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2016 Sugar Bowl and Carnival kickoff, all in one week

I guess for most people, the holidays in December are where its at for events, get togethers and visitors, but for us New Orleanians – and esp Quarterites – nothing is quite like January.

First up, is New Year’s Eve  with its own rites with fireworks and gumbo pot drop at the river. We also host the Sugar Bowl every year on January 1 at the Superdome. This year, the city decided to add a parade on New Year’s Eve Day…

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In 2016, Ole Miss and Oklahoma State are coming, which means that vehicles and entire families or groups are more likely than some of last year’s crowd, which came from Alabama and Ohio if memory serves. I am sure that the Alabamans drove but I’d guess that few Buckeyes did. When the teams are from nearby, the spending is different, as is the vibe: Folks arrive in town later, bring more of their own food and drink and head out after the game if they lose. I hope someone, besides the disliked Allstate insurance company that did their best to make profit off Katrina, makes some coin off this stuff.

Since  many Ole Miss folks are New Orleans-savvy, they’ll be more likely to know the good places to eat and go (I’d look for the red and blue/Hotty Toddy paraphernalia and go where they are going…) I’d guess that Oklahoma folks will be new to the area, so I’d expect to see lots of orange and black map-wielding groups on the corners!

Welcome to all.

So, here is the schedule on Decatur:

Wednesday, Dec. 30

  • Usher Concert – 6:15 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 31

  • Oklahoma State Pep Rally – 1:30 p.m.
  • New Year’s Eve Parade – 3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.
  • Ole Miss Pep Rally – 5:15 p.m.

The Allstate® Fan Fest is free to the public and open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 30, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31. Fan Fest is located at Jackson Square in the Jax Brewery parking lot off Decatur Street.

 

THEN, Carnival season begins on January 6 with the glorious Joan of Arc parade on Chartres, and Phunny Phorty Phellows on the St. Charles Streetcar route which will come all the way to Canal again. That is, of course, followed by over a month of visitors and parades in our neighborhood for the 2016 carnival season, which ends on February 9 of this year.

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Lee Circle no more: New Orleans to remove 4 Confederate statues 

 

The decision did not come lightly after months of public debates, penned op-eds and rhetorical firefights on social media enveloped Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s request in June that the statues be displayed in a museum, mothballed or discarded as vestiges of New Orleans’ racist past.

Source: Lee Circle no more: New Orleans to remove 4 Confederate statues | NOLA.com

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Walking over my own grave

Years ago I went to see the Coppola movie “Peggy Sue Got Married” with my dearest friend Roger. The movie was not meaningful to me (beyond being beautifully stylish), but upon getting to the car,  Roger (who was my mother’s age), looked at me with deep awe and said, “That was like walking over my own grave.” I have pondered that statement often; I assume he meant he had the sensation of having lived the reality being portrayed.

Tonight, I had an inkling of what he meant. I went to the Bike Easy annual party and membership event and remembered being in the middle of this work and yet had the sense that it was all new and far off.

I saw faces from 15 years ago when we began to organize the lane system with the city proper and also remembered those elders who were not there who had been working on bike advocacy and education for a generation or more before us. I felt both invisible and very visible at the same time. I also heard and saw the new energy around expanded advocacy for all mobility issues including the very cool folks of StolenBikesNola who are happy to get support for their work if you are so inclined…

I drank some beer, listened and remembered different issues and faces. And finally, decided I was grateful to have longevity in organizing and grateful for those who keep the work moving forward.

 

 

 

 

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Letter to the Editor on Royal St Mall

As a FQ resident, I am following the Royal Street pedestrian mall uproar with great interest. Here are my thoughts, also shared by some of my neighbors:

 

  1. I find the reasons for the NOPD closing the mall in the fall suspiciously close to the new arguments made by the businesses in the December letter. Shall we then assume that there was a prior conversation with the NOPD about summarily closing the mall without engaging the neighborhood associations or talking with the media first? If so, shame on you both.

 

  1. The argument against the mall for reasons of controlling terrorism are almost universally scorned by those I talk to in the Quarter. First, the LA Supreme Court sits across the street from the police station, second, the cross streets remain open and third, most people assume it would be easier for the bad guys if the street was open. Odd how other street closings have not been turned down for the same reason in any other situation or area.

 

  1. It feels like two issues are foremost for these businesses: convenience for deliveries/shoppers and reduction in the street culture that they believe negatively impacts their business. Neither of those will be solved with the loss of the pedestrian mall. As for the transient/homeless population in the Quarter, it is as large as I have ever seen it and many stay 24 hours a day on the same corner with noise and activity at high levels at all hours. It is clear to those of us who live there that the homeless and transient population problem needs more solutions and a process of its own and the dissolution of the five hour per weekday, 8 hour weekend per day mall will not alter it in the least. As for shopping, the amount of people who would find street parking is so minimal and counted against those who slowly and carefully make their way up or down Royal to shop slowly seems ludicrous.

 

  1. Statements like “the mall serves no benefit” are confounding to hear being spouted by business owners, especially those located on alleys that rely on foot traffic to reach their door. Really? No benefits at all? That sort of statement makes me believe that those against the mall have no interest in cooperating on a real solution. I hope they can listen to those of us who do find benefits to it: for example, some exciting and worthy musicians continue to use the mall to showcase the vibrancy that is the ever-changing New Orleans music scene.

 

  1. All day or night street closings in the Quarter have become constant for film productions, special events and repairs. It does not seem that these are coordinated with neighbors or businesses to control how many are closed at any one time or if one event over another should take priority. Seems to me a “heat map” of those closures and regular traffic back ups is something that a social entrepreneur may be able to help the city to collect data on to see what is really the main problem before we change 40 year old ordinance for a few businesses.

 

I’d ask that those that are in favor of this move actually openly prioritize the reasons they want this to happen and constructively work with their neighbors to solve their issues while realizing that many of us do see benefits to retain the mall.

 

D Wolnik

French Quarter

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Leigh Anne Tuohy, Racism, and the White Saviour Complex

I think of how freely I was allowed to move about as a white teenager in New Orleans, and how different the situation is for African American kids. I smoked, was grungy, and then like now, had a problem with making eye contact yet I used to play basketball at the little red schoolhouse after dark without anyone saying anything; can you imagine what would have happened if I was not white?

Source: Leigh Anne Tuohy, Racism, and the White Saviour Complex

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Confederate Stories

here’s my new conversation starter about the Confederate monuments around town. If you want to honor Civil War history, then (as befits the victors),  for the Lee statue, insert Grant; for the J. Davis one, Lincoln; for PGT Beauregard, Gen. Lovell or Butler. In fact, the history that would be appropriate would be to only have the victor depicted with information about the war and the losers left to a plaque, and would then offer true Civil War history to the future generations…That is my argument; explaining the history of a failed insurrection (of which New Orleans was in for all of 16 months or so of its 300 year history) was not the point of those statues, but rather meant as a defiance of the order of the victors to integrate, and as a way to tell this new tall tale of the “Lost Cause.” The Davis statue, in particular is in that camp as it was put up in the 1900s (I hope no one is arguing for the Battle of Liberty Place Monument to remain). I believe anyone who argues for these to stay as they are is arguing for a false narrative of triumph and encouraging that long ago generation’s view of subjugation of their neighbors. Still, I’d like them to remain in the city, in an appropriate place with other symbols of previous times available to all to see and understand. History is not erased but with the removal of false idols, is also no longer appropriated and altered as it is presently.

When people scornfully use the argument that those who want this change want to deny history, I reply that it is those who argue for the losers of the war to be depicted who are the ones denying history. Yes, let’s absolutely depict the  history of our horrific Civil War, but do it truthfully and with respect to ALL of our people and our (at times, shameful) history. If you truly want to have our history on display, then get actively involved in finding innovative and respectful ways to match the complicated details of it.

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Square deal or not?

Lower Pontalba hikes its rents

 

Lower Pontalba rent increases
Current 2016 2017
Monthly Monthly Monthly Full increase
Tenant Name Address Rent Rent Rent
Stephen Rue & Doug Melancon 503 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,375 $3,165 $3,954 66%
Louellen & Darryl Berger 509 St. Ann $2,200 $2,475 $2,749 25%
Jack & Pat Holden 511 St. Ann, 2nd floor $1,850 $2,698 $3,547 92%
Ricky & Lynna Caples 511 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,370 $2,877 $3,384 43%
Louis Sahuc 515 St. Ann, 2nd floor $1,850 $2,702 $3,555 92%
Charles & Kathy Cole 515 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,000 $2,692 $3,384 69%
Hugh Lambert & Ben Skillman 519 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,000 $2,790 $3,580 79%
Jim Brown III 519 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,755 $3,070 $3,384 23%
Constantine Georges 527 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,000 $2,786 $3,572 79%
James & Lillian Maurin 527 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,370 $2,877 $3,384 43%
Steve & Cindy Hogan 531 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,540 $3,072 $3,605 42%
Kevin & Haydee Mackey 531 St. Ann, 3rd floor $1,950 $2,638 $3,326 71%
Gary & Pat Boue 535 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,250 $2,902 $3,555 58%
Michael & Krista Dumas 535 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,755 $3,066 $3,376 23%
Bill & Carolyn Oliver 539 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,320 $2,962 $3,605 55%
Donald & Beth Woolridge 539 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,225 $2,805 $3,384 52%
Carol Riddle & Ira Middleberg 541 St. Ann $2,200 $2,475 $2,749 25%
Brandon & Daphne Berger 543 St. Ann, 2nd floor $2,525 $3,588 $4,651 84%
Christian Creed 543 St. Ann, 3rd floor $2,500 $3,013 $3,527 41%
John Morrissey 806 Chartres, 3rd floor $2,280 $2,394 $2,509 10%
Carol Lewis & Anita Harris 810 Chartres, 2nd floor $1,865 $2,312 $2,759 48%
Patrick McNulty 810 Chartres, 3rd floor $1,780 $2,144 $2,509 41%
Gina Smith 807 Decatur, 2nd floor $1,925 $2,365 $2,805 46%
John Ryan Lafaye 807 Decatur, 3rd floor $1,650 $2,187 $2,723 65%
Douglas Ahlers 811 Decatur, 2nd floor $1,925 $2,365 $2,805 46%
Ken & Faye LeBlanc 811 Decatur, 3rd floor $1,780 $2,277 $2,773 56%
Louisiana State Museum*

Does not include rent for 503 St. Ann, 2nd floor, which is being vacated Feb. 1 and renovated. A spokesman said rent is to-be-determined for that uni