New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans (local pronunciations: , , or ) (
French:
La Nouvelle-Orléans, pronounced
 |
Ltspkr.png |
in standard French accent) is a major
United States port city and historically the largest city in the
U.S. state of
Louisiana. It is in southeastern Louisiana along the
Mississippi River, just south of
Lake Pontchartrain, and is coextensive with
Orleans Parish. New Orleans is named after
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France, and is one of the oldest and most historic cities in the United States.
New Orleans is known for its
multicultural heritage as well as its music and cuisine. It is considered the birthplace of
jazz.
Its status as a world-famous
tourist destination is due in part to its architecture and its annual
Mardi Gras and other celebrations. It is often called the most unique city in America. [
1], [
2],[
3],[
4]
The city's several nicknames are illustrative. "Crescent City" alludes to the course of the
Mississippi River around and through the city; "The Big Easy" was possibly a reference by musicians in the early 1900's to the relative ease of finding work there, but most New Orleanians attribute the term to the city being more carefree and slowed down than cities like New York (the Big Apple); and "The City that Care Forgot" refers to the outwardly easy-going, carefree nature of many of the residents.
The
2000 U.S. census put New Orleans's population at 484,674, but
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused the city's evacuation. Population estimates as of June 2006 range from 192,000
to 230,000.
 |
Sign at Jackson Square in the French Quarter |
New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the
French Mississippi Company as
la Nouvelle-Orléans, under the direction of
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. The site was selected because of its relatively high elevation along the
flood-prone banks of the
Lower Mississippi River and its location adjacent to a
Native American trading route and
portage between the river and
Lake Pontchartrain.
In 1763, the French colony was ceded to the
Spanish Empire and remained under Spanish control for 40 years. Most of the surviving architecture of the
French Quarter dates from this Spanish period. Louisiana reverted to French control in 1801, but two years later
Napoleon sold it to the United States in the
Louisiana Purchase. The city grew rapidly, with influxes of Americans, French and
Creole French.
During the
War of 1812 the
British sent a force to conquer the city. The British were defeated by American forces led by
Andrew Jackson in the
Battle of New Orleans on
January 8,
1815. However, a peace treaty was signed between the United States and Britain on
December 24,
1814, and news of the treaty did not reach the United States in time to prevent the battle from occurring.
By 1840, New Orleans had become by far the wealthiest and was ranked as the third most populous city in the nation being beat by Baltimore by only 119 people. Since that time, the city is now the thirteenth poorest large city in the Nation. Up until 1960 New Orleans had consistently been ranked in the top fifteen largest Cities in the U.S. but since that time, the city has shrunken to the thirty-fifth largest city in the U.S.
 |
1888 German map of New Orleans |
The population of the city doubled in the 1830s, and by 1840 the city's population was over 100,000—one of the largest cities in the U.S. Population growth was frequently interrupted by
yellow fever epidemics, the last of which occurred in 1905.
As a principal port, New Orleans had a leading role in the
slave trade, while at the same time having the most prosperous community of free persons of color in the South.
Early in the
American Civil War New Orleans was captured by the Union. This action spared the city the destruction suffered by many other cities of the American South.
In the early
20th century, New Orleans was a progressive major city whose most portentous development was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor
A. Baldwin Wood. Urban development theretofore was largely limited to higher ground along natural river levees and
bayous. Wood's pump system allowed the city to expand into low-lying areas. Over the 20th century, rapid
subsidence, both natural and human-induced, left these newly-populated areas several feet below sea level.
New Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the age of negative elevation. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability.
Hurricane Betsy in 1965 had killed dozens of residents even though the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-induced
1995 flood demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system.
|
A view across Uptown New Orleans, with the Central Business District in the background (1990s). |
By the time
Hurricane Katrina approached the city at the end of August 2005, most residents had evacuated.
Storm surge pushed ashore by the hurricane caused the city to suffer the worst
civil engineering disaster in American history.
Floodwalls constructed by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed, and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of remaining residents were rescued by helicopter or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the
Superdome or the
convention center. Over 1,300 people died.
The city was declared off-limits to residents while clean-up efforts began. The approach of
Hurricane Rita caused repopulation efforts to be postponed,
and the
Lower Ninth Ward was reflooded by Rita's storm surge.
By
October 1, parts of the city accounting for about one-third of the population of New Orleans had been reopened.
As of July 2006, efforts continue to clean up debris and restore infrastructure. Although most of the city has reopened to residents, and areas that suffered moderate damage have substantially resumed functioning, the parts of the city most severely damaged still have irregular utilities and city services, and the most severely damaged section of the Lower Ninth Ward is still not officially open for residents to return to live.
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Vertical cross-section of New Orleans, showing maximum levee height of 23 feet (7 m). |
New Orleans is located at (29.964722, -90.070556) on the banks of the
Mississippi River, approximately 100 miles upriver from the
Gulf of Mexico. According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 907
km² (350.2
mi²). 467.6 km² (180.6 mi²) of it is land and 439.4 km² (169.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 48.45% water.
The city is located in the
Mississippi Alluvial Plain, mostly between the Mississippi River in the south and
Lake Pontchartrain in the north. The area along the river is characterized by ridges and hollows. Fields atop the ridges along the river are referred to as the "frontlands." The land contour slopes away from the frontlands to the "backlands", comprised of clay and silt.
The city of New Orleans has the lowest elevation in the state of Louisiana, and the third lowest point in the
United States, after
Death Valley and the
Salton Sea.
Much of the city is one to ten feet (0.3 to 3 m) below
sea level. Some 45% of the city is above sea level. These were the areas developed before 1900. Rainwater is pumped into Lake Pontchartrain via a series of
canals lined by
levees,
dikes, and
floodwalls. Because of the city's high water table, most houses do not have
basements. In the cemeteries, most
crypts are above ground. The city has considered passing a building code that would require all new residences being constructed on negatively elevated ground to have a garage and storage level on the first floor to protect people's living spaces from floodwaters.
Cityscape
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New Orleans' skyline seen from above the Industrial Canal |
The
Central Business District of New Orleans is located immediately north and west of the Mississippi River, and was historically called the "American Quarter." Most streets in this area fan out from a central point in the city. Major streets of the area include
Canal Street and Poydras Street. In the local
parlance "downtown" means downriver from Canal Street, while "uptown" means upriver from Canal Street. Downtown neighborhoods include the French Quarter,
Treme,
Faubourg Marigny,
Bywater, the 7th Ward, and the Lower
9th Ward.
Uptown neighborhoods include the
Garden District, the Irish Channel, the University District,
Carrollton, Gert Town, Fontainebleau, and Broadmoor.
Other major districts within the city include Bayou St. John, Mid City, Gentilly, Lakeview, Lakefront, New Orleans East, The upper
9th Ward and
Algiers.
Parishes located adjacent to the city of New Orleans include
St. Tammany Parish to the north,
St. Bernard Parish to the south and east,
Plaquemines Parish to the south and southeast, and
Jefferson Parish to the south and west.
Climate
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A true-color satellite image of New Orleans taken on NASA's Landsat 7 |
The climate of New Orleans is
humid subtropical, with cool winters and hot, humid summers. In January, morning lows average around 43°F (5°C), and daily highs around 62°F (17°C). In July, lows average 74°F (23°C), and highs average 91°F (33°C). The lowest recorded temperature was 11°F (-11.7°C) on
December 23,
1989. The highest recorded temperature was 102°F (38.9°C) on
August 22,
1980. The average precipitation is 64.2 inches (1630 mm) annually; the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest month.
Precipitation in winter usually accompanies the passing of a cold front. Hurricanes also pose a threat to the area, and the city is particularly vulnerable because of its low elevation. New Orleans is the fifth-most likely major U.S. city to be struck by a hurricane, after
Miami, Florida,
Houston, Texas,
Jacksonville, Florida, and
Tampa, Florida. Most recently,
Hurricane Katrina in
August of
2005 devastated the city.
New Orleans experiences snowfall only on rare occasions. Most recently, a small amount of
snow fell on Christmas in 2004, during the
2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm. On
December 25, a combination of rain, sleet, and snow fell on the city, leaving some bridges icy. Before that, the last
white Christmas was in
1954, and brought 4.5 inches (110 mm). The last significant snowfall in New Orleans fell on
December 22,
1989, when most of the city received 1 or 2 inches of
snow.
:
''Note: Many Hurricane Katrina evacuees, though they have not returned, remain residents of the city. Projections of the city's eventual population following reconstruction are highly speculative. The 2000 U.S. Census figures presented here are the most recent verifiable data for the city's population. A January 2006 survey pegged the population at approximately 190,000.''
[ M – ][WWL TV gives a brief report on the above survey. – ]Population estimates as of June 2006 pegged the population at approximately 225,000.
City of New Orleans
Population by year |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|
| 1810 | 17,242 |
| 1820 | 27,176 |
| 1830 | 46,082 |
| 1840 | 102,193 |
| 1850 | 116,375 |
| 1860 | 168,675 |
| 1870 | 191,418 |
| 1880 | 216,090 |
| 1890 | 242,039 |
| 1900 | 287,104 |
| 1910 | 339,075 |
| 1920 | 387,219 |
| 1930 | 458,762 |
| 1940 | 494,537 |
| 1950 | 570,445 |
| 1960 | 627,525 |
| 1970 | 593,471 |
| 1980 | 557,515 |
| 1990 | 496,938 |
| 2000 | 484,674 |
As of the
census of
2000, there were 484,674 people, 188,251 households, and 112,950 families residing in the city. The most recent (
2004) population estimate for the city is 462,269. The
population density was 1,036.4/km² (2,684.3/mi²). There were 215,091 housing units at an average density of 459.9/km² (1,191.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 67.25%
African American, 28.05%
White, 0.20%
Native American, 2.26%
Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander, 0.93% from
other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
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New Orleans contains many distinctive neighborhoods. |
The population of
Greater New Orleans stood at 1,337,726 in 2000, making it the 35th largest metropolitan area in the United States. These population statistics are based on legal residents of the city. But due to the enormous annual tourist flow, the number of people inside the city at a given time, such as
Mardi Gras season, tends to exceed these numbers sometimes by the hundreds of thousands.
There were 188,251 households out of which 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.8% were married couples living together, 24.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 40% were non-families, 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.23.
The age distribution of the city's population is 26.7% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 88.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,133, and the median income for a family was $32,338. Males had a median income of $30,862 versus $23,768 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $17,258. 27.9% of the population and 23.7% of families were below the
poverty line. Out of the total population, 40.3% of those under the age of 18 and 19.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
The population of New Orleans peaked in 1960. Since then, suburban parishes such as
Jefferson and
St. Tammany have increased in population.
An analysis by
Brown University sociologist
John R. Logan in January of 2006
suggests that as many as 50% of whites and 80% of blacks displaced by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath may relocate permanently.
New Orleans has a
mayor-council government. The city council consists of five councilmembers who are elected by district and two at large councilmembers. Mayor
C. Ray Nagin, Jr. was elected in May 2002, and was reelected in the
mayoral election of
April 22,
2006.
The New Orleans Police Department provides professional police services to the public in order to maintain order and protect life and property. The Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Office
serves papers involving lawsuits and provides security for the Civil District Court and Juvenile Courts. The Criminal Sheriff's Office maintains the parish prison system, provides security for the Criminal District Court, and provides backup for various New Orleans Police Department patrols.
The city of New Orleans and the
parish of Orleans operate as a merged city-parish government. Before the city of New Orleans became co-extensive with Orleans Parish, Orleans Parish was home to numerous smaller communities. Some of these communities within Orleans Parish have historically had separate identities from the city of New Orleans, such as
Irish Bayou and
Carrollton . The original City of New Orleans was comprised of what are now the 1st through 9th wards. The City of Lafayette (including the Garden District) was added in 1852 as the 10th and 11th wards. In 1870, Jefferson City, including Faubourg Bouligny and much of the Audubon and University areas, was annexed as the 12th, 13th, and 14th wards.
Algiers, on the West Bank of the Mississippi, was also annexed in 1870, becoming the 15th ward. Four years later, Orleans Parish ceased being separate from the city of New Orleans when the city of
Carrollton was annexed as the 16th and 17th wards. However, to this day, the USPS still recognizes and accepts mailings which are addressed to Carrollton, LA, as legal and will deliver them to the ZIP code 70118.
New Orleans' government is now largely centralized in the City Council and Mayor's office, but it maintains a number of relics from earlier systems when various sections of the city ran much of their affairs separately. For example, New Orleans has seven elected tax assessors, each with their own staff, representing various districts of the city, rather than one centralized office.
See also: Mayors of New Orleans |
A tanker on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. |
New Orleans is one of the most visited cities in the United States, and tourism is a major staple in the area's economy. Approximately 14 million people visit New Orleans each year. The city's colorful Carnival celebrations (leading up to mardi gras or "fat tuesday", the feast day before "ash wednesday") during the pre-Lenten season, centered (for tourists at least) on the French Quarter, draw particularly large crowds. Other major tourist events and attractions in the city include the
Sugar Bowl, the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,
Voodoo Fest,
Southern Decadence (one of the largest annual Gay/Lesbian celebrations in the world), and the
Essence Festival, not to mention sporting events including Superbowls and NCAA final fours.
New Orleans is also an industrial and distribution center, and one of the busiest
seaports in the world. The
Port of New Orleans is the largest U.S. port for several major commodities including rubber, cement and coffee. The port of South Louisiana is the 5th largest port in the world.
Like
Houston, New Orleans is located in proximity to the
Gulf of Mexico and the many oil rigs lying just offshore. Louisiana ranks 5th in oil production and 8th in reserves. Louisiana is also home to two of the four Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) storage facilities: West Hackberry in Cameron Parish and Bayou Choctaw in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Other infrastructure includes 17 petroleum refineries with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 2.8 million barrels per calendar day, the second highest in the nation after Texas. Louisiana has numerous ports including the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which is capable of receiving ultra large oil tankers. Natural gas and electricity dominate the home heating market with similar market shares totaling about 47 percent each. With all of the product to distribute, Louisiana is home to many major pipelines supplying the nation: Crude Oil - Chevron, BP, Texaco, Shell, Exxon, Scurloch-Permian, Mid-Valley, Calumet, Conoco, Koch, Unocal, Dept. of Energy, Locap. Product - TEPPCO, Colonial, Chevron, Shell, Plantation, Explorer, Texaco, Collins, BP. Liquefied Petroleum Gas - Dixie, TEPPCO, Black Lake, Koch, Chevron, Dynegy, Kinder, Dow, Bridgeline, FMP, Tejas, Texaco, UTP. [
5]There are a substantial number of energy companies that have their regional headquarters in the city, including
BP,
Chevron,
ConocoPhillips, and
Shell Oil Company. The city is the home and worldwide headquarters of two
Fortune 500 companies:
Entergy Corporation, an energy and infrastructure providing company, and
Freeport-McMoRan, a copper and gold exploration company.
The
federal government has a significant presence in the area. The
NASA Michoud Assembly Facility is located in the eastern portion of Orleans Parish. The facility is operated by
Lockheed-Martin and is a large manufacturing facility where external fuel tanks for space shuttles are produced. The
Michoud Assembly Facility also houses the
National Finance Center operated by the
USDA.
In recent years, in an effort to diversify her economy, New Orleans has become know as "Hollywood South". Many large budget and critically acclaimed feature films have been made in and around New Orleans over the last few years, such a "Ray" the Ray Charles Story, "Runnaway Jury", "Pelican Brief", "Skeleton Key", "Glory Road", "All the King's Men", "JFK" and countless other full length films and documentaries.
Other companies with a significant presence or base in New Orleans include Entergy Corp. and its subsidiaries (corporate headquarters),
BellSouth,
IBM, Navtech,
Harrah's (downtown casino),
Popeye's Fried Chicken,
Zatarain's, Whitney Bank (corp. HQ),
Capital One(bank HQ),
Southern Comfort, Tidewater (Corp. HQ), McMoran Exploration(Corp. HQ) and Energy Partners (corp.HQ).
Most major corporations that had offices or headquarters in New Orleans have returned post-Katrina.
New Orleans has a high violent crime rate. Its
homicide rate has consistently ranked in the top five of large cities in the country since the 1980s along with Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Louisville. In 1994, 421 people were killed (85.8 per 100,000 people), a homicide rate which has not been matched by any major US city to date.
The homicide rate rose and fell year to year throughout the late 1990s, but the overall trend from 1994 to 1999 was a steady reduction in homicides.
From 1999 to 2004, the homicide rate again increased. New Orleans had the highest murder rate of any major American city in 2002 (53.3 per 100,000 people), and again retained the highest murder rate in 2003, with 275 murders. [
6]
As in other U.S. cities of comparable size, the incidence of homicide and other violent crimes is highly concentrated in certain city neighborhoods, such as
housing projects, that are sites of open air drug trade. Most murder victims have criminal records. In 2003, most victims in New Orleans were killed within three months of their last arrest. The statistics state that only about 9% of murder victims in 2004 year were of European or Asian Ancestery. The crime is primarily black on black crime and drug related crime.
[http://www.nola.com/speced/cycleofdeath/pdf/02080405.pdf] The homicide rate for the New Orleans
metropolitan statistical area, which includes the suburbs, was 24.4 per 100,000 in 2002.
[http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/html/web/offreported/02-table06NO.html]After Hurricane Katrina, media attention focused on the reduced violent crime rate following the exodus of many New Orleanians. That trend is beginning to reverse itself as more people return to the city, although calculating the homicide rate remains difficult given that no authoritative source can cite a total population figure.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/national/nationalspecial/30crime.html?ex=1301374800&en=f848a95030af9495&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss]. Regardless, statistics are showing that violent crime is beginning to return to the city. The city finished the month of July 2006 with 22 murders, which was the same as the pre-Katrina average for the city since 2002 when the population was much higher. The numbers for this year, with 80 murders so far, put the city on pace to have 58.36 murders per 100,000 citizens, and the number of murders has continued to rise each month.[
7]
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl073106jbdispute.d3b5de.htmlSchools
New Orleans Public Schools, the city's school district, was one of the area's largest school districts before Hurricane Katrina. It was widely recognized as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana. According to researchers
Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, only 12 of the 103 school districts in New Orleans showed reasonably good performance at the beginning of the twenty-first century
. Following Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana took over most of the schools within the system (all schools that fell into a certain "worst-performing" metric); about 20 new charter schools have also been started since the storm, educating about 15,000 students.
The Greater New Orleans area has approximately 200 parochial schools. The prevalence of parochial schools has been both a cause and a consequence of the troubles in the public schools. Because so many middle class students have been enrolled in non-public schools, middle class support for public education has been relatively weak. At the same time, the apparent low quality of public schools in New Orleans has encouraged middle class families to educate their children in private or parochial schools.
Colleges and universities
Several institutions of higher education also exist within the city, including
University of New Orleans,
Tulane University,
Loyola University New Orleans,
Dillard University,
Southern University at New Orleans,
Xavier University of Louisiana,
Louisiana State University Medical School, and
Our Lady of Holy Cross College. Other schools include
Delgado Community College,
Culinary Institute of New Orleans,
Herzing College,
Commonwealth University,
Notre Dame Seminary, and
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Libraries
There are numerous
academic and
public libraries and archives in New Orleans, including
Monroe Library at Loyola University, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University
, the Law Library of Louisiana
, and Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.
The
New Orleans Public Library includes 13 locations, most of which were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The main library includes a Louisiana Division housing city archives and special collections.
Other research archives are located at the
Historic New Orleans Collection and the
Old U.S. Mint.
Pronunciation
New Orleans is usually pronounced by locals as "noo-AW-lyenz," "noo-AW-linz," "noo-OR-linz," or "noo-OR-lyenz." The tendency among people around the world to say "noo-or-LEENZ" stems from the use of that pronunciation by singers and songwriters, who find it easy to rhyme; however that pronunciation is generally disdained by locals. The pronunciation "NAW-linz" is likewise not generally used nor liked by locals but has been popularized by the tourist trade.
The distinctive local accent is unlike either
Cajun or the stereotypical
Southern accent so often misportrayed by film and television actors. It does, like earlier Southern Englishes, feature frequent
deletion of post-vocalic "r". It is similar to a
New York "
Brooklynese" accent to people unfamiliar with it. There are many theories to how the accent came to be, but it likely results from New Orleans' geographic isolation by water, and the fact that New Orleans was a major port of entry into the United States throughout the 19th century. Many of the immigrant groups who reside in Brooklyn also reside in New Orleans, with
Irish,
Italians, and
Germans being among the largest groups.
The prestige associated with being from New Orleans by many residents is likely a factor in the linguistic assimilation of the ethnically divergent population. This distinctive accent is dying out generation by generation in the city (but remains very strong in the surrounding Parishes). As with many
sociolinguistic artifacts, it is usually attested much more strongly by older members of the population. One subtype of the New Orleans accent is sometimes identified as
Yat (from "Where y'at). This word is not used as a generalized term for the New Orleans accent, and is generally reserved for the strongest varieties. Also notable are
lexical items specific to the city, such as "
lagniappe" (pronounced LAN-yap) meaning "a little something extra," "makin' groceries" for grocery shopping, or "
neutral ground" for a street
median.
Tribute "City"
The culture of the city has had a profound impact on many people, one of which was
Walt Disney, who built a replica of the
French Quarter called
New Orleans Square in his park
Disneyland in 1966, with buildings and landscaping fitting that of 19th Century New Orleans set upon the park's
Rivers of America port. When it opened, Walt Disney had then New Orleans mayor,
Victor H. Schiro be made honorary mayor of New Orleans Square, and Schiro, in turn, made Disney an honorary citizen of the real New Orleans.
Events
|
Mounted Krewe Officers in the Thoth Parade during Mardi Gras. |
Greater New Orleans is home to numerous celebrations, including
Mardi Gras, the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and
Southern Decadence. New Orleans' most popular celebration is her
Carnival. The
Carnival season is often known (especially by out-of-towners) by the name of its last day,
Mardi Gras (literally, "Fat Tuesday"), held just before the beginning of the
Catholic liturgical season of
Lent. The Carnival season officially begins on the
Feast of the Epiphany; which locals sometimes refer to as "
Twelfth Night."
The largest of the city's many musical festivals is the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Commonly referred to simply as "Jazz Fest," it is one of the largest music festivals in the nation; and features crowds coming from all over the world to experience music, food, arts and crafts. Despite the name, it features not only jazz but a large variety of music, including both native Louisiana music and nationally-known popular music artists.
Music
New Orleans has always been a significant center for
music with its intertwined European, Latin American, and African-American cultures. The city engendered
jazz with its brass bands. Decades later it was home to a distinctive brand of
rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of
rock and roll. New Orleans became a hotbed for
funk music in the 60s and 70s. By the late 1980s it had developed its own localized variant of
hip hop called
bounce music which, while never commercially successful outside of the
Deep South, remained immensely popular in the poor African-American neighborhoods of the city through the 1990s. A cousin of Bounce,
New Orleans Rap has seen commercial success locally and internationally. In addition, the nearby countryside is the home of
Cajun music,
Zydeco music, and
Delta blues.
The city also created its own spin on the old tradition of military
brass band funerals; traditional New Orleans funerals with music feature sad music (mostly dirges and hymns) on the way to the cemetery and happy music (hot jazz) on the way back. Such traditional musical funerals still take place when a local musician, a member of a club,
krewe, or benevolent society, or a noted dignitary has passed. Until the
1990s most locals preferred to call these "funerals with music," but out of town visitors have long dubbed them "
jazz funerals." Younger bands, especially those based in the
Treme neighborhood, have embraced the term and now have funerals featuring only jazz music.
Media
The major daily newspaper is the
New Orleans Times-Picayune, publishing since 1837. Weekly publications include
The Louisiana Weekly and
Gambit Weekly.
[Gambit Weekly]Greater New Orleans is well served by television and radio. The market is the 43rd largest
Designated Market Area (DMA) in the U.S., serving 672,150 homes and 0.610% of the U.S. Major television network affiliates serving the area include
WWL 4 (
CBS),
WGNO 26 (
ABC),
WDSU 6 (
NBC),
WVUE 8 (
FOX),
WNOL 38 (
WB),
WUPL 54 (
UPN), and
WPXL 49 (
PAX).
PBS stations include
WYES 12 and
WLAE 32.
WHNO 20 also operates as an independent station in the area, providing mainly religious programming.
Radio stations serving Greater New Orleans include:
* Jazz:
WWNO-FM (88.9),
WWOZ-FM (90.7),
WTUL-FM (91.5)
* Classical:
WWNO-FM (89.9)
* Country:
WNOE-FM (101.1),
KKND-FM (106.7)
* Contemporary:
KLRZ-FM (100.3),
WLMG-FM (101.9),
WDVW-FM (92.3)
* Gospel/Christian: KHEV-FM (104.1),
WYLD-AM (940),
WBSN-FM (89.1),
WLNO-AM (1060), WSHO-FM (800), WOPR-FM (94.9), WVOG-AM (600)
* Latino:
KGLA-AM (1540),
WFNO-FM (830)
* Oldies:
WJSH-FM (104.7)
* Public:
WRBH-FM (88.3),
WWNO-FM (89.9)
* Rock:
WRNO-FM (99.5),
WEZB-FM (97.1),
WKBU-FM (95.7)
* Sports: WODT-AM (1280)
* Talk:
WWL-AM (870),
WWL-FM (105.3),
WSMB-AM (1350),
WIST-AM (690)
* Urban/Urban Contemporary:
KMEZ-FM (102.9),
KNOU-FM (104.5),
WQUE-FM (93.3),
WYLD-FM (98.5)
Sites of interest
|
Bourbon Street, New Orleans, in 2003, looking towards Canal Street. |
Greater New Orleans has many major attractions, from the world-renowned
Bourbon Street and the
French Quarter's notorious nightlife, St. Charles Avenue (home of
Tulane and
Loyola Universities), and many stately
19th century mansions.
Favorite tourist scenes in New Orleans include the French Quarter (known locally as "the Quarter"), which dates from the French and Spanish eras and is bounded by the Mississippi River and Rampart Street, Canal Street and Esplanade Ave. The French Quarter contains many popular hotels, bars, and nightclubs, most notably around Bourbon Street. Other notable tourist attractions in the quarter include Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the French Market (including the
Café du Monde, famous for
café au lait and
beignets), and jazz at
Preservation Hall.
Also located near the French Quarter is the old
New Orleans Mint, formerly a branch of the
United States Mint, now operates as a museum. The
National D-Day Museum (renamed as the National WWII Museum) is a relatively new museum (opened on
June 6 2000) dedicated to providing information and materials related to the allied invasion of
Normandy, France. The
Natchez is an authentic
steamboat with a
calliope which tours the Mississippi twice daily.
Art museums in the city include the
New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in
City Park and the
Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The
Audubon Park and the
Audubon Zoo are also located in the city of New Orleans. New Orleans is also noted for its many beautiful cemeteries. Some notable cemeteries in the city include
Saint Louis Cemetery and
Metairie Cemetery.
The city is also world-famous for its food. Specialties include
beignets, square-shaped fried pastries that are sometimes called French doughnuts (served with coffee and chicory "au lait");
Po'boy and Italian Muffaletta
sandwiches; Gulf oysters on the half-shell and other
seafoods;
étouffée,
jambalaya,
gumbo, and other Creole dishes; and the Monday evening favorite of red beans and rice. (
Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, "red beans and ricely yours.") Significant gardens include
Longue Vue House and Gardens and the
New Orleans Botanical Garden.
Sports
New Orleans is the home of two professional sports teams, the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Hornets. The city is also home to the AFL's New Orleans Voodoo, and the New Orleans Zephyrs, a Triple-A baseball team affiliated with the Washington Nationals. The city also hosts two
college football bowl games annually: the
New Orleans Bowl and the
Sugar Bowl. The city also holds the
Bayou Classic, which is an annual college football game between
Grambling State University and
Southern University. Nine Super Bowls have been contested in New Orleans.
Historically, many teams have been formerly located in the city, including the
New Orleans Pelicans baseball team (1887â€"1959), the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League, the
New Orleans Night of the
Arena Football League (1991â€"1992), and the
New Orleans Brass ice hockey team (1997â€"2003). Former
basketball teams were the
New Orleans Buccaneers (c. 1967â€"1970), and the New Orleans Jazz (1974â€"1980) which became the
Utah Jazz.
New Orleans is also home to
Southern Yacht Club, located at West End on the shore of
Lake Pontchartrain. Established in
1849, it is the second oldest
yacht club in the United States. The building was severely damaged, first by storm surge and then by fire, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Notable buildings
|
Bank One Center, the second tallest building in New Orleans. |
New Orleans' tallest building is the 51-story
One Shell Square. The proposed 67-story
Trump International Hotel & Tower would be the tallest building in the city and state at 700 feet (213 m). New Orleans is now entering what could become a large downtown residential building boom, with multiple high-rise towers already planned for the city.
Transportation
|
A Saint Charles Avenue streetcar headed down Canal Street |
The metropolitan area is served by
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, located approximately nine miles west of the city in the suburb of
Kenner. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, it served millions of passengers on approximately 300 nonstop flights per day to or from destinations throughout the
United States,
Canada,
Latin America, and the
Caribbean. The airport also handled a significant amount of charter operations to/from
Europe, with which it's had a significant degree of success in retrieving. As of June 2006, Armstrong International is projected to return to 57% of its pre-Katrina total traffic, by seat-count.
Within the city itself is
Lakefront Airport, a small,
general aviation airport, as well as the New Orleans Downtown Heliport, located on the roof of the
Louisiana Superdome's parking garage. There are also several regional airports located throughout the metropolitan area.
The city is also served by rail via
Amtrak. The
New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is the central rail depot, and it is served by three trains: the
Crescent to
New York City, the
City of New Orleans to
Chicago, Illinois, and the
Sunset Limited from
Orlando to
Los Angeles.
In addition, the city is served by six
Class I freight railroads.
Union Pacific Railroad and
BNSF Railway approach the city from the west,
Norfolk Southern Railway and
CSX from the east, and the
Canadian National Railway and
Kansas City Southern Railway from the north.and
New Orleans Public BeltPublic transportation in the city is operated by
New Orleans Regional Transit Authority ("RTA"). In addition to the many
bus routes connecting the city and suburban areas, there are three active
streetcar lines moved by electric motors powered by
DC wires overhead. The
St. Charles line (green cars, formerly connecting New Orleans with the then independent suburb of Carrollton) is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in New Orleans and a historic landmark. The Riverfront line (also known as the
Ladies in Red since the cars are painted red) runs parallel to the river from Canal Street through the French Quarter to the Convention Center above Julia Street in the Arts District. The Canal Street line uses the Riverfront line tracks from Esplanade Street to Canal Street, then branches off down Canal Street and ends at the cemeteries at City Park Avenue with a spur running from the intersection of Canal and Carrollton Avenue to the entrance of City Park at Esplanade near the entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art.
The city's streetcars were also featured in the
Tennessee Williams play,
A Streetcar Named Desire. The streetcar line to Desire Street became a bus line in 1948. There are proposals to revive a Desire
light rail streetcar line.
As of April 2006, the St. Charles streetcar line is still not operational due to overhead wire damage from
Hurricane Katrina. The Canal line is functioning, but the red cars were flooded by the hurricane, so the green cars are currently running on the Canal line.
Recently, many have proposed extending New Orleans's public transit system by adding
light rail routes from downtown along Airline Highway through the airport to
Baton Rouge and from downtown to
Slidell and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Proponents of this idea claim that these new routes would boost the region's economy, which has been badly damaged by
Hurricane Katrina, and serve as an evacuation option for hospital patients out of the city.
Roads in the city are arranged in a radial grid pattern, emanating out to various parts of town from a central point north of the
Central Business District.
I-10 loops east-west through the city, and traverses the northern edge of the Central Business District, taking traffic west towards
Baton Rouge, Louisiana and east-northeast to
Slidell, Louisiana. The "Highrise" carries I-10 across the
Industrial Canal.
Farther east, the I-10 connects New Orleans East with Slidell, bridging an arm of Lake Pontchartrain. This crossing, a dual causeway known as the "Twin Spans," was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. By October 2005 single lanes in each direction had been reopened on the eastbound span. The westbound span was reopened in early January 2006. The Twin Spans is to be replaced with a new six-lane bridge, expected to be completed in 2009.[
8] As I-10 heads south from Metairie towards the Central Business District, it is called the
Pontchartrain Expressway.
I-610 provides a direct shortcut across Lakeview and Gentilly, allowing through traffic to bypass I-10's L-shaped route which traverses the more congested areas.
US 90 leaves the Central Business District and goes west through the city's Uptown neighborhood via South Claiborne Avenue, crossing the Missisisppi River at the Huey P. Long Bridge near the unincorporated suburb of Jefferson. I-10 is also connected to
I-12, north of Lake Pontchartrain, via the tolled
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, consisting of two parallel bridges, which are also the longest in the world.
The interstate highways serving New Orleans were laid out in the middle of the 20th century, a time when a larger proportion of Gulf of Mexico freight traffic passed through New Orleans.
I-10 goes west to
Houston and beyond and east to
Mobile and Florida, with
I-59 and
I-55 heading northward to
Birmingham and
Jackson, respectively. Later,
I-12 created a shortcut that avoided crossing Lake Pontchartrain. In Slidell, I-59 and I-12 both end at an interchange with I-10, which turns southward toward New Orleans while I-12 continues straight to rejoin I-10 in Baton Rouge. There are also plans to extend
I-49 from Lafayette to New Orleans. The route would follow U.S. Highway 90 and the Westbank Expressway, placing the southern terminus at I-10 behind the Superdome. The southern termini of US Highways 11 and 61 are in New Orleans, and US 51 terminates just west of the city,
Laplace.
The Pontchartrain Expressway (
U.S. Highway 90's business route), becomes the
Westbank Expressway south of the Mississippi River. Along its route west then northwest from the
Crescent City Connection bridge to its terminus at I-10 near the Superdome, the Pontchartrain Expressway follows the path of the former New Basin Canal, dug in the 19th century by thousands of immigrant (mostly Irish) laborers, and filled in in 1947. Some of the older warehouse structures still standing along the Pontchartrain Expressway can trace their roots to their days along the banks of the canal.
Roads along the Mississippi River were the first to carry overland traffic into New Orleans. US 51 (the "
Old Hammond Highway"), US 90, and US 11 followed old Indian routes along slight ridges to become the first automotive highways. Louisiana governor
Huey P. Long championed Airline Highway (US 61) to bypass the circuitous river road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The route of today's US 90 east of New Orleans once included a ferry crossing at Fort Pike. Governor Long built public draw bridges at the Rigolets as political retaliation against the operators of a then-private toll bridge across Lake Pontchartrain. Long achieved his objective: the US 11 toll bridge failed commercially and is owned by the State. US 11 was the escape route for Ignatius J. Reilly at the end of John Kennedy Toole's novel,
A Confederacy of Dunces.
West of New Orleans, the Ruddock exit at milepost 6 of
I-55 is the only trace left of a thriving community that was literally washed away by the hurricane of September 1915.
Frenier Beach Hurricane Storm Surge RevisitedIn the 1960s, a controversial "Dixie Freeway" that would have been designated I-410 would have created an "outer loop" encompassing St. Bernard Parish, the westbank areas of New Orleans and Jefferson, and back across the river in St. Charles Parish where I-310 now runs. Environmental concern for the wetlands south of New Orleans and economic considerations derailed those plans.
New Orleans has ten
sister cities:
[Sister Cities designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI). Retrieved June 8, 2006.]*
Juan-les-Pins (
France)
*
Maracaibo (
Venezuela)
*
Matsue (
Japan)
*
Mérida (
Mexico)
*
Innsbruck (
Austria)
*
Pointe Noire (
Republic of the Congo)
*
San Miguel de Tucuman (
Argentina)
*
Tegucigalpa (
Honduras)
*
Caracas (
Venezuela)
*
Holdfast Bay (
Australia)
*
Reconstruction of New Orleans*
List of New Orleanians*
New Orleans in Fiction*
Wards of New Orleans
*
Official Website of the City of New Orleans*
New Orleans Wiki*
Info on Katrina recovery*
New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau*
New Orleans Travel Guide*
NewOrleansOnline.com*
NewOrleans.com*
FrenchQuarter.com*
Thayer's Gazetteer: Historical Documents on New Orleans and its Water Management*
People Of New Orleans - Video interviews with New Orleanians, post-Katrina.
*
Lousiana Trip - Gallery of images of French Quarter and other places in Southern Louisiana, taken a few months before Katrina
*
New Orleans Streetcars*
1862 Aerial View of New Orleans*
Scientific American Magazine (February 2006 Issue) Protecting New Orleans*
A psychogeographic guide to the city of New Orleans*
Twoop timeline
