It’s time that we hold our city leaders’ feet to the fire on their policies regarding music and culture.

Now that Mitch Landrieu has almost officially finished his two terms as mayor, we have a whole new field of potential mayoral candidates who could potentially have a great impact on the way the city views, supports and promotes music and culture.

A new music-friendly mayor (not to say that Landrieu was not music-friendly) can literally change the way the city treats musicians, and can influence the way the city regulates zoning, permitting, fee structures, parking, safety and a whole myriad of factors that contribute to New Orleans living up to its worldwide perception as a music city.

As I’ve observed in Mojo Mouth repeatedly, while most people outside New Orleans view the city as a music mecca, the people who live here do not. We’re spoiled. We take it for granted. We are too much “inside” our music-drenched culture to realize that it just ain’t like this anywhere else in the world. This also applies, for the most part, to our elected officials.

I can guarantee you that most visitors to New Orleans don’t care a whit that we have a football, baseball or basketball team. You can find sports anywhere in the US. They care about what’s special in New Orleans: the food, the friendliness of its people, our history and of course, our unique music and culture. It’s such a pity that locals are more concerned with supporting sports than standing behind music and culture, especially in education. But that’s a subject for another column.

If we don’t immerse our kids in our culture, it will ultimately be subsumed by popular culture. And you can find that anywhere in the country.

I’d challenge anyone who has a season ticket to a local sports team to put aside at least that amount of money to support music and music education. I’m not saying one would have to choose between supporting your favorite team vs. music. I’d just like to see as much money and attention paid to supporting and promoting our musical culture.

It’s interesting that our biggest musical events—the ones that generate the most tax revenues—are festivals. The largest festivals and events are not produced by the city. Not even Mardi Gras is a city-supported event (not counting police and sanitation). Mardi Gras krewes foot the bill for the balls and parades, and the city puts tax revenue in its pocket primarily from food, beverage and hotel tax.

Celebrations here, then, are typically supported by the private sector (or private non-profits, such a Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest). Even the summer’s juggernaut, Essence Fest, is produced in but not by New Orleans. If it were, we’d see a lot more money flowing throughout the community, rather than primarily to hotels. When Essence first started in the city, there were local musicians playing. Not any more.This isn’t the case in cities such as Chicago, where the Mayor’s Office puts on the highly successful Chicago Blues Fest, the Chicago Jazz Fest, Taste of Chicago, several public music series, and many more. According to their mission: “The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector, independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable cultural programs for residents and visitors.”

This isn’t the case in cities such as Chicago, where the Mayor’s Office of Special Evenits organizes the highly successful Chicago Blues Fest, the Chicago Jazz Fest, Taste of Chicago, several public music series, and many more. According to their mission: “The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector, independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable cultural programs for residents and visitors.” I love the fact that Chicago has stepped up and committed to its culture.

I realize that the ship has sailed on most New Orleans events, and that they are produced and run by private operators. It’s the way it is. But if the city were more integrally involved in putting together an actual cultural plan (like Chicago has), developing and actually producing events and fostering and openly supporting educational projects, I think the administration would demonstrate a much better and open appreciation of the importance of our culture.

I would expect a new mayor to commission a comprehensive cultural plan and to commit to continuing and expanding an Office of Cultural Economy, at the very least.

The ELLA Project and OffBeat are sponsoring a mayoral candidates’ forum in September that will actually ask candidates to explain and extrapolate how they will focus on New Orleans music and culture during their administrations. We need to realize what we’ve got, and how we get our leaders to make sure that it’s perpetuated and improved. Stay tuned to OffBeat for information on day and place.