National Reports
RYAN, JOHN PORTER, STEPHEN P.
National Reports Atlanta: Joseph R. Fiszman. Boston: Courtney R. Sheldon. Chicago: Albert N. Votaw. Dallas: Bicknell Eubanks. Minneapolis: Sam Romer. New Orleans: Stephen Ryan. Richmond: Lawrence...
...There must be more gamblers, professional and part-time, in New Orleans than in any other spot on the globe??yes, that includes Las Vegas...
...Finally, the chairman shoved Reverend Davidson aside and shouted into the microphone: "We did not hire this hall for the opposition...
...One State Legislator, implying that he was revealing "top-drawer" information, said that the State Housing Commission employed a quota system...
...The Reverends Stone and Davidson, Kirschenbaum and a member of the City Planning Commission were present to speak in favor of the development...
...Indeed, there are few places in the world where so much time is consumed in pursuit of that elusive commodity...
...On March 25, the Castle Hill Housing Project was unanimously approved...
...Louis Cathedral is only a few steps from the Bourbon Street gin mills...
...But Orleanians need no special periods set aside for fun and gaiety...
...Many of these families are the victims of forced ghettoizing...
...Liquor-control laws are practically non-existent, and, with the exception of Election Day, barrooms remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week...
...San Francisco: Frank Mankiewicz...
...dilapidated shacks stand cheek by jowl with the opulent mansions of the rich...
...What is most interesting in all this is the attitude of Orleanians generally...
...and there is a season of grand opera...
...For three and three-quarter hours of the four-hour session, opponents presented their case...
...It was obvious that those present were motivated principally by racial antagonisms...
...It all adds up to a city-wide contempt for unpopular legislation...
...In recent years, too, other periods devoted to pleasure, like the Spring Fiesta and the week preceding the New Year's Day Sugar Bowl game, have become fixtures on the New Orleans calendar...
...Most of them consider this anti-gambling campaign a distinct violation of the individual citizen's civil rights...
...The battlefield of Chalmette serves as a front yard for the American Sugar Company's giant refinery...
...Some said frankly, "Our kids will be forced to play with Negroes and spics...
...This is true despite the fact that the present state administration is waging a vigorous anti-gambling campaign and its effects are being felt in the city, where the wide-open hand book and dice table have disappeared...
...Kirschenbaum and Rev...
...Robert B. Stone, vice president of the NAACP's Bronx Branch, decided to attend the property owners' rally before formulating a course of action...
...The bigotry charges were aired briefly by the first three, while the opposition took up most of the two-hour session...
...Louis: William Wyant Jr...
...It is characteristic of the city's attitude toward gambling that thousands of people who have never entered a gambling house insist on the right of their fellow-citizens to gamble if they wish...
...almost all are on the economic ladder's bottom rung...
...modern six-lane, mercury-vapor-lighted avenues trail off into pitted, unpaved streets, and gracious French Quarter patios are shadowed by multi-million-dollar industrial plants...
...The collective opinion ranged from "We don't want to live with Negroes and Puerto Ricans" to "If those lower East Side elements start coming in here, our property values will drop...
...Mild weather makes golf a year-round possibility, and good hunting and fishing are available within city limits...
...During these two weeks, State Housing Commissioner Herman Pitchman attacked the City for kowtowing to bigoted pressure...
...Barkers on Bourbon Street stand nightly before their respective establishments and extol the charms of the "ladies" featured in their floor shows...
...Their future haven is an almost barren stretch of land now, but New York City Housing Authority plans call for parks, playgrounds, a new school and a community and health center...
...Actually, the Carnival season begins on Twelfth Night, shortly after Christmas, and the round of balls and cocktail parties??where, paradoxically, only highballs are available??continues for some six or eight weeks...
...In addition, leading human-relations agencies made an eleventh-hour appeal to the Board of Estimate...
...Another speaker told the eager listeners that rape, dope peddling and assorted crimes would ruin the area once the housing project was built...
...For example, most visitors believe that Mardi Gras (the natives prefer to call it "Carnival") is limited to the festivities of Mardi Bras day and the week preceding it...
...When they had finished, the Board announced that it would not take final action until March 25, approximately two weeks later...
...They carefully avoided any racial issues...
...There was tension in the air and indignation was high...
...But the entire Castle Hill plan might have falien victim to racially bigoted opposition if three men had not devoted their energies to preventing any such eventuality...
...Gambling is another matter entirely...
...Robert Davidson, a local pastor, also agreed to help...
...Opponents of the project packed the chamber and the halls outside...
...Seventy-seven clergymen of all faiths and denominations also voiced their approval of the project...
...The City Board of Estimate approved the site, plans and New York State financing for the project...
...Three Bronxites, who fought without the benefit of wide support, had won a victory for democracy...
...Many people come here expecting to find a cross between Montmartre and the Vieux Port of Marseilles??a place where anything can be had for a price...
...A recent investigation by the New Orleans police department, however, revealed the existence of a highly organized vice syndicate...
...Nevertheless, the project was approved...
...Two Board members had informed them that the Board was in "no mood" to hear any more bigotry charges...
...As he started to appeal to the decent instincts of those present, though, someone shouted: "Are you for or against us...
...There is a symphony orchestra which, under the direction of its new conductor, Alexander Ginsberg, is rapidly approaching first rank...
...In many respects, New Orleans and pleasure are synonymous...
...Prostitution??which flourished here unmolested until the days of World War II??still exists, but it has to a great extent been driven underground...
...If you have an uncontrollable urge to bet a couple of dollars on a horse or risk a "fin" at the dice table, however, you can still do it...
...This brought to mind an incident that occurred several years ago, when residents in another Bronx section successfully killed a low-rent project on the grounds that "we do not want to make our community another Harlem or lower East Side...
...Speakers, including several Republican legislative spokesmen, urged residents to "pack the City Planning Commission chamber in opposition" to the project...
...The nearness of Lake Pontchartrain makes swimming possible most months of the year for no more than a 7-cent bus fare...
...Richmond: Lawrence King...
...And, after urging those present to attend the City Planning Commission meeting, he adjourned the rally...
...There is a kind of business paralysis here during those long weeks from Twelfth Night to Shrove Tuesday...
...venerable St...
...Early the following week, the Planning Commission met at City Hall...
...But now you have to shop around a little and ask a few discreet questions to find a place, which is not like the old New Orleans...
...Zach's Casino in the northeast Bronx, where the meeting was held, was packed by a capacity crowd of more than 500 people that night...
...The next day, proponents of the project presented their arguments briefly...
...On the morning of March 4, Walter L. Kirschenbaum, chairman of the Liberal party's Bronx County Community Affairs Committee, noticed a newspaper headline which read: "Rally Tonight Fights Low-Rent Project...
...When Reverend Davidson asked for the floor, his clerical garb evoked applause...
...Where It's Mardi Gras All Year By Stephen P. Ryan New Orleans New Orleans, boasting a population of 600,000, is a city of startling and violent contrasts...
...The Board of Estimate opened its hearing the next day...
...A Victory for Democratic Housing By John Porter New York Late in 1955, fifteen hundred families currently residing in rat-infested New York slums will start moving into the Castle Hill Housing Project in the northeast Bronx...
...Many of the city's business and professional men, together with their families, give themselves up with al most complete abandon to the world of fantasy and make-believe which is Carnival...
...The visitor with such expectations may find what he is looking for, but if he expects to find the completely wide-open town of legend and story he will be sadly disappointed...
...Before he could reply, another voice cried out: "We don't want to live with niggers or spies...
...For a moment there was silence, then the applause began...
...Sharp questioning by New York Post reporter Ted Poston, however, eventually forced him to admit that this was not true...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 17
