More route diversity

Twelfth Night is getting kind of crowded. We usually walk out and wave at the Phunny Phorty Phellows blow by on their streetcar.  We do that because we live uptown and it's convenient.  Otherwise I wouldn't mind seeing the Joan of Arc parade one of these years.  Now there's a third option in the somewhat pretentiously named Societe du Champs Elysees.

The krewe was inspired by the completion of the new streetcar line and the investment it has brought to nearby neighborhoods below Canal Street, said David Roe, the founder and captain of the krewe.

“Already the attitude in the neighborhood has changed,” said Roe, who said he can see the streetcar’s last stop from his porch on Elysian Fields.

Roe was inspired to form the krewe on the first day of the new line, when the streetcar he was riding in was joined by a flash mob of accordionists.

Tourist attraction masquerading as a transit line inspires a hipster happening which in turn inspires... well, this. 

The musicians were told they had to stop playing partway through the ride, but Roe said the experience made him think of the Phunny Phorty Phellows, the small but well-established krewe that has marked the beginning of Carnival with its yearly streetcar rides along St. Charles Avenue each Jan. 6 since the early 1980s.

That’s when, he said, he “had an epiphany about Epiphany” and decided to form a small group to bring the experience to the downriver neighborhoods.

Sounds good to me. The more stuff we can get happening at once in different places during Carnival the better, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, NOPD is always talking about how impossible it is for them to handle security for more than one thing at a time in this city.  Are they sure, they're ready? Or does Sidney Torres need to put some metal detectors on that streetcar?

Anyway, it's 38 more days til Carnival season.