Mall pulls plug on blue roof Christmas display

METAIRIE, La. -- Frank Evans thought the tiny blue-tarped roofs, little toppled fences and miniature piles of hurricane debris he included in the Christmas display he builds every year for a suburban New Orleans shopping mall struck just the right humorous tone.

Mall management decided otherwise and told Evans, a landscape architect from nearby Gretna, to dismantle it.

"Although most people did enjoy the decorations, a few customers found the display to be in poor taste," said a statement issued Tuesday night by Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie.

Evans videotaped the display before dismantling it. The creation had sat since mid-November among a grand, more traditional display of gleaming Christmas trees, colorful gifts wrapped in holiday paper and Santa's elves on carousel horses.

Situated in a large open plaza in the heart of the mall, the display was 60 feet long, circled by a miniature train that children rode after sitting on Santa's lap. Plush stuffed animals sat atop hills with model trains running on tracks and through tunnels _ and a rescue helicopter circling above.

Bob and Jill Patin of Gentilly liked the "You Loot, We Shoot" graffiti on one of the ruined refrigerators.

"It's priceless," Jill Patin said. The couple, who are rebuilding their home that had wind and flood damage, came to the mall just to see the display, she said. And they weren't alone.

Kim Koster heard about it and brought her camera. "It's like putting Christmas lights up on your FEMA trailer. It just makes you feel better," said the Uptown New Orleans resident, whose home was inundated.

As children rode by on the motorized train, Ray Smith and his wife, Marcia, chuckled at the "Caution -- Operates Only in Good Weather" sign next to a model of a Jefferson Parish pumping station. It was a wry reference to a decision by Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard to evacuate pump operators before Katrina hit on Aug. 29, inundating the area.

Evans has long thrown political humor into his displays. "It's fun for the adults," he said.

When former Gov. Edwin Edwards was facing racketeering charges in 2000 (he's now serving a 10-year sentence) Evans' Christmas scene included a model of a federal prison with a sign that read: "Louisiana Politicians' Retirement Home." It also featured sharks walking upright carrying briefcases.

Following the 2000 presidential race, Evans included two model trains representing each candidate. "The Bush train crossed the finish line, and the Gore train was derailed," Evans said.

This guy has got to be a Freeper. LOL

If he's not, he should be high up on our draft pick list.

Following the 2000 presidential race, Evans included two model trains representing each candidate. "The Bush train crossed the finish line, and the Gore train was derailed," Evans said.

Evans has long thrown political humor into his displays. "It's fun for the adults," he said.
When former Gov. Edwin Edwards was facing racketeering charges in 2000 (he's now serving a 10-year sentence) Evans' Christmas scene included a model of a federal prison with a sign that read: "Louisiana Politicians' Retirement Home." It also featured sharks walking upright carrying briefcases.

Following the 2000 presidential race, Evans included two model trains representing each candidate. "The Bush train crossed the finish line, and the Gore train was derailed," Evans said.

You gotta like this guy. LOL.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1133336559287360.xml

No guffaws from grinch at holiday display

For Frank Evans, designer of Lakeside Shopping Center's holiday display, getting into the spirit of the season this year meant building a Christmas village that riffed on the post-Katrina landscape.

He created a winter wonderland replete not only with churchgoers and trains, but also abandoned refrigerators, houses covered in blue tarpaulins and a storm victim suspended from a helicopter.

Shoppers paused to enjoy the tongue-in-cheek cheer. Some of them did, anyway.

Evans, a landscape architect who has crafted the display for 13 years, removed some of the 2005 features Tuesday on orders from mall management, which said some patrons failed to see the joke. Tricia Thriffiley, Lakeside's marketing director, issued a statement saying that the mall did not "conceive or install" the decorations and did not intend to "hurt anyone's feelings."

"We apologize to those customers who were offended," she said.

The mood was somber around the wintry display Tuesday afternoon. Juanita Landau, who ran the model trains around the dismantled village, said the whole situation was a spoiler for those who had tried to keep up the spirits of shoppers.

"A lot of us are really disappointed," she said, as she offered train rides to children for $1. "It made people light-hearted to see it."

Even Santa Claus, in between sittings with wishful children, complained that some people had no respect for Christmas or free speech.

"I think this is terrible," said Santa, a Metairie resident usually known as John Vollenweider. "It was not done to hurt anyone. It was not done maliciously. This was a sign of the times."

Metairie resident Juni Bowes, who had taken her mother, Sylvia, to see the waggish display, said the designer had tried hard to keep it lifelike, right down to the beams that anchored the tarps to the roofs.

"He took all of that trouble to make it accurate," Bowes said. "We're sad to see it taken down. It was very imaginative."

Evans said he can understand the trauma that some residents experienced during the hurricane. His daughter lost her home near City Park in New Orleans.

After he had broken down the display, removing the tarped houses, mummified fridges and dangling evacuee, he said he was too worn out to redo the village in a more traditional style.

Among the other casualties of the remodeling was a sign affixed to the village pump station in homage to Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, who has incurred the wrath of residents for his decision to evacuate drainage pump operators before Katrina struck Aug. 29. The sign saying "Broussard Pumping Station No. 1" was gone, although the one touting "Works only in good weather" remained.

Spokeswoman Jacqueline Bauer said the Broussard administration had no role in the sign's removal. . . . . . . .

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.