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Security District vote fails

French Quarter security district parcel fee (from Times-Picayune online nola.com)

After weeks of contentious debate, French Quarter voters rejected a property fee to pay for private security patrols in the city’s most famous neighborhood. Proponents put forth the proposal as a way to deter crime by having visible patrols roaming the streets 24 hours a day, mainly on bicycles and open-air four-wheel vehicles.

But critics claimed the fees, which would bring in about $1 million a year, were exorbitant for the level of service to be provided, noting that as few as three patrol officers would be on duty at a time and that, except at night, they would not carry guns. They also argued that visitors and businesses should pay for any increased security measures, not residents.

Despite its small population, millions of tourists flood the French Quarter annually, giving it an extremely high crime rate on a per-capita basis. Under the proposal, owners of individual homes, condos and rental buildings with four or fewer units would have paid $185 a year, while small commercial buildings and apartment buildings with five or more units would have paid $395. Businesses that sell alcohol for on-premises consumption would have paid $545, and about 50 large commercial properties, including hotels and retail malls, would have been billed from $900 to $15,000 a year, depending on their size and use.

9 of 9 precincts Votes

Yes 317 35%

No 589 65%

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All on Labor Day weekend


These 2 pictures may be the best way to explain downtown culture. First, one of the venerable second lines Black Men of Labor holding their traditional Labor Day event on St. Claude to North Rampart’s Louis Armstrong Park and back. It marks not only the importance of the virtue of the working man, but also starts the second line season. Started in 1993, this Social Aid and Pleasure club holds tradition dear.
http://www.thebmol.org/site/

The traditions of Southern Decadence weekend are as far removed from BMOL as can be and yet as close as the shared idea of public space reclamation of what the city government (read America) would see as another “outsider” class.

The Southern Decadence Parade is held the same day as BMOL one or two blocks over in the heart of the gay French Quarter area. Southern Decadence history dates back to the early 1970s (when the motley parade started at now-only-a-memory Matassa’s Bar on St. Phillip) and has moved and morphed into a huge weekend for visitors who want to celebrate gay culture and show the buying power of inclusion.
Another moment to show the intersection of vibrancy and diversity in the French Quarter area.

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840 North Rampart-Rock n’ Roll history

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum designated Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio as a historic Rock and Roll Landmark, one of 11 nationwide.
A few J&M recordings, including Fats Domino’s single “The Fat Man,” Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin Tonight” and Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” have sometimes been called the first rock n’ roll record.
Now a launderette, you can still hear Fats Domino at the piano if you listen closely enough when the rinse cycle comes on..
Then stop by and see the Matassa boys at the family store at St. Phillip and Dauphine and get some red beans for later…
from Frank Etheridge’s 2006 (?) Gambit story:
Matassa then opened a studio in a larger space on the 500 block of Gov. Nicholls Street in a former cold storage space for avocados — “great sound there,” he says — and then later expanded further when he moved to the 700 block of Camp Street in a building that also housed offices for his Dover record distribution business as well as a studio. Matassa also had a plant in Jefferson Parish to manufacture the records.

“I was trying to be a factor on the national level,” Matassa explains of his expansion in the years leading up to the mid-’60s. “But every time I went to a bank for a loan, they’d throw me out. Unfortunately, people in New Orleans with money at the time were only interested in real estate deals or oil deals. That’s why Nashville made it with the music industry, because the city had a couple of sympathetic banks.”

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couple of names from the past..

And I had several good meals at the popular tourist bar and cafe named “Olde N’Awlins Cookery” on Conti Street. The place is owned by Mike Lala, a long-time television cameraman in New Orleans who, after all those years of hanging out in bars, decided to open one. He has made his fortune serving the same four appetizers, four soups, and eight entrees year after year. It’s a successful formula with the out-of-towners. “I don’t change anything,” Mike told me. “I don’t even like to change the light bulbs.” Phil has known Mike Lala even longer than I have, but I always went to Olde N’Awlins alone. Phil says he isn’t going there until Mike starts using tablecloths.
Charles Kuralt, passage from his excellent 1995 book, “America”

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Kitchen Witch

While heading for lunch or dinner in the Quarter, make a point to stop and see Phillipe and Deb at Kitchen Witch on Toulouse between Royal and Chartres. A great browsing store with excellent people to talk with. Best cookbook selection and conversation about cookbooks in town. It also has some other items like local art focused on food and records (yes vinyl) for those who, like the owners, have more than one passion. open til 6 most days and like most stores in the Quarter, opens around 10ish.
This is a highlight for your day and the best place to buy a few gifts all at once.
http://www.kwcookbooks.com