NEW ORLEANS — It might look and sound like a forest at Westbend Parkway and Herschel Street in Algiers.
But make no mistake about it – it’s not.
"This was the old Higgins Gate apartments that back years ago was demolished and they never finished hauling everything off," said Steve Arabie, an elder at Berean Bible Church, which sits next to the abandoned site. "It's turned into a dump site for people's mattresses and trash and garbage."
But the sound of heavy machinery was a welcome sound to Arabie on Wednesday.
The property, which is littered with everything from tires to mattresses and even old cars, is undergoing a $600,000 cleanup.
Phase one of cleanup at the site began Wednesday as crews cleared away vegetation.
Phase two will begin around Feb. 28. It'll be another few months before the site is cleared.
"We don't have no dirt to turn,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said as the plan was announced. “Pick up a branch."
City leaders celebrated the start of the work, which took more than a decade to begin because of years of lawsuits about its ownership, demolition and cleanup.
"We need to remember that two previous administrations could not clean this up,” said City Councilwoman Kritin Palmer, who represents Algiers. “Because it was not their value system. The people of Algiers were not their priority."
As for what’s next for the land?
"This is in the heart of Algiers. This is going to be ripe for redevelopment for housing, for economic development," Palmer said.
"Anything other than it is now," Arabie said.
Winston Reid, the city’s interim code enforcement director made a promise to Algiers citizens: "We will be here until it's finished. This time, we will be here until it's finished."
That got a simple response from Arabie, the church elder.
“Hallelujah!” he said.