Caribbean Alleys.
Why aren't there many songs about Haiti? Haiti is a vision, not an illusion. New Orleans has nothing to hide.
The Caribbean Alleys would be right at home in Haiti, a country with which New Orleans shares an affinity. In 1809, after the Haitian Revolution, 10,000 Haitians emigrated to New Orleans. Birds of a feather flock together. Creole and kreyòl are related by birth.
Haiti gained independence in 1804 but it took five years for immigrants from there to get to New Orleans. Nobody in Louisiana wanted a bunch of Haitians rabble-rousing the slaves. Laws were passed and enforced to keep Haitians out. No free black man over the age of fourteen could enter the territory. Many ships were turned away to Cuba.
New Orleans was American at the time. Cuba was Spanish. Cuba was a sugar-and-slave economy, too. All these Haitians with their contagion of liberty had to go, so the Spaniards sent the Haitians to New Orleans between 1809-1810. Free or slave, any color, they all came to New Orleans.
Audubon Street starts at the river, running parallel to Audubon Park, then Audubon Place, then Audubon Boulevard, before Audubon Street ends in Gert Town. After Gert Town, there is nowhere else to go. The same is true of Telemachus Street, which starts at the Old Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City and ends as South Telemachus in Gert Town. All paths going anywhere meaningful converge on Gert Town.
After a man has been to prison, as opposed to jail, he develops an aversion to returning. He avoids certain neighborhoods in New Orleans, locations with a reputation for encouraging incarceration. Gert Town has that reputation, currently undeserved. In the 1980s and 1990s, during the crack epidemic, Gert Town was whack. No more.
Zion City, being adjacent, and so small that everyone thinks it is Gert Town, has the same reputation. Zion City got its name because it is a neighborhood of Baptist churches. Though there are some buildings in Zion City that could use a coat of fresh paint, it is quiet there except on Sundays.
The Caribbean Alleys are two short streets that run between Audubon Street, a quintessential Uptown street, and South Telemachus Street, a classic Mid-City street. Gert Town is a nexus of time and relative dimensions in space. Gert Town seems bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. The Caribbean Alleys are Audubon Court and Bloomingdale Court. You won't find either of these streets on a Rand McNally map. You have to go get lost in person.
You should become a paid subscriber. One of my more ridiculous lines applies below. Never before have Erato and Olive streets been described the same.