Naw'lins Pics

[kjb434]

Great news. I always though Nagin would be a much better mayor than Morial.

The last time I was in New Orleans was for Mother's day at the D-Day Museum. Downtown and the Warehouse district just seemed even more alive than I remember it.

[NCB]

thanks alot TSmith, that really helped, sadly when "big projects that could really help the city" come up, i look at them pessimistically, due to the fact that so many projects have failed. Now however i am really starting to think this really will work.

To start a fire, you need a spark, and hopefully the condo boom, tourist friendly projects, and better streets etc.. will be the spark that will get new orleans going

[jes]

JWR--excellent defense of New Orleans; it is my home town as well, and, while I think it ridiculous that we have to defend the city, I find that it is usually from the most innoccuous charges, anyway. Every place has its own assets, but I think New Orleans is unique in all the world

JWR has done such a good job on enumerating all the construction-relatedprojects, but I just wanted to rattle off a few other facts about New Orleans that probably have not been mentioned in the forum:

-New Orleans proper (not MSA, but Urbanized) is the fourth-densest city in the country according to the 2000 census

-Despite having no celebrated sprawl ordinances, New Orleans has had some of the lowest sprawl figures in the US, second only to Milwaukee and Indianapolis for the last decade

-It has the oldest-running light-rail system in the country

-It is one of the most physically integrated cities in the country (intra-census tract percentages of diversity)

-It has the best rail connections in the country, with six Class I lines running through the city limits and connecting with the Public Belt Railroad

-The actual numbers for construction-related projects actually going on in the city is something to the tune of $3.5 to $4B

-The housing costs--depending on what statistics are cited--are either the lowest or in the lowest three amongst the largest metropolitan areas in the country; a young professional can actually afford to live within walking distance of the center of the city, rather unique

-New Orleans has an average commute time of around 20 minutes (I think the exact figure is 23), but that includes the MSA

-It has 35,000 structures on the National Register of Historic Places, which is far and away the most of any US city, and 15,000 more than Washington, DC, which is the city with the second-most historic structures

-I will not go into cultural aspects of the city because those are much harder to quantify, but suffice it to say that New Orleans was the progenitor of the only indigenous American art form (Jazz), Southern Louisiana is the only region of the country with a truly unique cuisine, it has 5 Universities for a city of 1.3M, it is consistently rated as a top-5 city for restaurants, it has one of the best teaching hospitals in the entire country, it has the oldest Opera house in the US, and its visual arts scene is second to none in the US--the list goes on

Finally, I would like to point out one other aspect of New Orleans that was hinted at in some of the other posts: New Orleans has but a single Fortune-500 company (Entergy). Creative Economics is the buzzword right now, and I find it astounding and awfully reeking of racist and classist biases: New Orleans is a city of Entrepreneurs that remains so unique because it remains a city so irreverent of conventional economic logic. When Rite Aid purchased a local drug store chain, the citizens wholeheartedly effected what amounted to a boycott. Homogenizing forces simply cannot get a foothold in the silt of New Orleans, and for that, I think the rest of the country should look and learn from a city that has such an uncanny and profound sense of place, where the people who live there understand that the places we live, rather than the jobs we work, are what enrich our lives. I want to encourage people to live in a city because of the city, and not for the simple and reductivist economics. Holla!

[kjb434]

I remember when Rite Aid bought K&B. The store in my home town of Thibodaux was once one of the busiest drug stores became empty. People wouldn't shop there because it wasn't K&B anymore.

Does the K&B building in New Orleans still have all the cool artwork?

[jes]

I remember when Rite Aid bought K&B.  The store in my home town of Thibodaux was once one of the busiest drug stores became empty.  People wouldn't shop there because it wasn't K&B anymore.

Does the K&B building in New Orleans still have all the cool artwork?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It absolutely does! I had a meeting in there in the spring, and it is still amazing--the sheer size of the works in that building. A lot of the Besthoff (the B in K& sculptures were given to NOMA for the Sculpture Garden in City Park--their collection is better than the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden in DC, if I do say so. Actually, that little stretch of Howard Avenue (from Lee Circle to The UPT) is turning into a little artsy district all its own, and could blow up if the Plaza Tower goes through and the UPT gets renovated, and if the Arts Council can get the last of the financing done for the ArtWorks...

[nate]

I lived in New Orleans for a few years.

Here is a shot I took around the time of the 2002 Super Bowl (maybe game night, I don't recall.)

New Orleans has a lot of character. My favorite part of the city is Audubon Park.