an event venue like what Isaacson described in that Time piece.  As a footnote to that issue we can look back at last year's election  season when both candidates for mayor talked up the possibility of such an amenity specifically for its revenue generating potential so we'll see how that goes.

Uppestdate: This morning, the Advocate has edited the lede to their article about the ferries from "New Orleans officials are pressing pause.." to "New Orleans officials are going back to the drawing board.." probably in order to gaslight the readership.

What "employment centers" though?

Weird tidbit in this story about RTA's new ferries.

Justin Augustine III, the vice president of the RTA's manager, Transdev, described the ferry boat's trip Tuesday as "history in the making." The two boats will replace existing ferries built in 1977 and 1937.

In particular, Augustine highlighted the new boats will have a far greater range of mobility that the old vessels, which only travel straight from one bank to the other in downtown and Algiers. The new boats, Augustine said, will be able to branch out across the river as well as up and down, opening the possibility to service areas beyond the two terminals.

"Hopefully, we can serve the employment centers up and down the river to build ridership, to get better utilization of the river and to create a sense of better utilization of the commercial waterways of the Mississippi River for passenger purposes," Augustine said.

Okay but there are only the two terminals.  What are the other "employment centers" these boats are going to? Where will they pick people up? Where would they take them?

"Artwork, lighting or whatever it is"

Ron Forman doesn't sound so sure what the video board was even about here.  But he does make it sound like there might end up being a roof on the ferry walkway after all so that's nice.

Speaking Monday, the Audubon Nature Institute president and CEO Ron Forman acknowledged that the Audubon had requested up to $2 million to "dress up" the bridge with "artwork, lighting or whatever it is." He said that Audubon initially did not want the bridge next to its $200 million aquarium, and that any bridge design should complement the aquarium's aesthetics.

As for a roof, Forman and Manning left the door open Monday night for the bridge to have some sort of overhead covering.

"I don't think there's any reason it can't be covered," Forman said.

Or, at least, it can be covered in some way. 

I'm sure it will look very nice

The illustrations of the new Canal Street ferry terminal seem to suggest it will look nice.

The new downtown ferry terminal has a final design in the can and a soft construction start date penciled for around the upcoming Mardi Gras season. But plans remain mostly up in the air for how its companion footbridge will look, according to architects and officials who gave a public update Tuesday night (Dec. 12).

The current 37-year-old terminal is expected to be demolished sometime before Mardi Gras 2018, according to Brian O-Reilly, an engineer with Royal Engineers and Consultants and the project manager for the terminal replacement. He estimated the project should take between 12 and 14 months to complete, depending on weather and the whims of the Mississippi River.

Here is what the new terminal won't do, though.  As has been the case for a few years now, it won't serve actual commuters anymore. That purpose was greatly deemphasized with the conversion to pedestrian-only boats. It also won't run 24 hours as West Bank commuters who work late in the French Quarter have been asking for years to no avail.  It won't be free for anyone in either direction. The fares were hiked up when RTA/Veolia took over operation from the state.  So, really, what we're talking about here is a boat ride that gets tourists across to special events in the Point from time to time. Still, it will look nice.

Also the bridge still won't have a roof. (Because Ryan Berni says he doesn't want to coddle the homeless.) It will have a $2 million video art board that promotes the Aquarium.  Most importantly we finally learned what that "iconic structure" Mitch promised us so long ago was going to be.  Turns out it's.. well.. it's the ferry terminal.

All these developments, Landrieu said in Friday's news release, should make for a "completely new riverfront experience in 2018, the 300th anniversary of our city's founding."

Likewise, O'Reilly said Tuesday that the terminal design squares with the holistic view of a more open riverfront.

“We’re providing what we like to say is a very iconic structure, as the foot of Canal Street deserves," he said. "It’s been a long time since that area had an update.”

Anyway tl;dr, RTA is once again spending money on doing everything except actually serving its ridership.  They're also passing some money around, of course, which is usually the point.  Here is a deep-divey thread on all that from Danil. 

Riders always come last

RTA (and Ron Forman's con-profit) have begrudgingly agreed to build a pedestrian bridge to the new Algiers Ferry terminal. They weren't going to do this initially but only agreed to do so after repeated pleas from riders who would very much not like to be run over or made unnecessarily late by trains on their way to work. 

Even after agreeing to build the bridge, though, the decision-makers absolutely refused to cover it.  This was because 1) they hate hate hate homeless people and 2) that's about it.

Pressed by Guidry, Berni further hinted that aside from added costs, one impetus for keeping the bridge roofless might be to discourage homeless people from being there.

"Yeah, I think that's probably one reason," Berni said. "But I'm sure there are many others, including cost."

"Cost" couldn't have been too big a factor there. We know this now because they're thinking about buying all this fancy stuff. 

Since late July, records show the firm designing the bridge, Manning Architects, has sent city and transit officials several preliminary budget drafts detailing costs. A first draft of that budget, dated July 20, pegged total estimated costs for the bridge at just under $5 million, up from officials' initial estimate of $2.6 million to $3 million in March.

Eight days later on July 28, the bridge's draft budget swelled to between $7.8 million and $8.3 million, largely due to the appearance of a new line item called "Add LED." That item - which later budget drafts revised to "Add Video Board" - would cost between $1.5 million and $2 million.

Manning's preliminary budget has also included three "contingency" costs, fluctuating in draft iterations from around $400,000 on July 20 to above $1.2 million on July 28 then back down to about $750,000 in the budget's most recent Sept. 27 draft.

It's unclear what exactly the "Video Board" line item represents, or if it would make it into the final budget cut. Officials say that budget, as well as the bridge's final design, would be set only after a cooperative endeavor agreement is signed by RTA, the city and the Audubon Nature Institute, which owns land next to its aquarium where the bridge is expected to be built.

In recent years, commuters who had depended on the ferries have endured fare hikes, limited hours, and limited functionality as the car-carrying boats were replaced with pedestrian-only service. They've had to jump up and down just to get this bridge included in the terminal design.  But Audubon can always get whatever they want just by adding a line item in the plan somewhere. Just another reminder of who the city leaders believe they're actually providing services for.

How much money is Ron Forman's con-profit stealing this time?

Do we even ask that sort of question anymore? Or is it just a matter of course that the oligarchs always get a cut?

Another point of confusion over how far along designs are for the bridge depended on the involvement of the Audubon Nature Institute, which Berni said "will be in charge of construction" of the bridge and will "take part in the design process." The mayor's office's announcement last week revealed the new bridge would be built on property owned by Audubon and connecting with the nonprofit's Aquarium of the Americas. Berni said Wednesday that the city is currently working out a cooperative endeavor agreement with Audubon to make use of the property for the bridge.

Meanwhile, they're having trouble explaining to councilmembers why the pedestrian bridge costs so much.  One thing they are sure they don't want to spend any money on, though, is giving homeless people a place to get out of the rain. Even if that means, you don't get one either.

Pressed by Guidry, Berni further hinted that aside from added costs, one impetus for keeping the bridge roofless might be to discourage homeless people from being there.

"Yeah, I think that's probably one reason," Berni said. "But I'm sure there are many others, including cost."

The resort has a shuttle boat

It used to be a public ferry. Commuters would use it. You could bring your car. It was a dollar to take it into town and free on the way back. They decided not to run that anymore, though, figuring there would be more money in finding a private patron to serve instead. 

Costello and members of the Algiers Point Association both said they would like to see the existing terminal remain and receive minor upgrades, such as a paint job or new art on its walls.

While there is little money available for any sort of improvements, the RTA hopes to attract private dollars under a partnership that would need to be cleared by the state Legislature, Augustine said.

Under such an arrangement, the agency would issue a request for proposals. A private developer then could agree to finance improvements or build a new terminal in exchange for receiving ferry fare revenues or some other form of payment from the RTA.

The Legislature passed the law permitting such a partnership just yesterday. It awaits the Governor's signature.  Today we learned more about who the potential partner might be.

Gulf Properties LLC, led by developer Pieter Stoffels, is presenting plans for NOLA City Beach, which would sit on a newly constructed elevated wharf, most of it covered with sand. The property would house a pool and lounge area, a two-story building with a restaurant and upstairs multi-use venue and festival grounds overlooking the river with a movable stage for performances.

Stoffels declined to say how much the project will cost. He said he has secured a 99-year lease for the privately owned property near the Algiers ferry terminal.

So what's the deal? Are the beach and pool bar people going to paint the terminal, at least? There isn't enough information.

Stoffels said his team is in talks with the Regional Transit Authority and Transdev, the RTA's private operator, about extending ferry service hours because of the anticipated increased demand from NOLA City Beach. He estimates 60 percent of customers would arrive via the ferry, including tourists staying in downtown hotels.

All that says, really, is the little pedestrian ferry might run a bit later to meet the venue's needs.  Of course it would close at 11 PM so we're still not any closer to a late night ferry that might help service industry types get home from the Quarter after a shift. But why would we build a transit service that prioritizes getting residents around town over getting tourists to attractions anyway?

Everything is for sale

Is there anything in this city we aren't trying to "improve" by letting some grifter hack off a little private scratch from it in some way?

Costello and members of the Algiers Point Association both said they would prefer it if the existing terminal remained in place and received minor upgrades, such as a paint job or new art on its walls.

While there is little money available for any sort of improvement, the RTA hopes to attract private dollars under a partnership that would need to be cleared by the state Legislature, Augustine said. The agency would issue a request for proposals, then a private developer could agree to finance improvements or build a new terminal in exchange for receiving ferry fare revenues or some other form of payment from the RTA.

Similar private involvement in public transportation projects has had mixed results elsewhere, ending in failure when costly projects don’t generate enough fare or toll revenue over the long-term.

Sure the privatization model keeps "failing" if you're judging it by quality of service delivered. But that isn't really the point, is it?

Nadine Ramsey should try taking the ferry to work

She doesn't seem very clear on who the infrastructure she's voting to build is actually for. Maybe if she actually had to rely on it for her daily commute she would see this better.

City Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey on Thursday (March 24) made no apologies for supporting a plan to demolish the Canal Street ferry terminal, a decision some of her constituents say will make it more difficult for them to get to work. But it was clear that she was playing defense after one key opponent said neighborhood groups tried and failed to get Ramsey to oppose the plan for its lack of a pedestrian connection.

"I've heard comments that this is being built for tourists. That's crap," Ramsey said Thursday ahead of the City Council's vote on demolition. "Any conversation or any comment that includes any indication that I am not protecting my district or protecting Algiers can kindly leave because I know the work I've done for Algiers for my district and that I'll continue to do."

Maybe she should have checked with the Mayor first. 

(Kristin Gisleson) Palmer said that many of the comments about the terminal being built for tourists are rooted in concern over remarks Mayor Mitch Landrieu made during a private meeting with stakeholders on Monday. The mayor was asked why funding was weighted so heavily in favor of a $5 million terminal building with no funds included for a pedestrian bridge.

"He clearly stated that this is for the 8 million tourists that are going down there every year," Palmer said. The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request seeking confirmation of the comment.

But the perception of a tourist-focused terminal located next to a proposed Four Seasons hotel did seem to carry weight with at least one City Council member. Councilwoman Susan Guidry said she agreed with opponents who raised the concerns about the $5 million building, saying, "it had to be a conscious decision not to have those elements for the sake of having a very beautiful building."

"That's not right," Guidry said. "I just think we need to put these things on the table. That was just not right to design it that way and that is obviously a design to suit the desires of very big companies ... and to look good for tourists. That just needs to be said."

Of course Guidry can say these things because she's retiring now and doesn't have to answer to any "very big companies" anymore. Ramsey is in a different position. 

It isn't that hard to figure

Is this really a "classic Catch 22?"

It's a classic Catch-22: Tear it down and run the risk that a half-finished design, with only half its construction funding secured, never gets built. Leave it up and risk delaying a signature wish of Mayor Mitch Landrieu and public transit officials to revitalize New Orleans' central locus in time for its tricentennial.

Not to be lost in the debate are the commuters and tourists who rely on the ferry service to shuttle them back and forth to Algiers.

I'm don't see how this is so much a puzzle. It should be pretty easy to set some priorities here. Ideally we would first (1) Determine whether the plan serves the public's transit needs. Next, (2) make sure the funding is in place. And then, later, much later (700), worry about the mayor's stupid vanity timeline.

Of course, in reality, those aren't the only factors being considered.  Primarily, decisionmakers here are concerned with tourism and real estate concerns.  I doubt the other stuff figures in much if at all.