Urban Expressions

Of course all tourists love, Bourbon Street but there is way more to this city than Hand Grenades and cheesy gift shops, the locals need more than that! So we retreat to places like Magazine Street. Located on in the Uptown part of New Orleans, this is a place where people all over the city come to enjoy food, shop, socialize and relax. 

On the weekdays, it proves to be a calm environment for locals to shop casually, many of the people that are present on weekdays live in the surrounding communities. The weekends bring a more diverse crowd ethnically and economically, and the restaurants are busier, the bars are fuller and the stores are full of shoppers. 

Magazine fosters a host of differs stores and restaurants that cater to different socioeconomic backgrounds. Some higher end boutiques feature more expensive items and others like Frock Candy (my favorite) sell more affordable items for younger women. Restaurants like Smash Burger and Dat Dog are fun American Cuisine restaurants cater to a wide audience while restaurants like Amicci’s  an Italian Restaurant foster a more mature atmosphere for a more conservative dining experience. Rum House another Magazine Street Favorite, is another popular option for many. 

Looking for a Cultural Canopy Part II: The Wellness Center

This was our first stop, honestly it was a very interesting place. There are many businesses featured in the center including Spanish Classes, an Alternative Medical Clinic, A Food-Coop, A performance venue (Cafe-Istanbul), a church, a credit union, gym, and several other small businesses.  

There was a more diverse presence in the Wellness Center, young, old, black, white, Christian and not. I think we found our cultural canopy!

Signs of Gentrification

A few weeks ago, I took a trip with my Urban Studies peers to the St. Roch- St. Claude neighborhood. For those unfamiliar with New Orleans, the city is separated into several wards, including the Upper Ninth Ward, which is exactly where an area known as the by-water is located. (Be easy-New Orleans geography is not easy to understand at first-glance, but you will be well aquatinted with the wards, streets and neighborhoods by the time we’re done here.) Until recently, the Upper Ninth Ward was known primarily as a neighborhood of low-income and working class African-Americans, and as a  thriving black community in the mid-1900s full of working class citizens. The Storm (Katrina) has helped to uproot many of the members of various communites around New Orleans, including the St. Claude-St. Roch area, which also uprooted many middle class African-American citizens and Black-Owned and treasured family business that  that  once added value to the area and to the members of the community. 

I will share some my experience in the St. Roch-St. Claude neighborhood through the next few posts. 

Gentrification is definitely a buzz word for urban millennials. While there are many that are fawning over the conveniently placed juice bars, yoga studios, Culturally approporated thai restaurants and taco trucks, and reconstructed homes, there are others of us that raise eyebrows to the whole process. For those of you that don’t know, gentrification is the buying of property in disadvantaged urban areas by wealthy individuals and developers to increase property values and to revitalize communities for their own benefit. While you may say that this sounds ideal, it puts many at a disadvantage. Maybe if low-income, working class families would be able to enjoy the new amenities gentrification wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe if it didn’t raise already rising rent and housing expenses, that these families would benefit from gentrification, maybe then it wouldn’t be gentrification-it would be community development. 

I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. A city that is very much being gentrified. Once the victim of media abuse, corrupt politicians, scandal and crime, Detroit is now one of the most sought after places to live for milliners and the creative class. There is a vivid difference between the city that I grew up in and the city that I live in today. Bars, hotels, restaurants, retail stores and the construction of a light-rail mass transit system all occupy once empty corners, deteriorated streets, and abandoned buildings. I enjoy exploring the new city and embrace the new changes. However there is still some research to be done on how it has affected and will affect the citizens of the city. Once a well-known, “Chocolate City,” Detroit’s ethnic demographics are changing rapidly, as whites, asians and middle-eastern people are beginning to move into the city. 

I could ramble on and on about the happenings going on in Detroit, however I do currently reside and study at Dillard University in New Orleans, LA, and have become accustomed to its culture and have become familiar with some of the problems that affect the residents. Most correlate New Orleans with a good time-alcohol (home of the best Daiquiris), Bourbon Street, Live Music, food and of course MARDI GRAS; these are very important to the identity of the city but there are actual residents that do live outside of the travelers paradise. Gentrification is very much a part of New Orleans’ redevelopment. It is a problem that is well disgusted as many see these changes as result of reconstruction of the city after the devastating-Hurricane Katrina.  

This blog will divulge more into and analysis of the urban culture and gentrification as it occurs in Detroit and New Orleans simultaneously. 

The next posts will be devoted to the gentrification of New Orleans specifically.

Feel free to give me feedback! This was an especially long post lol. This is a Tumblr not a class-the posts will get more interesting I PROMISE! 

                                                                                                   With Love,