Steppers in the right direction

Police cut fee for second line parade club, but lawsuit goes on

A temporary legal settlement will allow one of New Orleans' unique neighborhood "second line" parades to march on Easter Sunday, after the city agreed to sharply reduce a security fee.

But Wednesday's settlement doesn't end a lawsuit between the city's predominantly black "social aid and pleasure clubs" and the police, who started charging the higher fees last year for the colorful jazz-and-parosol processions. The parade groups say the higher fees are discriminatory and threaten to tax them out of existence.

Fees went up from about $1,200 to $3,700 and higher after gunfire marred at least two of the parades last year -- part of a burgeoning crime problem that accompanied the city's repopulation following Hurricane Katrina. One person was killed in one of the shootings.

Wednesday's agreement will allow the Pigeon Town Steppers Social Aid and Pleasure Club to parade on Sunday. Police had planned to charge the group $7,500, but the city agreed to reduce the fee to $2,413, according to an attorney for the group.

"It might as well have been $75 million," said Carol Kolinchak, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is backing the parade groups' lawsuit.

City attorney Joe DiRosa said the fee is based solely on an evaluation of what is needed to assure public safety. The reduction for the Pigeon Town club came after police re-evaluated overtime and personnel needs for the parade, he said.

At a downtown protest Wednesday morning, Tamara Jackson, president of the New Orleans Social and Pleasure Club Task Force, said the higher fees are discriminatory because the overwhelming majority of parade participants are black.

"We're the only culture that is being taxed out of existence and we're one of the oldest cultures that exist in this city," Jackson said.

At a small downtown park near the federal courthouse, a few dozen marchers from different parade groups chanted, "Respect, peace, no increase," and carried picket signs accusing police of a double standard. The demonstration was cut short by a morning rain storm.

DiRosa's denied any notion that the city is trying to drive second lines out."Why would we do that?" he asked. "Do you know we conduct over 450 parades in this city a year? We're not trying to eliminate any parades."

DiRosa acknowledged that second lines are different from the lavish, highly organized parades of the city's Carnival season, put on by well-heeled private groups. For instance, the large parades travel on major thoroughfares and have barricades separating participants form observers. In second lines, observers often join in the parades, which take place on narrower streets in various neighborhoods.

The parade clubs continue to seek a preliminary injunction in federal court that would stop enforcement of the higher fees. A hearing is set for April 25.

"It's in everybody's best interest that this be resolved in a way that protects and preserves the culture of New Orleans," Kolinchak said.