Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana, It’s Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, but there is one big change this year. Police are enforcing a new curfew for teens.

New Orleans Mardi Gras is an intoxicating splendor to see, especially for wide-eyed kids. But they shouldn’t see everything.

So New Orleans police is enforcing a big change to the city’s curfew. No one under 16 is allowed alone in the French Quarter after 8 p.m. Commander Jeffery Walls says, “We were having kids that were being victims of crime and perpetrators of crime.”

Walls runs the New Orleans Police precinct in the French Quarter. He says, “At night it turns into more of an adult entertainment area.”

The clock has struck 8 p.m. in Jackson Square in New Orleans and now it’s time for the crazier side of the French Quarter to come alive. Maria Munoz Silva was walking with her children and was asked if this was a good place for children after 8 p.m. She says, “No not, down here, crowds are getting rowdy and seeing things they shouldn’t see, don’t tell them that.”

So just how many youngsters are running around unsupervised at night? New Orleans police say during this Mardi Gras 170 have been arrested so far for violating the curfew, that’s 20 percent of all Mardi Gras related arrests.

This seems to be one of the harder parts of enforcing this curfew is just how do you find someone under the age of 16 in a crowd like that.

Charles Dorsey sees underage revelers every night while he sells New Orleans Lucky Dogs. And also sees 17-year-olds taking care of 13-year-olds. He says, “You’ve got children watching children. That’s not a good combo.”

Curfew supporters say the French Quarter’s wild side is just too dangerous. And some sights are so bizarre, they just can’t be explained to a kid.

Jackson Square, New Orleans

Jackson Square, New Orleans, Jackson Square, also known as Place d’Armes, is a historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Jackson Square was designed after the famous 17th-century Place des Vosges in Paris, France, by the architect and landscape architect Louis H. Pilié. Jackson Square is roughly the size of a city block (GPS +29.95748 -090.06310).

Chartres Street side of Jackson Square in 1842, showing the Cathedral before remodeling and some of the structures later replaced by the Pontalba Buildings. Lithograph from daguerreotype by Jules Lion.

Jackson Square in 1885
Early French colonial New Orleans was originally centered around what was then called the Place d’ Armes (Spanish: Plaza de Armas). After the Battle of New Orleans, in 1815, the Place d’ Armes was renamed Jackson Square after the victorious United States general Andrew Jackson. In the center of the park stands an equestrian statue of Jackson erected in 1856, one of four identical statues in the United States by the sculptor Clark Mills.

The square originally overlooked the Mississippi River across Decatur Street, but the view was blocked in the 19th century by the building of taller levees. The riverfront was long devoted to shipping docks. The 20th-century administration of Mayor Moon Landrieu installed a scenic boardwalk on top of the levee to reconnect the city to the river; it is known as the “Moon Walk” in his honor.

On the north side of the square are three 18th‑century historic buildings, which were the city’s heart in the colonial era. The center of the three is St. Louis Cathedral. The cathedral was designated as a minor Basilica by Pope Paul VI. To its left is the Cabildo, the old city hall, now a museum, where the final version of the Louisiana Purchase was signed. To the Cathedral’s right is the Presbytère, built to match the Cabildo. The Presbytère originally housed the city’s Roman Catholic priests and authorities; at the start of the 19th century, it was adapted as the city hall, and in the 20th century became a museum.

The Place d’Armes was the prime site for the public execution of disobedient slaves during the 18th and early 19th centuries. After the 1811 German Coast Uprising, three slaves were hanged here. The heads from their dismembered bodies were put on the city’s gates.

In the Reconstruction era, the Place d’Armes served as an arsenal. During the insurrection following the disputed 1872 gubernatorial election, in March 1873, it was the site of the Battle of Jackson Square. A several-thousand man militia under John McEnery, the Democratic claimant to the office of the Governor, defeated the New Orleans militia, seizing control of the state’s buildings and armory for a few days. They retreated before the arrival of Federal forces, which re-established control temporarily in the state.