Urban Geography: New Orleans Case Study

In this opening class, we introduce geography as a discipline and urban geography as a sub-discipline. Using maps, case studies, and an in-class experiment, we contemplate thinking spatially and analyzing the urban condition through a spatial lens. We also discuss the upcoming semester and research project, including data sources, and wrap up with student introductions and interests.

In this class we discuss how the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain of southeastern Louisiana formed, and its exceptional nature as a river-dominated data. We continue with the geology, soils, hydrology, and topography of great New Orleans, using detailed thematic maps. The lecture then traces the origins of our coastal erosion, soil subsidence, and sea level rise crises, and illustrates the consequences using hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Isaac to illustrate. The class concludes with a discussion of coastal restoration, risk reduction, and the future viability of New Orleans.

Readings:
Lewis, “Axioms of the Landscape”
Lynch, “The Image of a City”
Getis and Getis, Introduction to Geography (2007, selections)
Campanella, Bienville’s Dilemma (2008, selection).

For this class, we meet in front of Audubon Park at 10AM and, through a mix of rolling narration and disembarkations, learn the urban geography of New Orleans through this and other route stops: St. Charles Avenue, Uptown Reform Jewish community, “superblock nuclei” pattern, Napoleon Ave Wharf, Old Lafayette German/Irish area, River Garden/Hope/ “New Urbanism,” Lower Garden District, French Quarter / ”Little Palermo,” Marigny / Bywater; Lombard House, Industrial Canal, Lower Ninth Ward, Holy Cross riverfront; Jackson Barracks, St. Bernard Parish, Intracoastal Waterway/MR-GO, Vietnamese neighborhood, Chef Menteur Highway/Gentilly Ridge, Seventh Ward, Bayou St. John Plantation Houses/ Portage, Bayou Road/Esplanade Ridge, Rampart-Faubourg Tremé, Old Chinatown, Old Dryades/Central City, Claiborne back to Tulane.

After a discussion of geographical topics in news and current events, we discuss how cities come to be established at their locations—principles of urban location, characteristics of urban sites and geographical situations, and a series of factors that explain most urban locations. We then delve into the details of how New Orleans came to be sited, 1682-1723. Students are also asked to announce their initial research paper topic ideas.

Having “formed” and “settled” the landscape, now we urbanize it. In this class, we discuss principles of city structure and urban form, and review technical terminology such as MSA’s, CBSA’s, conurbations, exurbs, census tracts, blockgroups, and blocks. We discuss data sets and challenges in measuring and mapping urban growth, including what the census offers and its limitations. For the second half of the class, we explore how, why, and where New Orleans expanded during 1700s-1900s, and conclude with a discussion of the relevance of the antecedent cadaster and antecedent axes in the cityscape.

Having “formed,” “settled,” and “urbanized” the landscape into a cityscape, now we focus on how humans distribute themselves across it, in the form of residential settlement patters. We begin with the general principles on social areas of cities and a discussion of the geographies of nuisances, amenities, and hazards. We next investigate the complex historical ethnic/racial geographies of New Orleans, including Creolism, “back alley” patterns, the geography of slavery, and the formation of ethnic enclaves and cityscapes

In the second section of “Populating the Landscape,” we delve into the twentieth century and discuss segregation, integration, white flight, middle class exodus, suburbanization, public housing, modern ethnic/racial geographies, and post-Katrina patterns.

In the third section of “Populating the Landscape,” we introduce modern social-spatial topics nationwide, such as gentrification and displacement, the suburbanization of poverty, mixed-income housing, and the various views of Bloomberg’s New York. We then will watch and discuss the film, “My Brooklyn.”

In this final “Populating” section, we explore how people interact spatially, move/diffuse across space, occupy urban space, and contest public space. Neighborhood associations, NIMBY, noise ordinances, and gated communities are among the topics, as well as how citizens demarcate and identify neighborhoods, and how people perceive distinctions among cities.

Now we venture upriver and see the municipal water taps, batture community, Camp Parapet, River Road, Kenner riverfront, Destrehan Plantation, Ormond Plantation, Bonnet Carre Spillway.

New Orleans has a nearly 300 year history of disaster and recovery. We review the reasons and responses to various floods, hurricanes, epidemics, wars, and fires, starting with the Mississippi River flood of 1719 and Hurricane Katrina deluge of 2005.

In this penultimate class, we study the recovery of New Orleans after the Katrina deluge, covering topics such as “the great footprint debate,” “plandemonium,” the right to return, coastal restoration and risk deduction, and axioms of urban resilience.