September 2024

One of only two parks in the French Quarter, residents gather daily to catch up on local happenings, play with their pooches and organize to help maintain the neighborhood.

– by Claude Summers

New Orleans’ world-renowned parks, such as City Park,  Audubon Park, and Louis Armstrong Park, are justly celebrated for their beauty and their amenities, including wonderful landscaping, water features, and gardens. They provide urban dwellers an opportunity to interact with the natural world and to enjoy fresh air.

But the only park, other than Jackson Square, actually located within the French Quarter  is Cabrini Playground, which is sometimes known as Cabrini Park or, to some local residents, the doggy park.

Located at the intersection of Barracks and Dauphine in the lower Quarter, the residential area of the Vieux Carré, it is only 1.5 acres large and lacks many of the niceties of the more famous parks. Nevertheless, it is an indispensable gem of the neighborhood. 

It not only provides access to the outdoors and exercise, but it also facilitates socialization for people and dogs alike. It contributes greatly to community-building in a neighborhood that sometimes may seem overrun by tourism.

Although Cabrini Playground is widely referred to as a dog park, technically it is not one. More properly, it is a defacto dog park, a status won after much wrangling.

In the past, there have been times of tension between dog owners and those who preferred the playground be limited to children, but nowadays dogs, children, and adults coexist harmoniously in a spirit of cooperation and tolerance. The park is able to accommodate the needs of everyone.

The playground contains a covered pavilion that is often used for civic gatherings such as the "Out Against Crime" events, the annual Mother's Day concert (produced by the Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents and Associates, VCPORA), and a weekly recycling drop-off program sponsored by the French Quarter Management District.

The park is especially distinguished by its trees, which include magnificent oaks and sycamores, as well as a beautiful stand of crepe myrtles. A rose garden, tended by neighbors Jon and John Reed, also adds beauty to the greenspace.

One area of the park is reserved exclusively for children, and is handsomely furnished with playground equipment donated by former French Quarter resident James "Jamie" Coleman. Sometimes pick-up soccer teams or volleyball players can be seen competing on the park's grassy field. 

As in many dog parks, some people are more likely to remember the names of the dogs than of their owners. But in a neighborhood as friendly as the French Quarter, the Cabrini Playground unsurprisingly also fosters a spirit of camaraderie. 

The park provides an opportunity for residents to reminisce with old friends and to make new ones, as well as to enjoy watching the dogs cavort. Some of them become members of friendship groups for whom the park is a daily destination.

One of these groups of French Quarter friends and dog-lovers who socialize in the park is led by Wayne Wilkinson, a long-time supporter and defender of Cabrini Playground. The group, jokingly self-described as the Cabrini Playground Brigade, invests in buying plastic chairs and poop bags and other amenities for the park. 

Many members of the group also contributed funds to prune and remove damaged trees in the park after Hurricane Ida,  and have fixed broken infrastructure, including the handsome brick wall surrounding the park. They frequently volunteer to clean up the park for events such as the Mother's Day concert or a recent New Orleans Police Department's 8th District crawfish boil and picnic.

Some of the friends are particularly known for volunteering and serving neighborhood associations, including VCPORA, an organization that advocates for the preservation and protection of the Quarter, and COPS 8, an organization dedicated to supporting 8th District police officers. Ken Caron, for example, is a former president of VCPORA, and Betsy Fabry currently serves as Secretary of COPS 8.

The group also functions as a kind of salon, where members share ideas about a wide range of topics, from politics and travel to life in the city. Most recently, members of the Cabrini Park Brigade undertook a project in May, suggested and devised by one of its members, an intrepid retired federal bankruptcy judge, Elizabeth Wall Magner.

Magner, who was appointed to the United States bankruptcy court, Eastern District of Louisiana in 2005, served as Chief Judge of the court from 2011 until her retirement in 2019. In her time on the Court, she earned a wide reputation for her fearlessness in expressing her opinions and for her willingness to wade into previously undecided areas of law. She is perhaps best known for her 2012 opinion decrying the egregious practices of Wells Fargo mortgage company,  In Re: Jones v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Inc.

Magner and her husband Michael, also a prominent lawyer,  purchased a building in the French Quarter in 2014. After a long and meticulous process of restoring the 1837 Creole townhouse to its original glory, they became residents and discovered Cabrini Playground, where they walk their small dogs – Bienville and Toulouse, affectionately known as Benny and Louie.

Armed with a spreadsheet prepared by Magner, the able-bodied members of the Brigade – Wilkinson, Michael Allen, Bob Davis, Steve Mondi, Chris Talley, James Allan, and Magner herself – walked every street in the French Quarter noting and photographing cracks and holes in sidewalks; potholes; missing one-way, stop, or street name signs; missing utility covers; missing street lights; graffiti; and missing or broken trash receptacles.

The result is an important and unprecedented documentation of the deplorable state of the Quarter's infrastructure.

In a letter dated May 24, 2024, addressed to Mayor LaToya Cantrell, at-large City Council members Helena Moreno and Jean Paul Morell, City Council member Freddie King, whose district includes the French Quarter, and the Director of the Department of Public Works Clinton Rick Hathaway, Magner shared the survey results, which paint a bleak picture of the Quarter.

She told them that the survey reveals that there are "27 intersections without any street name signage. Thirty-nine intersections have no crosswalks and some stop signs are turned in the wrong direction or missing."

She also reported that the sidewalks are in major disrepair and cited the surfaces of three streets as being in particularly bad shape. She wrote that "Chartres, Madison, and Wilkinson have roads reminiscent of a third world country," and added, "particular blocks on Conti, St. Ann and Bienville follow close behind."

Magner pleaded with the city authorities to take immediate action in response to the survey.

Whether the city officials will actually respond to the Brigade's report is questionable. None of them have yet done so, despite its having been repeatedly called to their attention. (Editor’s note: On July 31st, FQJ contacted the two At-Large Councilpeople as well as the Quarter’s representative, Freddie King, asking for comment. As of press time, none had responded.)

 In a June 27, 2024 New Orleans Advocate special report ominously entitled "A City Falling Apart," Joseph Cranney noted that despite billions of dollars available to repair and maintain the city's streets, drainage system, and government buildings, the infrastructure continues to deteriorate.

While Cranney acknowledged that New Orleans faces unique challenges caused by its 19th-century drainage system and its swampy terrain, he also pointed out that many of our problems stem from disastrous policy decisions, including those that have led to a reliance on contractors to fulfill basic city services. This practice has severely diminished the public works departments, making them unable to respond quickly and adequately address essential needs.

Cranney also noted that in New Orleans it takes a full year to fill a pothole, while in Baton Rouge or Nashville, it takes about two weeks. Last year, New Orleans' public works department was able to unclog only 2% of the city's storm drains. 

In addition, Cranney pointed out that the city has more than 54,000 streetlights and 400 traffic signals, but employs only two people to ensure they are working. New Orleans has more than 1,500 miles of streets, but only one full-time pothole crew. It recently spent more than $1.1 million on four catch basin trucks, but lacks the manpower to staff them full time.

In her May  letter to Mayor Cantrell and the other officials, Magner noted that the French Quarter is frequently described as "the living room of the city." "If this is so," she said, "our living room is in tatters." She recommended that a defined budget should be set aside for regular maintenance of the Quarter's streets and sidewalks.

But, as Cranney observed, the problem seems not to be money but policy.

The City may or may not respond appropriately to the problems documented by the Cabrini Playground Brigade. But the action taken by the Brigade nevertheless eloquently testifies to the concerns of French Quarter citizens about the deterioration of their neighborhood's infrastructure. 

It also illustrates their willingness to participate in efforts to address civic dysfunction, even as they enjoy the fellowship and beauty afforded by the Cabrini Playground.    

For many residents of the French Quarter, Cabrini Playground is an essential part of the neighborhood, a place that not only provides needed greenspace but also fosters community - and activism.

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