This year in the Big Easy, Mardi Gras is about much more than the annual Carnival celebration.

Standing before giant floats, costumed krewe members and a ceremonial king cake last weekend, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on the first day of Mardi Gras touted the tricentennial celebration of his city, noting its rich history and French beginnings 300 years ago.

“Listen — this is our Tricentennial year,” Landrieu said. “It’s very special for all of us to celebrate with the world the history of the great city of New Orleans, our culture, our music, our art, and essentially the greatest asset that we have, which is our people.”

San Antonio also is celebrating its tricentennial this year. It shares certain qualities with New Orleans: Both are major American cities bisected by rivers and known for their unique art, culture and history. They’re both majority-minority cities with revered native cuisine and deep ties to the military and the Catholic Church.

The two cities also took a similar approach to organizing their respective celebrations. Both created committees to oversee Tricentennial-themed events throughout the year, raised private funds for legacy projects and partnered with existing institutions, such as Mardi Gras krewes in New Orleans and Fiesta groups in San Antonio.

More Information Key San Antonio Tricentennial Events Jan. 15 - Martin Luther King March, 50th anniversary Jan. 13-June 1 - Gathering at the Water : 12,000 Years of People, Witte Museum exhibit Feb. 17-May 13 - San Antonio 1718: Art from Viceregal Mexico, San Antonio Museum of Art Feb. 23 - Voices of the Alamo: The Return of the Couriers, Alamo Couriers Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas March 7 - Intra-University Partnership: Mujeres en Accion, Our Lady of the Lake University March 10 - Canary Islands - San Antonio at the XXI Century, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio April 6-April 8 - Hemisfair 50th Anniversary, Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corp. April 28 - Battle of Flowers Parade “300 Timeless Treasures” May 1-May 6 - Commemorative Week

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But only New Orleans shaped its celebration without controversy, a result of a better use of resources, more engaged leadership and less dependency on municipal government.

Avoiding scandal — no small feat for New Orleans — the Crescent City kicked off its Tricentennial in November, the same month San Antonio’s Tricentennial Commission executive director, Edward Benavides, resigned under a self-described cloud of “negativity.”

Both cities tied their annual New Year’s Eve celebrations to their tricentennials. New Orleans secured coverage from Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, based in New York’s Times Square, and had the Imagine Dragons headline the show.

San Antonio hosted nearly 90,000 revelers at Hemisfair with a lengthy lineup, topped by REO Speedwagon, a selection made without consultation by Benavides.

Under Benavides, the Tricentennial Commission was criticized by former and current board members as ineffective and disorganized, among other things. The commission has shored up many of the shortcomings since his departure.

On Friday, Carlos Contreras, an assistant city manager who was the interim executive director, was named as the permanent director. He and Vanessa Hurd, now the deputy director of the commission, have been working to ensure San Antonio’s celebrations reflect the stature of the Alamo City.

In New Orleans, tricentennial organizers created a private foundation to handle all donations and spending, avoiding legal obligations with government contracting. In San Antonio, the City Council created a nonprofit government corporation, and the Tricentennial Commission acts as an arm of the city.

Benavides and his then-lieutenant, Asia Ciaravino, negotiated an exclusive media partnership with KSAT-TV, where Benavides’ brother is a producer, without seeking other proposals — until City Manager Sheryl Sculley received complaints about it.

In New Orleans, a tricentennial commission largely removed from city government didn’t face the same scrutiny.

“The reason why we wanted to create the foundation and bring private funds in was to avoid having to bid things out, to be honest with you,” said Hyma Moore, a communications adviser to Landrieu.

The structure allowed organizers to expedite planning and contracting, he said.

At the New Orleans City Hall, moments after signing a sister-city agreement with its French city of origin, Orléans, Landrieu told the San Antonio Express-News that he was interested in collaborating with San Antonio officials on aspects of their celebrations.

“I am hopeful that international dignitaries that might come to visit us would also visit San Antonio simultaneously, especially from those countries that we have a common heritage, Spain particularly,” he said. “We have a lot of similarities between our cities and our histories, especially the connection to Spain. You also have a beautiful waterway that runs right through the middle of your city.”

The next day, New Orleans’ Tricentennial celebration already was well underway.

To celebrate the annual Carnival and the city’s 300th anniversary, Landrieu joined with the heads of two nonprofit Mardi Gras associations and a contingent of their members at Mardi Gras World, a sprawling warehouse with a cornucopia of floats constructed on-site for the Carnival parades.

The Zulu krewe, one of the city’s first African-American Mardi Gras organization, made a raucous entrance. In gold sport coats, they were flanked by members in feathered headdresses, painted faces and grass skirts blowing whistles over a brass band.

A white mayor with broad support in the black community, Landrieu danced behind them in what’s known as the “second line.” Working in a strong-mayor form of government, Landrieu spearheaded the Tricentennial commemoration and successfully sought buy-in from the Mardi Gras krewes.

Zulu Carnival Chairman Dennis Robertson agreed.

“Everything is Tricentennial-themed this year,” he said. “At each (Zulu) event, we’re going to do something Tricentennial.”

Hundreds of events

San Antonio’s Tricentennial Commission also plans to rely on its annual party — Fiesta, along with its 100 individual organizations — to help commemorate the city’s birth.

“Each organization is putting a 300th birthday kind of take over their event,” said Amy Shaw, executive director of the Fiesta Commission. “They do that independently.”

Beyond Fiesta, San Antonio’s Tricentennial Commission lists hundreds of events on its website, sanantonio300.org. Last week, the commission’s executive committee still was sifting through some 700 calendar items tagged as “Tricentennial” events, trying to determine which were unique to the yearlong commemoration.

“From the very beginning, the Tricentennial Commission wanted San Antonio’s 300th anniversary to highlight the community and everything that makes San Antonio a great place to live. With this in mind, the commission approved a process through which local groups or individuals could submit events to become official Tricentennial partners,” Hurd said in an email to the Express-News.

“The criteria for the call for projects included diversity, authenticity, and highlighting San Antonio and its history. Partner events would further be categorized into one of four key initiatives: history and education; arts and culture; community service; and a commemorative week.”

That call began in early 2016, she said, and response was far greater than they’d anticipated with some 700 events proposed by than 500 organizations, each sanctioned by the commission as official Tricentennial partners.

Now, working with newly created criteria, commission officials are making their way through those listings and determining which ones should be prominently featured.

It’s an exercise New Orleans officials accomplished months ago with the help of Mark Romig, who oversees the operations of his city’s tricentennial commission.

That group worked with local institutions early on to ensure that programming had actual connections to the Tricentennial. Other events that groups proposed that didn’t have direct connections were diverted to the city’s travel-promotion websites.

Romig, 61, an ever-busy, dynamic presence in his native city, volunteers his time to oversee the Tricentennial and is the president and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., the nonprofit agency that promotes leisure travel to the city. He’s also a local celebrity, known as “the voice of the New Orleans Saints,” who announces the NFL games inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

During last Sunday’s Tricentennial Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, Romig was flooded with greetings from well-wishers, some wearing suits, others sporting New Orleans Saints football jerseys.

The executive committee for New Orleans’ tricentennial commission is headed by the mayor and filled with famous residents, including musicians Harry Connick Jr., and Wynton Marsalis, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and billionaire auto-dealership magnate Tom Benson, who owns the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA and has ties to San Antonio.

By contrast, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who inherited Tricentennial planning from predecessor Ivy Taylor, recently recast the commission’s executive board by replacing Robert Thrailkill, general manager of the Hilton Palacio del Rio, and Katie Luber, director of the San Antonio Museum of Art, with Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of Texas A&M-San Antonio, and John Folks, retired superintendent of the Northside Independent School District. They joined advertising executive Lionel Sosa, Dr. Alfonso Chiscano and Father David Garcia.

While Romig is a well-known resident ingrained in the culture of New Orleans and a commanding presence, Benavides as CEO was well-paid municipal bureaucrat better suited for a City Hall office than a position that requires constant, high-level community engagement.

Since stepping down in November, Benavides has used his accrued leave and will continue to pull down his $168,000 salary, car and cellphone allowance until his resignation takes effect at the end of March.

Benavides oversaw fundraising for San Antonio’s celebration. Originally, he and the commission’s board of directors set a budget of more than $50 million in private donations. But a lack of fundraising required a reduction in the budget at least twice, with the bar now set at about $10 million.

New Orleans, loathe to spend any tax dollars, focused on private funding and never set the bar too high.

“The mayor said pretty much up front, there’s really no city budget there for (Tricentennial),” Romig said. “The good thing we’ve got in New Orleans is, you’ve got these other organizations that are doing things through their own accord … things we don’t have to raise money for.”

San Antonio has contributed $2.3 million cash to the celebration.

In New Orleans, about $3 million from foundations and individual donors is funding several events, including a symposium on immigration, an international weekend with dignitaries, NOLA Navy Week and several fireworks shows.

Private benefactors also have contributed $5 million for a complete interior renovation of Gallier Hall, a marble Greek Revival-style building that served as City Hall from 1845 to 1953 and since has been a civic space available for rental. New Orleans mayors use the grand entry as a stage to toast the kings of the Mardi Gras krewes as they parade by.

The restoration project began outside of the Tricentennial effort. The structure had fallen into general disrepair when a portion of the cornice fell from the front of the building during a storm, crashing onto the front steps.

“It became almost an emergency project,” said Scott Hutcheson, the mayor’s deputy chief administrative officer and senior adviser. “And as it rose to the top, it was like, this is the jewel and the crown and we should respect it like we probably haven’t.”

Ultimately, the city spent $10 million on exterior renovations, and the Tricentennial Commission adopted interior restorations, a $5 million endeavor, as its key legacy project.

Burnishing images

Beyond large-scale projects, the Tricentennial celebrations in both New Orleans and San Antonio are efforts to burnish each city’s image with the public — a fact that Romig, who heads the city’s efforts to attract tourists, acknowledged.

Howie Kaplan, owner of legendary New Orleans music venue The Howlin’ Wolf, echoed the sentiment.

“Between me, you and the lamppost, I think right now it’s a marketing ploy,” he said from behind the establishment’s bar. “I think as the pieces come together, it’s a way to get people to come visit, too”

Not that New Orleans has any problem with that.

On a recent Friday morning, Parisian-born Jacques Letalon, 71, a music instructor in New York, appeared outside of Café Du Monde, the famous French Quarter beignet cafe, in a black top hat and matching overcoat, his coronet in tow. Whenever Letalon visits his favorite city — home of trumpeter Louis Armstrong — he busks in the streets.

“For me, New Orleans is it. I love New York; I love London. This is it,” he said. “I’m sorry to use a bad word, but there’s no bullshit here.”

The New York Times recently agreed. It listed the Big Easy, with a population of about 392,000, as the No. 1 travel destination for 2018, noting its 300th birthday, its post-Katrina vibrancy and its melting-pot diversity — along with its stellar music and food. Meanwhile, National Geographic listed the Alamo City, with a population of about 1.5 million, as one of the top 21 best trips worldwide to take in 2018 — because it’s celebrating its tricentennial.

Moments later, Robert Harris strolled up from nearby Jackson Square with a plan to play his trombone near the entrance to the cafe. Letalon hugged the musician and raved about the trombone player’s world travels, including to European venues and at least one gig at San Antonio’s Sunken Gardens Theater.

Harris’ excitement for the Tricentennial stems from a recent mayoral election. He said he believes the entire city should share his enthusiasm.

“They ought to be excited. We … elected our first lady mayor, LaToya Cantrell.”

In November, voters elected Cantrell, an African-American and the first woman set to lead the city. She takes office in May.

At Mardi Gras World, Cantrell told the Express-News that her city has changed for the better.

“I think that after 300 years in the city, a world-class city like New Orleans, it truly speaks about how we continue to evolve and progress as a people, as a city, in our culture, and embracing leadership — of the first female, period — is a step in the right direction, as we’ve proven that we can be very effective legislators in our city and in our state,” she said.

Cantrell said that when she takes office later this year, her focus will be on ensuring that tricentennial commemorations are “more inclusive” and focus on New Orleanians, “not so much on how the world sees us but really taking a deeper dive to ensure that how we see ourselves as a people and as a city and what makes New Orleans special.”

For Cantrell, the year is an opportunity to push for more equitable recovery from the devastating 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which routed and permanently changed the city.

“I think that it should, and that’s where when I talk about inclusion, it’s really making all of our citizens feel like they’re part of this 300,” she said.

The impacts of the storm have lingered. Thirteen years later, the low-income Lower Ninth Ward remains depleted and the city’s Municipal Auditorium at Louis Armstrong Park has yet to reopen, though renovations are underway.

As Cantrell plans to look inward, both Landrieu in New Orleans and Nirenberg in San Antonio are using the celebrations to put their cities on the world stage. Later this year, both cities are expected to host dignitaries from Spain.

Both cities also have interwoven reminders of their celebrations into the urban landscape.

San Antonio is installing 300 Tricentennial manhole covers. New Orleans has lined Poydras Street downtown with Tricentennial flags and distributed a handful of large “NOLA 300” illuminated signs that draw constant interaction from people climbing the numbers and taking selfies and other photos with the commemorative signs.

The question that remains for San Antonio’s Tricentennial: Can it inspire the same enthusiasm for a 300-year-old city that comes so naturally for the Big Easy?

Kaplan, the bar Warehouse District owner, said celebrating is in the blood of New Orleanians — from second-line parades to “a festival for anything,” including separate celebrations of sandwiches, tacos, beignets and beer.

“I think you have to be excited for your city,” he said, “before you’re excited about celebrating your city.”

Josh Baugh is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jbaugh@express-news.net | @jbaugh

Brian Chasnoff is a San Antonio Express-News columnist. Read more of his stories here. | bchasnoff@express-news.net | @bchasnoff