NEW ORLEANS -- Plans for a football stadium on the Tulane University campus hit a snag after an ordinance for an interim zoning district was passed by the City Council. The district will force to colleges such as Tulane to go before the City Planning Commission before building large-scale projects like a stadium.Of course this early in the afternoon we're still waiting for a definitive write-up of the meeting to link to. But, if what we thought we followed along with on Twitter is any indication, the video (soon to be posted here, hopefully) should make for some amusing viewing.
The ordinance passed 4-2, with Councilman Jon Johnson and Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell in opposition. Councilman Eric Granderson was absent.
Opening the comedy was all powerful Tulane University President Scott Cowan who read a letter from all powerful Loyola University President Kevin Wildes which complained that these all powerful men who sit on several quasi governmental boards around town were being "discriminated" against through the use of "old style corrupt politics." Watching these University Presidents who are used to calling the shots around town whine so loudly about getting railroaded is pretty funny. On the other hand, if Scott Cowan is tells you he thinks something is a "back room deal," you should at least understand this is a person who knows what he's talking about.
Next, the Uptown Ladies of Audubon Boulevard were allowed to speak. They did not disappoint. Attorney and sometime political candidate Jane Booth spoke for them.
Jane Booth asks{rhetorically} how Tulane can build a stadium for 35,000 people 20 ft from a residential "back yard" #nocouncilActually the proposed capacity of the stadium is 30,000 but what's another 5,000 kids who won't GET OFF JANE BOOTH'S CLIENTS' LAWN when you really think about it? Besides, what kind of a crowd are we seriously talking about here? This is only Tulane football after all. The Ladies are looking at something like 7 or 8 Saturdays of slightly heightened activity near their back yards over the course of each year.
— Karen Gadbois (@gadboislensnola) May 3, 2012
Undoubtedly this is why the opposition included a whisper campaign about the imagined possibility of other events the stadium might conceivably host such as high school football games or concerts of some unspecified sort. Basically the Uptown Ladies don't like anything that might encourage the kidz to bring their hippity hop into their neighborhood. Or at least they find the specter of such a thing highly motivational. One wonders if perhaps Tulane had chosen to build a facility for its pilates team the reaction might have been somehow different.
Eventually we got to the part of the meeting where Jackie Clarkson could tell everyone how "insulted" she was that anyone would imply there was something "corrupt" or racially motivated going on. Shortly afterward all the white members of the council who are owned by the Uptown Ladies associations voted against the stadium.
It's a shame we'll have to wait that much longer now to find out whether the stadium ever gets approved or if the university will have to come up with a work-around calling it the Tulane Football Reception Hall and Supper Club or something. I was hoping it would be up and running in time to host such alternative events as, say, a 30,000 attendee Obama rally 20 feet away from the Uptown Ladies' "back yards" but no such luck there.
Update: Ah and now Mitch says he might veto today's action by the Council. Stay tuned.
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