What happened to the big ghost bike pile on Elysian Fields Avenue? We solve a NOLA mystery.

After seven years, a tangled pile of white bicycles has been spirited away from the intersection of Elysian Fields and St. Claude Avenue. The sculpture was erected in July 2017 as a monument to bicyclists killed in traffic on the streets of New Orleans.

Anonymous artists installed the sculpture on the neutral ground of the busy bicycle crossroads, without permission from the powers that be. It was once marked with a crude steel sign that read "Dedicated to every cyclist in New Orleans killed or injured by motorists."

As anyone who’s pedaled along our city’s curbs can tell you, it’s a treacherous mode of transportation. Between four and seven cyclists were killed each year in New Orleans from 2019 to 2022.

The eye-catching white bike pile stood like a tangle of bones, unmistakable in its cautionary meaning to both cyclists and motorists.

Not long after the melancholy memorial was installed, a Parks and Parkways department crew arrived, bent on removing the sculpture, because, as a City Hall spokesperson put it, “no person is allowed to obstruct a public place or right-of-way.”

But, after they’d torn off two bikes, an art-loving local business owner convinced the workmen to stop. Since then, the monument may have become streaked with rust and nested in weeds, but had also become a venerable bohemian landmark.

Now it’s gone, with only a patch of brown grass to mark its previous spot. But, if all goes as planned, it may be replaced.

Clark Thompson didn’t build the ghost bike memorial, but he’s become its spokesperson. Thompson is the concerned citizen and welder behind many of the 66 individual ghost bikes that stand silent sentry on roadways around town. The bikes, spray-painted white and often adorned with flowers and memorabilia, mark the places where cyclists died.

Thompson said he didn’t invent the custom. In 2016, he joined a couple of guys who were already installing ghost bikes at the sites of cycling deaths. The folksy practice, according to online sources, began in St. Louis 21 years ago.

When his fellow memorial makers moved away from New Orleans, Thompson and other volunteers continued the custom. Thompson said he’s compelled to place the roadside memorials because he’s been personally touched by cycling tragedies, losing two friends to collisions with cars.

His wife and daughter, Thompson said, witnessed the traumatic 2019 incident in which a drunk driver mowed down nine cyclists on Esplanade Avenue, killing two. The spot is marked with a white ghost bike.

N.O. Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s press secretary, Leatrice Dupré, said via email, that there had been “community concerns regarding the deterioration of the large memorial at the intersection of St. Claude and Elysian Fields Avenues,” leading to its removal.

Thompson said the city contacted him before removing the relic. He consulted with the anonymous artists who built the memorial, who told him they were surprised that it had lasted as long as it did.

In conversation with the city, Thompson proposed replacing the old sculpture with a new memorial at the same site. With the city’s blessing, he is seeking a permit for the replacement project.

“The Department of Parks and Parkways has assisted with site clearing and turf restoration needs,” Dupré wrote. “We look forward to reviewing permitting for any future proposals at this site.”

On May 19, Thompson led a bicycle caravan to the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues, where he led what he called a deconsecration ceremony for the memorial before its removal.

Thompson declined to describe the new sculpture he envisions, except to say it would be simpler. He views it as a temporary installation that could be replaced with something “timeless” later on. He said to expect the new temporary monument to appear sometime in June, pending permitting.