New Orleans/Lakeview and Lakefront Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
Lakeview and Lakefront are sections of New Orleans near and along Lake Pontchartrain.
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Post-Katrina Update
This area was hit hard by the flooding from levee failures after Hurricane Katrina. While many of the businesses in this area have expressed plans or desires to reopen, as of June 2006 few have. The park along Lake Pontchartrain again offers pleasant views, but there are few amenities and large stretches of block after block of homes not yet repaired and reoccupied after the great flood. This may once again be a pleasant prosperous part of town some time in the future, but at present is of most interest to those wishing to see the scope of the destruction. Visit during daylight hours only.
Understand
The old neighborhoods along the riverfront, like the French Quarter and Uptown are most popular with visitors. The Lakeview and Lakefront area are comparatively little visited by out of towners. It is known by locals for the parks along the lakeshore and for the seafood restaurants, especially those at and around West End Park.
Public transit is poor in this part of town; unlike the French Quarter, this is a part of New Orleans best visited by car. It is a short drive from Mid-City.
Background
The Mississippi River was one reason why New Orleans was built where it was; Lake Pontchartrain was the other. For much of the city's history this part of town was best known for fishing camps and music halls built up on wooden piers in the mud-flats and shallow waters around the ever shifting edge of the lake. In the 1930s a dredging project filled in and extended the land on the shore, ending with a sea-wall, giving the lake and land a firm boundary for the first time.
For this reason, most of this part of town was built after World War II, making it one of the newer neighborhoods of New Orleans.
Lakeview
Note that despite the potentially misleading name, you can't view the lake in Lakeview. The "Lakeview" area is a bit inland, on the other end of City Park from Mid-City. View the lake from West End or the Lakeshore Park.
Lakeview is mostly residential, but has a strip of businesses along Harrison Avenue stretching from City Park to Canal Boulevard, with a number of notable restaurants; only one has reopened as of June 2006.
To see
- Lake Pontchartrain is a wide rather shallow brackish water lake. Lake Pontchartrain is roughly oval in shape, about 40 miles wide from east to west, and measures about 25 miles from north to south. The far shore is beyond the horizon, giving it the appearance of an inland sea.
- The Lake was long a favorite recreation area for New Orleanians. In the 1960s problems with pollution closed the New Orleans shore to swimming. A popular and successful "Save Our Lake" campaign began in the 1980s to eliminate pollution sources running into the lake. Every year since 2000 water quality has far surpassed that needed for safe swimming, and New Orleanians are returning to the water.
- Much of the shore is a series of parks, known collectively as Lakeshore Park. The Lakeshore Park is a pleasant place to pic-nic during good weather.
- Helenic Cultural Center, Robert E. Lee at St. Bernard, by Bayou St. John. Large Greek Orthodox Church and a building complex, puts on the popular Greek Festival each summer. The return of the "Greek Fest" for the last weekend of May 2006 is locally hailed as one of the first big successes in the revival of the Lakeview/Lakefront area.
- Old Spanish Fort the remains of this colonial era fortification are just across the Bayou and Robert E. Lee Blvd. from the Helenic Cultural Center. Not much to see; little remains other than ruined piles of brick foundations. May not be worth a special trip this part of town even for fortification buffs, but if you're around here anyway, worth a quick look.
- Lakefront Airport: 6001 Stars and Stripes Blvd, on the lake shore just east of the Industrial Canal, [1]. This was the city's airport back before the arrival of the big jets and the new New Orleans International airport was built out in Kenner. Lakefront Airport still keeps busy with private and company planes. The 1930s vintage main terminal building and the nearby sculpture fountain by Enrique Alfarez are treats for lovers of Art Decco.
- University of New Orleans, [2] Main campus is near the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue. The UNO Arena ( [3] ) is at a separate location at the lake end of Franklin Avenue. The modern campus has little to see and there is little reason for the visitor to come to the campus except for when special events, exhibitions, or concerts are held here.
- West End is a park at the end of West End Boulevard, formerly surrounded by famous seafood restaurants and bars. Getting there is a slight trick if you aren't familiar with it. Take West End Boulevard almost to the end: when you see the sea-wall with "WEST END" in big letters on it, don't go straight, instead turn left. After the road parallels the seawall for a while it will bend right and you'll find yourself at West End. If you accidentally go straight, you wind up driving along Lakefront Park, with a nice view of the lake but no restaurants; just turn around and try again. The park and marina are still there after Katrina but not the restaurants and bars.
Eat
This part of the city was long famous for seafood and other good restaurants. Several plan to rebuild; at writing all that's managed to reopen is:
- Cafe Touche', 515 Harrison. Lunch. The first place to reopen in the neighborhood; have a po-boy sandwich amid locals taking a break from gutting and repairing their flood devastated homes.
Music
- The Sandbar, in the University Center of the University of New Orleans, off Elysian Fields near Lake Pontchartrain. Sometimes hosts good modern jazz.
