Arceneaux wounds self over Carnival changes

Carnival krewes often venture into politics as a subject of their parading. But in Shreveport, politics has ventured into carnival krewes’ parading.

In great contrast to his predecessor, Republican Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux has kept things low key and not tried to induce drama into his governance. Until recently, when he began dictating terms to the area’s two oldest and largest Carnival krewes, sticking his head into a hornet’s nest somewhat voluntarily.

About half a year prior to their next parading, the Krewes of Gemini and Centaur received notification of these changes. For many years now they have marched on the first and second Saturdays of Carnival, typically towards the later afternoon beginning at the southern end of downtown on the Clyde Fant Parkway, then hanging a right at Shreveport Barksdale Highway until going left onto East Kings Highway and ending up at Preston Avenue, typically finishing around 8:30 PM. They used to start in Bossier City and crossed over the Shreveport Barksdale Highway Bridge until city officials on the east bank didn’t like to be inconvenienced and kicked them out.

In 2024, the calendar puts Mardi Gras on Feb. 13, and the two krewes alternate Saturdays each year, meaning next year Centaur parades on Feb. 3 and Gemini on Feb. 10. The ecclesiastic calendar on which Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday is based is well established with these dates known far into the future.

That means every so often either Saturday also ends up as the first Saturday of February, which many governments and cultural organizations, including Shreveport, celebrate as African American History Month. For the past 34 years – about as long as the two krewes have marched – various organizations have put together the Shreveport African American Parade on that date. It meanders around the downtown area and in the early afternoon, leaving little room for physical and temporal conflict whenever krewe parade dates coincide.

Except that it does put a strain on city services, mainly public safety, to have both happen so close to each other. This motivated Arceneaux to declare, initially without any negotiation, that changes would occur for 2024, in that krewe parading had to start at 2:30, it could start only around the Stoner Avenue intersection with the Parkway, and that Centaur could not march on Feb. 3.

Arceneaux’s rationale began with increasing public safety incidents over the years that he and police assessed would become less likely the more light was in the sky. But bumping back the time would create greater interference with the African American Parade, so this necessitated a different date. Shortening the route also would create less public safety strain.

Yet that reduction made the least sense since the area customarily used allowed for better marshalling of parade elements, and after launch only had sparse crowds lining the route so initially it would move fairly quickly, not saving much time. Krewes also objected to the earlier time because floats tend to be not so gaudily decorated except for heavy emphasis on the lights.

The date change, however, was the biggest sticking point. At this late date, preparations focused on the traditional date already was well under way for Centaur. Why Arceneaux didn’t pursue these changes immediately after this year’s parades, which could have minimized the amount of controversy, is unknown but betrays inattentiveness.

Crucially, a lot of marketing for tourism purposes goes into northwest Louisiana Carnival. Admittedly, the two parades pale in comparison to their New Orleans-area brethren, but they are two of the largest in number of floats (not so much in float size or number of other elements) in the state and tourism officials estimate hundreds of thousands of people line the route, with a significant portion not from the area. Changing the date at this late date creates all sorts of complications.

It's understandable why Arceneaux would move to a date change, given the situation of an understaffed police department down around 300 officers. Never publicly discussed, however, is why preference was given to the African American Parade. After all, it has a whole month of Saturdays from which to choose, so its rescheduling would seem more logical and, with the possible exception of the earlier start time designed to avoid violence along the route, would have made the need for changes moot.

The answer may lie in electoral calculations. Only unusual circumstances permitted Arceneaux, who is white, to triumph last year in a majority black city with about half of voters registered as Democrats. While he received a significantly smaller proportion of the black vote than did his opponent, black Democrat state Sen. Greg Tarver, that was well above historical norms for a white Republican candidate and attributed to the mixed feelings Tarver stoked among the black electorate.

Chances are in 2026 one or more black Democrats without Tarver’s baggage will contest for the mayoralty and likely one will end up in a runoff against Arceneaux, who would be expected to run for a final term. That would set up difficult dynamics for a repeat triumph, so perhaps Arceneaux’s deference in this instance was an attempt to not alienate potential votes needed in a difficult reelection task – although he should realize this isn’t something that would win him a lot of votes from that bloc.

Regardless of motivation, in net the backlash may end up costing him votes, and has attracted the attention of the state’s top tourism officials, Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser who is running for reelection this fall. After proclaiming the demands non-negotiable, under Nungesser’s and the public’s pressure Arceneaux has begun to soften his stance, now saying the original routes may be run and that negotiations have started with the krewes. Nungesser and he plan to meet on the issue on Sep. 29.

This was an unforced error by Arceneaux. Had he undertaken this months ago, likely any conflict would have remained behind closed doors. And if preference to the African American Parade continues, even if the reason behind that isn’t part of an electoral strategy, politically he will have taken a hit among some city voters – krewe members, Carnival fans, and businesses who profit from the parades – who will see him as a north Louisiana, Republican, male, and pale version of Dorothy Mae Taylor for the impact he will have on krewes.

Further, no matter the outcome, the public nature of the incident’s resolution only draws attention to public safety concerns, where anything but significant progress over the next three years on this almost certainly dooms any reelection chances that Arceneaux may have. This departure from his overall unflashy but steady governance will prove detrimental in that regard.