If you're reading this, I encourage you to write to:
Mitch Landrieu's FB page: His friends might as well see what you have to say.
Serpas: NOPDChief@cityofno.com
Roger Jones: rjjones@cityofno.com
Arnie Fielkow: afielkow@cityofno.com
Jackie Clarkson: jbclarkson@cityofno.com
Join the FB site: Don't Stop the Music! Let New Orleans Street Musicians Play. Lend your support to the musicians and culture of New Orleans, the most unique city in North America.
(The image is from the FB page. Thanks to Lisa Palumbo for not killing me for slapping it on my blog).
I am writing to you from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, as a great admirer of your city and its culture. I preach the gospel of the City of New Orleans wherever I go, extolling the virtues of your people, their culture, their hospitality and most of all, their music.
I am deeply saddened to hear that the City has seen fit to attempt to cordone off public space from the exercise of true and authentic New Orleans music. As I have walked the streets of the French Quarter over the past year (over three unique visits), I have been delighted, time and time again, to find musicians playing in the streets, making some of the most beautiful music you can hear, anywhere. This is what New Orleans is known for, primarily. The fact that your airport is named for Louis Armstrong, a principle figure among the many internationally known, loved and admired musicians your city has given the world, bears witness to the primacy of music in the ever-bubbling, hyperproductive cultural cauldron that is New Orleans.
I am not about to offer expressions of respect to any of you, or kowtow, or beg. I am not about to tell you I understand that the poor, set upon residents of the French Quarter need their rest, so I "get it". I'm just going to tell you that this is one of the most hamhanded, ridiculously inept pieces of bad judgement I have ever seen perpetrated by any public institution, at any level of government, in any country (and I lived in Italy). Simply: people come from all over the world to see and hear the music New Orleans has blessed the world with. Personally, I had wanted to see TBC play on the very corner the NOPD harased them at, during my last visit. It was with horror that I read, during my visit, that Brandon Franklin had been murdered, which explained TBC's absence from the corner they've been playing at for almost a decade. Now, to add insult to injury, Chief Serpas' officers walk up to these young men, still in mourning and ask them to sign acknowledgements of their understanding of some arcane by-law that hasn't seen the light of day in so long, it's utterly without meaning. The protestations of Chief Serpas' commitment to upholding the letter of the law as strictly as possible rings as hollow as Justices Roberts' and Alitos' hollow claims to "constructionism". It's a stupid law from the 1950s. Nobody needs quiet at 8 pm and, if they do, they should not be living in the French Quarter. I'm sure you'll agree it's a wrongheaded place to park if you go to bed at 8 pm. The insensitiviy only adds to the absurdity of the entire situation and only makes the lot of you look even more out of touch with the community you have been commissioned to serve and simple reality than you already do.
Here's some reality for you: I spend about $2.2-2.5K each visit. I plan to visit again very soon, in order to spend more money in your fine city. You'd be very well advised to understand that there are many others like me and they are signing the petitions, commenting on the internet and madder than hornets about this nonsense. They are not on your side, either. If you do the math, it's clear my measly little chunk of change is not about to make any dents in anything. I'm just one of the "little people" BP's PR robo-suit was talking about. Now multiply me by a few thousand today, a few more thousand next week and on and on, exponentially. That could happen, should this misguided enterprise not be immediately abandoned. Now, we are talking about one hell of a lot of money. I know New Orleans needs it and I'm not about to say that I won't be coming down there anymore. The thing is, all these people like me have plenty of resources and plenty of connections. None of you is smelling too much like a rose at the moment, I'm sure you'll admit. It could smell worse. It could smell a whole lot worse. This story has legs and you would do well to remember that, as you consider how this business will play out.
There is much to do in your city. There are many challenges that require your attention. Gun violence, for one thing, is rampant. People need jobs. People need housing. Children need schools. One thing that is not a problem, at all, is street music. These shadowy "residents of the French Quarter", appear to be just that: shadows. I don't know who you think you're doing a favour for, or who you think you're appeasing. The fact remains that the negative response this endeavour has elicited, from quarters as far flung as Australia, Switzerland and Canada, should be your very first clue. We don't even live there, yet we feel compelled to approach you with our outrage in the hope that you will back down for the sake of the musicians and the people who love them. The thing is, people who live there mostly feel the same as we do, from what I can tell. That's a thought for you to ponder, as you work on behalf of the people and not for a handful of NIMBYs that live in the noisiest neighbourhood going, yet somehow believe they should hear nothing but the the distant strains of cover bands out of the open doors of Bourbon Street bars, after 8 pm.
As public servants, you have sorely strained your relations with the people who pay you and with those of us who support the city, its cultural traditions and its people. I strongly recommend you find a materially more equitable way to do things. This has made you look like a pack of neophytes, oblivious to the needs and desires of your constituents and employers (the people) and the culture which you are, as public servants, enjoined to preseve and uphold. There is no other explanation for such a hamfisted display of institutional puffery and intimidation. You need to think again, because this is not going down the way you want it to.
Yours truly,
JW
Vancouver, BC Canada
So why does a Canadian spend so much time criticizing and worrying about our country? Don't like Glenn Beck, our Conservative Supreme Court Justices or our last President? That's fine, but at least do us the courtesy of staying up in your own country and talking about things that actually concern you.
ReplyDeleteYou live in a world that is interconnected. As Martin Luther King Jr. said "An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere". Your parochialism is a byproduct of your desire to operate in isolation. If you want to do that, you will need to withdraw all your military bases from all the countries in which they're based, all over the world. You will need to stop invading other countries. You will need to get the DEA the hell out of my country. You will need to stop de-stabilizing the governments of other nations (Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iran...over Mussadeg,Dominica, etc., etc.).
ReplyDeleteWhat happens in the USA, because of its international profile, happens to us all. Further, you do not get to tell me or anyone else, what is of concern. If you can't stand the rhetoric, back the fuck away from the soapbox. It's right at the top of the page.
The next time terrorists attack you, does that mean I shouldn't send money? The next time there's any kind of disaster, does that mean people that care should ignore you and let you rot? It cuts both ways, my friend.