Higher echelon

It's ok, y'all.  When they evict you it's only so that they can bring in some "higher echelon" people. We should be grateful, really.

As Jazz Fest does what it does best, the illegal short-term rental market continues to be felt in very different ways.

“In 18 years that I've been in this business, never have we seen properties with holes in their schedule at Jazz Fest time,” said Rabe.

That’s not the case with members of ANP.

“Most of us are booked for Jazz Fest next year, these are not fly by night visitors,” said Bay. “Five out of twenty-eight of these are educated, higher echelon people.”

What does Bay mean by that, exactly. The story doesn't elaborate. But "five out of twenty-eight" implies that there's some sort echelon-determining metric they've put to use. What echelon do you belong to? How would you even know?