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FQC LInda Malin shares the goals the Board established at their January meeting.
During the Board orientation meeting this last Saturday, each Board Committee discussed and set its principal objectives for 2013, which I outline below. I want to share these with the FQC Members and ask you for your review of and comment on those objectives. We encourage you to become involved in FQC activities to the full extent you wish to do so. Please contact me directly with comments and let me know what you would like to become involved in by writing me at president@
frenchquartercitizens.org.
Budget and Fiscal Affairs – Increase fund raising proceeds to $100,000
Communications
- Make the Website a valuable/live asset for FQC.
- Continue to maintain the momentum of/improve the eWrite.
Legal
- Establish and improve lines of communication with outside counsel and counsel for VCPORA.
- Strive for early identification of legal issues affecting French Quarter and FQC.
- Work with e-write to educate FQC members on legal issues affecting French Quarter and FQC.
Legislative Committee
- Promote better relationships with state and city leaders and their staffs.
- Begin supporting policies and legislation that we are for rather than just opposing what we are against. For instance, the FQC Board just voted support for Mayor Landrieu’s modest request to fund streetlight repairs with a small increase in Entergy’s franchise fee (averages about $2 or $3 per month).
- Host council and legislative staff to “meet and greet” the FQC Board and officers.
- Continue to invite politicians to speak at quarterly membership meetings.
- Continue to support an alliance of French Quarter entities on important issues such as the hospitality zone.
- Form Joint VCPORA-FQC Legislative Committee to examine state legislation and take appropriate action.
- Draft positive legislation for consideration at the next session on important FQ issues.
Membership
- Increase membership by 25%.
- Maintain a “Ready-to-Act” list of member volunteers who will quickly join together and act in areas requiring quick action.
Planning and Historic Preservation
- Work with VCC, VCPORA and FQMD in setting long term vision and related objectives.
- Monitor and effect best outcome for text and maps on new (Comprehensive Zoning Ordinances (CZOs).
- Expand Committee with other volunteers, of spin off with other committees.
- Work with VCC and VCC Foundation in publication of French Quarter Historical Preservation Guidelines.
- Obtain member volunteers to attend important meetings of all VCC activities.
Quality of Life
- Press for sound controls promoting French Quarter residential quality of life while sensitive to New Orleans’s cultural heritage in conjunction with other French Quarter organizations.
- Support more intensive sanitation and trash collection services, and have enacted and implemented initiatives aimed at current problems, including large-animal waste, roll carts, and commercial trash collection.
- Implement a pro-active campaign against illegal short-term rentals.
- Strengthen enforcement of quality of life ordinances in the French Quarter.
- Strengthen the FQC Quality of Life Committee, including through participation in the efforts of other French Quarter organizations.
FQC Relationship with FQMD
French Quarter Management District represents a unique opportunity for long term improvement in the quality of life in the French Quarter. The FQMD is an institution founded by the State that cuts across many FQC issues and committees. Many, but not all, of these issues are covered by the FQC Quality of Life Committee.FQC has a unique opportunity to increase its effectiveness in the quality of life area because FQC’s representative on FQMD is Brian Furness, a Director and past President of FQC and present Co-Chairman of the FQMD Sanitation Task Force, along with Robert Watters, the current President of FQMD. Brian reports directly to the President of FQC, insuring a highly effective relationship between FQC and FQMD.Brian and I plan to work, together with FQC’s Quality of Life Task Force, to insure that FQC plays an active role in helping FQMD set and implement FQMD’s quality of life objectives and promote an active FQMD role in the enforcement of quality of life issues. Vice President
- Attend the biweekly city of New Orleans city council meetings.
- Member of the FQMD security task force.
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Call to Action! Take Pictures of Tourists
FQMD Vice-Chair Kim Rosenberg has put out a call for action to all French Quarter Residents as part of efforts to improve our sanitation services.
We need visual proof that a significant number of tourists go throughout the Quarter on tours and on their own. This is important in order to show that it is in the City’s best interest to provide improved sanitation services throughout the Quarter because tourists are everywhere in the Quarter.
Please photograph tourists in the residential sections of the Quarter. For this purpose, “residential sections” are all areas of the Quarter not included in the section bounded by Canal, Bourbon, St Ann, and Decatur/N. Peters Streets.
Examples of tourist activities include:
- Haunted House tours on Dauphine or Governor Nicholls Streets.
- Segway tours on Burgundy Street.
- Carriages on Barracks Street.
- Crowds spilling into street at Lafitte Blacksmith’s Shop.
- Bike tours on Dauphine.
- Carriages stopped at Lafitte Blacksmith’s Shop and the Corn Stalk Inn.
- Tourists wandering through the Lower Quarter with Hand Grenades.
- Packs of tourists wearing team colors in the Lower Quarter (or on Dauphine or Burgundy).
- Tourists using the sidewalk or street in lieu of a restroom.
Please send your photos to Kim Rosenberg at rosenberg802897@bellsouth.net.
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E-Write Ideas?
If you have ideas for future articles in this E-blast, please email Gioia Furness Petro at gioia@french
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Does This Pass the Sniff Test? No.
FQC Board Member and co-chair of the FQMD Sanitation Task Force Brian Furness reports that solar-powered compacting trash cans (as reported last week) will not be coming to NOLA any time soon. It seems the City decided the program would cost too much.
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Call 911
Really! It’s important.
During NOPD’s end of year budget hearings, it was reported that, compared to other police districts, the 8th District has a low percentage of 911 calls.
As a consequence, the 8th District’s budget was cut because its needs were not perceived to be as great as those of other NOPD districts.
To provide a more accurate reflection of the 8th District’s resource needs, if you observe or experience any activity in the 8th District that merits a 911 call, please report the situation to 911 instead of looking the other way.
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Check it Out!
The Times-Picayune has a profile of the site of the 2012 FQC “Progressive” Dinner. The former Cabrini House and home of Dr. Carlos Trujillo and FQC Board Member Brian Drude.
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Krewe du Vieux
Carnival is here! Krewe du Vieux rolls Saturday, 6:30 pm, starting at Port St. in the Marigny. They will be immediately followed by the Krewe Delusion. Click here for route maps and more.
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Super Bowl Closures
The craziness begins!
CBS Super Bowl Park at Jackson Square: Decatur Street from Wilkinson Row to Madison will be closed from 12 am-4 am on the following days:
- Tuesday, January 15
- Wednesday, January 16
- Thursday, January 17
- Tuesday, February 5
- Wednesday, February 6
The closures will also affect the horse carriages along Decatur Street. They are preparing to be relocated on the following days:
- January 14-16, 2013
- January 21-22, 2013
- February 4-5, 2013
The current crew hours for broadcasts and/or taping is as follows:
- Sunday, January 27: 7am – 11pm
- Monday, January 28: 8:30am-1am
- Tuesday, January 29: 4am -1am
- Wednesday, January 30: 6:30am-12:30am
- Thursday, January 31: 3am-12:30am
- Friday, February 1: 3am-12:30am
- Saturday, February 2: 3am-11:30pm
- Sunday, February 3: 4am-end of day
The CBS main compound will be at the French Market parking lots behind Washington Artillery Park so visitor parking will be limited.
ESPN at Jax Brewery Lots: ESPN will be filming over 120 hours of broadcasts the week of Super Bowl from the Jax Brewery parking lots off Decatur. There will not be any full road closures during the load in period; however, there will be Intermittent Traffic Control administered by the NOPD beginning on Thursday, January 23, at 12:01am until midday to bring large trucks onto the site.
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