Day 16: Jackson Square – New Orleans, LA
Today, we head to the Crescent City—and one of my favorite American cities—New Orleans. New Orleans is such a unique city. I have written about New Orleans previously on here, mostly about one of my favorite walkable neighborhoods, Algiers Point.
Jackson Square is the site of this photo. It’s located in the heart of the French Quarter, near the Mississippi River. We were eating some delicious beignets from Cafe Du Monde when some street performers enticed us to stay and watch their show. It was amazing! The acrobatics they performed on the hard concrete were truly death-defying. They did all sorts of back flips and somersaults over each other. When they first started, hardly anyone was there to watch. By the end of the show, the sidewalks were jam packed.
I’m not going to dive into the struggles with Hurricane Katrina, though I know several people there breaking their backs everyday to rebuild. The walkable parts of New Orleans were mostly spared. It was the middle class and poor, dilapidated, and heavy minority neighborhoods that faced the most damage. I really hope for the best in their recovery efforts.
As always, I have more photos of New Orleans for view in the photo gallery. Some of the photos were also shot by my good friend Mike Corrigan.
This article is a part of the Exploring the Walkability of America in 30 Days photo series.
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doctorj is discussing.
doctorj 5:13 am on July 18, 2007 Permalink
Great article except for one comment. “It was the poor, dilapidated, and heavy minority neighborhoods that faced the most damage.” For every poor neighborhood destroyed there was a middle class neighborhood destroyed. Did you see Gentilly? Did you see Lakeview? Did you see St. Bernard Parish? Just because they are not in the news doesn’t mean they don’t exist and suffer also. Thank you for coming and helping New Orleans rebuild itself by your visit. We really do appreciate it. I hope you had fun in the process. LOL!
Eric Fredericks 7:20 am on July 18, 2007 Permalink
Hi doctorj,
I’ve actually heard about those neighborhoods, but am not familiar with their socioeconomic status. I actually hear more about those neighborhoods because many members of the Congress for New Urbanism have been active in design charrettes there. I added middle class to the sentence above.
I actually have not been back to New Orleans since Katrina. I was there 3 times in the few years before Katrina, however. It’s not that I don’t want to visit. As you can see, I travel a good amount and a lot of my trips have some other purpose than just to visit (mostly weddings). That stretches my funds for travel quite a bit. In a world where I did not have concerns with money and keeping my job, I would be there working.
Thank you so much for you comment and for staying in the New Orleans area!