Freddie King has our support

UPDATE: Councilman Freddie King III was resoundingly re-elected with 64 percent of the votes cast in the Oct. 11 primary.

New Orleans’ 2025 campaign season was barely three weeks old, but one thing was clear from the beginning in the City Council’s District C race: Had either of Councilman Freddie King’s two more vocal challengers been in office four years ago, Newton Street and MacArthur Boulevard would still have the highly unpopular protected bike lanes.

Indeed, bike lanes quickly emerged as a campaign issue in District C, which includes all of Algiers and, on the east bank, Treme, a portion of the Central Business District, the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater. During WDSU’s Hot Seat forum for District C that aired on Aug. 11, Travers Mackel even asked candidates about their views on bike lanes.

King’s main challengers, Kelsey Foster and Jackson Kimbrell, say in campaign materials that they are bicyclists who support bike lanes. Kimbrell wants to expand the city’s protected bike lane network (and is in favor of the Regional Transit Authority’s bus rapid transit plan, which you can read about by clicking here). The Green Party’s Eliot Barron, also is in the District C race, has no campaign website. He was described as a bicycle mechanic in an online Green Party post more than a decade ago, when he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate.

Foster has gone further than the others: When Algiers residents were up in arms in the Spring of 2021 over the protected bike lanes as they were being installed at MacArthur and Holiday Drive, Foster signed a petition circulated by the bike lane advocacy group New Orleans Complete Streets Coalition. In its petition, the coalition urged people to tell city officials that they “support the Moving New Orleans ‘low-stress’ bikeway network being built in Algiers,” at a time when Algiers residents wanted them removed.

In other words, Foster stood against an untold number of Algiers residents who disliked the “protected” bike lanes — voters in her future political endeavor.

To be clear, we at Our Streets see nothing wrong with bike lanes, provided they’re sensibly placed, have wide public support and are properly maintained.

‘Bike infrastructure in Algiers’

Foster is an Algiers Point resident who resigned her job as executive director of the Algiers Economic Development Foundation to run for the District C seat. She quickly sought support from the city’s bicycling population, primarily those on the east bank where bike lane advocates were rallying in light of two bicyclist fatalities on St. Claude Avenue in July.

She courted bicyclists who follow the Facebook site Bike Uneasy, referring to them as “friends.” In doing so, Foster cozied up to a group whose leadership and core members meted out harsh treatment against Algiers residents — many by name — merely because they opposed the bike lanes on MacArthur, Newton and Holiday Drive.

“Given the important conversations happening right now around Safer St. Claude, the history of bike infrastructure in Algiers, and the future of all our safety I thought it was important for this group to be invited,” she wrote on Bike Uneasy’s page in inviting them to her east bank campaign kickoff event at a Bywater craft brewery.

In referencing “the history of bike infrastructure in Algiers,” Foster was referring to the 2.2 miles of bike lanes on MacArthur and Newton that were removed. Of the city’s ongoing Moving New Orleans – Bikes plan to build a citywide connected network of bike lanes, Algiers is the only area where bike lanes have been removed. Foster recognizes that bike lane advocates did not want to see this replicated elsewhere in the city.

And clearly, given his role in representing the demands of his Algiers constituency to have the bike lanes removed, Councilman King has drawn the ire of the Bike Uneasy crowd, among other bicycling advocates. Foster likely realizes this.

Brutal treatment

Among Bike Uneasy’s targets in Algiers four years ago was a Huntlee Village widow who cares for a special needs son. Like many others in Algiers, she was unhappy with City Hall’s bike lane designs on MacArthur. Two of MacArthur’s four car lanes were given to bicyclists. Residents who lost curbside parking in front of their homes gazed out at the white plastic bollards adhered to the roadway.

Yet, too few bicyclists used the bike lanes (and the city never attempted to credibly count the bicyclists). The bike lanes that remain in Algiers continue to be poorly maintained.

In August 2021, Tall Timbers Owner Association president Gilbert Crowden organized the “Algiers bike bollard march,” for Algiers residents who opposed the MacArthur bike lanes. Its terminus was at Alice M. Harte Charter School, where a political debate was planned. Then-candidate Freddie King was among the participants.

Word of Mr. Crowden’s event reached the Bike Uneasy crowd, who traveled from east bank to join a few Algiers riders. They pedaled through and ahead of the marchers on MacArthur and waited for them to arrive at the school. A passing bicyclist chastised an Algiers resident for standing in the bike lane.

At Alice Harte, Bike Uneasy’s leader used his cell phone to video record marchers as they arrived, some carrying our “Our Streets Our Choice” signs. The Huntlee Village woman did not care for it and let it be known. He video recorded her angry reaction, one she has repeatedly regretted.

For that, this community-minded Algiers widow was brutalized in memes and in the video they posted on their Facebook page in which it was suggested that she committed what essentially was a simple battery (the posts were later removed, but the damage was done). You can click here to see our video of the bollards march. It includes an image of the Bike Uneasy leader video recording the Huntlee Village widow a moment after the altercation.

In fairness to Foster, when she recently aligned herself with Bike Uneasy’s followers, maybe she was unaware that social media site was the rallying point for bicyclists who treated Algiers residents — voters — with disrespect.

We clearly haven’t forgotten.

Reduce car lanes on St. Claude?

Foster has joined the chorus of bicyclists who want bike lanes installed on St. Claude Avenue. Councilman King has engaged on the issue as well and organized a community meeting attended by spokespeople for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

The 4-lane avenue is a state highway — Louisiana 46, which winds its way from Elysian Fields through the Faubourg Marigny, Bywater, the Ninth Ward, bisecting Jackson Barracks and on into St. Bernard Parish. The state transportation department must be on board with St. Claude Avenue changes. During Councilman King’s community meeting, the agency announced a $500,000 study of the corridor.

No doubt, St. Claude Avenue corridor neighborhoods have far more bicyclists than Algiers’ bedroom communities. The need for bike lanes is greater in that part of the city, we believe. Foster has joined the effort there, called “Safer St. Claude.” In a recent campaign email, Foster opined for the need for “parking protected bike lanes” on St. Claude Avenue, at the same grade as the sidewalks. That suggests she supports implementing a bike lane design on St. Claude that is somewhat similar to what City Hall installed on MacArthur Boulevard.

Are all residents along the St. Claude Avenue corridor fully aware of this (including the St. Bernard Parish residents who rely heavily on the roadway)?

‘Another bike lane death’

On July 22, Foster appeared before the City Council’s Transportation Committee and urged its chairman District D Councilman Eugene Green to “be bold” when advocating with state officials about a need for bike lanes on St. Claude Avenue.

In her public comment, Foster introduced herself as an Algiers Point resident, “a former service industry worker in the French Quarter, a bike commuter, a transit rider and a candidate for New Orleans City Council District C.”

“And I can’t stress this enough as an Algierine, we must also be brave when we are hearing from the community that these lives are the cost of convenience,” she told Councilman Green. “And I think that’s really what has been so frustrating to so many of us as we watch another, and another and another bike lane death and another ghost bike go up.”

Perhaps she misspoke when she said “another bike lane death”?

She did not mention that she recently resigned her job as the nonprofit Algiers Economic Development Foundation’s executive director.

The AEDF is a member of the New Orleans Complete Streets Coalition. So, too, are the nonprofit Bike Easy, the University of New Orleans, the AARP and many others.

The Complete Streets Coalition promotes bike lanes. The group is aligned with People for Bikes, a Colorado-based bicycling advocacy and industry group that, among other things, provided more than $2.6 million to the City of New Orleans to help shape public perceptions of bike lanes.

The Complete Streets Coalition, whose Facebook page at one point was sponsored by People for Bikes, doles out “activation mini-grants” in New Orleans to promote bike lanes.

In other words, national bicycling industry and advocacy dollars have been pushed down into New Orleans neighborhoods to promote bike lanes.

When Algiers residents were up in arms over the bike lanes on MacArthur, Newton and Holiday Drive, the Complete Streets Coalition’s leadership launched a public relations campaign urging support of Algiers’ bike lanes. The group published a handful of puff pieces with polished photographs that cast the bike lanes in a favorable light.

When Our Streets Our Choice created an online petition on April 1, 2021, urging City Hall to rethink the bike lane designs in Algiers and to base bike lane placement decisions on empirical evidence, the Complete Streets Coalition responded with a petition of its own less than two weeks later. They defended the bike lanes.

Addressed “to city officials,” petitioners said, “thank you for continuing to move our community forward by constructing these Complete Streets improvements for the benefit of Algiers and the entire New Orleans community!”

Foster signed that petition, thanking City Hall for putting its protected bike lanes in our neighborhoods.

Councilman King’s predecessor in the District C seat, Kristin Palmer, championed the Algiers bike lanes. She lost a bid for one of the council’s at-large seat in 2021. A look at election returns showed that Palmer lost in all Algiers precincts along MacArthur and Newton.

More than bike lanes

We appreciate Councilman King’s work with the Algiers bike lanes. There’s much more to appreciate about him on the east and west banks.

He has a record of being responsive to his individual constituents’ needs and concerns. He ensures our concerns reach the appropriate municipal agency heads, whether the Sewerage & Water Board, Parks & Parkways or the Department of Public works.

He has been instrumental in arranging public meetings to ensure his constituents are informed and their voices are heard. For instance:

• Amid Algiers’ bike lane controversy, he organized a well-attended community meeting at Alice M. Harte Charter School to hear public comments about the bike lanes. Hundreds of people attended the meeting and overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to how City Hall redesigned MacArthur and Newton.
• When a wedge of salt water worked its way up the Mississippi River, threatening our drinking water, Councilman King facilitated a meeting at which U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Sewerage & Water Board officials discussed their plans for Algiers residents.
• He invited the Regional Transit Authority to discuss its bus rapid transit plans, a matter of vital interest to West Bank residents because it involves giving exclusive access of the Crescent City Connection’s HOV lanes to public buses.

He regularly attends neighborhood civic association meetings and is responsive to these organizations’ concerns as well. He facilitates communication among these associations, including those whose members’ nerves were frayed by raucous nightlight activities at the former Aurora Country Club (Councilman King helped shut that down).

During his tenure as the District C representative, DeGaulle Manor has been demolished, removing one of the city’s blighted properties. He worked with the New Orleans Recreational Department through providing funding to build the George V. Rainey Natatorium opened at Morris FX Jeff Sr. Park, the Skelly Rupp Stadium baseball field and its well-used pickleball courts.

He secured $8 million to stabilize the Touro-Shakespeare Home so it can be renovated for housing. As a member of the Algiers Development District’s board of commissioners, he’s been involved in two new housing projects at Federal City, one a newly constructed apartment building and the other being the renovation of the Navy’s Building 4, dating to 1904 and which is being converted into apartments.

He helped make the Burmaster Transfer Station a reality by working with Gretna officials to provide Algiers residents with a bulk recycling drop-off point.

On the east bank, Councilman King secured funding to redevelop the city-owned former Naval Support Activity in Bywater, where a technology start-up plans to locate. He introduced legislation to save the city’s parklets that benefitted many businesses and ended a 50-year-long monopoly on food pushcarts in the French Quarter. He also fought to keep IV Waste for sanitation services in the French Quarter.

Notably, he stopped the New Orleans Police Department’s bid to require social aid and pleasure clubs to obtain $5 million in insurance for including trolleys in second lines. He was instrumental in shuttering Iggy’s bar on North Rampart Street, a business that gave Faubourg Marigny neighbors heartburn. He decommissioned homeless encampments under the Claiborne Avenue overpass.

King did his job

Before he was elected, Councilman King, whose law practice is on Newton Street, had already joined with his neighboring business owners along that corridor to ask the Cantrell Administration to rethink the design that was turning off customers after the bike lanes there were installed in 2020. The Newton Street business owners’ complaints fell on deaf ears at City Hall.

So Councilman King was understandably sympathetic to our complaints after he was elected to the City Council. He listened to his constituents and met with bike lane proponents, including Bike Easy and Algiers Street Riders’ leadership. He asked the Cantrell Administration to consider other bike lane designs — he heard nothing in response. He did his job as an elected official.

His first piece of legislation concerned the Algiers bike lanes. As chairman of the Community Development Committee, he presided over a public hearing in City Council Chambers. Voices from both sides of the bike lane controversy were heard.

When the City Council voted unanimously on Sept. 15, 2022 in adopting Councilman King’s proposal to have the MacArthur and Newton bike lanes removed, the bicycling community was enraged. One of the city’s more outspoken bike lane proponents said on social media that they’d find someone to challenge Councilman King when he was up for re-election.

That time is now. He faces two challengers whose platforms include installing more protected bike lanes. So far, his challengers have said nothing specifically about expanding the bike lane network in Algiers. We assure you, the city proposes to put protected bike lanes on Gen. Meyer Avenue, Woodland Drive and even the on the Woodland bridge.

We’re sticking with Councilman King. We hope you do the same.

Early voting begins Sept. 27. The primary election is Oct. 11. The general election is Nov. 15.