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Cups, beads and broken glass removed from streets as Mardi Gras cleanup begins

What a difference 24 hours makes

NEW ORLEANS — If you spent Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street, you wouldn’t recognize it on Ash Wednesday.

The cups, beads, broken glass, glitter, confetti and all other kinds of Carnival debris that covered the street were gone.

“The difference between today and yesterday is night and day, black and white, whatever you want to call it!” Dawn Kesslering with Johnny White’s Pub & Grill said. “The street was completely cleared. It was clean by 9 a.m. which is a very rare thing.”

However, it was a different story at Royal and Franklin in the Marigny, a popular rallying point for the Society of St. Anne parade. Trash was all over.

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Since the parade is really an informal gathering, it doesn’t get the same cleanup attention from the City that other spots do after Mardi Gras. Instead, several bars in the area team up to hire a private clean-up crew. They said the area will be back to normal by Thursday.

Frenchman Street was mostly clear by Ash Wednesday, but down on Decatur trash remains as well.

Hilary McPhail with Brieux Carre says the City’s cleanup crews made quick work of the mess out there after some parades, but not on Mardi Gras day.

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"It seems like they were really good about cleaning up before the earlier parades --- Krewe du Vieux and stuff, but now that it's all over I don't know if they are coming back,” she said.

McPhail loves Mardi Gras, but hopes next year there can be some more trash cans on hand and maybe a bit more common courtesy from revelers.

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