Mayor Helps Break Ground at Circle Food Store

The Times-Pic reports that Mayor Mitch Landrieu was on hand Monday morning at the official groundbreaking of the Circle Food Store to do a little speechifying about how the grocery store's imminent return to the 7th Ward is yet more proof that New Orleans is really getting its post-Katrina act together:

The things working in New Orleans today are working because of partnerships between the federal, state and local governments, between the government and the private sector, and the involvement of the faith-based community and not-for-profits. That's the model that is rebuilding this great American city faster than any American city is being rebuilt right now.

You may remember that Circle Food Store owner Dwayne Boudreaux reached a deal with the City of New Orleans last August that gave him about $1.1 million to reopen the grocery on the corner of St. Bernard and North Claiborne avenues. In addition to the money from the city's Fresh Food Retailer Initiative and Economic Development Fund, financing for the grocery also includes federal new market tax credits and federal and state historic tax credits, brining the grand total to about $8 million, money well-spent when one begins to consider the lack of access most residents of low-income neighborhoods have to fresh food.

· Mayor hails Circle Food Store Groundbreaking as symbol of recovery [Times-Pic]