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Dear Friends of Canal Street,
August 14, 2026, marked the two-year anniversary of Celebrate Canal! What an extraordinary two years it has been - there is so much to celebrate!
We especially celebrate our first major corporate sponsor Ochsner Health, one of our city’s leading health providers! Ochsner has been a part of building a better New Orleans since 1942 when the legendary Dr. Alton Ochsner and four others founded the Deep-South’s first multi-specialty group practice. Celebrate Canal! had the honor of meeting with civic leader Stephanie November, and her husband, Pete November, CEO of Ochsner, to talk about the future of Canal Street. The Novembers are originally from Kentucky and fell in love with New Orleans, especially the diversity and the joie de vivre. They are active participants in our city’s cultural life. Celebrate Canal! is grateful to Ochsner Health! You will proudly see the Ochsner logo alongside the logo of Celebrate Canal!
We also celebrate Mayor Helena Moreno’s launch of the Canal Street Renaissance Initiative! The major component of the first phase is to coordinate the many city departments and agencies with authority on Canal Street. The purpose is to supercharge them to address the important issues of public safety, law enforcement, code enforcement, homelessness, and infrastructure. We are hearing great things about their accomplishments. They are already making a difference. Sayde Finkel, the Canal Street Renaissance Director, is off to a wonderful start. Celebrate Canal! is proud to partner with the City as the Canal Street Renaissance Initiative moves forward.
From Celebrate Canal’s beginning, we have believed deeply in the possibilities for Canal Street — especially its potential to attract new investment, create jobs, generate greater tax revenue for the city and state, and strengthen downtown in ways that benefit all of New Orleans. We poured our hearts into this work - every event, meeting, interview, speech and conversation – we brought together business and property owners, public officials, developers, cultural institutions, nonprofit leaders, neighborhood organizations and residents around one shared goal: bringing Canal Street back to life.
And we are proud of the results. In 2025 alone, eight public events brought more than 100,000 additional locals to Canal Street over the year before, and generated $2.7 million in earned media coverage, putting a renewed spotlight on our city’s most important street, and leading the way to the City’s current initiative.
None of this happens alone.
We are grateful to our amazing staff, board of directors, blue-ribbon committee, partners, sponsors and members. We couldn’t do it without you.
To you, the Friends of Celebrate Canal! we are grateful every day for your support, your enthusiasm and your unwavering belief that a revitalized Canal Street is not only possible - it is a certainty. You can help by becoming a member, joining us at events, and talking it up to your families and friends. Thank you for believing in Canal Street - and for being a part of these remarkable first two years.
New Orleanians are ready for a Canal Street filled with life again — a place to stroll, stop for coffee, shop, see a play, meet friends, enjoy a cocktail and have lunch or dinner at one of our wonderful downtown restaurants.
That is the Canal Street we believe in. That is the Canal Street we are working toward every day. And together, we are going to make it happen.
Love, Sandra
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