The CityBusiness Blog

The smell of the Quarter

Thursday, January 8, 2009 · 2 Comments

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

What the French Quarter will smell like next month is up in the air.

This week, Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s administration told SDT Waste & Debris Services to stop the “Disney-like” cleaning of the French Quarter at the end of this month. The administration says the cash-strapped city can’t afford the pressure-washing and other enhanced cleaning services.

But the services might continue after all, albeit at a reduced level, according to news reports. The City Council is expected to discuss the future of city sanitation today. Nagin and three council members met Wednesday to discuss a plan that might allow the enhanced cleaning to continue in a scaled-down way,  according to a story in The Times-Picayune.

Some business owners and tourism officials apparently do not like the idea of cutting back cleaning services in the Quarter.

According to a posting on the blog The Secret Diary of Sidney Torres IV,  a tongue-in-cheek-blog, the city would never do away with the enhanced cleaning.

“People have become accustomed to the cleanliness and don’t want to go back to the days when Bourbon Street had a repulsive smell of stale beer, tourist puke, crap, and urine,” the posting says.•

Categories: French Quarter
Tagged: , , ,

2 responses so far ↓

Leave a Comment