1986

10/10/86 Times-Picayune Letter to the Editor by Carl Corbin
"Audubon Park Plan Threatens Memorial"
"Under discussion is a commission proposal to expand the zoo area toward Magazine Street, a move that would push the zoo fence further into the open, free green space of the park and, in the process, swallow up the Hyams memorial [fountain and wading pool].
"In my opinion, a more appropriate recognition of the Hyams memorial would be to maintain it properly, much in the manner that has been done with the Sophie and Simon Gumbel memorial fountain near St. Charles Avenue. The present seed y state of the Hyams fountain could give rise to the suspicion that calculated neglect has been allowed to work so as to provide an excuse for an extension of the zoo area.
"The current Hyams memorial proposal indicates that those concerned about preserving open, free green space in Audubon Park cannot afford to relax their vigilance."
[The Hyams fountain continues in a "seedy" and neglected state to the present date; the Institute has never maintained or restored it]

10/21/86 Letter from Blake Touchstone, president of Uptown Neighborhood Improvement, Inc., opposing the Commission's plan to expand the zoo fence to enclose the Hyams fountain, and reminding the Commission of the binding settlement agreement from 1978 that prevented them from expanding the zoo boundaries any further. Also mentions the association's participation for several years in the "Audubon Park Coordinating Committee", composed of representatives from neighborhood organizations surrounding the park.

10/86 Times-Picayune article by Marjorie Roehl, "Neighbors fear zoo is planning to expand"
"Presidents of two Audubon PArk area neighborhood groups have written park officials to protest what they fear may be a zoo expansion [by fencing in the Hyams wading pool].
"Forman said that park plans for the pool included restoring the artwork that has been vandalized and returning it to working order.
"He said that another wading pool near Magazine Street and the park stables would be available, free, and that the swimming pool is only 200 yards away."
[The wading pool near Magazine Street was filled in and eliminated by the Institute, and the swimming pool was closed]

12/86 Audubon Park Commission makes initial application to the Levee Board for permit to build aquarium and riverfront park on 16 acres of French Quarter riverbank.

1988

3/2/88 "Friends of the Zoo" becomes the "The Audubon Institute, Inc."

9/21/88 Times-Picayune Letter to the Editor by Naomi Marshall
"Aquarium site is alarming"
"Joan Treadway's Sept. 7 article "Aquarium park to include mudslide alarm," should sound the alarm for all of us who have questioned the advisability of locating this structure in the Vieux Carre."

11-7-88 Times-Picayune Letter to the Editor by Pat Rittiner
"Mr Forman and the aquarium"
"What does Ron Forman, the zookeeper at Audubon Park, mean when he says the aquarium and zoo will get no public funds? What does he call the $6 million a year paid for the zoo and the aquarium by city property taxpayers?
"The Audubon Institute is a private organization, and the idea of having a zoo and an aquarium operated by private citizens with almost no safegaurds frightens me.
"No approval of financial operations by any elected officials. Business conducted behind closed doors. No real accountability."

1989

3/26/89 New Orleans City Business, by Ron Ridenhour
"Park Banks on Alarm System: Critics wonder if politics took priority over safety"
"Ron Forman, executive director of the Audubon Park Commission and the driving force behind the aquarium and [Woldenberg] park, has insisted from the beginning that the site is perfectly safe.
"Engineers for the Levee Board, however, told Forman and his team in their first meeting about it that that was not true. It is, they say, one of the most dangerous places on the river. According to the numbers they had, the river bank there is failing right now. It could easily slide into the river."
"Everything would work out just fine, Forman responded, if only the Levee Board would let them proceed.
[To bring the aquarium site up to national safety standards] "they were required to build a massive, $1.3 million concrete and steel bulkhead between the aquarium and the river. [Woldenberg Riverfront Park] will have none of the engineering improvements required for the aquarium. Cost is the reason. Safety to national standards would have been a deal breaker.
"If either the riverfront park or the new Harbor Police building-- which the aquarium group had to relocate as part of its deal-making contract with the Dock Board-- had to include the engineering improvements needed to elevate them to national safety standards, they simply would not be built. Normal standards of safety were a price neither could bear.
"Instead of requiring an increase in the safety factor for the riverbank under the park, however, the Levee Board is requiring the installation of a mudslide early warning system and a limited access system. Its purpose is to literally give aquarium and Levee Board officials an 'early warning' of an impending bank or levee failure at the park.
"Critics of the plan are joking that access to the park will be based on a person's speed in the 100-meter dash.

11/29/89 Upper Audubon Association Newsletter
After the conclusion of an Audubon Commission meeting in which the new master plan was discussed, an "Upper Audubon Association board member expressed concern to Roger Ogden, commission president, about the possibility of more of the park area being converted to automobile parking space. Mr Ogden gave assurances that more black-top over parkland was not contemplated."

Coming soon... The 1990's...