Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans

by Garvey, John B.

  The new administration strove to deal with the city’s fiscal problems on a long-term basis. Landrieu named the first black to head a department of city government. He chose qualified personnel, regardless of race. He was also responsible for the advancement of women in high places in city government. He promoted the growth of tourism through public improvements and renovation projects.

  The Moonwalk, named in his honor and built during his administration, stretches out on top of the levee at Jackson Square, and gives the visitor an unparalleled view of both the river and the Cathedral.

  From 1975 to 1976, Landrieu served as president of the US Conference of Mayors, and he was nominated by President Carter as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on September 24, 1979, an office that he held until the end of the Carter administration.

  Mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial: Trailblazer

  Mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial blazed trails and made history for his race as the first black mayor of New Orleans. In 1965, Morial was made the first black assistant in the US Attorney’s office. In 1968, he became the first black man in the legislature since Reconstruction. In the 1970s, he became the first black juvenile court judge and the first black elected to the State’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He served as mayor from 1978 to 1986. Few people can claim such a collection of firsts.

  Morial tried to bring a greater stability to the city’s economy. During his administration, major improvements were made in the port’s docking facilities. He also attempted to improve existing job training and vocational programs and to create new ones where they were needed.

  His efforts to expand tourism included a $88 million Convention and Exhibition Center (now called the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center) and offering the city as host of the World Exposition and Fair in 1984. Morial died on December 24, 1989.

  Mayor Sidney Barthelemy: Mayoral Landslide

  Mayor Sidney J. Barthelemy won the race for mayor of New Orleans in 1986 by the largest landslide of a non-incumbent in the city’s history. The mayor had served as the Director of the City Welfare Department. He was the first black Louisiana State Senator elected since Reconstruction. During his first year in office, he was elected president of the National Association of Regional Councils and was on the board of directors for the US Conference of Mayors.

  Mayor Marc Morial: Sweeping Victory

  Marc Morial, at age thirty-six, became the youngest mayor in our city’s history and the second half of a father-son mayoral team with former mayor “Dutch” Morial.

  Morial served from 1986 to1988 on the board for the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union and served as a state senator from 1992 to 1994. He was elected to his first mayoral term on March 5, 1994. In his campaign, he promised a “safe” city and work opportunities. His achievements in reducing crime and police reform won him reelection 1998.

  He expressed his desire to run for a third term and petitioned for a change to the city charter to allow him a third, but the effort was defeated by the voters.

  After leaving office, Morial was selected as President of the National Urban League, beginning in 2003.

  Mayor C. Ray Nagin

  Clarence Ray Nagin Jr., a consultant, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker, served as mayor of New Orleans from 2002 to 2010. He gained national exposure in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

  On August 28, 2005, Nagin received definitive word from the Hurricane Center that Hurricane Katrina was making its way to New Orleans. Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city, resulting in ninety-five percent of the city being evacuated by that evening.

  In the aftermath of Katrina, Nagin worked feverishly to get the city the disaster assistance that it needed. He was very vocal in his criticism of the slow federal and state response to his pleas.

  Nagin was reelected to office in 2006, even though the election was held in the city with approximately two-thirds of its citizens still displaced after the storm.

  Mayor Mitchell “Mitch” Landrieu

  Mitch Landrieu, son of former mayor Moon Landrieu, had a successful law career for fifteen years before being elected to the state legislature in 1987, in which he served for sixteen years.

  Landrieu was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2003. He received fifty-three percent of the vote; thereby avoiding a general election.

  He ran for mayor in 2006 against C. Ray Nagin, but lost the election. Landrieu said that he would not run for mayor in 2010, however, late in December of 2009, he changed his mind and won approximately sixty-one percent of the vote.

  CHAPTER XI

  New Orleans Today

  Aerial view showing the river, the Central Business District, and the Superdome (now the Mercedez-Benz Superdome).

  Waterways still play an important role in the story of New Orleans. The Mississippi River and the business it brings are vital to the existence of the city, and so, the US Engineers work to keep the river running past our door on its familiar route. The lakes and bayous used by the explorers are still important to commerce as well as recreation; for this reason, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation works to keep these waterways free of pollution and inviting to human and wildlife habitation.

  A contemporary French Quarter balcony. (Courtesy Kathy Chappetta Spiess)

  The Vieux Carré remains the city’s chief attraction. More pedestrians cross Jackson Square and its bounding streets each year than any other area of equal size in the entire United States. What keeps the attraction alive and existing aside from the beautiful architecture of the Jackson Square area? It is the fact that the French Quarter’s buildings, while not a living museum such as those of the city of Williamsburg, have retained that European city look and that ancient Bohemian essence that makes it sui generis in North America.

  New challenges and needs are being met it as moves further into the twenty-first century and overcomes obstacles and disasters. From the days when cotton was king to the rise of the global economy, the port of New Orleans evolves with the changing face of the world, and its trade remains one of the busiest ports in the United States.

  The Port of New Orleans

  The Port offers shippers modern facilities—the most modern intermodal connections in the country and efficient, experienced labor. Every imaginable cargo crosses the Port’s wharves, from sugar and textiles to steel and soybeans. The Port continues to make gains in niche cargoes with increased tonnages in coffee, forest product exports, and natural rubber imports.

  In 1962, the Port Authority of Greater New Orleans (also known as the Dock Board) began a project of rebuilding that was scheduled to take three decades. This was made necessary by a change in the technology of shipping: the use of container vessels and barge-carrying ships. Container docks require large, alongside assembly areas; huge stuffing sheds; large yards for assembly of trucks and railroad cars; and cranes for moving containers from ship to vehicle.

  The Dock Board decided to start from scratch with a brand new location, establishing the France Road and Jourdan Road river terminals, which have greatly increased the Port’s general cargo and bulk cargo capabilities. By the year 2000, twenty-nine existing wharves in downtown New Orleans retired, and development increased in New Orleans East. For the first time since Bienville landed in the 1600s, New Orleans has a riverfront uncluttered by wharves. Today, the Port of New Orleans remains the only deepwater port in the United States served by six class-one railroads.

  First Street Wharf on the East Bank, with 1275 feet of water frontage and a 50- foot wide front apron. Public Belt Railroad front and rear aprons provide direct discharge from boats to rail lines or trucks. (Courtesy Port of New Orleans)

  Since the early 2000s, the Port of New Orleans has invested $400 million in new, state-of-the-art facilities. The Port offices are now located near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

  The Intracoastal Waterway

  Why was it built in Eastern New Orleans? The answer goes back to the 1920s, when the Dock Board and
the City collaborated to build a deep water canal between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Its name is the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal and is referred to by New Orleanians as the Industrial Canal. It was later attached to the Intracoastal Waterway, which led eastward to Lake Borgne and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In 1923, the canal was connected to the river by locks. In 1934, on the west bank of the river, the Harvey Canal was finished, linking the Mississippi River, Bayou Barataria, western Louisiana, and the Texas Coast. Both the Industrial Canal and the Harvey Canal became links in the newly finished Intracoastal Waterway, which eventually led from the Rio Grande River to the Florida Coast.

  New Orleans is now the Total Port, offering every maritime service. It earns the title Centroport, USA, and is a part of the greatest port complex in the world, stretching from Baton Rouge to the Gulf.

  New Orleans is served by seven major railroads, the US Interstate Highway System, and nineteen thousand miles of navigable water-ways. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, it was also accessible through the Mississippi-Gulf Outlet. More than one hundred steamship lines offer regular sailing from New Orleans to all parts of the world.

  Tourism

  Tourism continues to be the rising star in the New Orleans economic sky.

  Steamboat on the Mississippi river. (Courtesy Kathy Chappetta Spiess)

  The Golden Age of steamboating on the Mississippi is recalled as ships, reminiscent of that earlier era, fill the river, dodging containerized freighters, ferries, cruise ships, ocean liners, and oil tankers, all vying for their space in the river.

  Steamboat Natchez. (Courtesy Kathy Chappetta Spiess)

  Excursion boats allow the same view of St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square enjoyed by steamboat passengers in the 1900s. The Natchez, the largest sternwheeler built in the United States, offers cruises on the river, as do the Creole Queen, the Cotton Blossom, and John James Audubon, names and designs evoking memories of the steamboat era. New Orleans keeps the old and just adds the new.

  Casino and Riverboat Gambling

  One June 11, 1992, the Louisiana legislature signed the Louisiana Economic Development and Gaming Corporation Act into law. This act allowed a single land-based casino in New Orleans near the French Quarter. Riverboat gambling was also legalized on the Mississippi and other Louisiana waterways in 1991.

  Harrah’s casino opened a temporary casino in the Municipal Auditorium in May 2005, while the only approved land-based casino was being built at the foot of Canal Street at the former site of the Rivergate Convention Center. The temporary casino declared bankruptcy in November of the same year and work on the new casino stopped.

  Construction got back on track, and Harrah’s permanent, land-based casino opened near the foot of Canal Street in November 1999.

  The Central Business Dictrict and the Poydras Street Boom

  The Dock Board’s decision to abandon the riverfront wharves and its plans for building the Superdome were responsible for the revival and restoration of the Central Business District. The Rivergate Project came first in 1968 with its thirty-three-story International Trade Mart, now called the World Trade Center.

  Following the destruction of the Rivergate Convention Center in 1995 were hotels such as the Marriott, Hilton, Le Meridien, Sheraton, Windsor Court, Le Pavillion, and Westin Canal Place with the Canal Place Shops mall. Another development was the International Rivercenter, now called the Riverwalk, with its shopping malls, restaurants, lounges, and parking facilities. Like the Rivergate project, all met with success because of their proximity to the French Quarter, the riverfront, and the Superdome.

  Much activity was generated by the building of the Louisiana Superdome and the presence of the Louisiana World Exposition on the riverfront in 1984, opening this area for future development.

  The second span of the Greater New Orleans Mississippi River Bridge, completed in 1988, together with its earlier twin, is now called the Crescent City Connection. Its construction required elevated ramps, which necessitated changes in the neighborhood. Poydras Street, the center of the area between the bridge ramps and Canal Street, became the new scene of construction and business activity.

  Poydras Street: A Monument to the Oil Boom of the Early 1980s

  Poydras Street is a monument to the oil boom of 1981, when a record number of rigs (502) pumped off the shores of Louisiana. By 1986, only 92 were left. The culprit was Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which reduced the price of oil from thirty-five dollars per barrel to as low as ten dollars. The impact was devastating. Oil related jobs disappeared. In 1983, major manufacturers such as Kaiser Chalmette Works, formerly one of the world’s largest aluminum reduction plants, shut down, causing twenty thousand workers to become unemployed. It has not reopened. The Port of New Orleans lost business to other ports. People left the city. Houses were for sale, but values fell. By the mid-nineties, prices were back up and the oil companies survived. Even so, the future may well be tied to natural gas.

  New Orleans’s Sports Teams and Their Home Turf

  New Orleans Saints

  On November 1, 1966, the New Orleans Saints became the sixteenth NFL franchise. John Mecom Jr. was the majority stockholder and president of the franchise. Tom Fears was named the first head coach. The city was thrilled; the first day that tickets went on sale for the first game, 20,000 tickets were sold, accumulating in 33,400 ticket sales for the first game.

  The Saints played their very first game against the Los Angeles Rams and lost 16-7. Little did New Orleanians know that this would be an omen for the future of the team. But that didn’t stop the fans from standing behind them—through all of the less-than-thrilling seasons when fans put paper bags over their heads, they still attended games of the “Aints.”

  In 1985, the team had a new owner, Tom Benson, who bought the team for $70.204 million (Official Site of the New Orleans Saints). It wasn’t until 1987 that the Saints made it to their first NFL playoff game. For the first time in their twenty-year history, the fans went wild!

  In 2005, the Superdome (the home field for the Saints) was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Knowing its importance to New Orleans and New Orleanians, the Dome was repaired in time for the Saints to play on their home field for the first regular season game, lifting the spirits of the city at a time when it needed it most.

  Then, in 2010, the hopes and dreams of the city were realized when the New Orleans Saints under head coach Sean Payton went to Super Bowl XLIVI in Miami, where they beat their opponents, the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17. More than forty years after the inception of the franchise, the New Orleans Saints were World Champions.

  New Orleans Hornets

  In 2002, New Orleans got their second pro-sports team, the Hornets NBA basketball franchise.

  Founded in 1988, the Hornets originally called Charlotte, North Carolina, home. The team moved to New Orleans following its 2001-2 season. Its inaugural season as the New Orleans Hornets began with a home game on October 30, 2002.

  Hurricane Katrina forced the franchise to move temporarily to Oklahoma City, where they spent two seasons, returning to New Orleans in 2007.

  In April 2012, Tom Benson, owner of the NFL Saints franchise, bought the team.

  Louisiana Superdome

  The Louisiana Superdome, locally called the Dome, is owned by the state of Louisiana and was built at a cost of $161 million. It was opened with a football game in August 1975. Probably the most extravagant building in the world at the time, it hosts a seating capacity of 76,468, a diameter of 680 feet, and a height of 273 feet. Although it garners and reflects a Texas flavor, it outdoes the Houston Astrodome in size, which could fit inside the Superdome with thirty feet above it to spare. The Dome towers over the site of the old railroad yard and is the most visible building in the city. With the opening of the Superdome, the city was announcing that it was officially open for business.

  The Superdome is the home to the Tulane University football team, the New Orleans Saints NFL team, an
d the annual Sugar Bowl game.

  In August of 2005, the Dome was designated as one of the “refuges of last resort” by Mayor Nagin for those citizens who were not able to evacuate the city for Hurricane Katrina. The Dome sustained severe damage during the storm. The latest renovation, completed in June 2011, cost $85 million.

  The Louisiana Superdome has hosted (or will host) a number of Super Bowl games, including those of 1970, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1986, 1990, 1997, 2002, and 2013.

  On October 4, 2011, Governor Bobby Jindal and the New Orleans Saints announced that a ten-year agreement had been reached for renaming the Dome. The new name of the domed stadium became the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

  New Orleans Arena

  The New Orleans Arena is another part of the city’s sports complex and is the home court for the New Orleans Hornets.

  The arena was completed in 1999 at a cost of approximately $114 million. In addition to the Hornets, it is the venue for some high school basketball games as well as concerts.

  English Turn

  Another element to the sports picture was added in 1994 at English Turn. No longer just a bend in the river, it is now a country club development with a Jack Nicklaus-designed championship golf course, where the PGA Zurich Classic is held each year.

  Industry and Natural Resources

  The Avondale Shipyards, founded in 1938 as Avondale Marine Ways, is across the river from New Orleans in Avondale, Louisiana. Today it is part of Huntington Ingalls Industries. At one point, the shipyard employed more than six thousand people in the building of ocean-going crafts, making it the largest employer in the state at the height of its life. Huntington Ingalls is on track to close down the Avondale shipyard in 2013.