Kristen Palmer: "Won't somebody think of the children!"

Councilmemeber Palmer appears in today's Times-Picayune once again lying (or at least deluding herself) about the recently passed curfew law. The law which Palmer disgustingly justifies on the grounds that it "protects children" in fact exists in order to codify the misguided notion that the oldest most iconic section of our city belongs more to tourists and the tourism industry than it does to the actual residents of New Orleans.

Palmer writes

The over-arching question has been, why the French Quarter and this particular section of the Marigny? The answer is simple. No other neighborhood in the city, state or nation sized at .66 square miles, just 12 blocks wide, contains more than 350 alcohol beverage outlets, and includes adult entertainment establishments and numerous strip clubs.

To begin with that's not the "over-arching question." The over-arching question is why does council claim the police authority to limit the movements of citizens in a free society at all based solely on their age? But, if you're an important person like Kristen Palmer who isn't likely to be randomly stopped just for being outside you don't care about that sort of thing in the first place.

What important people like Kristen Palmer care about is what makes other important people comfortable. In this case the important people in question are the operators of those beverage outlets and entertainment establishments who don't want their customers scared away from their Disneyland by the sight of unapproved characters. Nevermind any of this hooey about protecting minors. Most of the (also wrongheaded) popular support for these curfew laws is based on residents' and business owners' fear of, not fear for unsupervised minors.

Moreover, the very idea that there are sections of a city which are solely dedicated to one style of business flies completely in the face of the entire concept of urban living. Even today in its sorry denuded state the French Quarter is still a mix of restaurants, specialty shops, grocery stores, residential space, museums, courthouses, churches, schools, and of course bars and music clubs. Thanks to leaders like Kristen Palmer and the short-sighted moneyed interests she serves, we haven't been the greatest stewards of this special historic neighborhood but we also haven't quite managed to kill it yet.

Meanwhile The Lens has published a refutation of Palmer's elitist lies by Quarter native C.W. Cannon. I encourage you to go read his column in its entirety but here is where he makes his strongest point.

Black critics claim that the law is intended to target black young people. They’re right, of course, but even if we pretended this were not the case, the idea stinks. I realize there’s a national trend to shield children from witnessing certain adult behaviors, e.g. drinking and smoking, but I fail to see what’s so dangerous about my kid hearing music through the doors of The Spotted Cat or d.b.a., just as, when I was a kid, we used to hang in front of the Faubourg or the Dream Palace. In fact, I WANT them to experience a radically integrated society, including different races, sexual orientations, and age groups. That’s precisely the reason I’m choosing to raise them in the old neighborhood. This law isn’t about protecting them, it’s about protecting tourists from seeing them.