Tag: Vieux Carre

A Vieux From Toulouse

Coming soon: Pirates of the Vieux Carre
(Art by Eric Styles)

“Those Bourbon Street bar owners must make money hand over fist.” We as employees ring up thousands of dollars every night, take home wads of cash from our tip buckets and read about how we are part of a $9 billion-a-year industry. We roll our eyes when our employers bitch about us wasting cups or over pouring shots. All they have to do is just open the doors at 10 a.m. and the money just blows in the doors.  After Mardi Gras, they must be sitting on six figures easy, yet they whine.

Sit down and really listen to the bar owners. “We’re working for the landlords” is the common theme. Every year rents go up, often by thousands. About six years ago, I heard from a reliable source that one of the biggest businesses in the Quarter was forking out over $45,000 per month for their very large footprint. It’s well over $50,000 by now, probably. The vast majority of commercial properties are owned by a small number of families (er, I mean “Property Management Companies”).

They bought up the Quarter decades ago when it was seen as a gritty worn down section of town. Families and businesses were moving out to the vast expanse of the suburbs. The French Quarter was investment property purchased by revenue from other lucrative endeavors. All of the deeds have been paid off long before most of us were even born. Even those who own the property face enormous tax bills annually.

Look up property tax in the Quarter if you want to pick your jaw up off of the ground. Details of leases are dumbfounding.

Often, the renter is responsible for paying for repairs and up keep. Imagine as a residential renter, your water heater goes and it’s up to you to pay for its replacement. Now imagine holding a lease on a 250-year-old commercial property. Every year facing a leaking roof, a rotting dormer, deteriorating brickwork and all of the upkeep to a building that you don’t even own. Not to mention the appliances such as coolers, freezers, stoves and the like. Money goes out the door as fast as it comes in.

This shut down is draining bank accounts faster than a homeless guy drains a pint of Heavens Hill. Expect to see some of our favorites never to reopen.

All of those dollars made over Mardi Gras were earmarked to cover expenses this summer. So if they don’t reopen, who will fill those vacancies? I doubt if you will have many entrepreneurs thinking “I have a million to invest in a business, let me buy a Bourbon Street bar that just went under from a pandemic shut down that may happen again next year.”  

A few owners may just say “Fuck it. Let me cut my losses while I still have a little money to retire on.”

If you were a huge, multinational corporation with lots of capital for expansion and could weather long term storms, you might see this as an excellent opportunity. A chance to get a piece of that lucrative $9 billion dollar pie. That’s how they function and succeed. With the capital to take a loss over a few years they can drive out competition that can’t. The smoke clears and a handful are left holding it all.

How do I see the French Quarter in a couple of years? A gentrified, family-friendly atmosphere of corporate names that occupy every American strip mall. Starbucks and T.G.I. Fridays on Bourbon Street, Outback Steakhouse and Baskin Robbins on Decatur Street. Mr Binky’s sex shop replaced by a Disney outlet store, Big Daddy’s Love Acts becomes a Hooters and Johnny’s Poor Boys turns into a Panera Bread.

They go nicely with Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s vision: “This is the city’s time to re-imagine just how we live, how we move about, how we enjoy, and how we get to know and learn the fabric of our city.”  

A kinder, gentler French Quarter. Environmentally friendly hipsters on bikes cruise car free streets dotted with outdoor diners enjoying genuine New Orleans cuisine shipped in frozen from a factory in Michigan.

Licensed Disney costume characters posing for pictures with tourists instead of Uncle Louie. Unless he can come up with a $500 annual street performer permit, that will surely be part of the new and improved vision.

Do you think that all this sounds hyperbolic and unfathomable? Compare Times Square of today to that of a few decades ago. Disney cruise ships are just the landing craft for an invasion force.

Portion of Toulouse Street building collapses

A parapet wall in the 600 block of Toulouse Street partially collapsed on Saturday, dropping bricks from approximately three stories high onto the sidewalk. No injuries were reported. Photo courtesy of the New Orleans Fire Department.

A portion of a French Quarter building crumbled and dropped debris from three stories high onto the sidewalk in the 600 block of Toulouse Street on Saturday morning, according to the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD).

No injuries were reported.

NOLA Ready reported the collapse on Twitter at 10:45 a.m. The NOFD identified the portion of the building that broke apart as the parapet, or a wall at the edge of a roof.

The NOFD identified 627 Toulouse Street as the exact location of the collapse.

Police and fire personnel temporarily closed the 600 block of Toulouse Street for a brief period of time. City code inspectors are evaluating the building.

Demolition permits filed for three buildings adjacent to the Hard Rock Hotel

Permits were filed to demolish a handful of structures near the Hard Rock building, according to the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents, and Associates (VCPORA).

Demolition permits were filed for three addresses, according to VCPORA, and they include: 1019 Canal St., 1027 Canal St. and 1022 Iberville St.

The permits for the Canal properties show they are “located in the Red zone” of the Hard Rocket Hotel at 1031 Canal St. and demolition of the structures are “necessary to facilitate demolition operations and planning required” at the partially collapsed building.

The Hard Rock Hotel partially collapsed on Oct. 12 at 9:12 a.m., according to various reports, killing three workers, injuring dozens more and strewing debris near the intersection of Canal and North Rampart streets.

Several videos of the collapse emerged hours later on social media.

The cause of the collapse is still under investigation.

A partial implosion of the building on Oct. 20 toppled the construction cranes, leaving one dangling and the other crashing down onto North Rampart Street.

But the remainder of the building remains standing. The hotel project reportedly cost $85 million.

The two Canal street buildings are owned by LLCs registered to the same officer and manager of the Hard Rock property, VCPORA said.

The developer listed for the Hard Rock building and adjacent properties is listed as 1031 Canal Development LLC, which wants to demolish the 18-story Hard Rock building and adjacent structures.

The demolition requests will appear for approval before the Jan. 8, 2020 meeting of the Central Business District Historical District Landmarks Commission.

“We seriously question the need for further removal of this block and are trying to find out more,” VCPORA said on its Facebook page Dec. 18.

The Oct. 12 collapse killed Anthony Magrette, 49; Quinnyon Wimberly, 36; and Jose Ponce Arreola, 63.

The bodies of Wimberly and Ponce were reported to still be trapped inside the rubble, according to The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.

The newspaper reported that relatives of those who were killed in the collapsed have filed lawsuits against the groups behind the construction–including 1031 Canal Development LLC and Citadel Builders.

Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma, a Honduran national and Hard Rock worker who survived the collapse and later voiced his concerns to investigators, was deported on Nov. 29, WWLTV reported.

Two suspects snatched $100 bill from victim’s hand on Bourbon Street, NOPD says

The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) released a surveillance camera photo of two males suspected of snatching a $100 bill out of a victim’s hand on Bourbon Street on September 26.

According to the NOPD, the victim was walking in the 200 block of Bourbon St. at 4:30 a.m. when one suspect allegedly snatched the bill victim’s hand.

The suspect and an accomplice, according to the NOPD, ran from the scene down Bourbon Street, turning left onto Iberville Street.

One suspect is described as male, possibly Hispanic, standing about six foot one inch and weight about 160 pounds. He was wearing a Chicago Bulls cap, black shirt and jeans.

The second suspect is also described as a male, possibly Hispanic, standing about five foot nine inches, and weighing about 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a cap turned backwards, a black shirt and dark colored pants.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact NOPD Eighth District detectives at 504-658-6080. Anonymous callers can contact Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at  1-877-903-7867.