Straight from the horse’s mouth, right here’s the actual purpose that Krewe du Vieux gained’t be parading on its regular route down Frenchmen and decrease Decatur Streets. This can be a press launch from the Captain of Krewe du Vieux that lays all of it out:
“There was appreciable dialogue concerning the Krewe du Vieux (KdV) parade route for 2023. Krewe du Vieux want to clarify the place we’re and the way we obtained right here.
To supply some context, the KdV 2022 route was the shortest within the historical past of our parade. This truncated route was on the NOPD’s request in mild of the Metropolis’s latest challenges reminiscent of NOPD staffing ranges and the re-boot of Mardi Gras after a 12 months with out Carnival.
In December 2022, KdV proposed to the Metropolis a route for the 2023 parade that was just like most prior 12 months’s parades (aside from 2022). This route allowed for beneficiant time spent within the Faubourg Marigny and the French Quarter, passing by lots of the companies which have traditionally supported KdV and benefited from our parade, and giving our members the advantage of smaller streets that strolling parades discover preferable. NOPD regarded this proposed route as a non-starter and as a substitute gave us two selections: Comply with final 12 months’s (2022) route (eliminating the Marigny rectangle), or add within the Marigny rectangle and get rid of the inside of the French Quarter by staying on main thoroughfares solely from then on, parading down Decatur avenue for your entire stretch from the French Quarter to the Sugar Mill. On the time they didn’t present us with a transparent reason why we should always have a shortened route once more, particularly provided that staffing points have been resolved by way of using exterior businesses reminiscent of OPSO. We negotiated with NOPD and provided vital concessions in our route, nevertheless their place didn’t shift. KdV was successfully being pressured to choose winners and losers in mild of what neighborhoods and companies our parade would undergo.
At this level KdV made a concession in agreeing to a curtailed route whereas nonetheless including seven (7) blocks to the beginning of our parade, shifting it from Elysian Fields/Royal St. to Homer Plessy/Royal Streets. We expressed our need for this extra favorable path to the town council (Freddie King and JP Morrell) and ultimately the Mayor’s workplace. Nevertheless, even with their engagement NOPD’s place didn’t shift.
In a gathering Friday afternoon of January 27, 2023, which included NOPD, Particular Occasions employees, and the Mayor’s workplace, we have been at an entire standoff. We have been advised that the addition of the (7) blocks of Royal St. within the Faubourg Marigny created an unacceptable site visitors disruption on the French Quarter portion of our route – whereas this identical site visitors disruption was acceptable if these (7) blocks have been reduce out. NOPD’s place on this level particularly was utterly rigid, and not using a believable rationalization.
Via continued discussions, we in the end arrived on the compromise that’s this 12 months’s route. Even we discovered it shocking that this route was acceptable to NOPD, because it doesn’t really tackle any of the issues they listed (crossing three main thoroughfares – Elysian Fields, Canal and Poydras) and sizeable site visitors disruptions contained in the French Quarter. Nevertheless, it was a compromise within the truest sense – neither of us was completely satisfied, however we might each dwell with it. The most important disappointment to us was after all the lack of Frenchmen and decrease Decatur streets. Whereas removed from excellent, this answer allowed the next:
• Returning to the Marigny rectangle which was eradicated altogether in 2022, and the place our float warehouse is situated
• Parading by way of the inside of each the FQ and the Marigny
• Returning us to a extra regular parade size (final 12 months’s was the shortest route ever)
• Eliminating a serious security threat by permitting us to line up on Homer Plessy. The road-up on Royal avenue final 12 months had a lot of “near-miss” incidents with vehicles, mules and folks making an attempt to get the parade lined up on a slender avenue with heavy crowds
• Not setting the precedent of an Elysian Fields place to begin or staying on main, extensive thoroughfares (Decatur and Elysian Fields) in future years
• Patronizing some Royal St. companies, notably within the Faubourg Marigny, that have been omitted of final 12 months’s shortened parade route
Krewe du Vieux, picture by Kim Welsh
An announcement from the town indicated that the elimination of Frenchmen and Decatur was a selection KdV made on our personal. This assertion is sorely missing in context. NOPD gave us two “non-options” and was rigid on making both of those choices extra acceptable to us. We have been successfully pressured to search out one other answer. To this present day we don’t perceive why NOPD couldn’t be versatile and permit the addition of seven blocks within the Marigny. We stay baffled at their posture and really unhappy at this departure from many years of marching down Frenchman Road and decrease Decatur Road.
Krewe du Vieux understands that this route change has a serious affect on the companies of Frenchmen and Decrease Decatur streets. We spoke with many of those enterprise homeowners and representatives instantly after the route change. On account of the route change, KdV will return funds raised by the Shakedown from companies that our parade route doesn’t go in 2023. We canceled the Shakedown occasion because the challenges of adjusting participation on such brief discover given the brand new route have been just too giant.
In future years KdV seems ahead to embracing a parade route that can prioritize our non secular stomping grounds of the Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter. We additionally sincerely hope that the relationships now we have shaped underneath difficult circumstances with the enterprise homeowners and metropolis officers in discussing this 12 months’s difficulties will result in collaboration in coming months as we plan for 2024. We can’t emphasize sufficient to our mates on Frenchmen St. and decrease Decatur that we are going to be again and that we wish to be in your entrance door. KdV has been working very laborious to search out that nexus of parade route and after-party web site that can reduce disruptions for the Metropolis whereas offering our members and parade-goers the expertise that KdV is understood for.
KdV appreciates the laborious work and help of the Metropolis of New Orleans, NOPD, Particular Occasions, KdV members, and our loyal parade-goers. We’re trying ahead to a enjoyable and protected parade in 2023.”
Because the “monarch” of KdV this 12 months, I’m extraordinarily dissatisfied that the companies and individuals who have supported the krewe from its inception are being excluded by the Metropolis’s choice to vary the route of the parade. I actually was trying ahead to parading down Frenchmen, particularly since OffBeat‘s workplaces have been situated there for 23 years, and now we have supported Frenchmen Road editorially and through promoting for properly over twenty years.
I’m glad the Krewe du Vieux management has determined to work intently with the companies on Frenchmen, elsewhere within the Marigny and on Decatur Road. There’s political power in working with others who can be negatively affected by the Metropolis’s choice to disallow the parade’s conventional route. Councilman-At-Giant J.P. Morrell can also be to be recommended for this morning asserting that he’ll put ahead a movement to present marching krewes the identical rights and advantages because the bigger, old-school (and extra prosperous) Mardi Gras krewes.
When will New Orleans ever see that it shoots itself within the foot when debacles like this happen? There are lots of companies (who present tax revenues to the town) who at the moment are having to refund hunreds of hundreds of {dollars} to prospects who thought they have been going to have the ability to view KdV (as they all the time have) on Frenchmen and decrease Decatur. That is to say noting of the a whole bunch of musicians, artists and suppliers who can be negatively affected by the town’s unlucky choice.
