As part of a recent conference for landscape architects, I got the privilege of being able to visit New Orleans for five days. All in all, the conference was very fun and I had a great time meeting industry professionals in landscape, as well as fellow students from other institutions. However, I am not here to talk about the conference, rather I am here to talk about the city of New Orleans, the culture of the city, and its incredible resilience as city that was left to rot after hurricane Katrina.
For those of you who don’t know or are not from here, New Orleans is a city located at the southernmost tip of the Mississippi River. The river is generally used as the dividing line of the United States and features one of the strongest currents in the world. New Orleans sits between the river and Lake Pontchartrain at the southernmost tip of Louisiana. The city itself is in an interesting ecological position where it sits eight feet below sea level. Some parts of the city sit even lower at 12-14 feet below sea level in the eastern parts of the city. These were the sections of the city most affected by Katrina and remains as the poorest areas of the city, with the Lower Ninth Ward being the poorest and most crime ridden part of the city. The Lower Ninth sits right at the very edge of the Orleans Parish, neighboring Arabi and the St. Bernard Parish. The slow bounce back from Katrina in 2005 has mostly been due to lack of federal funding and the difficult conditions that followed after the hurricane. This led to an economic depression of the area with many abandoned homes and lots inhabiting the area.
An interesting thing about Louisiana itself is that unlike the rest of the country which divides itself into municipal entities called counties, Louisiana uses the term “Parish”, though in practice, this is no different from a county/city. The term itself comes from the colonial era of Louisiana when it was divided into church districts, or parishes. The Orleans Parish where New Orleans is located, is split into the different districts of the city, spanning a small portion across the river to English turn and east to Bayou Sauvage. These different areas of the city are vastly different from one another, ranging from literal bayous to the French inspired city center architecture and urban design. The land in New Orleans is very flat, but contrary to our Chicago, almost every street has some form of greenery. There are trees everywhere in the city, almost as if the city decided to build around the trees instead of paving over them. Even their trolley system has stretches of track covered in grass to reflect the very rich soil that is present in New Orleans.
Speaking of the trolley system, New Orleans has one of the coolest forms of transit I have ever seen in the United States. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) maintains and operates a very large trolley system which I got to ride to the New Orleans City Park from the city center. These trolleys are old, but they have all been retrofitted with modern technology like digital screens showing your location and even air conditioning. The trolleys run from the city center to outward areas of the city and the Amtrak terminal which hosts the Sunset Limited towards the Southwest, the Crescent to the Northeast, the City of New Orleans to the Midwest, and the Mardi Gras to Mobile, AL. There is also a trolley serving the riverfront from the French Market to the Convention Center, which my group used to connect us to the rest of the city any time we were at the conference.
Every time we went to the city, it was almost always to try food and drinks in the city. The food culture in New Orleans is incredible and delicious, with dishes like Gumbo, Poboys, Jambalaya, Etouffe, and many alligator related foods. Yes, you can eat alligator meat everywhere in New Orleans! I have to say it was very delicious, and the other dishes were superb, filled with flavor. Even the coffees and certain leisure drinks were delicious and were as addicting as they were dangerous (in a metaphorical sense). The Beignets also very much lived up to their hype from the movie Princess and the Frog, and went together very well with a New Orleans style coffee. If there is anything you should definitely do if you ever visit New Orleans is try their food, because it is an unforgettable experience.
New Orleans also has an incredible nightlife, with Bourbon Street being the center of it all. The most exciting part about the nightlife was the very welcoming environment to queer people, which is not too common around Louisiana. Often one of the most conservative leaning states in the country, New Orleans sticks out like a sore thumb in Louisiana, creating a diverse environment that welcomes all types of individuals from around the world. There wasn’t a single bar or club I saw that didn’t have a diverse crowd, and it was beautiful. New Orleans stands as a sparkle of diversity and hope in the deep south, fostering community in a city that was once thought to be a total loss.
New Orleans as a city has stood up and managed to keep itself alive, despite the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina. Don’t get me wrong, New Orleans is whole new level of abandoned city, and it will continue to be until the government steps in make a change. The people I interacted with were hopeful, full of joy, and welcoming, including one of our uber drivers who gave us a full guide about the places we had to visit and the restaurants we had to eat at. Everyone that we got meet who were form the city loved their city, with one saying he wouldn’t trade any other place in the world for New Orleans. Despite the abandonment it faced after Hurricane Katrina, the residents of the city who stayed behind decided to rebuild and make a way of life in a place that was presumed a total loss. New Orleans is a strong city with roots deeper than the Mississippi River, and nothing can ever replace that. I will definitely be visiting again soon, and I look forward to seeing the city again when i get the chance. To New Orleans, I say “Keep on keeping on!”
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