News and information from the New Orleans area
Posts tagged New Orleans City Council
Council Passes New Mardi Gras Ordinances!!
010 years
The New Orleans City Council put through a new set of rules governing Carnival in New Orleans. Prior to the 2014 Carnival season, the council passed regulations that affected parade goers. This time, new rules make changes for the parading organizations.
2014 New Orleans City Council
The Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Council has been formed, and is made up of representatives from each Carnival organization that paraded the year before. This committee reports directly to the mayor and will consider new krewe applications.
No more than 2 parades can roll on the same night, but with a grandfather clause allowing krewes that paraded that night the previous year. The city will issue no more than 30 permits annually, 4 fewer than in the past. However, if all requirements are met, any krewe that paraded last year will be allowed to parade the following year. The number of parades will be reduced by attrition only until 30 permits are left.
Each parade must have at least 14 floats. The maximum number of floats has been increased from 27 to 44 pull units, defined in the ordinance as a single tractor or mule pulling a float or a tandem float.
No more letter designations for royalty and specialty floats, all must have a unique, sequential Arabic number from now on. The definition of a tandem float has been updated. Now it means two or more floats, attached to one another and pulled by a single pull unit.
If a parade has 14 to 27 pull units, a minimum of 7 bands must participate. Those with 28 to 36 pull units must include 10 bands. 14 bands are required if you have more than 36 pull units. The old ordinance required a minimum of 7 bands per parade.
The schedule listing when each parade would run if bad weather caused rain-outs has been dumped, and the mayor now makes these decisions. The bad weather schedule sometimes led to several long parades in a row, leading to finish times of 12 am or later. Security is reduced greatly after midnight along the parade route, so this was partially a safety issue.
Night parades begin at 5:15 pm, a marching band is officially sanctioned and must be a middle, junior, high school, college, military or university band with no fewer than 30 musicians.
Mardi Gras Recycling About to Take Off!!
011 years
Our New Orleans City Council is considering a parade proposal that would let the crowd throw back beads at specially designed bead recycling floats. This is an excellent idea whose time has certainly come. I saw such a float at the end of some parades in 2012.
There’s a very cool documentary about where our beloved Mardi Gras beads come from. Mardi Gras: Made in China is all about our beads and the China connection. Here’s a clip from youtube.com.
Beads are Collected by Front Loader
That’s a lot of wasted beads! Even though there’s been a law on the books banning parade goers from throwing beads at floats, that hasn’t stopped anyone, when the right float goes by. Bacchus’ Kong series of floats are all targets of beads.Tucks’ toilet float is another serious target.
Tucks’ Toilet Bowl Float
Councilwoman Susan Guidry, a big recycling champion, is behind this effort. The council could pass the ordinance very quickly in time for the Carnival 2013, or let it sit until 2014.
New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan A. Guidry
Verdigras.org is a new Mardi Gras green effort. From their web site-
Who We Are
We are grassroots:
an amalgam of ages, races, sexes,
and families speaking a common
language:
Mardi Gras is about the show,
not the throw, the community
and the
joie de vivre.
an amalgam of ages, races, sexes,
and families speaking a common
language:
Mardi Gras is about the show,
not the throw, the community
and the
joie de vivre.
Our Mission
VerdiGras is an inclusive organization
dedicated to:
dedicated to:
uisiana culture with
conservation of our resources
–Inspiring others and ourselves in
creating and supporting a greener,
cleaner Mardi Gras for all – with a
spirit of creativity and fun, and
–Reducing our dependence on foreign
throws and throws in general.
conservation of our resources
–Inspiring others and ourselves in
creating and supporting a greener,
cleaner Mardi Gras for all – with a
spirit of creativity and fun, and
–Reducing our dependence on foreign
throws and throws in general.
ARC Bead Recycling Mardi Gras Float
Indians Building Peace Pact with NOPD!!
012 years
This is the first story I can place on both my blogs! That’s great and weird. I’ve got the Mardi Gras Indians angle for this blog, and the NOPD for my watchopp blog, or Watch Orleans Parish Prison. Never thought this would happen, and I never thought of this happening ever. So from my point of view, I’m killing two birds with one stone, sweet!!
It occurred at the meeting of the City Council’s Governmental Affairs Committee a couple of days ago. The audience had Indian Chiefs and their allies, every NOPD district commander, and James Carter, the mayor’s Criminal Justice Commissioner.
James Carter, the mayor's Criminal Justice Commissioner
NOPD 1st District Commander Bobby Norton said the task is to get every officer to understand the Indian tradition.
I’m very hopeful that an agreement will be reaching, opening a new era for both the Mardi Gras Indians and NOPD. I’m overjoyed this meeting broke new ground, an is moving toward a very historic agreement. Good luck to all parties, and Happy Happy Mardi Gras to all!! Here’s the 1980s version of an Indian group, June Victory and the Bayou Renegades-
Mardi Gras Time Pt II, Bayou Renegades
Tipitina's Rebirth & June Victory and Bayou Renegades Poster
Mardi Gras Time (Pt. II) by Bayou Renegades on Syla Records
After years of harassing the Mardi Gras Indians with police cruisers, their sirens, and lights. Many years arrests occurred as well. The police have enforced a phony curfew on this historic New Orleans tradition, stopping all Indian activity after 6 pm.
N.O. Councilwoman Susan Guldry, District A
Police have further encumbered the Indians by suggesting Indian gangs get parade permits. Councilwoman Susan Guidry stated this was going to end. Jerome Scott, founder of the Tambourine and Fan youth organization, who teaches youngsters about the Indian traditions and New Orleans culture, said the harassment takes the beauty out of it.
“You cannot police a bird,” said Smith.
New work by the Tambourine and Fan Club of New Orleans
PORT-O-LETS ALL OVER NAPOLEAN AVE. NEUTRAL GROUNDS
013 years
You never saw so many groups of a dozen or more, all with big labels, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, and at least 3-4 groups of toilets between St. Charles Avenue and Annunciation Avenue. Big change and very welcome! Thanks to the City of NOLA, the Mayor of NOLA, the City Council of NOLA, and sanitation of NOLA.
No private Port-o-lets were removed along Napoleon Avenue as of 9:30 pm on Saturday, March 5.
Agreement Reached Between N.O. Mayor, Council Members Over Budget Restores Parade Reviewing Stands
014 years
by Mike Hoss / Eyewitness News
Posted on January 5, 2010 at 4:41 PM
Updated Tuesday, Jan 5 at 10:04 PM
NEW ORLEANS — An agreement has been reached between Mayor Ray Nagin and members of the New Orleans City Council to restore some of the funding that had been cut for several city services.
Negotiations have been ongoing on this issue since last month, with officials trying to reach a compromise between the two budgets: the mayor’s budget and the council’s budget. Significant cuts went into effect this week, but around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, all the parties said they had reached an agreement on the 2010 budget with many of the services restored.
Among the services that were restored include blight hearings, as the city tries to get some of the blighted properties back into the market; money for the District Attorney’s Office; juvenile and municipal criminal courts; emergency services; and the parade viewing stands at Gallier Hall for Mardi Gras now has the funding for the city to put them up and take them down.
“I’m happy to say that through our collective discussions with the mayor, and Dr. Hatfield and councilmember Morrell as budget chair, we have restored a number of the cuts that were made that the public wants restored,” Fielkow said.
Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said while they could not restore everything, that’s just the nature of the budget process. “Again, I want to reiterate what our council president said, and what Dr. Hatfield and what the mayor agreed to: we looked at critical issues that had to be restored,” she said.
A four-day work week at City Hall remains in effect. Friday it will stay closed, and its new schedule will stay from Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Just keep in mind that even though we are only open four days a week, our employees are working 35 hours a week,” said Dr. Brenda Hatfield, chief administrative officer. “And so actually the day is extended until 6 o’clock for services, and some people in the community like that.”
So where does the new money come from? It comes from new revenue projections. The mayor had his budget, with the revenue projected at about $462 million, and the City Council was a little lower at $455 million. The compromise for the new budget for 2010 is somewhere around $460 million.
The issue now goes to the City Council on Thursday. They must first vote unanimously to put it on as an emergency agenda item, and then it must be a simple majority vote of the council to pass, once again, the 2010 budget.