New Orleans!
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City of New Orleans
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.
A more recent study by the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) completed in October 2006 estimates that the city is currently about 44% white and 46% black. The LRA concludes that 187,525 people are living in New Orleans compared to 484,674 pre-Katrina.
New Orleans Government
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.GR6 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.
New Orleans Economy
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 (popularly known by locals as "Jazz Fest"), Voodoo Music Experience, Southern Decadence (one of the largest annual Gay/Lesbian celebrations in the world), and the Essence Festival, not to mention sporting events including Super Bowls and NCAA final fours.New Orleans is also an industrial and distribution center, and the busiest port system in the world by gross tonnage. 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, also based in the New Orleans area, is the world's busiest in terms of bulk tonnage; and when combined with the Port of N.O., forms the 4th largest port system in volume handled.
Like Houston, Texas, 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. 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 known 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 as Ray, Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, The Skeleton Key, Glory Road, All the King's Men, D'j' Vu, Last Holiday, Failure to Launch, and countless other full-length films and documentaries.
Other companies with a significant presence or base in New Orleans include the worldwide headquarters of Entergy Corporation and its subsidiaries, BellSouth, IBM, Navtech, Harrah's (downtown casino), Popeye's Fried Chicken, Zatarain's, Whitney Bank (corp. HQ), Capital One (banking HQ), Southern Comfort, Tidewater (Corp. HQ), McMoran Exploration(worldwide corporate HQ) and Energy Partners (corp.HQ).
Most major corporations that had offices or headquarters in New Orleans have returned post-Katrina. Also, over 95% of businesses whose annual income is over $20,000,000 have come back.
New Orleans Crime & Police
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, and Atlanta. 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. However, Detroit came very close one year with 416 killings. 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 according to this report.
Violent crime is a serious problem for New Orleans residents, especially African American, yet far less of a problem for tourists. Reports show that almost 90% of Whites living within the city limits felt safe in their surroundings, while only about 25% of Blacks felt safe in their surroundings. 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 Ancestry. The crime is primarily black on black drug related. link The homicide rate for the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, which includes the suburbs, was 24.4 per 100,000 in 2002.
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. 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 by the end of July, 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.
New Orleans Education
New Orleans Schools
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.
New Orleans 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, University of Phoenix, Culinary Institute of New Orleans, Herzing College, Commonwealth University, Notre Dame Seminary, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.New Orleans 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.
New Orleans Culture
New Orleans Dialect
New Orleans is usually pronounced by locals as "Noo-AW-lyenz," "New-Or-linz," or "New-Or-lenz." The tendency among people around the world to say "New-Or-LEENZ" stems both from the use of that pronunciation by singers and songwriters, who find it easy to rhyme, and from accepted pronunciations of other cities named Orleans in the English speaking world. However, that pronunciation is generally disdained by the residents of New Orleans. 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" (from the French 'Faire l''picerie'- to make/do shopping) for grocery shopping, or "neutral ground" for a street median (derived from a traditional area between new American neighborhoods and native French, Spanish and creole neighborhoods or 'faubourgs' where it was acceptable for all to meet).
Some other words and names are pronounced differently in the New Orleans vocabulary, while the spelling remains consistent with standard English, or the word's original language. Burgundy for example is pronounced buh-GUN-dee when referring to the New Orleans street, though other usages of the word (as in the color or the wine) are pronounced as the standard BUR-gun-dee.
New Orleans 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.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.
New Orleans Music
Louis Armstrong, famous New Orleans Jazz musician.New Orleans has always been a significant center for music with its intertwined European, Latin American, and African-American cultures. New Orleans' unique musical heritage was born in its pre-American and early American days with a unique blending of European instruments with African rythms. As the only North American city to allow slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in "Congo Square", now "Armstrong Park"), likely due to the more relaxed attitudes of French and Creole slave owners as compared to their Anglo-American neighbors, New Orleans was blessed to give birth to the nation's only indigenous music, jazz. With New Orleans' large, educated and influential Creole, Haitian and free black population, these African beats intertwined with trained musicians and the city's now famous brass bands gained wide popularity (and they remain just as popular today). Decades later it was home to a distinctive brand of rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of rock and roll. A great example of the New Orleans sound in the 60s is the #1 US hit "Chapel Of Love" by The Dixie Cups, a song which had the distinction of knocking the Beatles out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. 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. Throughout the 1990s many sludge/doom metal bands have started in the New Orleans area. Notable bands include: Acid Bath, Crowbar, Goatwhore, Soilent Green, Eyehategod, and Down (whose first album was entitled "NOLA"). New Orleans is also home to hardcore political punk rock band In Distress. 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.
New Orleans Media
The major daily newspaper is the New Orleans Times-Picayune, publishing since 1837. Weekly publications include The Louisiana Weekly and Gambit Weekly. Also in wide circulation is the Clarion Herald, the biweeky newspaper of the Archdioscese of New Orleans.Greater New Orleans is well served by television and radio. The market is the 54th largest Designated Market Area (DMA) in the U.S., serving 566,960 homes and 0.509% of the U.S. Major television network affiliates serving the area include:
New Orleans 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 Caf' du Monde, famous for caf' 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 Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in City Park and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo, and the Aquarium of the Americas 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.
Significant gardens include Longue Vue House and Gardens and the New Orleans Botanical Garden. Gardens are also found in places like City Park and Audubon Park. City Park still has one of the largest if not the largest stands of oak trees in the world.
Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, bus tours of the damaged areas became popular and are still available.
New Orleans Food
New Orleans is world-famous for its food. Like its Jazz, New Orleans is blessed with the only truly indigenous local cuisine in the nation. From the infiltration of hearty cajun country fare over the centuries to the local creole, haute creole and New Orleans French cuisines, New Orleans food is perhaps its most cherished possession. Local ingredients, African, French, Spanish and Cajun traditions combine to produce a truly unique and easily recognizable New Orleans flavor.Unique specialties include beignets, square-shaped fried pastries that are sometimes called French doughnuts (served with coffee and chicory "au lait"); Po'boy and Italian Muffalettas; Gulf oysters on the half-shell, boiled crawfish, and other seafood; 'touff'e, 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.") New Orleans residents enjoy some of the best restaurants in the United States that cater specifically to locals, and visitors are encouraged to try the local establishments recommended by their hosts.
New Orleans Sports
New Orleans is the home of four professional sports teams, the New Orleans Saints of the NFL, the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA, the New Orleans VooDoo of the AFL, and the New Orleans Zephyrs, a PCL baseball team affiliated with the New York Mets. New Orleans also has college teams from Tulane, Loyola, UNO, Xavier, and Dillard. The city 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 held in New Orleans.Historically, many teams have been formerly located in the city, including the New Orleans Pelicans baseball team (1887'1959; 1977), the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League, the New Orleans Night of the Arena Football League (1991'1992), and the New Orleans Brass ice hockey team (1997'2003). Former basketball teams were the New Orleans Buccaneers (c. 1967'1970), and the New Orleans Jazz (1974'1980) which became the Utah Jazz.
New Orleans is also home to the New Orleans Yacht Club and Southern Yacht Club, both of which are located at West End on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Southern Yacht Club was 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.
In 1991, 1992, and 1995, New Orleans was also home to the Grand Prix du Mardi Gras. The sports car races took place on 2 different street circuits downtown. The circuit used in 1991 used streets near the riverfront, but was regarded as being too narrow. A course that ran around the Superdome was used the other years. Low attendance, dates that resulted in hot or rainy weather, and complaints from business owners contributed to the event's demise. However, rumors in the area have pointed to the race being revived in 2008 under the sanction of the Champ Car World Series.
The Big Easy Rollergirls have the distinction of being the only flat-track derby team in the nation that had to start up twice - Katrina scattered many of its members to other cities. As of September 2006, The Big Easy Rollergirls has about 60 active members and will begin their first public bout season this month.
New Orleans Club Sport League Founded Venue
New Orleans Saints American Football National Football League 1967 Louisiana SuperdomeNew Orleans Hornets Basketball National Basketball Association 1988 New Orleans Arena
New Orleans VooDoo Arena Football Arena Football League 2004 New Orleans Arena
New Orleans Zephyrs Baseball Pacific Coast League 1993 Zephyr Field
New Orleans Shell Shockers Soccer Premier Development League 2003 Muss Bertolino Stadium
New Orleans Blaze Women's Football National Women's Football Association 2002 Muss Bertolino Stadium
Louisiana Blues Basketball American Basketball Association 2006 North Shore Harbor Center
Big Easy Rollergirls Roller Derby Women's Flat Track Derby Association 2005 Mardi Gras World
New Orleans Infrastructure
New Orleans Notable buildings
Bank One Center, the second tallest building in New Orleans.New Orleans' tallest building is the 51-story One Shell Square. The approved 67-story Trump International Hotel & Tower would be the tallest building in the city and state if built at the proposed height of 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.New Orleans Tallest buildings Name Stories Height
One Shell Square 51 697 ft (213 m)Bank One Center (former Place St. Charles) 53 645 ft (197 m)
Crescent City Towers (former Plaza Tower) 45 531 ft (162 m)
Energy Centre 39 530 ft (162 m)
LL&E Tower (now 909 Poydras Building) 36 481 ft (147 m)
Sheraton New Orleans 48 479 ft (146 m)
New Orleans Marriott 42 449 ft (137 m)
Texaco Center 32 442 ft (135 m)
One Canal Place 32 440 ft (134 m)
1010 Common 31 438 ft (134 m)
New Orleans Transportation
A Saint Charles Avenue streetcar headed down Canal StreetThe 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 September 2006, Armstrong International is projected to return to 67% of its pre-Katrina total traffic, by seat-count; and 75% of the number of pre-stormed destinations served.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, and the Sunset Limited from Orlando to Los Angeles.
In addition, the city is served by seven 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 Belt.
Public 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.
The Jefferson Parish Department of Transit Administration operates Jefferson Transit which provides service between the city and its suburbs.
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. 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 Revisited In 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.
