More than a year after the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street, New Orleans is preparing a permanent memorial for the victims with the help of survivors and victims’ family members. 

The attack occurred in the early morning hours on New Year’s Day of 2025. 14 people were killed and over 50 were injured when an army veteran drove a rented pickup truck into crowds that were celebrating the new year. 

C.W. Cannon, a professor at the Loyola english department with expertise in New Orleans and urban issues, believes that the attack was caused by more than just a failure to provide adequate security. 

“Fourteen people lost their lives in those two blocks, and being in New Orleans is what sealed their doom. It will be easy for people in other places to chalk up their murders to the old ingrained sense that New Orleans has always been a dangerous place where people routinely get killed,” Cannon said. 

Cannon said that the memorial should also remind visitors about the killer’s motives, which he believes were ideological. 

“The memorial should remind people that the people who died on that day were targeted because they were Americans, and perhaps secondarily because New Orleans’ role as a place for people to party was particularly offensive to the murderer’s especially puritanical brand of Muslim ideology,” Cannon said. 

The memorial will be at Goldring Woldenberg Riverfront Park along the Mississippi River. It will consist of 14 glass inlays, one per victim, and a personal relic of each victim embedded in each. 

The proposal document states that designs should create a space for ‘peace and reflection’ and may include features such as QR codes linking to information about the victims.

There is still no set completion date for the project.