If people didn’t already know it, images from the French Quarter between Super Bowl Sunday and Ash Wednesday this year should confirm that New Orleans is the party capital of the universe.

Drunks. Loud drunks. Music. Raucous music. Midnight, 2 a.m. — just time to catch a breather before partying some more.

Know what else the French Quarter is?

A residential area.

People who rent rooms or have apartments along Royal or Bourbon or Chartres know what they’re getting into. They have little expectation that the ambient noise level will be the same as a meadow in the countryside or that in the early morning hours the streets will exude the aroma of rosewater. Still, they choose to live there.

Why does this matter to Vicksburg?

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.

There’s a vision of a future downtown area more vibrant with commerce and key to that will be what city planners call “mixed use residential-commercial.”

This type of redevelopment has already taken place in many cities, large and small, across the South. And with word that remodeling the Trustmark building will start next month, the pace is accelerating here. The Valley Apartments are already in business as is The Vicksburg, operating under management that is both new and old.

Prospects are unclear for the former YMCA building, the former post office and other large structures, but upper levels of many downtown buildings are already being used as residences, ranging from small and modest to large and lush. As residents increase, shops and restaurants are sure to follow.

And that takes us back to New Orleans.

Downtown Vicksburg could be a great place to live, and it could be a nightmare. It depends on expectations, and, specifically, whether those expectations are met on a level, continuing basis.

As mentioned, anyone with a French Quarter residential address doesn’t plan a Cub Scout pack meeting for New Year’s Eve. They know what New Year’s Eve will be like.

But that level of certainty — or anything near it — has yet to be defined for Vicksburg’s downtown. Will there be a closing ordinance for “watering holes?” Will it be enforced? Will there be volume limits on live or recorded music? Will police be present to allow groups to peaceably assemble and converse at night and to move in quickly if conversation escalates into mob activity? You can party hard in the French Quarter, but get out of control and within seconds you’ll know what horse breath smells like.

Since the national trend toward revitalizing downtowns began, Vicksburg has had four mayors and four aldermen. Their individual views on what should happen downtown have varied. While it is legally the right of every city administration to amend laws, it would certainly help the community as a whole, going forward, if city officials respected the perspectives of those who had invested downtown and those who have chosen to make it their homes. No way to please everyone, but keeping as even a keel as possible is the best bet.

Make the rules, make the rules known, enforce the rules. As long as people know what to expect, they’ll be happy.

If the area is inviting to people, they know the rules and the rules are consistent and enforced, prosperity will increase. It’s unpredictability that rankles people and creates turmoil.