The city’s neutral grounds are the direct responsibility of the Department of Parks and Parkways; therefore, any prohibited items that are placed on the neutral grounds will be removed and disposed of immediately.
As you can see, I've highlighted two bits of information here. The part I've highlighted in black tells us everything we need to know about how seriously we can take the bit in red. Oh well.
Update: Nate points out in commenting that City Hall has already contradicted the "removed and disposed of immediately" clause.
Landrieu last year -- during his first Carnival season as mayor -- vowed to tighten enforcement of several long-standing rules, including by removing sofas, tents, ladders and portable toilets that residents often set up on neutral grounds.
While city crews and contractors hauled off loads of furniture and other items, the articles weren't logged before they were dumped at the landfill, so the extent of the initiative remains unknown, mayoral spokesman Ryan Berni said.
At least one Uptown resident, however, complained that the cleanup effort wasn't as intense as the mayor's threats.
Dick Wegmann wrote last year in a letter to The Times-Picayune that during a drive up St. Charles Avenue on the Satuday before Fat Tuesday, "the neutral ground was 85 percent covered with ladders, tents, chairs, tables, portable toilets and all sorts of other objects staking out territory for tomorrow's parades."
"If you are going to enforce the laws, then enforce the laws," Wegmann wrote. "If not, then don't tell us you are."
Budget constraints this year will force City Hall to "scale back" their enforcement of improper neutral ground use, Berni said.
"We're just going to be asking for cooperation," he said. "We will continue to ask that there not be bulky furniture or structures on neutral grounds or in cross streets. And we will continue to ask that ladders be placed back from the street."
Berni may not be technically lying, of course. My best guess is that the un-logged items hauled off to landfills were actually abandoned and picked up by clean up crews after parades. But that's just a hunch. It could, in fact, be complete bullshit. But I'm not about to go digging through any West Bank levees for evidence of Mardi Gras detritus just to fact check.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wegmann's complaint is correct. As I documented last year, and as anyone who spent any time at the parades will attest, there was no evidence that any such enforcement had been done.
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