As the University of New Orleans merges with the LSU system, millions of state dollars are poised to flow its way, including nearly $2 million for youth recreation — part of a push by a prominent attorney and New Orleans-area business leaders who have long criticized the city’s public recreation services.

A civic group behind that initiative called the NOLA Coalition, which has the backing of other local nonprofits across the city, called a press conference Friday to celebrate new low-cost youth athletic programs that will soon be offered at the university, according to Coalition spokesperson Matt Wolfe.

Under UNO’s transfer into the LSU system, which Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign into law this week, lawmakers in New Orleans’ legislative delegation secured millions of dollars for debt payments and deferred facility maintenance at the financially-troubled university.

At the same time, Landry, acting at the urging of attorney Laura Rodrigue, a longtime ally of the governor’s and other conservative leaders, secured $1.95 million to stand up the recreation programs at UNO — apparently without the knowledge of members of New Orleans’ legislative delegation, who said this week that they knew nothing about the plan.

The project culminates months of activism by Rodrigue and business leaders against conditions at parks run by the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission. The agency has long been the target of community complaints, and Rodrigue and others say it has been plagued by mismanagement.

By expanding programming for at-risk youth, the group hopes the new facilities will help reduce juvenile crime.

“The whole purpose is to scale recreational programs, for whatever children don’t have the opportunities already to come receive mentorship, have fun and be active,” said Greg Rusovich, a local businessman involved in the plan.

The initiative, however, has drawn some critics who describe it as part of a broader incursion by Landry into New Orleans and an attempt by White conservatives to control the majority-Black city’s resources.

Multiple members of the New Orleans City Council, including Freddie King III, who sits on NORD’s governing board, said they weren’t aware of the project before hearing about it from a reporter.

“As a member of the council and as a member of the NORD Commission, I’d have liked to be informed,” King said.

Improving recreation services in the city should start with increasing NORD funding, he said, rather than standing up a new facility in a single pocket of the city.

“If you live in Central City, how are you going to access these facilities?” he said. “Who is this truly for?”

‘Recreation is back!’

Through a partnership with local nonprofit sports organization The 18th Ward, the new facilities will offer baseball, soccer, swimming, flag-football and other team-based athletic programs as early as this fall, through a pay-what-you-can structure.

“I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to bring young people and their families to our beautiful campus,” UNO President Kathy Johnson said of the university’s first-of-its kind plan.

Organization director Lowery Crews said the move will help 18th Ward trim down waitlists and expand its programs, which have amassed more than 6,000 participants across New Orleans since its 2019 founding.

The organization is also partnered with NORD, which pays The 18th Ward to run some of its sports programs, including those newly activated at the long defunct Hardin Park.

NORD serves thousands of youth each year across offerings that include team sports, afterschool programs, summer camps, pools and recreation centers. 

But it’s also long faced criticism from community members frustrated over difficulties signing up for programs, unexpected pool closures in the heat of summer, and shoddy conditions at some of its sites. 

A flyer distributed this month by the Coalition credits state lawmakers and Landry for providing funding so that “children and families from across our city can participate in recreation.”

“Recreation is back!” reads the flyer.

The announcement comes months after the Coalition published an open letter pointing to “alarming” conditions at NORD-operated parks and sports fields.

The letter reiterated similar examples of poor conditions that Rodrigue described in an online post last year, such as “overgrown fields, exposed electrical wire” and trash scattered across sites.

NORD has responded by highlighting ongoing improvement projects at many of the sites in question. The ball fields at Perry Roehm Stadium, for instance, were being turfed and regraded and the bathrooms were in the process of being upgraded. 

NORD spokesperson Emily Oliver told The Times-Picayune in April that each of NORD’s 160 sites are scheduled for weekly maintenance, with priority given to high-use sites that host sports games and after school programs.

Asked about the flyer advertising the new programming at UNO, Oliver said they were aware and offered no additional comment.

How the money came together

A spokesperson for Landry’s office confirmed the governor had secured money for the project in the state’s budget. The money is dedicated to UNO “for recreation for youth partnership with community partners,” according to budget documents.

Long before she helped secure that cash, Rodrigue, who did not respond to messages for this story, has been a vocal critic of NORD, calling the department’s failings a contributing factor to New Orleans’ juvenile crime problem.

She’s listed as a speaker and “project founder” at Friday’s press conference along with Rusovich, CEO of Transoceanic Development; Kim Boyle with NOLA Coalition; Vincent Granito, interim director of UNO athletics; and Kyle Ruckert, Landry’s chief of staff. 

In February, she spoke of “deplorable conditions” at NORD facilities at the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans’ monthly board meeting, and in December she suggested the department should be defunded.

“I don’t think it would be prudent to give them more money, considering the gross neglect that we see happening under their watch right now,” she said in December of the department’s $20 million budget.

Among those who support the plan are Republican mega-donor and businessman Boysie Bollinger and MCC President Rafael Goyeneche. Bollinger did not return a phone message.

Goyeneche said NORD’s programming has failed to offer the city’s youth adequate outlets. He repeated the argument that the new recreation initiative could help curb juvenile crime.

“This is critically important when it comes to keeping kids out of crime,” he said. “It’s critically important that recreational programs be provided to the youth of this community this summer. And NORD, you know, has basically, I think, overpromised and under-performed in their responsibility to provide programming for our city’s youth.”

News of the funding came as a surprise to members of New Orleans’ legislative delegation interviewed about the project this week.

Sen. Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans, who backed the bill to merge UNO with LSU and marshaled state money for the initiative, said Tuesday that he was unaware of where cash for the project came from and planned to inquire about it.

Asked if he knew about the project, Rep. Matthew Willard, a Democrat who chairs the state House’s Democratic caucus, said he had not heard of it until NORD staff got in touch last week asking what it was. Sen. Joe Bouie and Rep. Mandie Landry both said a reporter’s inquiry was the first they had heard of the plan.

Others in the community view the plan as a concerted effort to privatize public recreation.

“Anytime you see programming popping up that mirrors programming already in existence, you have to ask yourself why you’re trying to reinvent a wheel when you can just pour the resources to shore up the parks and recreation that already exists?” community activist and former New Orleans elementary school principal Ashonta Wyatt said this week on local radio station WBOK.

Rusovich, the local businessman involved in the project, said it is not meant to be oppositional to NORD programs.

He said the planners hope the program will serve as a model for the next mayor, who the group hopes will pursue reforms at NORD after their election this fall.