French Quarter Citizens for Preservation of Residential Quality

French Quarter Citizens for Preservation of Residential Quality

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A history of the French Quarter relevant to its residential character will be forthcoming at this site. It is presently being edited down to a concise, meaningful text!

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About our association

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This organization was formed in 1994 to activate interest in the residential nature of the upper French Quarter and focus on quality of life issues in the Vieux Carre. For many years people had begun to view the French Quarter as divided at Dumaine. The lower Quarter was the residential area and the upper Quarter was the commercial area. A former mayor, “Moon” Landrieu acctually proposed in 19__ that the entire upper Quarter be rezoned as commercial. What was ignored in this view was the fact that by far the majority of the upper Quarter is zoned residential. Part of our goal was to emphasize the residential nature of this part of the Quarter, even though we do have many hotels, restaurants, and businesses located here. We feel that we have accomplished this goal. We are now recognized as a vital part of the neighborhood and are known for our activism.

As our organization grew, we realized that we had inadvertently eliminated many people in the Quarter who were interested in joining us in this crusade. So, in 1997, we dropped all location restrictions on our membership. We are now composed of over 200 members from all over the Quarter and the city.

We are an incorporated, non-profit organization. We also have been given a 501k designation by the Internal Revenue Service so that all donations are tax-deductible. We are run strictly by volunteers from our organization. All of our meetings are open to the membership of our organization.

We publish a quarterly newsletter and use this newsletter as a means of keeping our membership informed about important developments in the French Quarter. Always included in this newsletter are all the important telephone numbers relative to life in the Quarter i.e., where you call if a street light is out.

We are very interested in the social community in the Quarter. We believe that the preservation of the French Quarter as a living neighborhood is vital to our survival. We believe that we should get to know our neighbors and reach out to newcomers. We foster a spirit of community by offering members several opportunities each year to get to know each other. We have quarterly membership meetings which are usually a potluck dinner at a member’s home. Our last meeting was a Sunday Champagne Potluck Brunch and was very popular.

We sponsor two public events as a means of raising funds to finance the projects of our organization. Our organization has two historic home tours each year. We have a summer tour and a Christmas tour on the first weekend of December.
We also have a Christmas Party following our Christmas Tour.

Additionally, we sponsor a yearly Progressive Dinner Party. This is a party held at four homes, with each home offering a special course of the dinner. It was started as a way to educate public figures about residential life in the French Quarter by having them in our homes. It also offered our membership the opportunity to not lobby for their favorite issue, but socialize and provide a pleasant evening in beautiful surroundings for people we felt had made a significant contribution to residential preservation during the year. Among the many guests we have entertained are the City Council and the Chief of Police.

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