Scurlock For Mayor

2017 Campaign Site

Let’s Make New Orleans Fun Again!

Frank Scurlock was a Democratic candidate for mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana. This was his campaign website.

Content is from the site's 2017 archived pages as well as other outside sources for additional information.



With only .47% of the vote (385 votes) Scurlock was defeated in the primary election on October 14, 2017. The eventual winner of New Orleans mayoral election was LaToya Cantrell.

Meet Frank Scurlock

Frank Scurlock is a native New Orleanian born and raised both in our city’s joyful culture and in his family’s business bringing joy to our city’s backyards with their Space Jumps inflatable fun products. He was born and bred & raised and reared within the context of bringing fun directly to the children and families of New Orleans by putting affordable fun within immediate reach of anyone and giving parents in our city regardless of income the chance to add a little extra affordable magic to their kids’ lives. Today Frank’s children are at the reigns of the family business as the third generation of Scurlocks going to work everyday to bring fun and joy to families around the world.

Frank has been lucky enough to retire young and although he’s no longer at the helm of his family’s Spacewalk business, he’s never for a minute stopped working to make the world more fun. From his first entrepreneurial venture opening the country’s very first indoor air conditioned amusement centre right here in the New Orleans area as a teenager to his ongoing efforts to revitalize New Orleans East by reopening the long shuttered Six Flags / Jazzland theme park, Frank continues to bring enterprising and creative minds together here in New Orleans and travels the world marketing our city, our people, our culture, and our vast potential toward attracting the biggest and best minds and investors in the global tourism and entertainment industry. Whether working in Hollygrove or Hong Kong, Desire or Dubai, Algiers or…Algiers, Frank tirelessly fights for our city and making New Orleans fun for visitors from around the world and for our neighbors right here at home.

Frank knows that New Orleans is fun for tourists and he makes sure audiences around the world know that as well, but he also understands that what’s been good for local tourism in recent years has not always been good for New Orleanians. Whereas Frank gladly dons his top hat to show the world how fun it is to be in New Orleans, he sadly recognizes that for many of our friends and neighbors, life in New Orleans is not very fun at all. There is nothing fun about a mother sending her children to failing schools; there’s nothing fun about those children living in neighborhoods shrouded in unchecked crime and violence; there’s nothing fun about those kids’ mother being gone when they get home because she’s working herself to exhaustion everyday for minimum wage at a job, or often more than one job, that leaves her family no better off each day as it was the day before. For many New Orleanians, the way our city’s gone about making New Orleans fun for tourist is for themselves simply not fun at all.

Frank Scurlock wants us all to live and play in a New Orleans that is fun for tourists yet also fun for residents enjoying the personal economic opportunities, strong quality of life, and access to recreation and culture that tourism should and could bring to everyone in every part of our city. The current city government has focussed on making sure New Orleanians work for tourism. Frank will change direction of our government to make sure from now on, tourism actually works for New Orleans! As a New Orleanian you live your lives and spend your days helping make our city a fun unforgettable experience for those millions of tourists who visit each year. Frank is asking for your help and your support toward his helping the City of New Orleans support you, your family, your friends, and your neighbors so that the New Orleans that’s fun for the tourists can be your New Orleans that’s fun for you too again.

Together, we can make sure the New Orleans of tomorrow is fun for tourists, fun for residents, fun for children, fun for families, fun for musicians, fun for anyone who wants to be part of our great city.

Let’s Make New Orleans Fun Again!

Frank Scurlock For Mayor, For Fun, For You!





Platform

New Orleans is known throughout the world as a city that embraces fun and enjoyment. Sadly that “joie de vivre” isn’t shared by the majority of families that live and work here. It’s hard to embrace the “fun” associates with our city when you struggle to find a place to live, struggle to find a safe place for your family, struggle to find a job that pays you a liveable wage or struggle to get to work on our broken infrastructure.

To make New Orleans the city that it ought to be — after all we have all the things cities need to be great (sunny weather, a great location, abundant natural resources, an active port and airport and a progressive population that exceeds 384,000 — we must get to the root of the many challenges holding our city and its citizens back: poverty and a history of focusing on consolidated political power instead of making things happen for the folks that need it.

Our platform focuses on four primary goals:

Affordable Housing that is for our residents;

Crime Prevention for our families, neighborhoods and visitors;

Employment for our residents that allows them to earn a liveable wage in a sustainable job that expands our workforce and diversifies our economy;

Streets and infrastructure that aren’t an embarrassment and that are fixed for the future instead of patched for the short term;

We’ve simplified that to ‘A.C.E.’S.’ which represents the real kitchen table issues that our families face on a daily basis and keeps both our families and out city from achieving success.

Our city’s overall poverty and lack of jobs is a large part of our inability to move forward. There are many interconnected causes of poverty and challenges to fully lifting all of our friends and neighbors out of the perpetual cycle of poverty that has for too long defined the character of our city and the nature of our citizens’ lives. Our campaign believes we must come together to develop, pursue, and implement effective programs and policies toward these ends including:

‘A’

— Neighborhood-driven zoning and land-use regulations

— Affordable housing incentives

— Neighborhood Revitalization

— Controls on unchecked gentrification

— Mortgage Assistance Programs

— Expanded Banking Access

— thorough review of all impact fees and external governmental costs to housing

— inclusive zoning

–density bonuses for affordable units

— working w state and federal agencies to maximize the efficiency of dollars that Clem to us.

— ensuring that seniors can afford to stay in their homes





‘C’

— Aggressive Recruitment of new NOPD officers to reach full employment at NOPD

— Responsible Police Education and Training Programs

— utilizing technology to make the NOPD customer friendly, accessible and more efficient

— Neighbourhood Policing

— Bringing back bicycle & foot patrols to our neighborhoods

— Encouraging our residents to become police through local recruiting

— encouraging our police to become our neighbours through housing incentives

— keeping crime out of our neighborhoods with increased patrols and more special units

— working to ensure punishments match the crimes and keeping folks out of jail/prison for minor non-violent offenses

— after school programs for youths in at risk neighborhoods

‘E’

— A REAL Living Wage

— recruitment of real jobs and the creation of new industries outside of tourism

— Ensuring education is continual throughout life

— Investing in Early Childhood Education Programmes

— Providing quality daycare for working parents

— a sicktime leave for employees ordinance

— Extending educational opportunities for older youth from within the classroom outward to within the neighbourhood.

— Fully funding and expanding Adult Education, ESL, literacy, and jobs skills training programs.

— Providing free access to city-wide WIFI network ensuring children can benefit from all the internet offers regardless of household income.

‘S’

— a renewed city effort to replace streets and ensure that companies working for the city are giving us the best price and best results

— a total study of all the cities streets and infrastructure that prioritized streets based on biggest need

— re-prioritization of the city’s budget to work on these infrastructure deficits

— Flat-Streets initiative to resurface streets and make them drivable

— overall effort to work on bringing down car insurance rates in the city so driving isn’t cost prohibitive





These are the core goals of our campaign and details behind our A.C.E.S. platform. Certainly, there is much more to work toward and many additional means of pursuing our goal of a happy healthy New Orleans filled with happy healthy and successful New Orleanians but this is a start and most importantly these are achievable, attainable, and immediately possible areas from which to start us all down this journey together.

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AN ASIDE: I am always impressed with the platforms many politicians put forth when running for election whether or not I agree with them. It's astounding how fast Frank Scurlock fell within one year of announcing his run for Mayor of New Orleans. As I sit on the lanai of the condo my partner chose from a number of different waterfront rentals in Lahaina that she perused for about two weeks before making a decision (and it was a great decision), I wonder where Trump will be in one year from now. For the two weeks we will be here in Maui I am trying to stay distracted from watching the news by full days of hikes, snorkeling and golfing. But each evening as we relax, having a glass of wine and watching the sunset, I find myself turing on the news and watching, totally aghast, at the stunning revelations and momentous developments that have been occuring hour by hour, it seems, not only about President Trump explicitly asking the president of Ukraine to investigate a potential 2020 opponent, but also the resulting impeachment inquiry as it unfolds. Will Trump even make it to the 2020 election? And if he does, will he have a chance of being re-elected? Obviously, I hope he gets what he deserves proportionate to his crimes.

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PRESS

Bounce house baron Frank Scurlock announces run for New Orleans mayor By Greg LaRose glarose@nola.com | NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Updated May 5, 2017; Posted May 5, 2017 The man behind an inflatable jump house empire, skywriting over Jazz Fest and attempts to revive the Six Flags site has thrown his top hat into the ring for the New Orleans mayor's race. Frank Scurlock announced his bid Friday (May 5), which he dubbed "Cinco De Scurlock" on a calendar posted to his website. Scurlock built his fortune on inflatable party attractions and said that has allowed him to pass the business down to his family, retire early and pursue other interests. He has been most prominent as of late for his efforts to take over the former Six Flags/Jazzland amusement park in New Orleans East that has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina. His offer was one of three the Industrial Development Board rejected in March, citing a lack of certainty over whether they had the financial backing needed to bring the 227-acre property back to life. It's Scurlock who has paid for a pilot to write inspirational messages in the sky during Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras in recent years. He planned for skywriting to take place in three cities Wednesday afternoon until severe weather forced its cancellation. While previous displays have been mostly neutral politically, an announcement previewing the skywriting Wednesday linked them to the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans. "Scurlock has been a vocal preservationist against ... the removal of four New Orleans monuments dedicated to the history of the Confederacy," the announcement said. "... He will take his message to the skies over Baton Rouge, Jackson, MS and New Orleans ... to draw attention to the plight of the monuments and calm tensions among residents." In Baton Rouge, the pilot was to write "Respect," "Honor" and "History," according to the announcement. In Jackson, the script called for "Unity = History," "Freedom" and "Liberty." The New Orleans words were to be "Preservation," "Humanity" and "Grateful," although the news release said "actual words may vary." "Fun" and "joy" are repeated throughout Scurlock's biography on his campaign website, which shows him wearing a black top hat in multiple photos. It says he wants residents to "live and play in a New Orleans that is fun for tourists yet also fun for residents enjoying the personal economic opportunities, strong quality of life, and access to recreation and culture that tourism should and could bring to everyone in every part of our city. "The current city government has focussed (sic) on making sure New Orleanians work for tourism. Frank will change direction of our government to make sure from now on, tourism actually works for New Orleans!" the website reads. On the page outlining his platform, Scurlock uses the acronym ACE -- short for Affordable Housing, Crime Prevention and Education -- and the phrase "Fill Potholes, Save Monuments." There is no elaboration offered on his platform points. The content on the "Vision" page is "to be announced." The calendar on the campaign website indicated Scurlock would make campaign announcements Friday at five different locations in New Orleans: the Foundation Room, three Mexican restaurants and the Zoo-To-Do fundraiser at Audubon Zoo. Official qualifying for this fall's election is July 12-14.

NEWS 2020

FRANK SCURLOCK Independent Candidate for President 2020 It's been three years since Frank Scurlock ran as a Democratic candidate for mayor of New Orleans. He has now thrown his hat into the 2020 Presidential race. Frank believes that everyone should have the opportunity to succeed and will diligently work to make sure we all have access to economic opportunities, a better quality of life and recreation for our families without fear of the crime epidemic currently taking place in our country. Frank is the only choice to move America forward into the future. His new official website is found at: https://scurlock2020.com

ScurlockForMayor.com