Because nothing like good news and success pushes city bureaucrats to screw something up.... the sanitary success of “Trash King,” Sidney Torres IV, and his company, IV Waste, caused the mayor to got to court to give the contract to someone else, IN SPITE of city councillors, residents, and business owners insisting on his renewal based on his OUTSTANDING work

The district has gleamed since Torres was given an emergency year-long contract last December to handle its waste management, they say. Tourists stumbling out of a Bourbon Street bar around sunrise on any given day can find IV Waste employees power-washing sidewalks, scooping up cigarette butts and spritzing streets with his patented “lemon fresh” cleaning formula. But a judge on Wednesday allowed Mayor LaToya Cantrell to replace IV Waste at the end of July, over the objections of the city council. With a local management district insisting on Torres, this raises the possibility of rival collectors competing for the French Quarter’s garbage.

“Just because they like the other guy, that is not enough,” the mayor’s attorney Charles Rice told the judge, and he said there’s “no reason” to believe a different contractor would do worse.

(because the Mayor and his lawyer can't remember more than a year ago, the stench, and rats?)(Oh, the mayor was elected by the guy who owns the other waste management company, and he's who the mayor wants to give the $73 million dollar contract to)

At stake is the attractiveness of some of the most important city blocks in the country, residents say — New Orleans reports that more than 19 million visitors spent a collective $10 billion last year, and most visited the historic French Quarter.

In a city plagued by dysfunction including constant flooding, treacherous potholes and a massive jailbreak, Torres’ company has become a point of civic pride. The quarter is filled with signs in support of IV Waste.

“It’s not even in the same solar system -- the service they provide versus what others provide,” said Danny Conwill, who owns an oyster bar off Bourbon Street and is suing the mayor to keep IV Waste. He recalls other trash collectors leaving “noxious garbage juices” and heaps of shrimp heads and oyster shells scattered about, leading to rank summer odors bad for business.

After a competitive bidding process last year, the city began negotiating a $73 million contract with another local firm, Henry Consulting, to clean the French Quarter for at least the next five years. But before the deal was finalized, council members grew alarmed that the company did not seem to have the necessary equipment or subcontracts in place as Super Bowl LIX and the annual Mardi Gras celebrations loomed.

https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-french-quarter-garbage-a00a64a2eb5a469758ce43d31847ed88