Blue Plate Building

The neutral ground is wide and set with granite pedestals in the middle of Norman C. Francis Parkway, in New Orleans. The street used to be called Jefferson Davis Parkway. The pedestals used to be paired with statues. The mayonnaise factory on one end of the street is now apartments for artists. Times change.

Norman C Francis starts at the end of Bayou St. John. The Carondolet Canal used to begin there, the canal that gave Basin Street its name. The canal is still there, in parts. Much of it was converted to rail. The rail was converted to the Lafitte Greenway, a 2.6-mile long linear park and multi-use trail. It is managed by the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission. What could go wrong?

The Greenway features recreational facilities, fitness and cultural programming, open green space, and innovative stormwater management features. There are paths, ballfields, tennis courts, playgrounds, outdoor gym gear...yoga groups stretch on the grass. It is a nice place for birdwatching. It used to be shipping, the canal was functional until the 1920s, before the city ruined it. Oyster sloops lined its banks as trains chugged by. A farmers market is held there on Thursdays on pavement painted in a rainbow. Times change.

In 1904, the City of New Orleans proposed building a "speedway" between Audubon Park, uptown, and City Park, downtown. Whenever there is something Uptown, it has its equivalent Downtown, and vice versa. Hagan Avenue was repurposed. In 1910, twenty blocks of Hagan Avenue were renamed Jefferson Davis Parkway.

South Jefferson Davis Parkway ran upriver of Canal Street, as far as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. MLK Blvd. used to be called Melpomene Street in this part of New Orleans, where the genteel Lower Garden Muses streets tangle with multimodal transport. North Jefferson Davis Parkway ran downriver from Canal Street to Bayou St. John, where it continued as Moss Avenue along the banks of the bayou.

Since 2020, Norman C. Francis Parkway runs between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Bayou St. John. Times change. Human nature stays the same. New Orleans prevails. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. died in 1968. Norman C. Francis was born in 1931. As of this writing, he is still alive.

Every garden has weeds.

And so begins our multi-day (multi-week), multi-episode exploration of Gert Town. It all starts at the Blue Plate Building. Where will it end? You should become a paid subscriber. They will know. They will be along for the whole ride.