We the undersigned are united in opposition to the proposed “Citywide Public Safety Improvements” plan as currently written. While crime is a real problem in New Orleans, the answer is not investing $40 million dollars in surveillance cameras, security barriers, street improvements, and cultural commodification. Instead, we should be investing in economic and cultural opportunities for all of our residents. As Louisiana already has the highest mass incarceration rate in the world, we have a heightened responsibility to avoid any initiatives that could lead to increased profiling or arrests. A true ‘Safety Plan’ for New Orleans should focus on proactive approaches to addressing crime developed in conjunction with the community and drawing from our culture….
Tag Archives: Bourbon Street
Mitch: Leave Bourbon Street alone. Leave our small businesses alone.
Mayor Landrieu: Rescind Your Cameras and Closed Doors Security Proposal
Petition is here
This is one of the nuttiest and most dangerous ideas that our mayor has come up yet. Making Bourbon a ped-only street will snarl the traffic that needs to serve a large neighborhood and will make Iberville, Conti and Toulouse (especially) virtual parking lots. (Iberville is already snarled between Bourbon and Royal when the parking lots are backed up.) That will undo the Quarter’s dynamic flow once and for all, and reduce the cross streets to 20 hour a day freight zones with the ensuing mess leaking onto the residential streets.
As for the 3 a.m. idea, I don’t even know where to begin. What about this idea will reduce random shootings, gang retaliations or even any other major crime issue? How does closing the doors of bars solve any of these? Instead we will have people leaving bars with no “eyes on the street” (meaning bartenders or bouncers or other workers) that are there now to watch out for them. Instead we will have bars and clubs going out of business.
Security cameras managed by the city have been tried and have failed. Better to incentivize businesses to install better cameras and for the city to actually USE those cameras rather than ignoring them as they do now. Spend money on building a force that investigates crimes, using available technology and witnesses and old fashioned analysis. Get OUT there and know community members, notice upticks as they happen, build a knowledge base to actually solve crimes rather than just relying on Crimestopper rewards for the sensational crimes, ignoring the rest.
Community policing (more better paid cops, with more training, walking and biking on the streets and cops stationed inside partner businesses) will do more than any street-killing idea.
Honestly, Mitch Landrieu seems to be as out of touch as C Ray was in his last days as mayor. Maybe we need to do away with 2 term mayors…..
Some French Quarter Bars Owners Aren’t On Board With a New Citywide Safety Plan
French Quarter safety plan could include cameras that can spot guns through clothing
This idea is so messed.
Potential constitutional problems as the FQ surveillance plan could include cameras that could detect guns and other objects under clothing.
“I think that this is a violation of people’s constitutional rights, and I cannot imagine that the public will accept that,” Esman said. “It really defies common sense because it presumes that everybody carrying a weapon is going to use it for an improper purpose, and that’s just not the case.”
There are significant questions about how police would use the information gleaned from the cameras and whether that information would be enough justification to search those believed to have weapons, Esman said. That’s particularly true if they would be set up on a public street, where standards are different than requiring people to go through metal detectors or body scanners at airports.”
Cameras that can spot guns through layers of clothing — using infrared or similar technologies — may be included in sweeping new security measures for Bourbon Street to be proposed.
Southern Decadence 2016 Parades
These routes are still tentative as of the time of this post. Check the website if, for some reason, you are in need of up-to-the-minute information.
There are two official Southern Decadence parades for 2016.
The FRIDAY NIGHT parade is a float parade through the streets
of the French Quarter presented by Toby LeFort and the Knights of Decadence.
The parade formation time is 6:15 P.M.
The parade starting time is 7:30 P.M.
HERE IS THE OFFICIAL PARADE ROUTE
OF THE FRIDAY NIGHT PARADE:
The SUNDAY AFTERNOON parade is the traditional Southern Decadence
Grand Marshal Parade. It is a walking parade with no motorized vehicles
except for one truck at the front of the parade that will carry the sound system
for the Southern Decadence Grand Marshals’ entourage.
The parade formation time is 1:00 P.M.
The parade starting time is 2:00 P.M.
HERE IS THE OFFICIAL PARADE ROUTE
OF THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON PARADE:
Discussion: Making It in the Quarter: A Conversation with New Orleans Service Workers, Wednesday 6-8 pm
Our city thrives on the French Quarter, yet the people who make it run day to day–the bartenders, hotel staff, tour guides–are often overlooked. Join us for a panel discussion on what it takes to make it in the Quarter. Moderated by Aziza Bayou, the panel will feature mule carriage driver Sandra Holliman, Michelle Mueller of Jazzed Up Tours, an assistant manager at Banana Courtyard, a lead server from Brennan’s, artist Russell Gore, who sells his jewelry in the French Market, and Robert Watters, Director of the French Quarter Business Association.
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Wednesdayat 6:00pm – 8:30pm
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Chris Owens Club
500 Bourbon St, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
French Quarter block by block 
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