Stores can sell their regular goods in front of their buildings to crowds walking to or from the festival grounds
In an effort to control unauthorized peddling around Jazz Fest each year, the New Orleans City Council passed a law years ago saying that normal street peddling permits would be invalid in blocks near the Fair Grounds during the annual celebration.
View full sizeNew Orleans Jazz Fest crowd on Sunday, May 1, 2011.The law was meant to apply mainly to people falsely claiming to be offering officially authorized Jazz Fest merchandise, but in 2010 it was directed against some established stores trying to sell their regular goods in front of their buildings to crowds walking to or from the festival grounds.
In response, the council recently passed a law providing that "any established and properly licensed retailer" may "display and sell their own merchandise on the exterior portion of their leased or owned premises" during the annual festival.
Like the previous ban, the new law applies to the area bounded by Florida Avenue, North Broad Street, Esplanade Avenue and Bayou St. John.
City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, sponsor of the measure, said it was passed too late to apply to the 2011 festival, but she said the administration had worked with her on crafting it, and stores reported no enforcement problems this year.
Guidry said the city will continue to "vigorously restrict ad hoc, temporary and mobile vendors of any type" around the festival so as to protect officially authorized Jazz Fest vendors from unlicensed competitors and people offering counterfeit festival merchandise.
She said merchants will not be able to sublease space in front of their shops.
The measure was approved unanimously.
In other recent actions, also by unanimous votes, the council:
**Authorized the city to suspend or revoke a permit or license "determined to have been issued in error, on the basis of incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, or based upon any false or fraudulent statement or misrepresentation, or in violation of any ordinance" or city regulation.
Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, sponsor of the ordinance, said the city has lacked the power to suspend building permits or occupational licenses, for example, even if they were issued in violation of the law or because the applicants lied on their applications, such as by claiming to be opening a French Quarter grocery that turned out to be a T-shirt or souvenir shop. "We have learned of fraudulent permits and licensing regularly," she said.
City administrative hearing officers will be empowered to revoke the permits after a hearing.
**Approved an extensive revision of the law creating the inspector general's office. Most of the changes are organizational and technical, to clear up ambiguities or problematic language in the original 2006 law.
The revision does not enlarge or reduce the office's jurisdiction, but it does for the first time state that every city official, employee, board member, contractor, subcontractor or licensee has a "duty" to report "any instance of fraud or abuse" to the inspector general. No criminal or civil penalties are provided for failure to report such information, but the matter can be referred to an employee's superiors for possible disciplinary action.
**Approved the Historic District Landmarks Commission's recently revised design guidelines spelling out what owners can and cannot do in repairing, renovating or constructing buildings. The new guidelines are designed to be much more user-friendly. They address energy-efficiency measures such as solar panels and streamline the system for rating the significance of buildings in historic districts.
The commission has jurisdiction over external work on properties in these districts: Algiers Point, Bywater, Canal Street, Esplanade Ridge, Faubourg Marigny, the Garden District, Holy Cross, the Irish Channel, Lafayette Square, the Lower Garden District, Picayune Place, St. Charles Avenue, Treme and the Warehouse District.
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Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.