Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans Cultural Policy Candidate Questionnaire

These questions were developed in conjunction with a number of musicians, artists, grassroots cultural organizations, and culture bearers. The same set of questions is being sent to all mayoral and city council candidates (with one question for mayoral candidates only). We will be publishing the complete answers on our website and expect coverage from a number of news organizations.

If you have any questions, please contact Ethan Ellestad, Executive Director of the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans at [email protected] or at 504-327-7713. We would also be happy to set up a meeting to further discuss these issues if you would like.

Please return your responses to these questions before September 28th. If you would like, you can type your responses directly on this document.

E-mail your responses to [email protected]

Thank you for your cooperation and your willingness to serve New Orleans and its residents! We know the culture of the city is very important to many voters, and we want to ensure that people have all the information they need to make their decision.

Candidate Name:

1. How do you define the term “culture bearer”? What criteria do you use to determine to whom the term applies?

I define the term culture bearer as someone, mainly indigenous but not strictly, that carries the culture of a region or a group from generation to generation. The criteria I use to determine to whom the term applies is one that a person or group who keeps a tradition alive. For instance groups such as Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs are clear cut examples. Indigenous to New Orleans, carrying the tradition of parading that is passed through generations or creating social mores of how a group interacts within the community. Some however are not as clear cut I believe. Groups like the New Orleans Musicians Clinic or Sweet Home New Orleans, while not directly involved in the act of parading or passing on the traditions of the benevolent work done by the SAPCs, assist in the continuity of the particular groups. So that to can be, in my opinion, bearing the culture.

2. New Orleans culture comes from its neighborhoods, working class African- American neighborhoods in particular. However, these neighborhoods, such as Central City, the Treme, and the 7th Ward, are facing skyrocketing housing costs, widespread displacement, and rapid gentrification. How will you ensure that housing will remain affordable for working-class communities in these neighborhoods and that long term residents will not be forced to move due to short- term rentals or escalating mortgages and rent?

One of my first acts will be to work on a plan to abolish the current short term rental law and work to a more equitable law which at least minimizes, and at best eliminates, whole house rentals. The current law motivates gentrification, cultural displacement and exorbitant rents and mortgages for those houses that are in the path of the STR deluge. By motivating property owners and builders to work with the city to create an affordable housing plan for all of New Orleans we can create a culture of affordable homeownership and rentals for those New Orleanians being forced out of neighborhoods where generations of their family lived worked and played.

3. Many musicians, cultural practitioners, and service industry workers travel long distances from areas like New Orleans East to get to jobs and gigs in the historic core of the City. What are your plans to make public transportation more efficient, reliable, and cost effective for these individuals?

I will work with transit advocacy groups such as Ride Nola to work with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority(NORTA) and its executive director to continue to develop more bus lines from the outer reaches of the city to the core. I will also work on making sure the Transdev is not renewed as the contract holder for the next contract. Bringing the transit situation under the purview of a city-run entity at the local level, beholden to the citizens of New Orleans not shareholders, will bring more oversight and positive results than currently being seen. I will also work with these groups to work with major employers such as Ochsner, the hotel and service industry and large corporations such as Entergy to offer reduced fare options to their employees. By sharing the cost of transportation, these groups will become stakeholders in the transportation piece of getting people to the job.

4. The City of New Orleans brought in $7.4 billion in tourism revenue from 10.45 million visitors last year, many of whom were drawn here by advertising campaigns and images that rely heavily on our musicians, artists, and traditional culture bearers. Despite this financial windfall for the city, many of these same musicians, artists, and culture bearers still live close to the poverty line. How would you ensure that a greater percentage of tourism revenue finds its way to the people and communities that create the culture that attracts these visitors?

The first place to look is at the Morial Convention Center. The windfall that is garnered while attendance continues to drop and improvements to the MCC are not done as planned is staggering. By taking even a small amount of this surplus, we could work to improve infrastructure, develop more affordable housing, obtain more buses to improve route frequency. All of these things lend themselves to assisting our culture bearers and cultural images that motivate people to flock to New Orleans.

5. There is a fundamental inequity in parade fee structures, where fees for large Mardi Gras parades are significantly less than what Social Aid and Pleasure clubs pay for their annual second lines. How will you address this inequity?

I will call for a review of the fee structure. While some parades do not need as much security as SAPC second lines, the fees and the administration of the fees are not equally reported by the city. It also seems that the City is taking on a lot of cost in the name of Mardi Gras. While we can all agree it is a city promoted event, we can also make the argument that so too should second lines be promoted. This mitigates the argument of free police for Mardi Gras krewes.

6. Do you support the current administration’s $40 million dollar Security Plan? What is one component that you would keep, and one component that you would change? I support a portion of it. As an advocate of community policing, I believe at least a part of that 40 million dollars can be better spent in other areas of the budget. The main component that I would keep is the crime cameras. I believe this is a technological benefit that can help police in researching a crime. The piece I would not keep is the closure of doors on Bourbon Street at 3AM. I don’t see any point in it. I do not think it will mitigate crime. I do think it will force additional enforcement that will take away from the overall security of the French Quarter

7. How will you support neighborhood bars, music venues, and small cultural businesses? I will work to make all processes transparent and easy to work through the system. Currently permits are not as easy to get as they should be. Violations are taxing small businesses and clubs. I will work to work on the 311 system also to allow all of these entities to do things electronically if at all possible without having to venture to City Hall.

8. Do you support the permanent removal of the 8PM street musician curfew? Yes I do. It has been proven unconstitutional numerous times at various levels. The ban attacks the very heart of the New Orleans music culture that tourists come here to see. In addition there are a variety of other much more annoying noises that one has to deal with at 8PM that are not being banned. This is an attack at street musicians, mostly black and young, that gentrifies the culture of the city.

9. New Orleans culture includes Black Masking/Mardi Gras Indians and brass bands, but also funk and bounce music, spoken word, theater and dance, and much more. How will you partner with these diverse cultural communities in crafting impactful policies and decisions that reflect both the values of that community and our local government?

I would love to see Cultural Economy have a committee at the City Council level. One could argue we already have a community development committee. I believe the attack on the culture of New Orleans by those that want to gentrify it is so fierce right now that we need someone in place to oversee cultural economy from these groups. My volunteer work with the Threadheads, a group of volunteers who first raised money in a not for profit record label then turned it into a 501c entity that recognizes and grants funds to a variety of culture bearers and culture restorers, has led me to believe that we cannot let our culture die in the hands of bearers who have spent their whole lives working within the traditions of New Orleans. We the council, as city leaders, need to show the importance of what culture can not only do for tourism but also what culture can do for sustaining a proud image of our city through masking, brass band and the like as well as the storied history of all of it.

10. Cultural activity is a great crime prevention tool, particularly for youth. Provide one specific example of what you will do/advocate for to better leverage our cultural assets to build a safer community?

I believe in community schools. I am not a fan of the charter schools. I believe that we need to go back to community based school system and take corporations out of schools. By doing that we can do the one thing we can advocate for is a cultural awareness class. Cultural awareness class can teach the traditions and historical references to the students. Using Art, Music, Civics, Sports we can teach our students of the cultural importance of parading, playing music or making art. While many schools are removing it, we can champion it. To take a line from my friend, Shamarr Allen, we can have the students proudly proclaim “Music is my weapon”.

11. Many of New Orleans’ musical/cultural traditions are passed down from teacher to student and/or elder to young torchbearer. How would you assist in perpetuating our traditions for the next generation within our current school system?

Much what I said above is what we can do to pass that cultural importance along. In addition, by working in a community based school system we can teach to the subject and not be handcuffed by testing. We can require the student take one of a number of classes (art, music, music history, various classes on cultural aspects) to show the educational importance of the culture of New Orleans.

12. Do you support creating priority loading/unloading zones for musicians on Frenchmen St. & Bourbon St.?

Yes I do. I would go as far as offering in any area that a club does not have viable access to load and unload. Frenchmen and Bourbon are big areas but parts of Oak and Freret maybe can use it as well.

13. (For Mayoral candidates only) Will you maintain the Office of Cultural Economy? If so, what is your vision for that agency under your leadership?