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.She and Wilson opposed the so-called antidis-crimination ordinance, which prohibited krewes that discriminated in theirmembership from using public facilities or resources.3 Her second term saw aboldness in her actions that made her the toast of most if not all Quarterresidents and left opponents gasping.Jackson Square underwent a restoration in 2001 and 2002.The Jack-son Square Pedestrian Park would get its first facelift since 1976.In May of2002, a festival for tourism operatives was held in the park.Before the festivalopened, the square s metal benches were removed on Clarkson s orders.Thosestreet people of the square who used the benches as couches and beds wereoutraged.Clarkson rejoined that the benches needed repair, were an obstaclefor the festival, and blocked fire lanes needed for renovations of the cathe-dral.She added that the benches would be returned with dividers, to preventpeople from lying down.4At the same time, Clarkson moved against the tarot readers, tap danc-ers, and other street performers who had, it seemed, displaced painters.Theupper side of Jackson Square had been a traditional painters space, with pleinair painting and selling of works.This area was a long-time tourist draw, andmost media articles on the Quarter featured a picture of this artists colony. Encouraged by Clarkson, eighth district police captain Louis Dabdoub IIIbegan to stringently enforce laws against vagrancy, public urination, solicita-tion, and other quality of life crimes throughout the Quarter.Between Juneand mid-July 2002, the eighth district made almost four times the number ofarrests as in the same period the year before.5 The con artists, some still work-ing the old betcha I know where you got dem shoes racket, began to disap-pear.For a brief spell, the square seemed purged of the undesirables thathad proliferated as the nineties wore on.The nonpainter performers foughtback, and eventually were granted space in front of the cathedral.The paint-ers kept their historic turf between the upper Pontalba and the park. 230 2000 and on: into the new centuryThe Times-Picayune cheered Clarkson s and Dabdoub s crackdown.Aneditorial of July 18, 2002 intoned: Let s admit upfront that there s nothingquaint or romantic about the smell of urine, stale beer and vomit, especiallynot in the stifling summer heat.What visitors think of the French Quar-ter often determines what they think of New Orleans.That s not exactlyfair there are other parts of the city just as interesting but it s the realitynonetheless. 6In October, a pro-Clarkson rally was held in the square.To shouts ofadulation, Clarkson inveighed: Those of you who want to use and abuse ourFrench Quarter are no longer welcome here.We don t have to give it [theQuarter] away to those who don t care about [it] as much as you or me. This pep rally was followed by a small counterdemonstration, includ-ing some homeless men who felt they had been run out of their bedroom.7Besides her efforts in the square, Clarkson also put diapers on the tour buggymules, and had the streets and catch basins cleaned more often.8 While Clark-son was cheered for getting long-overdue action, her opponents groused.They felt that she was trying sanitize the Quarter and make it too much likeColonial Williamsburg a sterile, scripted reproduction.They took umbragethat street people, who felt ownership in the enclave too, were being pushedaside in favor of wealthy residents and middle-American tourists.9 Street per-formers, including adult dancers, mimes, and musicians, felt that they were alegitimate part of the tout ensemble and were being swept up in an indiscrimi-nate dragnet.10In a 2003 interview, Clarkson laid out her vision: I just want the Quar-ter to be like it was in the 1940s.It was bohemian, but it didn t smell and itdidn t have garbage on the streets and there weren t people accosting you andthere weren t underage children tap-dancing or people sleeping on benches.The vomit and the urine and the stench from the garbage that hasn t beenpicked up that s not bohemian.Bohemian is the mixture of cultures, a placethat inspires writing, painting, music, creativity.We still have that.And for-tunately, that s something nobody can clean up.Even me. 11The shades of Elizebeth Werlein and Mary Morrison may have smiled,but not all the quick were as approving as the famous dead.By the twenty-first century, Americans demanded more public involvement in civic life; thetop-down direction that Mayors Maestri and Morrison casually gave wereno more.Contemporary culture expects public hearings, currying of everyself-proclaimed activist group and consensus building.In New Orleans,and elsewhere, this process often consumed much time with diluted, or no, 2000 and on: into the new century 231action.Clarkson simply ordered the benches removed, and they were.Othercouncil members had the same autonomy within their districts, and evenmayors feared to tamper with those prerogatives
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