On January 12, New Orleans will have its first new mayoral administration in eight years. Here are five strategies to support the cultural community they can launch on Day 1.
Center Equity in Policy Creation and Resource Distribution
New Orleans is a city with stark, systemic inequities driven by historic racism and disenfranchisement—inequities which manifest themselves particularly robustly in cultural policy and the cultural economy. In this majority Black city, which is also the birthplace of Black American Music, the majority of music venues remain white owned (and only a handful are owned by women). Crackdowns on informal vendors highlight a permitting system that is at best indifferent, at worst hostile to many Black and Brown entrepreneurs. Disparate rates of property ownership and lack of access to capital put many Black and Brown owned businesses at a greater risk of closure or displacement. These—and many other—issues will take intentional and sustained effort to address, and in a climate where both the Landry and Trump administrations are hostile to the fundamental idea of equity AND the arts, it is going to be incumbent on the next mayoral administration to stand strong and fight for the people and communities who create the city’s culture.
Protect Culture in Public Space
One of the great joys of New Orleans is its public, participatory, and sometimes spontaneous culture—street musician performances, second line parades, and Black Masking Indian traditions all take place in the public right-of-way, and many other events—from neighborhood festivals up to and including Mardi Gras parades—often draw very large crowds in communal spaces. While many of New Orleans’ Indigenous cultural traditions have historically faced indifference or outright hostility from City Hall, over the past decade or so there seems to have been a shift towards greater recognition and support. However, in 2025 we have seen a number of plans and proposals that could erode this progress and create new challenges: the post January 1 attack “Teneo report” recommending security changes to the French Quarter and Mardi Gras, which was spearheaded by former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton who is well known to have been hostile to public culture in New York City; the sudden enforcement of new insurance requirements for traditional second lines without consultation from Social Aid and Pleasure Club leaders; a proposed ordinance, introduced by Councilmembers Thomas and Green at the request of NOPD leadership, that would have greatly increased surveillance of public spaces and put civil liberties at risk; and the ongoing threat from the Trump administration to activate the National Guard for “policing” throughout the city. Addressing misguided internal policy decisions and developing a plan to counter external threats to public expressions of culture need to be core cultural policy initiatives for incoming leadership.
Prioritize Local Expertise Over Outside Consultants
Delegates from cities and municipalities around the world look to New Orleans for inspiration, impressed with the richness of our music and cultural traditions and hoping to create or reinvigorate something similar in their hometowns. Yet locally, when it comes to developing plans to support our own neighborhoods or traditions, government officials have a long history of hiring consulting firms from other areas who often do not understand the culture of the city. These firms, often paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, “engage” the community, extracting information for little or no compensation in order to create a plan or series of policy recommendations which are then presented to their government clients. Moving forward, the new administration should flip this script and prioritize working with local firms, organizations, and individuals first—the local community knows what they need and, with the same resources as would be allocated to an out-of-state consulting firm, can very likely offer better, more relevant solutions. Though hiring an outside firm may still sometimes be necessary, a comparable local investment must be made—if you can’t afford to compensate the community, you can’t afford to complete the project.
Invest in Data Collection
It’s widely accepted that the city’s musicians, artists, and cultural torch bearers are struggling to make ends meet and are increasingly being displaced farther and farther from historic core neighborhoods. But beyond anecdotal knowledge, it is hard to quantify the reality on the ground. The last authoritative data on musician pay rates was released over a dozen years ago by Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization that itself has been closed for over a decade (the recent Music Census was carried out by an out-of-state consultant; is not demographically representative; and uses the average instead of the median to calculate income, a method that creates skewed outcomes). To create real solutions, we need accurate, up-to-date data—and gathering it is only possible with community trust. However, that trust can be quickly eroded with economic impact studies that trumpet totals like Super Bowl LIX’s purported $1.25 billion without acknowledging that very little of that wealth actually made it into the pockets of local small businesses or gig workers. For studies to be considered legitimate they can’t just include “how much,” but also need to show “for who.”
Centralize Cultural Decision Making in City Hall
For years a major driver of both frustration and inequity has been the fact that there is not a singular point of contact for cultural issues, nor any individual or agency spearheading cultural policy decision making within City government. Want to have a small event at your house during Jazz Fest? You may end up talking to the Department of Safety and Permits, NOPD, your City Councilmember, and the Office of Nighttime Economy, all of whom could give you different answers about the procedures you have to follow—or if the event is even allowable. Agencies make decisions that impact cultural activities independently, often without informing each other—or the public. As the new administration makes their mark on City Hall, they need to empower an individual or department (it can be new or existing, such as the Office of Cultural Economy) to be able to work throughout local government to eliminate bureaucratic roadblocks and work with the cultural community to develop and advance new, culture-forward policies and ordinances.
This space is provided to MaCCNO as a community service and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or editorial policies of ANTIGRAVITY.
