Final weekend, I needed to showcase Frenchmen Avenue to a music-loving buddy from Europe who had by no means been to New Orleans earlier than. We ventured there late on Saturday afternoon; the town was chock-full of vacationers, and even so early within the day there have been many apparent vacationers wandering down Frenchmen, which generally has music beginning normally about 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.

I can sum up his impression of Frenchmen Avenue in a single phrase: sleazy. The road is filthy, there’s rancid water standing all over the place on account of poor drainage on the road—one thing the enterprise homeowners on the road have been complaining about for years, and nothing has been finished. And Frenchmen Avenue reeks. Anybody who lives in NOLA can describe that rancid “odor” (if you wish to name it that; it’s extra of a stench) that permeates some elements of the Quarter (principally Bourbon). And that’s what Frenchmen smelled like: poisonous stagnant water, stale beer and who is aware of what else.

Gone are the times when Frenchmen was an actual music various to Bourbon Avenue, I’m sorry to say.

OffBeat’s workplace ignored the nook of Decatur and Frenchmen for a few years, and the adjustments the road has gone by means of are fairly drastic. Throughout COVID, we had no alternative however to maneuver our places of work to the Outdated US Mint/New Orleans Jazz Museum. I used to be so sorry to depart Frenchmen, the place we had been for about 22 years, however we needed to go. The situations on Frenchmen had already significantly declined even whereas our workplace was on Frenchmen. We left in November 2020, and since then, it appears the road has deteriorated rather a lot. Sure, the music remains to be there, however when Frenchmen first began creating a repute as a music avenue that would usher in vacationer dineros, the ambiance and locals’ attitudes in the direction of Frenchmen modified drastically.

For 35 years, OffBeat has advocated for the musicians, bands, music venues, festivals and music business in New Orleans and all through the state, and being a Frenchmen Avenue enterprise, we advocated for Frenchmen Avenue too. It was our ‘hood. After we moved to Frenchmen Avenue, the Dream Palace (now the Blue Nile) was working, together with music venues Café Brasil and Cosy Harbor. These had been the locations that locals who cherished stay music went to, paid a canopy and loved stay native music. However after we moved to Frenchmen issues began to slowly change. New venues opened that featured music: d.b.a. and the Apple Barrel. Vaso. The spot the place the Maison is now modified palms no less than thrice earlier than it reached its present incarnation. Then the Noticed Cat; Café Negril opened, as did Three Muses. The Marigny Brasserie began internet hosting stay music. Then French Quarter bar operators purchased property on Frenchmen and opened 30/90 and Bamboula’s, which characteristic music. Café Brasil finally turned Favela Stylish. The Yard (additionally having modified palms many instances) and the Dragon’s Den provided stay music. Lastly the Royal Frenchmen Resort additionally started internet hosting music, as do a number of newer locations on the road.

Frenchmen had turned an unimaginable place to get pleasure from stay bands, just because there have been so many venues that had been cheek-by-jowl on Frenchmen inside the three blocks from Esplanade/Decatur to Royal Avenue. It created a crucial mass of stay music that was completely different and extra “native” than what you might hear on Bourbon Avenue. So one other music district was born.

What bothers me a lot is that the town doesn’t appear to care about its music districts. Music remains to be one of many most important causes that guests come to New Orleans. Bourbon companies have clout as a result of Bourbon remains to be perceived because the locus of musical leisure within the French Quarter. Bourbon companies are organized and demanded that the town present police safety and sanitation, which is all the time a difficulty. Neglecting both of those needed providers will imply {that a} music district will finally have a way more tough time engaging vacationers. Frenchmen’s drainage state of affairs is atrocious and simply plain nasty. For God’s sakes: we’ve created a terrific vacationer attraction centered on music, and now we let the infrastructure rot? We don’t present police safety in a spot the place actually a whole lot of hundreds of individuals—lots of them drunk or excessive—congregate on a nightly foundation?

I’ll additionally point out right here (not the primary time, by any means) the truth that the overwhelming majority of venues on Frenchmen don’t cost a canopy. Which means—similar to Bourbon Avenue—there’s no cowl, a drink minimal, and a comparatively massive group of musicians who’re nonetheless being paid as a share of the bar plus ideas.

It’s time for the town to step as much as restore the infrastructure on Frenchmen and to patrol the road simply as they’ve finished on Bourbon Avenue. Personally, I’m not notably pleased with what’s occurred to Frenchmen: altering from a music mecca to only one other place to celebration and get silly drunk. I’m uninterested in having music relegated to being a background for guzzling alcohol with none regard for the musicians who present the leisure and the draw for all of the guests—that is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The idea is to entice guests to drink as a lot as attainable (since locals not often enterprise to Frenchmen any extra). Yeah, I do know: with out bars and alcohol, there can be no music golf equipment. Nicely, that’s not precisely true: the one “membership” that’s managed to deal with music and never on alcohol is the venerable Preservation Corridor. Certainly this says one thing about locals’ attitudes in the direction of music?

It’s time that the town mandate that music golf equipment and bars cost a canopy for stay music on Frenchmen—or no matter music district—or that bars add a charge to assist compensate musicians. A canopy can be higher as a result of that approach visitors on the bars will perceive that music is a treasure that’s extremely valued by the residents and enterprise homeowners of New Orleans. Evidently, this will probably be an unpopular thought for music golf equipment and bars. And the liquor lobbyists and distributors will squash this concept. They wish to maximize earnings—by promoting as a lot alcohol as they’ll. However I’ll assure you that music lovers is not going to cease going to Frenchmen Avenue (or consuming) if some adjustments are made. In actual fact, extra locals may return to the road. Clearly there are different points: parking, lighting, renegade distributors, noise. These additionally need to be addressed.

Our music is a treasure that merely can’t be duplicated anyplace else on the planet. If the town needs to perpetuate its musical tradition—and development within the tourism base of holiday makers who’re right here for the music and never merely to get drop-dead drunk—they need to do one thing. Once I imply “they,” I’m speaking concerning the metropolis, the NOPD, the golf equipment themselves and the musicians who will proceed to play for a pittance. What can we do to unravel this drawback? We don’t wish to lose Frenchmen.