DeLesseps Story Morrison - Morrison As Mayor

Morrison As Mayor

As mayor, Morrison put together a strong public relations team which helped him cultivate an image as a dynamic reformer and won him widespread praise in the national press. Morrison marketed the city effectively, and was instrumental in creating the post-World War II image of New Orleans as a growing and progressive Sun Belt metropolis. His administration attracted significant private investment and welcomed the establishment of numerous oil industry white collar corporate offices in downtown New Orleans, as well as several sizable new industrial plants elsewhere. To favorably contrast himself with the alleged dictatorial inclinations of his predecessor Maestri, Morrison worked to get a law passed to reduce the powers of the mayor. He created a new city planning commission and moved to make administration more efficient by firing many of Maestri's patronage appointments (though some were replaced with Morrison's own supporters). He also downsized city operations by selling off most of the city's public markets, which led to most of them being torn down. He addressed a housing crisis by building veterans’ housing operated by the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and engaged in more large-scale urban renewal than any other New Orleans mayor. Morrison's administration demolished low-income neighborhoods to build new or expand existing public housing projects, and further private property was expropriated to permit the construction of the New Orleans Civic Center, the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal and several street widening projects in the city's downtown. One of his most popular actions was to create the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD), which included segregated facilities for whites and blacks. He began an extensive citywide street improvement program financed though a bond issue, and located funding sufficient to construct numerous street overpasses and underpasses, eliminating most at-grade railway crossings within the city limits. Morrison acquiesced in New Orleans Public Service's dismantling of the city's extensive streetcar network in the 1950s.

A proponent of increased international trade, Morrison lent his support to the construction of the International Trade Mart - precursor to the city's World Trade Center - and traveled extensively in Latin America to promote trade with New Orleans. He became friends with dictators Rafael Trujillo and Juan Perón. Morrison's wish to reinforce ties with Latin America even found expression in his urban renewal efforts, as new central area circulators were embellished with monuments to Central and South American historical figures. In particular, the widened Basin Street was outfitted with monuments to Simón Bolívar, Benito Juárez, and Francisco Morazán. The statue of Simón Bolívar was particularly prominently sited and still stands at the corner of Canal and Basin streets. Another new circulator, in Central City, was bestowed with the name Simon Bolivar Avenue.

Despite running on a platform stressing the elimination of the Old Regular machine, after his election Morrison quickly built his own political organization, the Crescent City Democratic Association. Modelling itself on the Old Regular system of ward and precinct captains, the CCDA began finding its supporters jobs in City Hall and in municipal construction contracts. Further proof of Morrison's ability to be hard-nosed was provided in October 1946, when he broke a garbage collectors’ strike by organizing volunteer scab labor to take over the duties of the striking workers. His organization's power quickly eclipsed that of the Old Regulars, and he secured easy re-elections in 1950, 1954, and 1958. Morrison also pushed for a new city charter in 1954, which replaced the at-large council commission system with a legislative city council which combined five district-based and two at-large members. The system of municipal government established by the 1954 charter still operates in New Orleans.

In 1954, Morrison attended the inauguration of newly-elected Mayor James Creswell Gardner of Shreveport, who served a single four-year term. Gardner undertook similar reforms in Shreveport of the kind that Morrison had initiated in New Orleans. The two became good friends over the years though Gardner was considered more conservative than Morrison.

In 1950, Morrison was elected president of the National Municipal Association. In 1953, he won the organization's LaGuardia Award, named for former New York City Mayor Fiorello Henry LaGuardia.