There’s another political battle going on between French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny residents and the business community. There’s been a proposal for a new “hospitality district” that would include the French Quarter, Marigny Triangle (where Frenchmen Street is located), Tremé, the Warehouse District and the CBD. The new district would be affiliated with the state as a political agency that will have board members who represent all the neighborhoods included in the district.

In case you haven’t heard, next year’s Super Bowl will be held in New Orleans, and the Convention Center board voted to donate $30 million to help “improve the infrastructure” in these neighborhoods—which comprise most of the areas visitors will frequent during the Super Bowl.

Tell me we don't need infrastructure and more city service in the French Quarter...? Courtesy: nowpublic.com

But the proposed hospitality district would also be able to levy taxes within the district on hotel rooms (1.75%), restaurants and nightclub sales (.02495%) and parking (1% increase in hotel parking tax for overnight hotel guests). The proposed board could also direct additional tax revenues to additional infrastructure improvements, and to spend more money on attracting tourists to the city. At this writing, it’s proposed that about a third of revenues will go to a dedicated fund to enhance city services and to add to infrastructure improvements, and the other two-thirds to funding activities of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. It’s also interesting to note that the CVB intends to spend some of its marketing dollars pursuing international visitors. I’m surely hoping they do it smartly and they use music to market New Orleans as an international music mecca. But at least they are committed to attracting people from outside the US.

I think this is a good idea. I’ve supported additional marketing and promotions to attract international visitors for many years, and this could help to contribute to these efforts. However, I do believe that the revenues should be split down the middle: 50% for infrastructure improvements and 50% for tourism marketing. We need better sanitation, nice sidewalks and streets, and increased police presence in this city, especially on Frenchmen Street; it’s an important part of the infrastructure that makes visitors want to come to New Orleans and to return again.

It is important that every neighborhood involved in the district be given a voice on the new agency board. But I just don’t comprehend the protests from the residents in these districts to stop the legislation—primarily from the French Quarter and the Marigny residents. According to the Times-Picayune, in 2010, “French Quarter voters voted down a proposed security district that would have taken in about $1 million a year in property fees to spend on private security patrols in the roughly 100-block neighborhood. Although most of the money would have come from business owners, only residents registered to vote in the Quarter could cast ballots.”

This refers again to certain residents in the Quarter, most vocally represented by the Vieux Carre Property Owners & Residents Association, and French Quarter Citizens, not wanting more tourists in their neighborhoods. I find this attitude counterintuitive to the fact that these people chose to live in an urban tourist destination. The French Quarter is one of the most interesting tourist destinations in the world. We should we not want more business because a few people with a lot of political clout—who have the money and determination to oppose more visitors in the Quarter—don’t like the traffic, noise and inconvenience of tourists? Huh?

I understand not wanting your neighborhood to become a tourist destination, but the Quarter and Marigny already are places people go out of their way to visit, and they have been for many years. How many people who live in these two districts and who are the vocal members of the dissenting organizations actually work in the hospitality industry in the city? Will their incomes be affected if tourism drops? I can guarantee you that the businesses on Frenchmen Street and in the Quarter would curl up and die without the support of visitors. When the hospitality industry flourishes in the city, you can tell. The city buzzes with vitality. The hospitality industry is the backbone of the city’s economic health and its success is crucial.

Without a safe, secure, clean place for visitors to patronize, we are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Without reaching out to market to attract more visitors to New Orleans, the French Quarter and Marigny will die.