City Council to hear critic of Mardi Gras ‘event zone’
Published 2:34 pm Monday, August 27, 2018
By Ken Stickney
A Port Arthur businessman will ask the City Council to reject a buffer zone that would keep merchants and vendors from selling their products right outside the Mardi Gras gates.
In a video posted to Facebook, Hilton Kelley said more restrictions on “mom and pop” vendors who sell their merchandise and food outside the gated Mardi Gras celebration would “marginalize” Port Arthur people from the event held in the city’s downtown.
Kelley is the first listed speaker at the City Council’s 8:30 a.m. Tuesday meeting at City Hall.
Tim Romero, Mardi Gras Southeast Texas chairman, which has hosted Mardi Gras here for 26 years, told council members July 31 that vendors who set up shop outside the Mardi Gras gates siphon away business from merchants inside, who pay fees to do business at the event.
Those who set up shop outside the gates cut into profits for MGST, which uses money earned over four days of Mardi Gras to sustain the event and to help non-profit organizations that established Mardi Gras here.
Romero said MGST pays $100,000 in preparation for the event; it pays $65,000 for city services, including police. He said that investment and preparation keeps Mardi Gras “safe and fun.”
Inside the gates, Romero said, vendors check for IDs for alcohol sales, food is safe and closely monitored and participants celebrate “in complete safety” because of the police presence.
In his posted video, Kelley countered that food and merchandise is as good outside the gates as it is inside, and suggested vendors oftentimes buy their products from the same wholesalers.
Romero said some vendors are leaving the confines of the fenced area and selling outside the gates, skirting almost all of the mandated fees for Mardi Gras.
Kelley said if that’s the case, the Mardi Gras organizers ought to do more to make selling inside the gates attractive to vendors.
Romero had requested the city establish a buffer zone several blocks from the gated area, giving his organization an “event zone” similar to the ones established in New Orleans.
That, Kelley said, was “not fair to the citizens of Port Arthur.”
“This is how regentrification starts,” he said.
William P. Wells is also scheduled to speak on Mardi Gras at the meeting.
