The battle of Frenchmen Street.

[marignygreg]

From Chopitulas post on another thread.....



And there was some sort of police sweep on Frenchmen St. last night. The city needs to do something to make what goes on there an asset and this doesn't look like what is needed to me. Granted, the cat is out of the box and it will never be what it once was but heads need to be put together to make it work, for the sake of those that make money there and to provide a quality experience for the tourist, as well the locals that still venture there. Punitive measures like this are not the answer.

http://frenchmenstreetlive.com/major...reet-question/

[marignygreg]

Here is the script to Chops link.





Major Crackdown Begins on Frenchmen St, Future of the Street in Question!





This week, NOPD began enforcement of the Frenchmen Street ‘Arts and Cultural Overlay’, a set of rules created in 2004 to govern the Frenchmen Street entertainment corridor.

These rules particularly apply to the businesses that are classified as restaurants but also host live music, namely Café Negril, Vaso, Maison, Mojitos, Checkpoint Charlie’s, BMC, Yuki, Three Muses, Dragon’s Den, and the newly opened Bamboulas. Some of the more controversial rules in the Overlay require the restaurants to have no amplified music at all, and no bands larger than 3 members. They must all be closed by 1am on weekends, 11pm on weekdays, and all must serve food. Cover charges are prohibited.

Older businesses such as Blue Nile, Snug Harbor, Dba, and Spotted Cat are grandfathered in as they were in operation before the creation of the Overlay, essentially giving them the legal freedom to host any type of band they desire, and absolving them from being legally required to serve food.

Over the course of the last decade, as Frenchmen grew, so did the gray area surrounding the rules. With virtually no police enforcement of any laws, including the club’s selection of bands, the interlopers with street grills, food trucks, and artist tables, the brass bands on the corner, the hippies selling nitris balloons and weed brownies, and the panhandlers and gutterpunk colonies that post up on the corners, Frenchmen blossomed organically into it’s current incarnation.

While some locals rue what it has become, and label the corridor as being the next Bourbon Street, there is no denying it has become one of the premiere local and tourist nightlife destinations in the city, and a mecca for live local and national music of all kinds. The street is also a major economic engine that employs hundreds of service industry professionals as well as musicians.

Over the years the street has seen a surge in businesses that have opened in the area under the Overlay’s jurisdiction. What started with just a few places now has close to 20 in the two block stretch. The newest addition to the street, Bamboulas, announced a year ago they would be opening a 3 bar mega club in a dilapidated building in the 500 block. The reaction was universally negative, and their plans to obtain a bar license was denied by the City Council. Many in the neighborhood did not want to see the street getting bigger. Residents had serious concerns about parking, noise, and large crowds in an area that already seemed to be at capacity. Bamboulas scaled down their plans, and finally opened this Halloween with a restaurant license, but many residents in the neighborhood felt their business model was more suited for Bourbon Street, where they own several other clubs, than Frenchmen.

One particular detractor, Jesse Paige, manager of the neighboring Blue Nile, crusaded against their opening for a year by reporting licensing issues and posting pictures on Facebook of what he perceived to be illegal construction. For years, Paige, who has no ownership stake in Blue Nile, openly campaigned against other businesses on the street he felt illegally encroached on his employer by presenting amplified music and bands with more than 3 members. Since the opening of Bamboulas, Paige has been extremely vocal in pointing out every infraction the new business has made, and it now appears his efforts have bore fruit, not just against Bamboulas, but most of Frenchmen.

As NOPD made their rounds Friday to make sure all offending restaurants were abiding by the laws laid out in the antiquated Overlay, Paige took to Facebook to boast of his victory with a rant claiming he was “preserving the culture that makes us who we are”. While Paige claims those are his intentions, coincidentally, his business interests also stand to gain the most if restaurants are no longer able to present amplified music.

The rant also included a taunt at the restaurants to make better food in order to attract business instead of breaking the law, and ended with a crude poem:

“SAVE FRENCHMEN BY THE LAW OF THE LAND. DEFEND HER BY THE LICENSE IN HAND. PLAY THE MUSIC THAT MADE HER GRAND. AND CHARGED ARE WE TO TAKE A STAND!” Paige wrote in all caps.

As Paige celebrated, many people, mostly musicians, wondered how the enforcement of the Overlay would affect their means of making a living. If these laws are upheld, this would mean no one who plays an electric guitar, a keyboard, an electric bass, or DJs, will be permitted to play anywhere on the street but Blue Nile, Snug Harbor, Spotted Cat, or Dba. This will instantly un-employ hundreds of local musicians. While most of the restaurants will survive under the rules, albeit with less business, this law will have a catastrophic effect on the music scene.

While Frenchmen has received a lot of flack as of late for what it is becoming, think about what would it be without DJs at Dragon’s Den, without funk bands at Maison, without brass bands at Vaso, and without reggae at Café Negril? What would the culture of Frenchmen Jesse Paige claims to be preserving be without that?

[marignygreg]

Offbeat/Jan Ramsey weighs in...

http://www.offbeat.com/2013/11/20/frenchmen-street-and-the-changing-scenery/

[bennyboy]

From Chopitulas post on another thread.....



And there was some sort of police sweep on Frenchmen St. last night. The city needs to do something to make what goes on there an asset and this doesn't look like what is needed to me. Granted, the cat is out of the box and it will never be what it once was but heads need to be put together to make it work, for the sake of those that make money there and to provide a quality experience for the tourist, as well the locals that still venture there. Punitive measures like this are not the answer.

http://frenchmenstreetlive.com/major...reet-question/

Well that sucks and looks like it is going to escalate. So sad there. But how do you do that? What is good and what is bad? It is like people turning down a Walmart and then having a Target in the same place insted. What is the difference? How big is how big? Seems some places have it way better than others and tht doesn't seem fair...... How do you placate the neighbors?

I personally love it there and it is the only place in that part of town I go to when I am in NOLA. I Avoid the 1/4 for the most part and go to clubs that are not there (Rockin bowl, Chickie, Tips) and if Frenchman was less weird, I might not want to visit as much, or at all......

[funkkjunkie]

Shame on Jesse Paige for "trying to preserve". All he is trying to preserve is the blue nile because of fear of the competition. At least that's the way it seems to me standing outside looking in.

[Marc Stone]

If you don't know Jesse or everything he has done for the music community in his years runny g Blue Nile please don't crucify him based on a foot in mouth moment that is being blown up by a media outlet operated by one of his competitors.
I dont know all of that facts and elements at play here, but I've known Jesse for a long time and he's always been alright with me and a lot of the musicians I know and has worked as a musician himself. I can see why the owners of the established clubs that have worked hard for years to make frenchmen st the successful place that is would be a bit freaked by the incredible rapid growth on the street. I hope the established owners can work with the other venues and the city so that this explosion in growth benefits everyone.

[SweetOlive]

So, what actually happened this weekend on Frenchmen? Did the cops hand out warnings? Were clubs cleared out? Was music shut down?

[funkkjunkie]

Debbie Davis posted this on FB yesterday: "Police are fucking with Frenchmen street tonight, going door to door issuing "friendly warnings". The new rules: all doors to all live music establishments must be closed at all times, even when there is no music. Restaurant venues may not have amplified music of any kind, only acoustic. These acoustic bands may consist of 3 band members and one singer and no more. No tables chairs or employees stationed on the sidewalk.
The 13 piece brass band on the corner, however, was given no such rules of operation.

So, um, now what?"

[bennyboy]

"We'd like to call Trombone Shorty to the stage but he can't come up unless we break tha law, so......Oh yeah we are now an acoustic folk duo too now.........."

Really, I think that Frenchman Street was the best thing about Post Katrina New Orleans. It really became THE place to go and you could hang everywhere, with the best street scene ever..(kind of like an inner city Shakedown Street) From what I understand this affects Cafe Negril and that really sucks cuz that is the reggae scene in NOLA.

[eat_mo_crawfish]

This is awful news. And wrong in so many ways. Seriously, Checkpoint shutting down at 1:00 and having no amplified music? How will I do my laundry?!?!?!?

[Lit]

http://www.offbeat.com/2013/11/20/fr...nging-scenery/

Adolfo’s upstairs used to be Alberto’s.

Wow, all these years I thought I imagined that.

I like Jan's piece. I don't know what the answer is, but I liked the old Frenchmen Street she describes and have been dismayed by what has devolved into the current scene.

[Marc Stone]

Jan's piece is incomplete at best, and for all of the years OB has had their offices there, I have never seen Jan and Joseph in any of those clubs or out on Frenchmen at night. Doesn't mean they have never ever been to one of those clubs, but they certainly have never been a regular presence on the Frenchmen St. scene.
And if the response to Mike Welch (mpw) in the comments really is from Jan, wow....
If you really dug Frenchmen as the below the radar hideaway it once was, then you have to dig a little deeper and go a little farther out to find a similar vibe now. Remember when Thursday night at Vaughn's really was a super-cool, almost entirely neighborhood scene? Me too, but those days are gone. Most scenes like Frenchmen either bloom into the spotlight and blow up into something akin to what is happening now, or they just fade away. I'm much happier at the thought of Frenchmen being the major economic engine for the NOLA music scene that it has become than having it fade away.

[Lit]

Jan's piece is incomplete at best, and for all of the years OB has had their offices there, I have never seen Jan and Joseph in any of those clubs or out on Frenchmen at night. Doesn't mean they have never ever been to one of those clubs, but they certainly have never been a regular presence on the Frenchmen St. scene.
And if the response to Mike Welch (mpw) in the comments really is from Jan, wow....
If you really dug Frenchmen as the below the radar hideaway it once was, then you have to dig a little deeper and go a little farther out to find a similar vibe now. Remember when Thursday night at Vaughn's really was a super-cool, almost entirely neighborhood scene? Me too, but those days are gone. Most scenes like Frenchmen either bloom into the spotlight and blow up into something akin to what is happening now, or they just fade away. I'm much happier at the thought of Frenchmen being the major economic engine for the NOLA music scene that it has become than having it fade away.

I didn't see the comments until you posted that, but I would doubt that's her. Then again, maybe not? Who knows.

I agree that I've never seen Jan out on Frenchmen in the almost 20 years I've been frequenting it, and I also agree that the article is not an exhaustive review of the issue. I just connected with the melancholy for what was, but you're right about the reality of the life cycle--which is why I've maintained for a few years that the Frenchmen scene has largely jumped the shark for me, at least during Fest. I know I've got to look elsewhere for that vibe now, and I know there are places where it is happening. I just don't think we'll see another as promising as Frenchmen was, with as many things going for it. Ultimately, it is that great combination of factors that has caused it to be as overrun as it has become.

[Marc Stone]

Yeah, there are a lot of factors that make Frenchmen ripe for being what it has become, not the least of which is geography. I also would like to think that someone jacked Jan's name for that response, doesn't seem like her style at all.

[bennyboy]

Well maybe it is time for the French Quarter to stop sucking ass and get with the MUSIC (not crappy cover bands and people billed as the worlds fattest anything.....)program.....