(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . With Jazz Fest parking scarce, neighborhood residents rake in big money for street spots [1] ['Josie Abugov', 'More Josie Abugov', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-05-03 For Derrick Mack, the eight days of the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival can mean thousands of dollars in income. On the morning of The Rolling Stones’ performance on Thursday (May 2), Mack stood outside his childhood home on Onzaga Street as cars turned the corner. All around his neighborhood just blocks from the Fair Grounds, tourists and locals began parking, boozing and heading into the festival. Some residents of the neighborhood, meanwhile, were setting up stands to sell food, drinks, souvenirs or parking spots. Mack called out to a passing driver and asked whether they wanted to park in front of his house, where he was selling spots — which are technically public property — for up to $75 per day, depending on time, popularity of the artists and his own whims. The driver rejected the offer, but Mack was not discouraged. It wasn’t even 10 a.m and he’s been selling Jazz Fest parking spots for decades. Back when he was a kid, Mack, now 40, would sell the same spots for around $5 per day. He and his family members increased the price over the years, as they competed with their neighbors in the informal, but cutthroat, Jazz Fest parking economy. “It’s just a seniority and a territorial type of thing,” he said. “The people over there can’t park people over here. I wouldn’t go park cars on their side.” It can get tense if one neighbor tries to give away a spot in front of another neighbor’s house. But this year, so far, the free market has been self-regulating. As parking spot prices in the neighborhood reached up to $80 a day, Mack gave two spots to the same people on all four days of the festival’s first weekend for only $40 a day. He gave the $320 from these two cars — only a portion of his total revenue — to his kids. McCall Washington waits for Jazz Fest visitors to park in the lot his uncle owns on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Nearby residents can charge a premium for the spots in front of their homes because finding a parking spot in the neighborhood is a major challenge during Jazz Fest, which draws between 400,000 and 500,000 attendees every year. Street parking in much of the surrounding area is technically restricted to residents. Parking there without a residential permit can carry a fine of $75. The festival offers onsite parking only to guests with certain VIP packages, and a limited number of first-come-first-serve accessible spaces. The festival website encourages visitors to use a special Jazz Fest shuttle, public transportation or ride share apps. Other Jazz Fest veterans urged newcomers to park in a nearby school, such as Cabrini High School, or another pay lot. Some people in the neighborhood advertised street parking in front of their houses on cardboard signs stuck to trash cans. Others, like Mack, opted out of written promotions and simply called out to passing cars. One street parking entrepreneur in the neighborhood, who spoke to Verite News but did not provide his name, put wooden planks over plastic chairs blocking the street parking in front of his Gentilly Boulevard house. A woman asked if he would hold an empty spot for her – either in his nearby driveway or in front of the house – if she returned in a few hours, closer to the Stones performance. The seller agreed for a $30 fee. Charley Guzzardo advertises parking at the lot her family owns on Gentilly Boulevard as rows of cars stall in Jazz Fest traffic. Credit: Josie Abugov / Verite News Similar to Mack, this unnamed resident said he used to sell parking for only a few dollars when he first moved to the area in 1998, but now he charges $30, which he said is his max. Blake Duke, who’s lived on Gentilly Boulevard for nearly a decade, said the extra bucks people make from selling parking spots are a “nice bonus for the inconvenience of losing your house for two weeks.” “Like any special event, it’s usually frustrating for the homeowner,” he said. Though street parking theoretically requires a residential permit, the policy is seldom enforced, he said, which creates a weeks-long hassle for residents, particularly those who don’t have driveways. Duke doesn’t have an organized operation like Mack, but he has sold his driveway spots for $30 or $40. Usually, he holds the spots for friends or family, who often give him food in exchange for the parking. Not every neighborhood parking enterprise is operated under the counter. The Buras family sells spots – paying their taxes on the proceeds – at the lot they own right next to the fairgrounds. Robert Buras called himself a “third generation parker” — the giant dinosaur figurine at the gates of the lot represents the Buras family operation as the oldest Jazz Fest lot, he said. Buras’ grandma first owned the lot, which once held a barn and a house, and she refused to sell after the Fair Grounds “bought everybody out,” Buras said. (The Gentilly Boulevard lot is surrounded on three sides by Fair Grounds property.) Family members Robert Buras and Charley Guzzardo stand in front of their family-owned lot which borders Fair Grounds property on three sides. Credit: Josie Abugov / Verite News During the racing season, the family could fit thirteen trailers in the lot and twenty horses in the barn, which had a direct path to the Fair Grounds. But when Jazz Fest came along, the Fair Grounds fenced the lot in, blocking the horse trail from the family property to the racing grounds. “Long story short, the barn eventually fell down, so we had more room to park cars,” Buras said. “Katrina blew a wall of the house down, so my uncle knocked the house down. Now it’s one big lot and we park cars.” Buras didn’t want to comment on the number of cars that can fit in the family-run operation, but a row of ten cars were parked in the mostly-empty lot. On Stones Day, prices ranged from $65 for regular cars and $80 for trucks, five dollars higher than the Jazz Fest rates on all other days. The prices at the lot are higher than what the nearby schools and nonprofits charge because of taxes, Buras said, with 12.5% of the parking proceeds going to taxes. “We’re the Cadillac lot, the highest priced lot,” he said. “Because we are the closest lot. We don’t mess your car up. We are family members, all the people working.” As Buras’ younger relative Charley Guzzardo waved a parking sign on Gentilly Boulevard., Buras backed rows of cars into the lot, so that drunk festival goers wouldn’t have to reverse on their drive back home, he said. “Reversing is not good when you’re drunk,” he noted. Back on Onzaga Street around noon, a few blocks from the festival, the empty spaces in front of Mack’s house began to fill up. He watched the three cars as he chatted with passersby and told prospective customers his rates. Despite his plans to charge folks up to $75, he charged the three cars only $50. 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