NEW ORLEANS – A growing chorus of critics, concerned that throwing a massive party would be unseemly and impractical when much of New Orleans remains in ruins, are pressuring authorities to do the unthinkable: call off Mardi Gras.
City officials and tourism leaders have pledged to use an abbreviated carnival this winter as a springboard to reintroduce New Orleans as a viable city. Their October announcement that Mardi Gras would go on despite Hurricane Katrina met with an enormous cheer.
But many community activists – particularly leaders of poor, black neighborhoods that were destroyed by the floodwaters and have sat virtually untouched ever since – have turned against the idea.
“We’re not against Mardi Gras. We’re against their priorities,” ChiQuita Simms, a displaced New Orleans resident who is organizing a protest, said of city leaders.
The protest is scheduled to be held in Atlanta – where a large number of displaced New Orleans residents are living – when the Saints travel there for a “Monday Night Football” game against the Falcons next week.
Holding the carnival, Simms said, would give the nation the false impression that New Orleans has recovered from the storm. And the problem is not merely one of image, she said: “Who is going take care of the people who come in? Who is going to clean your hotel room? Who is going to take your luggage at the airport? Who is going to clean up afterward?”
Many business leaders insist that staging the famed carnival in the first place would be essential to the rebuilding effort. Before Katrina left the city depleted and broke, tourism was a $5.5 billion-per-year industry – almost a fifth of that was attributed to Mardi Gras – and supported more than 75,000 jobs. Officials estimate the city has lost $15.2 million every day in direct tourism income since the storm.
“It’s critical that we put on a great Mardi Gras,” said Dan King, general manager of the New Orleans Sheraton, an 1,110-room downtown hotel. “I know there are those who are questioning whether we can have a celebration when so many people don’t have homes. But if we really want to help rebuild the city, one of the best ways we can do that is to bring business back, which creates jobs and tax revenue and primes the pump.”
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