Closing Time at Jackson Square

Mitch Landrieu wants Jackson Square cleaned up.

Of homeless people, tarot readers, riff raff (like me) and anything generally considered 'sketchy' by Mayberry standards. Because the NFL is coming with fountains of money, a Better Class Of Tourist, who'd better not see any filthy local culture laying about, while they tea bag drunks, piss on our doorsteps, vomit everywhere, scream at our women to show me your tits! and sleep in their vans, down by the river.
The ones surrounded by fast food wrappers.
And Bud Lite cans. 
Its the Official Beer of the NFL, ya know.

Anyway, Kristin Palmer has been selected to make this work, somehow, because it's her district.
To her credit, she's morphed this into a 'we want to clean the place' issue, and called for community input on toning down the language.

So this is your big chance to do the right thing, instead of bitching about it until it happens, and then bitching that nobody did anything to stop it.

Before I offer my musings on this, however, please go here, and read the Nolafemmes piece.

Then go here, and see the actual highlighted document, with actual highlighted changes, highlighted for your reading ease. It's highlighted. The new part.

Then, go here to sign a petition to stop this, if you so desire.

Personally, I would directly email or call CM Palmer's office, through the contact provided.
Please, remember that she asked for your input, and these emails & calls are going through others, as well, so be fucking polite. The contact information is here:

Mary Cunningham, Director, Constituent Services
mbcunningham@nola.gov
504-658-1030 

Anyway....

I understand the need to clean any public area, although I find 
it hard to believe that the streets surrounding the square must be
closed for four hours of cleaning, every night.
Certainly Bourbon Street is also cleaned without being closed
down to foot traffic, four hours a day... if at all. 
And I'm positive it gets much dirtier.
Even so, a pressure washing crew would charge at least $200 a
night to show up & work one guy with a truck for four hours. 
That's $73,000 annually. 
Really? 
 
Sorry, but I'm skeptical.

This would also make it potentially illegal for street musicians,
as they don't have permits, and none are issued.
The Tarot readers would be doomed. 
There's very clear language about "setting up a table without a
class A or B permit" which I don't believe the Tarot readers have.

So much for our 'Cultural Ambassador'.
Perhaps 'White Bread & NFL Ambassador"....

I find something rather beautifully romantic in having a reading
done or a fortune told, by the moonlight, in Jackson Square.
But no, no, no, please just keep it moving back to Bourbon Street,
where the sticky noisy shit pile vacuums all the money out of your
pockets... because that's where the Local Culture is. 
The Mayberry Sex Crimes Unit and Public Beating Spectacle.

 
Then there is the issue of leaving the decision of 'what IS loitering'
up to the NOPD, cited by the D.O.J. as one of the biggest abusers
of selective enforcement & civil rights violations of any police
force in the country. 
This is backed up by a penalty of up to a $500 fine and/or 6
months in the OPP death house?
Sorry. 
That's brutal. 
It just is. 
 
Some angry cop who doesn't like the look of so & so,
or they aren't moving quite fast enough, and BAM! 
They disappear into Orleans Parish Prison,
where people are denied medication,
contact with the outside world,
and the inmates have the greatest
instance of inmate rape in America.
For loitering. 
 
Try selling that to tourists. 
Not that you would, but well,
that's what they'd be looking at, right?  
Not an attractive aspect for that Super Bowl Vacation. 
 
But what about teabagging drunks on Bourbon street? 
That seems to be unregulated, so.... 
 
So, you see my point, I hope. 
It's really kind of overkill and makes everybody look bad,
while proving only that we can't control our own streets,
and spend way too much money cleaning them. 
 
Then's there's the long, protracted civil rights issues,
in which this law will eventually be overturned,
making us look even more like the Scopes Trial Rejects 
than Bobby Jindal's Christian School Voucher program,
also crumbling with illegality. 
 
Anyway, these are just my perspectives. 
You asked for input so... that'll teach ya.