Signs of Change
It took me a few tries to be able to post, so this is a bit post-dated.
Last Saturday, the streetcars began running again in New Orleans. For those of you unfamiliar, they are true streetcars that run along the major corridors downtown, including Canal Street and St. Charles. People use them to go to work or move around downtown. The beds upon which they run are also the most popular vehicle free place to run in the city.
Now, more than two years since the storm, they have returned to great celebration. The festival last week was attended by huge number of Crescent City residents of all races. It was not so much, I suspect, that the streetcars were running but that they were back. Post-storm, many Gulf Coast communities have clutched at pre-storm symbols. Even the hated Casinos in Biloxi were celebrated upon their return.
The celebration of a heralded symbol of a struggling city made me wonder about the symbols that other urban areas cling to for identity. A recent talk by the city manager of Decatur, GA illustrated this. Peggy Merriss talked extensively about "branding" the city. Their graphic purports to represent all the positives about the city and shows up on anything and everything associated with Decatur.
When I lived in Albany, I often felt I was in a place that had lost its soul. You could see the grand tradition and opulence that defined that city in its heyday, but that was all but lost. Perhaps culture is a better word than soul. Culture is often expressed through symbols. And like the streetcars of New Orleans, the revitalization of a seemingly simple symbol can express the renewal of the soul of an entire urban area.
Laissez les bon temps roulez...
Last Saturday, the streetcars began running again in New Orleans. For those of you unfamiliar, they are true streetcars that run along the major corridors downtown, including Canal Street and St. Charles. People use them to go to work or move around downtown. The beds upon which they run are also the most popular vehicle free place to run in the city.
Now, more than two years since the storm, they have returned to great celebration. The festival last week was attended by huge number of Crescent City residents of all races. It was not so much, I suspect, that the streetcars were running but that they were back. Post-storm, many Gulf Coast communities have clutched at pre-storm symbols. Even the hated Casinos in Biloxi were celebrated upon their return.
The celebration of a heralded symbol of a struggling city made me wonder about the symbols that other urban areas cling to for identity. A recent talk by the city manager of Decatur, GA illustrated this. Peggy Merriss talked extensively about "branding" the city. Their graphic purports to represent all the positives about the city and shows up on anything and everything associated with Decatur.
When I lived in Albany, I often felt I was in a place that had lost its soul. You could see the grand tradition and opulence that defined that city in its heyday, but that was all but lost. Perhaps culture is a better word than soul. Culture is often expressed through symbols. And like the streetcars of New Orleans, the revitalization of a seemingly simple symbol can express the renewal of the soul of an entire urban area.
Laissez les bon temps roulez...
posted by Sarah Jane at
10:46 AM
3 Comments:
As an aspiring planner, it warms my heart to have people understand that their city is partially defined by its urban form, of which a transit system is a large part. The subway in New York, the "L" in Chicago, and the streetcar in New Orleans are all components of what makes those cities great. They are so much more than just a way to move people around. One day, perhaps the triangle will be defined by a completed rail line, not something that wasn't built.
This post has been removed by the author.
The thought of people rallying around the re-starting of the streetcars in New Orleans, brings up questions as to the meanings of "urban renewal" and "community" to the folks who live, breathe, work, play, and love in the places about which we sometimes think and theorize too often. As Sarah discussed, small markers of hope come in the forms of the images and "feel" that made and make New Orleans distinctively New Orleans -- the street cars, the palm trees on Canal Street ... While there are certainly much larger and arguably more important issues yet to be dealt with, these symbols that mark New Orleans as particular and distinct from any other large coastal city are just as, if not more, important for the building of morale and hope.
Even though so much remains to be done in SO very many neighborhoods and, maybe the smaller beacons of hope/change/progress will help to keep the energy boiling for the bulk of the work still to be done.
Post a Comment
<< Home