Lakeview and Lakeshore

Understand

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.

This area was hit hard by the flooding from levee failures during Hurricane Katrina in 2005-- some parts were under more than 10 feet of standing water for weeks. Six years later, many businesses and attractions are back, and there are ever more signs of the pleasant prosperous part of town this was before Katrina. The park along Lake Pontchartrain again offers pleasant views. Harrison Avenue is again bustling with restaurants and shops. Still, the recovery is an ongoing process. The area is still of interest to those wishing to see the scope of the destruction; down residential side streets there are long stretches with a mix with buildings repaired and reoccupied, buildings with reconstruction work ongoing, buildings gutted and vacant, damaged buildings still sitting in limbo while owners try to get long ago promised insurance or "Road Home" money, and vacant lots where unsalvageable buildings were demolished. Streets warped and buckled under the weight of the flood water; many side streets are still in need of repair so drive cautiously. This section of the city is not generally subject to the high-crime rate found in many other areas, though one must still be cautious, as with any unfamiliar area.

Get in

By car

This is a large section of the city and is more sparsely populated than the areas south, so you really will want a car to get around. I-10/I-610 and US-90 are by far the fastest routes, but Robert E Lee, St Bernard, and Elysian Fields are also reasonably fast for getting around the lakeside portions of the district.

By bus

You can get where you are going by bus on the lakeside half of the city, but expect it to take a while. For the areas upriver of City Park, buses 45 and 60 are useful. Both pick up right by the Cemeteries stop at the end of the Canal St Streetcar (which in turn is the way to get back into the CBD and on to the French Quarter) and then go towards the lake along Canal Blvd, stopping at the main commercial area on Harrison. When they hit Robert E Lee, 45 heads west towards the West End Harbor, while 60 goes east to both campuses of the University of New Orleans in the Gentilly section.

By taxi

Do not expect to be able to hail a cab on this side of town. You'll only get one if you call.

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

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 with a number of notable restaurants. The largest concentration is on the stretch of Harrison from City Park to Canal Boulevard, with some more scattered further west.