NOLA news in brief

Charlotte Block, Associate Editor

From a new multi-million dollar arcade to a New Orleans Pelicans win, here are summaries of local stories from around the New Orleans area. 

Nuns offer convent as wetlands to fight flooding 

A community of nuns recently donated their convent in New Orleans to create Mirabeau Water Garden wetlands, which will improve the city’s flood prevention system. The convent, which belongs to the Congregation of St. Joseph, remains in a state of destruction following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Rather than rebuilding the convent or selling the site to a contractor, the nuns decided to donate their land to help the city of New Orleans. The site was proposed by Waggonner & Ball and Carbo Landscape Architects and will be constructed as native meadow grasses which will absorb rainfall runoff. 

New $4M New Orleans East Arcade 

A new arcade called Optimus Entertainment opened this Monday near the New Orleans East Hospital. This entertainment center includes bumper cars, a tag arena, virtual reality stations and a theatre with seats that move with the action on screen. New Orleans East residents are hoping for a rise in commercial and local businesses. 

New Orleans Pelicans defeat Portland Trail Blazers 

The Pelicans defeated the Trail Blazers convincingly by a final score of 138-117 at the Smoothie King Center. Zion Williamson tallied 31 points, nine rebounds and five assists in Tuesday night’s game followed by Jrue Holiday’s 16 points and 10 assists. With the win, the Pels move to 23-31 in their race for the eighth seed in the Western Conference. 

11-year-old arrested with connection to 22 car burglaries 

An 11-year-old is among those recently arrested for a series of auto burglaries around the city of New Orleans, specifically the Gentilly Terrace area. This is an ongoing investigation according to New Orleans police in what some are calling a vandalism problem. Detectives are working to identify additional culprits. A WWL-TV Investigation last year showed that juvenile felony arrests in the parish have doubled in the past three years. 

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