Category Archives: French Quarter

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Can the French Market be saved? Part 1

It was reported over the weekend that our energetic and active mayor has decided to do something about the French Market. As a 20-year activist in food systems with a 40-year family residency in the French Quarter, I was certainly excited to hear that. And when I hear Seattle’s Pike Place  Market as the descriptor for what is desired, I hope that what our Mayor and current French Market leadership meant is to make it a world-class public market that offers interesting educational and entertainment options for all, quality groceries for residents, a laboratory for testing larger food access and farming support innovations, and also (I hope I hope) to host needed services for residents.

As for our French Market, I have a personal history with this space, as a resident who was sent to the market to shop for my family table, and as a place I developed my teen-aged interests in books, bikes, clothes, music, gifts…this was definitely the bazaar that I was in 3-4 times a week.

Since the beginning of 2003, I also had a work history with this space when my non-profit known as ECOnomics Institute then and Market Umbrella now and operating its markets as Crescent City Farmers Market, became involved in its operation. That is when the then-director of the French Market, Richard McCall* invited us to reopen a farmers market in the shed area. We knew it was a tall order but I remember very well that when Richard McCarthy, ECOnomics Institute’s founder and director asked me, “do you think we should try to work with the French Market?” I answered, “I can’t imagine how we can operate markets in New Orleans and not deal with the existing public markets.”

Which fit what he had already been thinking. So we embarked on this relationship with the French Market to revive it as a place for locals, growers and eaters.

It helped that Richard and I were two locals who had not written off the French Market, and continued to argue in our circles that it was the place that immigrants still entered the entrepreneurial arena, locals still held dear (even if was often with false memories or with unreasonable expectations) and where millions of visitors’ spending could be captured by participating in what is at the heart of what New Orleans does well, meaning operate as a port of entry, celebrate the diverse culture,  and host a wide diversity of users in our dynamic public space. (Remember times were different back then. Not so out of control with tourists’ expectations, and not 17 million of them either.  Although even then, we did know to calibrate tourists versus residents needs in our work. More on that in Part 3).

So we gave it a big try, ran this one from 10-2 Wednesdays, and like every other market we opened, we had to try things, and then retry them, and then realize that some of the ideas that worked at other of our markets wouldn’t work there and try some brand-new things.

By summer of 2005, we had reinvented this Wednesday market almost 3 complete times (which was similar to our Tuesday and Thursday’s markets btw)  and hit upon a few truths in doing it, some of which seemed counterintuitive. We also noticed some things about the French Market, which were only noticeable to regular users.

Here is what we figured out:

• Weekday morning/lunch markets are the hardest. We knew that, having run a few of these. Tuesday market opened at Uptown Square in April 2000, and we also had attempted a Loyola University market at lunch on Thursdays. Still, we felt that weekday had to be done as we were still committed to our Magazine street Saturday market as the only flagship Saturday market we operated, which I am not sure we ever made clear to others.  For whatever reason, we believed that Saturday’s market was 700 Magazine and were pretty firm on that at that point.

• We were also committing to helping the FM staff go through a charette process for redeveloping the whole big idea of this space. (Credit to McCarthy who suggested that FM renovate their public bathrooms to be the most beautiful in the city; to me that was the best idea I had heard, which they ignored.) As part of this larger process to help the French Market, we became very publicly supportive of their efforts which was sort of new (as before then) both entities operated towards the other with benign neglect. (No public trash talking allowed, and mostly a shrug when asked about the other.) With this new partnership, we also did our best to offer whatever analysis we could, which extended to the months after Hurricane Katrina, which I will talk more about in Part 2 of this post series.

• We knew that the small number of residents that were available during Wednesdays would not serve the market that we expected this market to serve. We anticipated that the “trade zone” for this market was actually Treme, Marigny, Bywater neighborhoods , and workers in the Quarter. We knew we’d only get a smattering of FQ residents, but we felt, based on our experience with them at the Magazine street location, they would be among the most loyal users of the market. We didn’t care if tourists used our market (yes, will explain in Part 3).

• That it takes 18 months to 2 years to build a successful market with its own culture and energy. And that partners never understand that, no matter how often you say it. And vendors mostly don’t believe it either.

• We had begun to attract notice in our field (including funders) from outside of the region, and could focus our support in the national field of markets to help us develop this market.

• We couldn’t anticipate when it would happen, but at some point bad weather or production delays would interrupt event planning and the usual spike attendance that happened around fruit season and some holidays. In a weird twist, our markets had few of these from spring 2003 to summer of 2005.

• We had long had the full support and attention of food activists like Poppy Tooker, and most of the media who wrote about food.

• Ditto with the area chefs, although the type we needed to attract to our markets were hard to find in and around the Quarter. (In short, they had to be chefs known to the public, and in control of purchasing which was not always true of corporate or hotel restaurants.)

What we didn’t anticipate:

• A significant number of our current market vendors had been vendors at the French Market, and had less than great experiences with staff and management and could not let go of their (valid) bitterness.

• The free parking would not be a draw because no one understood how to access the lot we were offering and if they did, didn’t want to drive to it.

• New Orleanians are loathe to shop where tourists shop, even if it serves the locals purposes. (more on this in Part 3)

• Current vendors of the French Market would feel we were competition, even though we sold nothing that competed with their products.

• Many of the French Market staff simply saw us as more work and resented our presence and even thwarted our market day activities.

• Seniors loved weekday markets and we found out that a lot of centers had shuttles to bring folks to us. Wednesdays became a popular place for those shuttles.

• Our main way to do informal and regular marketing was through yard signs; unfortunately, FQ folks did not like them and called to complain about them regularly, even though we put them and picked them up right before and after the market. This had not been a problem at the other markets.

• Based on the size and newness of direct-to-consumer agriculture in the area, our anchor vendors could only serve 2 markets full-time as a rule of thumb. For most of them, any more than two markets and either the quality of products or attendance by the growers themselves became an issue.

Still,  by the summer of 2005, this market was attracting 350-500 shoppers per week. Our other markets were 2-4 times that size, so our anchor vendors were still disappointed in those numbers. As a result, many dropped out, but we had a long list of waiting vendors and we developed a new system that required new vendors to start at this market. This helped in more ways than hurt, allowing us to develop new anchor vendors as our Tuesday and Thursday market had in their time. We had begun to attract younger shoppers who were not yet shopping at our other markets, and our market manager Tatum Evans had built real trust with senior centers across downtown, most of which were using Wednesday and Thursday as their shopping days.

Things were looking okay by August of 2005. And  then, as we say here:

Then Katrina happened.

End of Part 1.

 

 

Some of my other posts about the French Market are found here.

*Yes the French Market director and our ED had very similar names and had gone to Newman together! New Orleans way less than 6 degrees of separation

 

Part 2 soon: 2005-2010: What we decided to do about our community, our markets, the French Market, and the overall regional recovery.

 

 

 

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The myth of the FQ Cornstalk Fence

If you happen to be strolling in the 900 block of Royal as the tour buggies come by, you might hear the driver tell of how the one-time owner of the Cornstalk Fence Hotel and his Iowan (it’s usually Iowa) wife came to have this lovely fence. It seems his wife was homesick for the sight of the crop and so he commissioned this fence to appease her. Even our paper of record told the same tale!

The only problem with this…

there are at least 4 other cornstalk fences in town.

I know of examples in Bayou St. John, Lower Garden District (1448 Fourth Street), in the Faubourg Marigny, and a bit on a fence on Canal Street. And here is another example at the Metal Museum:

The reason is there are so many examples is because it was a cast iron form offered by local ironwork company in the 19th century by Wood, Miltenberger & Co on Camp Street, which was an affiliate of Philadelphia ironwork company Wood & Perot.

 

The BSJ house even has a plaque:

 

BSJ fence

2400 Dauphine

Canal near JDavis Parkway

 

Instead, the story is that this lovely design works for a variety of house styles, especially those with a long fence line. And it continues to be loved across many generations, whether by Iowans or by native New Orleanians.

 

 

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Gulf marine life in great danger from diversion of flood levels of Mississippi River

As an unprecedented amount of floodwater makes its way down the Mississippi River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway at New Orleans for the second time this year.

Corps officials try to limit spillway openings to minimize the impact of invasive freshwater species entering Lake Pontchartrain, as one of those impacts could be harming marine life. St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis says they have documented 26 dolphin deaths in the past two months, and most of the animals had freshwater lesions. Though Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries officials have not made a direct link to the influx of fresh river water, officials in coastal Mississippi have after conducting a number of dolphin necropsies.

For oystermen, the opening of the spillway is always a cause for concern because it leads to plummeting water salinity levels as the freshwater suddenly dilutes the estuary’s brackish waters, which can kill the oysters they harvest.

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Louisiana Food Policy from Pepper Bowen

 

I have been following Culinaria Center for Food, Law, Policy, and Culture work in my city for a while- I find it to be very impressive, inclusive, with systemic work being done.

This interviewer may seem a little too focused on fetishizing our culture including the odd choice of requesting a midday drinking resulting in featuring massive daiquiris from our walkup and drive-through drinking culture (which, as true as that is, could use more context in the description of it),  but still Pepper Bowen’s responses are excellent and thoughtful.

like this:

Bowen: What I find is that, especially for lawmakers, they really do want—as much as we give them crap—they really do want to do whatever it is that their constituents want for them to do. But the problem is that sometimes they are divorced from their actual constituents. They are also, sometimes, funded by folks whose desires and needs are at odds with their actually constituents. But by giving them the information they can make a more intelligent decision.

Still, if this gulp encourages you to check out the National Food and Beverage Museum, and Culinaria’s work, it is worth posting.

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Easter Parades 2019 French Quarter

The Historic French Quarter Easter Parade

The Historic French Quarter Easter Parade departs from Antoine’s Restaurant at 9:45 a.m. and rolls toward St. Louis Cathedral just in time for 11:00 a.m. mass on Easter Sunday, April 21.  After mass, participants return to Antoine’s to receive awards for best Easter attire and basket, among other things.

 

Chris Owens’ Easter Parade

It starts at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel Ballroom at 11:00 a.m. with a Hat Contest, Silent Auction, and Entertainment. The parade begins at the corner of St. Louis and Royal, then continues down Royal to Canal to St. Phillip Street and ends at St. Louis and Royal Street at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel.

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20th Annual Gay Easter Parade

Starting at 4:30 p.m., horse-drawn carriages, floats, and riders in colorful costumes will parade through the French Quarter into the evening, stopping at gay bars and gay-owned restaurants and shops throughout the neighborhood.

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