A local pressure campaign to force the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center to use its reserve funds for coronavirus worker relief funding is starting to affect the center’s business.
High demand during the coronavirus crisis has caused prices to rise as much as 14 times the usual cost.
Former-State Rep. Walt Leger, the new board chairman of the Convention Center, says the center will push forward with large, controversial developments despite ongoing coronavirus crisis.
City officials say improvements are being made.
Council members, advocates urge the Convention Center to reconsider its priorities.
Lawsuit says facilities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are not taking precautions against infection, making dangerous outbreaks inevitable. A spokesman for the agency disputes that.
The Convention Center has recently reported somewhere between $185 million and $215 million in unrestricted reserves, which it has accumulated through the collection of locally generated taxes.
Contracts finalized this week total $76 million for the first month, though much of that is likely to be covered by the federal government.
First 120 beds will be ready this weekend, Edwards says.
Workers cleared several sites Thursday morning, boarding people onto buses to take them to temporary accommodations.
