Many residents, let alone visitors, seem to regard the vast expanse of New Orleans beyond the High Rise bridge as little more than a drab and crime-ridden wasteland.
With a median annual income of $33,000 — $8,000 less than the rest of the city — New Orleans East is firmly established as our poor relation, a world apart from the French Quarter, the Garden District and all the delights that make New Orleans a favorite destination.
Beyond the Industrial Canal, the long-abandoned Six Flags theme park stands as a symbol of the economic malaise that has made a mockery of early hopes that the east would bring a new dawn.
The Lake Forest Plaza shopping center, once envisaged as a prime economic engine, is but a distant memory.
Now, the year-old Greater New Orleans East Business Alliance is looking for ways to revitalize the economy and has enlisted the help of Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who has enjoyed some success in boosting tourism elsewhere in the state.
Nungesser showed up recently at a Read Boulevard coffee shop to rally the troops and hold out the prospect of a promotional campaign for the lands beyond the Industrial Canal to rival his efforts on behalf of the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival.
Nungesser's ideas for the east, according to the newspaper, include “encouraging” its “petrochemical facilities to contract with its small businesses.”
Exciting though that prospect sounds, it may be that the true allure of the east does not lie in its industrial plant. The east of the city is a scandalously neglected natural glory that poses a great dilemma — whether to give it the attention it deserves or clam up so that lunkhead tourists do not take over.
Though road and levee building have wreaked a certain amount of havoc with its hydrology, the east remains the last surviving wetland close to Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne and the biggest urban wildlife refuge in the United States. Huge numbers of resident and migratory birds crisscross its skies, fish and crabs throng its waters while alligators and a rich variety of critters roam its prairies and hardwood forests.
The area is not without its development — it contains, for instance, Lakefront Airport, NASA's Michoud assembly center and Joe Brown Park — but it is the proximity of nature in the raw that makes it the jewel in New Orleans' crown.
Known as Bayou Sauvage, the refuge covers 23,000 acres. My experience of it goes back many years and ranges from predawn wild boar hunts to gathering dewberries with the kids on Sunday mornings.
It was once slated for major development, with a full-size airport and a bustling suburbia. Pretty much the entire area would have been built up, and three interchanges along I-10 were built to provide access to a huge new town. Nowadays the interstate features a couple of exits to nowhere as a reminder of the grandiose plans of yore; only a few new communities such as Village de L'est and Oak Island ever saw the light of day.
Bayou Sauvage contains a rich variety of habitats for its abundant wildlife — hardwood forests, estuarine marshes and bayous. As its website notes with considerable justification, it is “a great place to enjoy nature.” What a blessing the developers never took over.