EVANS CUTCHMORE

CIVIC COMMENTARY

They Got The Warning, We Got The Bill. 

The Algiers Bike Lane Debacle Has a Paper Trail - and the City Has No Excuse

By Kim M. Braud  |  Evans Cutchmore

Let me be direct with you, because I live here too.

The protected bike lanes on MacArthur Boulevard and Newton Street are gone. The City Council voted them out 7-0 in September 2022. The physical removal happened in July 2023. That chapter is closed.

But the story is not over, because what this episode reveals about how the City of New Orleans treats Algiers is still true today. The city is still planning more infrastructure across New Orleans. The same governance failure that produced this debacle has not been fixed. And the full story, including a paper trail the city cannot deny, has never been told completely.

Let’s tell it now.

May 2020: The Mayor Holds a Press Event. Nobody Asked the Neighbors.

In May 2020, during the early days of Louisiana’s COVID-19 shutdown, Mayor LaToya Cantrell stood on Newton Street in Algiers and celebrated the launch of an 11-mile bike lane network. Wearing a safety vest, she used a roller to apply lime-green paint to the street. She called it a “pretty historic” day.

The people who worked and owned businesses on that very block were not there. Most of them had no idea it was happening. In fact, most of them had no idea the bike lanes were coming at all.

There had been community meetings in 2019, held on Zoom during a pandemic, with virtually no direct outreach to residents or business owners. Only 43 Algiers residents attended across two meetings, in a community of more than 53,000 people. The city later admitted no emails or letters were directly sent to the businesses on Newton Street.

June 2020: The Businesses Wrote a Letter. The Mayor Never Responded.

Just weeks after that press event, the Newton Street United Small Business Owners - a mechanic shop, a brake tag station, a lounge, two beauty salons, a barber shop, an event hall, and a law office - sent a formal letter to Mayor Cantrell dated June 22, 2020.

They were not anti-bike lane. They said so clearly: “We realize the benefits bike lanes bring to a community. They provide safety for those commuting on bikes, help promote a healthy and active lifestyle, help with business growth in the community.”

But they documented specific, immediate harms:

•  A customer’s vehicle was struck by a passing car as she exited because the new parking configuration forced cars to park inches from moving traffic.

•  Cars exiting side streets at Hendee, Sumner, and Wagner had to pull halfway into traffic just to see if it was clear.

•  Senior and handicap customers were being pushed dangerously close to high-speed traffic.

•  Half of the available parking on the block was eliminated, leaving eight businesses competing for five spots.

•  99% of the businesses received zero communication - no letter, no email, no notice of any meeting.

The letter closed with a direct request: a written response from the mayor within seven days and a meeting to discuss solutions. They described the situation as “vital as a heartbeat to us” because it was affecting their livelihoods.

That response never came.

A Note on One of the Signatories

Among the business owners who signed that June 2020 letter was Atty. Freddie King III of The King Law Firm - whose office was located on the same block of Newton Street directly affected by the bike lanes. King was not yet a politician. He was a neighbor and a business owner who felt blindsided by the city’s actions, just like everyone else on that street.

He later ran for City Council District C. His first act in office was to introduce the resolution that ultimately led to the lanes’ removal. Whether you agree with that outcome or not, it is worth understanding that the man who led the charge to remove the bike lanes started as a constituent - one who wrote to the mayor about safety concerns in June 2020 and never heard back.

Let’s Clear Up the “Our Streets Our Choice” Confusion

If you saw yard signs around Algiers and assumed residents were asking for the bike lanes - that is an understandable misread. The “Our Streets Our Choice” signs were from the community group that formed in early 2021 specifically to oppose the protected bike lane designs. The name was their message to the city: these are our streets, and we should have had a choice in how they were redesigned.

That group planted more than 100 signs at Algiers intersections, distributed about 1,500 flyers, and organized the sustained community opposition that ultimately led to the unanimous council vote. They were never pro-bike lane. They were pro-community input - and they were right to demand it.

To be fair, there were also Algiers residents and cyclists who supported keeping the lanes. This was not a completely one-sided community debate. But the dominant, organized, sustained voice in Algiers proper was opposition - from people who live and drive these streets every day.

The Three-Layer Fiscal Failure

Here is where the waste compounds itself.

Layer One: Installation without consent.

The city spent nearly $400,000 to install just the Newton Street portion of the bike lanes in 2020. The MacArthur Boulevard cost was never publicly disclosed. Neither project had meaningful community consent. The city knew this as early as June 2020 when the business owners’ letter landed on the mayor’s desk.

Layer Two: A vote with no budget.

The City Council voted 7-0 in September 2022 to remove the lanes and gave the Department of Public Works 60 days to act. That deadline passed. DPW and the mayor’s chief administrative office pointed fingers at each other over authority. Nobody had set aside a single dollar to fund the removal they had just unanimously voted for.

Layer Three: A million-dollar correction.

By December 2022, the City Council inserted $300,000 into the DPW budget from the city’s operating fund, with an additional $700,000 earmarked from the right-of-way maintenance budget - up to $1 million total. Removal did not begin until July 2023, nearly three years after the original complaint letter and almost a full year after the council vote.

Algiers taxpayers paid to install infrastructure they did not want, were not consulted on, and formally complained about within weeks. Then they paid up to a million dollars more to undo it.

The Timeline the City Cannot Explain Away

May 2020: Mayor Cantrell holds press event on Newton Street celebrating bike lane installation.

June 22, 2020: Newton Street business owners send formal letter to Mayor Cantrell documenting harms and requesting a response within 7 days. No response is ever received.

Early 2021: “Our Streets Our Choice” coalition forms as community opposition grows.

Late 2021: Freddie King III runs for City Council District C, with bike lane removal as a central issue. He wins.

January 2022: King’s first act in office is to introduce a resolution calling for review of the Algiers bike lanes.

September 15, 2022: City Council votes 7-0 to remove the protected bike lanes. 60-day deadline set. No funding allocated.

November 2022: 60-day deadline passes. Nothing has happened. DPW and CAO blame each other.

December 2022: City Council allocates $300,000 from operating budget; up to $1 million total committed for removal.

July 2023: Removal finally begins, nearly three years after the business owners’ first letter. Work is completed by August 2023.

The Lesson That Still Has Not Been Learned

The bike lanes are gone. But the city’s infrastructure plans for New Orleans are still moving forward. More bike corridors are planned, including on Woodland Drive and Holiday Drive in Algiers. The structural problem, a city that acts before it listens,  remains.

After the September 2022 vote, At-Large Councilmember JP Morrell introduced an ordinance requiring the Department of Public Works to conduct more robust community engagement before making future street changes. That is a step in the right direction. But an ordinance only works if it is enforced, and only if communities stay loud enough to demand it.

The Newton Street business owners wrote a letter in June 2020 that should have stopped this entire chain of events before it cost taxpayers a million dollars. They documented safety hazards. They documented a failure of notification. They asked for a response.

The city ignored them for three years.

That is the real story. Not the bike lanes. Not the bollards. The fact that residents and business owners in Algiers put their concerns in writing, sent them to the highest office in the city, and were treated as if they did not exist - until enough of them organized, voted, and forced the city’s hand.

Photo courtesy of https://ourstreetsourchoicecoalition.com/algiers-bike-lanes-removed/

Kim M. Braud is a strategist, writer, and founder working in the areas of economic power, cultural narrative, and community leadership. With expansive experience across financial services, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit leadership, her writing explores who controls systems, who benefits from them, and who gets left out. Her work centers on economic mobility, institutional accountability, and the stories we inherit, and the ones we choose to dismantle.