HOW TO DESTROY A COMMUNITY - ALGIERS POINT

 

As you see on the map, Algiers Point is the pink area, a charming, historic community on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.  The Central Business District is labeled, but the French Quarter is not.  The small green square directly across from Algiers Point is Jackson Square, the heart of the Quarter.  You see how convenient the Canal Street ferry is for pedestrians who live or stay in Algiers Point to reach the Quarter and the CBD, where there are also a good many popular restaurants.  The famous St Charles streetcar, which transports riders to the Garden District or for a lovely ride on oak-lined St Charles Avenue is easily reached on foot from the ferry landing.

But no.  Plan a ferry schedule that stops running at 7:00 on weekdays and 8:15 on weekends, the very time when people are having dinner, followed by a drink or a visit to one of the many small clubs in or near the Quarter to listen to music.  If tourists don't follow weekends and want to enjoy themselves every day and evening, well just stay elsewhere.

This is New Orleans!  The reduced hours of ferry operation are idiotic to the point that I want to scream, cry, or bang my head, or all three.  What are you thinking, leaders and planners?  Are you thinking?  

Algiers Point business owners, dependent on visitors keen to get out of downtown New Orleans tourist spots and explore the unique neighborhood across the Mississippi River, say reduced Canal Street ferry hours are proving disastrous for their bottom lines.

“It’s been terrible for business,” said Linda Bullard, manager of the Dry Dock Café, a popular watering hole just steps from the ferry station.

Bullard said the bar-restaurant has seen a reduction in business of between 30 and 40 percent since the Louisiana Department of Transportation clipped the late-night schedule a month ago.
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The Algiers Point ferry service, which used to run until midnight, now ends at 8:15 p.m. on the weekends and before 7 p.m. the rest of the week.
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The small Algiers Point bed-and-breakfast industry also has taken a hit in the aftermath of the schedule slash.

“There’s been an absolute turndown in business,” said Kevin Herridge, owner of the House of the Rising Sun Bed and Breakfast on Pelican Avenue.
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The ripple effect has extended to local artisans who rely on the Algiers Point bed-and-breakfast industry.

What have we here?  A good many businesses on Algiers point, small businesses, which all politicians tout as great job creators, will quite likely be destroyed.

Bars

Cafés

Bed and Breakfast establishments

Artisan shops

Moving picture theater

Landlords

Who cares, but the business owners and their patrons, who will now be former patrons?

A good many hospitality workers with jobs in the French Quarter or the Central Business District will likely have to move, because they will have difficulty getting home after work, thus renters will lose their tenants.

Algiers residents spoke Monday night about their frustrations with the Canal Street ferry’s reduced hours and concerns about what they described as the high cost of commuting across the river under a takeover plan proposed by the Regional Transit System.
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Under RTA’s plan pedestrians who now ride the ferries for free would pay a base fare of $2 each way or $75 for a monthly pass. That’s a significant cost for many who use the boats daily, residents said.
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Throughout the discussion, residents called for a cheaper option for those who regularly use the ferry, possibly funded by increasing the cost for tourists and other infrequent riders. A number of other suggestions, including selling advertising and naming rights on the boats, also cropped up during the discussion.

Even as prohibitive fares may be levied on pedestrians who use the ferry, gas-guzzling vehicles spewing carbon monoxide into our already polluted air will ride free of tolls over the Crescent City Connection bridges.  People who don't own cars and workers in the French Quarter and CBD, who may own cars, but who would have difficulty finding free parking places, will have to pay for parking or ride the bus.

“I find it more than a little ironic that those who can afford a car can now cross the river for free, but those who can’t are now going to pay $4 a day,” Michelle Moltz said.  

Indeed.

NOTE: Because of the curves in the Mississippi River, the West Bank is sometimes to the east and south of New Orleans, so it is then the West Bank in name only.