In the spirit of unity

The Jefferson Parish City Council unanimously approved a resolution last Tuesday urging Gov. John Bel Edwards to allow parishes that meet coronavirus benchmarks to open ahead of others that fail to do so. Councilmembers Deano Bonano and Scott Walker stressed that, far from picking a fight with the governor, the intention of the resolution was to initiate a “dialogue” on what those benchmarks are that parishes should work towards in order to move into Phase 3 and beyond. Businesses are at a breaking point, they argued.

The basic concept that some regions of the state might succeed with their individual quarantines, and reduce the number of cases before others, is not so absurd. Seeking clarity and timetables for Phase 3 appears totally reasonable. However, critics noted that a parish-by -parish reopening schedule, based solely on the snapshot-in-time of new COVID-19 cases, could allow Jefferson to loosen its public gathering restrictions whilst Orleans Parish would remain shuttered. In other words, moving into Phase 3 on a parish rather than metropolitan basis could have serious detrimental effects. Those infected by the coronavirus can easily cross the 17th St. Canal after all.

So can Mardi Gras parades. Conspiracy theorists worry the purpose of the resolution has more to do with telephone calls which the aforementioned councilmen have received lately from Krewe Captains. They have reportedly asked Jefferson Parish council members if Mayor LaToya Cantrell cancels Mardi Gras in February 2021, due to the lack of a ubiquitous vaccine, could a re-opened Jefferson Parish host their parades? Could the most famous parades of Carnival move from St. Charles Avenue to Veterans Boulevard as they did in the 1979 police strike, some have queried?

Stealing Mardi Gras would be bad enough, but a greater worry would be the assembled crowds who could serve as super spreaders for the entire metropolitan region. Closely packed families on parade routes might easily return home to New Orleans, Saint Bernard, or Plaquemines parishes, spiking COVID-19 across the region.

Members of the Jefferson Parish City Council reject any implication that their resolution has anything to do with Mardi Gras, opening before the virus has run its course, or before COVID-19 could be met with an inoculant. Still, the shortsightedness of opening one suburban parish without having a common policy across a metropolitan region provides a warning for Governor Edwards.
It makes no sense for Jefferson to move into Phase 3, and Orleans to still be in Phase 2. That’s a recipe for coronavirus infections to flow back-and-forth across parish lines. Cynical allegations that the resolution’s motive is to encourage Carnival krewes to come to Metairie and ride down a Phase 3-opened Veterans Boulevard would constitute the least of our problems.

The Jefferson Parish government under President Cynthia Lee Sheng has done a generally good job of mirroring New Orleans’ restrictions, even before the governor called for statewide closures of bars and public gatherings. There are differences in enforcement, of course. Jefferson Parish has looser restrictions on outdoor music, and still allows patrons to purchase take out alcohol from bars. Yet, generally, the respective parish governments have worked pretty closely together to ensure the maximum public health by holding forth to a similar set of rules.

Asking Gov. John Bel Edwards to make a special exception for any suburban parish, rather than a full metro region, stands as the first tangible move away from that inter-cooperation. And for Jefferson Parish council members like Jennifer Van Vrancken, whose family’s wedding venue was the subject of five complaints of excessive crowds to the State Fire Marshal’s office, to wax eloquent with pleas that businesses “don’t know how much longer they can hold on” falls flat. The council’s resolution appears self-serving and not focused on the public good, when the council members themselves refuse to follow the rules.

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted around Labor Day, and never has the Founding Father’s most famous observation proven more apt. Even if these Jefferson Parish council members’ motivations were pure, they should remember that in the era of COVID, “not hanging together, quite literally means our most vulnerable hang separately.”

This article originally published in the September 7, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.