30 Miles Through New Orleans By Bike

I had a meeting at the Louisiana Technology Council on the edge of the Garden District in New Orleans and decided to get their by bike. This 30 mile ride provided an interesting look at the recovery of the New Orleans metropolitan area from Hurricane Katrina.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was HOT today but car problems left me with no alternative but cycling. The meeting was for 2pm so I began preparing for the ride at noon. I pumped up the tires. I velcroed the repair kit bag to the seat post. Into the messenger bag, I packed a change of clothes, water bottle, suntan lotion, camera, phone & papers for the meeting. Then I hit the road.

Riding the 3 blocks from the Beach Club on the Metairie Lakefront, I saw a cement crew laying a new sidewalk at one house, a landscape crew putting down sod and a new garden at another, carpenters moving in and out of a third house & roofers installing new roofs on 2 other homes. I had to wait 3-4 minutes to cross West Esplanade because the traffic was so heavy.

From West Esplanade to Veterans Blvd., there are many more FEMA trailers but I saw about the same amount of repair work. Rather than Gardens, the crews were working on roofs, sheetrock, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc.

Traffic was moderate on Veterans. I crossed after a minute or so and actually rode in the right traffic lane for a block before turning onto Green Acres. After several blocks, I turned onto Utica and took it to Transcontinental.

Traffic was moving heavy and fast on Transcontinental so I rode the sidewalk below the Interstate 10 overpass and detoured onto Vineland so I could ride backstreets to West Napoleon Ave. I crossed at the Transcontinental stoplight and detoured again onto Argonne, passing the neighborhood country club that was absolutely packed with kids swimming & playing.

I crossed West Metairie at the Transcontinental stoplight; traffic was lighter now so I rode Transcontinental just about to Airline, detouring on Finch then to Zinnia to minimize riding on Airline. Crossing Airline, I rode on the old railroad right of way. I noticed a business that sold boats before Katrina was now a storage depot for fire trucks and other parish/government equipment.

I zig zagged through the old neighborhood hemmed in by Garden of Memories Cemetery, Airline, Central Ave & the railroad corridor so I could cross below Clearview Pkwy. I rode Central all the way to River Road. Traffic on Central was heavy but the drivers were courteous.

From River Road, I road the Mississippi River levee crown bike path. There was steady traffic below on River Road. A welding crew was working on pipe at the Jefferson water works intake. I passed 4 other cyclists then exited the trail at the Orleans Parish Line and rode down Oak Street.

As I approached Carrollton on Oak, the activity grew in intensity. Near Jacque Imo's & the Maple Leaf Bar, I squeezed between delivery trucks parked on the street and vehicles driving slowly among the potholes and uneven pavement. There was pedestrian traffic and the coffee shop at Dublin was busy. Cars snaked slowly behind a RTA bus on Carrollton as the streetcar service is still not operating there.

I rode Zimpel all the way to Broadway; everything looked normal. The outdoor tables at The Boot were packed with Tulane students. Riding on the Tulane campus, I passed the Howard Tilton Library and caught a whiff of old books. The smell was not moldy or unpleasant and reminded me of research I did there in years gone by. There were plenty of cars (and bicycles) parked on the Tulane campus. I passed a person walking in cap & gown.

At Loyola University, I began riding down Freret. Before Katrina, traffic on Freret would have been intolerable but it was light and became even lighter as I rode on. In fact, rather than turn onto Napoleon, I stayed on Freret past Louisiana and rode it through the abandoned public housing project. Other than 2 men standing on a stoop of one of the buildings, I saw no activity. Just empty buildings and derelict cars...

I turned onto Washington Avenue. Watermarks were at least 5 feet up the sides of buildings. Three old men stood at a corner bar. Vehicular traffic was sparse. I crossed St. Charles Avenue and turned onto Prytania, waiting as 5 pedestrians crossed at The Rink. Between 3rd & 2nd Streets, a walking tour guide was talking about the Garden District to 15 or so tourists.

At Jackson Avenue, a discourteous driver blocked no less than 7 cars by waiting lazily in the traffic lane for a parking spot to open up. I shot between the cars and onto my appointment 6 blocks away.

At the door to the building, I flipped the quick release, folded the Hummer bicycle and entered the building, taking the folding bike up the elevator on my shoulder. When the meeting concluded, I exited the building, then rode down St. Charles to Lee Circle. Passing the 6 or so cars at the stoplight, I proceed a block up Howard Ave then turned right onto Carondelet. At One Shell Square, the security guard stopped auto traffic but let me pass as cars streamed out of the office building's parking garage.

At Canal Street, I rode down the cement neutral ground along the streetcar tracks behind a slow moving police car. There was scaffolding on the old Maison Blanche department store. The facade of the old Kress five & dime looked fresh & clean. Windows blown out by Katrina had yet to be repaired on the Texaco building.

Crossing below Interstate 10 at Claiborne, I rode in the right traffic lane on Canal until I reached Galvez. I noticed that one of the used car lots that were once famous on Canal was back in operation. On the far end of the car lot, the octagon shaped shell which was once the front parlor of a grand victorian home was all that remained of the structure.

I rode Galvez to Bienville, riding behind the new RTA bus/streetcar barn; many streetcars were queued here. Signs of life were few and far between. Two houses had workers going in and out. One person sat on their front porch. Watermarks were 5 feet or more here.

A 6' chain link fence surrounded Mercy hospital. Other than a security guard sitting in a shack, I saw no other activity in or on the grounds of the damaged hospital. Across the street, a sign in the window at Liuza's announced "bar open" to the trickle of cars on the street.

Approaching Carrollton Avenue, there were many cars in the lot for Gambit Magazine but the shopping center across the street looked much as it did before the storm. The cleaners where I once brought shirts and suits, the Subway where I bought Tuna subs for lunch, the Chinese reataurant where I would get take out, all were completely destroyed by the flooding. It's hard to describe.

Crossing City Park Avenue, I entered Lakeview by side streets. Passing the old 3rd District Police substation, I was now in the heart of the beast. General Diaz Street appeared to be a dirt road due to all the dump trucks and heavy vehicles that had traversed it. FEMA trailers took up one of the Delgado College parking lots. A woman gutting a home stopped for a moment and watched me go by. Across the street, hotdogs were cooking on a barbecue behind the baseball diamond as kids began arriving for a neighborhood league's game.

Past Navarre, the street was blocked by a signman. Heavy dozers moved back and forth behind him picking up storm debris. Dust was everywhere. Plantation Coffee House was an empty shell. Every business on this section of Canal was closed. I could hear nail guns of roofers and carpenters as well as the low moan of electric generators.

Traffic wasn't bad on Canal but I wanted to see the street of my family home so I turned onto Vicksburg. All was devastation. Home after home lay vacant with doors and windows open. Signs of rebuilding were minimal. In the 6200 block, debris lined the curb for 75 yards. Two hispanic men were picking through the debris looking discarded items that may hold value.

In my grandmother's block, the house next to hers' was for sale. Across the street, a neighbor had moved back despite the devastation and was sitting outside on a plastic lawnchair. A flyer was attached to the door knob of the FEMA trailer in front of my grandmother's home; it announced that FEMA would soon be turning on the power for the trailer.

I passed the homes of friends and family. The scene was almost as shocking and just as depressing as the first time I saw it after the storm. I passed the breach on the 17 Street Canal. The homes at the breach are long gone - just river sand is there now with the sheet pile levee behind. Across the street, the floodwaters had scoured out the ground from beneath a home, revealing the pilings below the foundation. Tourists from Iowa were taking pictures.

At Hammond Highway, I crossed the canal on the new bridge. A television crew was filming and Corps of Engineers construction crews were hard at work. I spoke with one of the hard hats. He was an African immigrant with a strong accent. We talked briefly about the Hummer folding bike.

At the new Coast Guard station, I looked north to West End where restaurants like Brunnings stood on pilings over the water before the storm. Strange, now there is nothing but water so I can see all the way to the boats in the marina.

I rode the bike path along the shoreline to the Bonnabel Boat Launch. The bike path bridge is still closed at the boat launch so I diverted into the residential neighborhood. Life looked to be proceeding normally here. Kids were playing, riding bikes and walking dogs.

At Causeway, traffic was extremely heavy as commuters were streaming onto the Causeway Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. The bike path below the Causeway Bridge is still out of service so I waded through traffic on Causeway and again a block later at Lakeway Plaza as workers streamed out.

The levee between Causeway and Lake Villa is under construction and off limits so I rode on the narrow grass strip next to half million dollar plus homes that abut the levee. There were some other joggers and dog walkers. A worker on a crane was putting new glass on a home.

At the Lake Villa Dr. pumping station, heavy construction equipment moved in and out of the facility. From here, I rode in heavy traffic on Avron as drivers avoided a miles long, bumper to bumper backup on West Esplanade. Impatient, drivers were easily doing 40 in a 20 mph zone.