The Streets

The streets in New Orleans are some of the most interesting streets I've ever been on. Asides from being riddled with holes and cracks (which somehow is becoming endearing...), they have a lot of character. The streets readily reflect the atmosphere and attitude of the people who live on them. Each street seems to have it's own history and culture. Some streets are shrouded in the antique and some streets are sparkly and new. The streetis where people go to socialize. It's much like Copenhagen in that, during warm and sunny days, the streets are filled with people. Cafés open their doors to the outside and the patios of restaurants are crowded with people. It's almost odd to walk down the street and not see people walking around, or see the doors to shops hanging open. One thing that I think embodies this is the fact that neighborhoods will often have block parties on their street. Of course, the level of this differs between neighborhood (the newer neighborhoods tend to be less street-oriented, in my opinion, while places like Marigny, Magazine, and the Quarter are very street-oriented).

I especially love the street names. The streets in the Quarter are all named for French or Spanish people or places. Toulouse, Bienville, Iberville, Bourbon, etc are some of the French inspired names, with Bienville and Iberville named after the two founders of New Orleans. Each of these streets also has a little plaque that tells you whattheir names where under the Spanish rule, for example Royal St. used to be Calle Real.

The Quarter and Marigny are full of streets named after saints (St. Anne, St. Philip, St. Peters, etc.), which is due to the Catholic influence in New Orleans. One of the more (lets be real, only) interesting facts that we learned on our segway tour, is that the street names change at Canal Street. Canal Street is the divider between the Quarter and the Central Business District, also known as the American Sector. When New Orleans was being populated, the French and the Americans did not get along, so the Americans decided to change the street names once they got into their section. Thus Bourbon becomes Carondelet and Royal becomes St. Charles. The "American Sector" is also home to the Muses: Thalia, Eurterpe, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, and Polymnia. Something else very New Orleans is the pronunciation of these streets. Chartres St. is pronounced like "Charter," and Burgundy St. is pronounced "burGUHndy."

The organization of the streets in New Orleans also sets the city apart. Almost all of the streets in the "sliver by the river," that is, The Garden District, the CBD, the Quarter, Marigny (if you don't know where these are, look them up on my maps page!) are one -way, even if they are large enough to be two-way. Originally this developed because the streets were not wide enough to be two-way (this is true in the Quarter and Marigny). I've been fascinated by this since I've been here. I can't think of another city that is like this. Sure, there are one-way streets, but the older parts New Orleans are literally all one-way. New Orleans is the oldest city in the country, but places likeNew York and Boston were built long before cars ever became popular and they don't have such a prevalence of one-way streets. Places like New Orleans East, Gentilly, Metairie, and the Lake Districts are primarily two-way, which makes sense because they were built later than the rest of the city. But still.

Finally, since I live in the Quarter, I'm going to use it as an example, but this is also true for Magazine and the CBD. Music seems to be the life-blood of these streets. It's hard to go outside and not hear music coming from somewhere. During the day it's the street musicians, and during the night it's the jazz clubs and dance halls. Street musicians are everywhere, but in my opinion the best are on Royal St. And by best I mean that they're really, really, really good. Unfortunately they tend to congregate where there are tourists, because tourists are the people who give them the most money. Some of my favorite (and memorable) street musicians are on Royal St., though, and even though there are street musicians by Canal St., Royal St. attracts the best. The music that they play gives a welcoming feel to the streets. New Orleans is famous for its Jazz culture, but I think the Street Music culture deserves just as much publicity. jazz musicians sometimes play on the streets, but the best place to find them is in Jazz clubs (of which there are many, all over the city). The streets are the only place that you cansee some of these musicians.

A unique category of Street Music, which more or less only exists in Louisiana, are the jazz funerals and second lines. Many of the funerals in New Orleans are followed by a brass band parading through the streets. The second line is the group of non-music-playing people who follow the parade. I remember when I was in elementary school reading an article in National Geographic about jazz funerals and how they celebrate the life of the deceased instead of mourning their passing. This articlehas always stuck with me, and I only realized the other day that the second line was what the article was talking about. Witnessing a second line is a once in a lifetime event even though they happen frequently in New Orleans. There is really no way to know when and where a second line will happen. Like street musicians, you have to hear them to find them. The second line will often parade behind the band waving or twirling white flags in the air (Coincidentally, I also saw a wedding that was like that, so maybe second lines happen at wedding too?). It really was interesting to watch, and I liked it a lot more than some of the "regular" funerals I've been too. I've attached a video I took of a second line for a wedding.