Letter to the Editor: 8.5.26

In 1969, Secretary of Transportation John Volpe halted plans for an elevated expressway slicing through the French Quarter. That wasn’t sentiment — it was Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which required federal agencies to assess harm to historic places, consult with affected communities and invite public comment before breaking ground.

That law is now being dismantled.

A July 17, 2026 draft from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation would make avoiding harm optional, public comment discretionary and a project’s foreseeable ripple effects irrelevant. Mandatory tribal consultation would vanish, along with guaranteed notification for state and local governments. Even iconic cultural landscapes — think the Grand Canyon, not just buildings — could stop counting as “historic properties.”

Louisiana has more at stake than most. Its tourism economy — built on the French Quarter, plantation corridor and historic neighborhoods — depends on those places staying recognizable. Preservation law has kept wrought iron balconies, shotgun houses and centuries-old street grids intact despite relentless pressure to modernize. Strip away that protection, and you jeopardize both livelihoods and the sense of place that defines the state.

Without Section 106, the fate of historic places rests on the tastes of whoever holds power. A leader who favors glass and steel over wrought iron could dismiss the French Quarter as an eyesore and clear the way for high rises. The same logic applies to any landscape deemed to be in the way.

Section 106 did not block every bad idea, but it forced communication. Remove that requirement, and the only thing protecting the French Quarter or the Grand Canyon is whether those in charge happen to like them.

That’s not preservation — it’s whim. Everyone should be alarmed.

SANDRA STOKES

Chair of Advocacy, Louisiana Landmarks Society

New Orleans