The streetcar clunks and thonks while you ride it down Canal Street. Theaters dazzling in lights, an avenue lined in palm trees, the smooth sound of Jazz to one side, and the immense shrieks of nightlife to the other, it’s easy to become enamored by the legacy that is New Orleans. However, it is certainly legacy. Upon the tourist’s attempt to define for himself, the New Orleans of today, he struggles.

A city weakened by population decline, economic struggle and unimaginably worsened by natural disaster, the New Orleans of today remains a mission to define.

Barely emerging from a dark history of segregation, the once cultural center of the South began to face an array of social complications from economic disparity, to socially stratified neighborhoods, to natural disaster, and neighborhoods stripped of its people and life, many of which have not returned.

Existing redevelopment efforts are conscious to maintain the cultural integrity of New Orleans’ communities and combat the social challenges of eviction and migration that come with gentrification.

Gentrification. A word that has become increasingly common in conversations of architecture and urban sociology, gentrification, from a superficial perspective, is the revitalization of a neighborhood, economically decayed and plagued with social problems, into an environment more culturally vibrant and economically structured. From an inside perspective, by those existing in the communities subject to the prominent urban phenomenon, gentrification is a pave-over of their existing communities with new elements socio-economically out-of-reach. Rather than diffusion of a new energy into pre-existing communities, gentrification more over, by consequence of our economic system, forces the pre-existing community to relocate, as their economic standards become overpowered by a wealthier standard of living, they cannot maintain financial stability, and are forced to relocate to more affordable communities.

From one perspective, gentrification brings a community back to life. From another, gentrification destroys communities. One’s perspective is largely relevant to their socio-economic, and by that, racial upbringings and contexts. Middle and upper class communities take inspiration from the revival of neighborhoods they were raised to fear. Lower class communities, largely minorities, immigrant communities, and other groups economically disenfranchised, see gentrification as a threat to their living status, a force able to destabilize the already minimal social stability they might have. In many ways, gentrification becomes oppressive to the communities subjected to it.

A conference dedicated to the voice of minority populations in architecture, a profession that has historically been dominated by white men, gentrification is a highly relevant conversation, with many, as urbanists, understanding it, but equally troubled by it. If architects and urbanists have a responsibility to good culture, particularly those representing disenfranchised populations, how can we accept a culture of development that doesn’t do as much as cure as it does displaces.

Scott Ruff, a professor at the Tulane school of Architecture, was fast to open his seminar clarifying that gentrification is a natural phenomenon. Communities naturally change over time, fall into economic decline, and rise into prosperity, and in that process incorporate new populations into its fabric. It was to be understood at the beginning, that despite the probably anger toward the subject by some of the audience, it was important to recognize gentrification as sociological force that needs to be manipulated, almost implying that there is a reverse understanding of gentrification as a largely manmade, oppressive system implemented against communities of color and other minorities for the benefit of the white man.

——– Race rhetoric was largely fair and respectful throughout the conference, conscious to understand the intentions of another people. However, being held in a city and state with a legacy of legalized racial inequality and systematic oppression of people of color, there were certainly, and understandably, moments where the legacy of such tension was visible.———————————-

It was apparent throughout the conference that redevelopment in New Orleans, even before Katrina, has been incredibly community-focused. The hurricane only served to strengthen the relationship between community members and various forces of redevelopment. Carefully titling his presentation and idea ‘The People as Genius Loci‘ , Scott empowered our understanding of community members as not just recipients and subjects of design and redevelopment efforts, but alluded to classical Roman paganism, in understanding communities as New Orleans’ Genius Loci, or spiritual guardians and defenders of a place. It is through the strength of a collaborated community, more than the designers themselves, to implement positive redevelopment, redevelopment in a way that is most respectful to the legacies of their communities, and conscious to defend against opportunities for gentrification that are so common in developing communities, especially in a world where construction teams, developers, and even certain designers, are so profit driven.

The seminar was to suggest a method of positive urban development in a way that resists the forces of gentrification. Scott Ruff suggests that a conscious community redevelopment, integrating designers and community members alike, that builds residences and venues conscious, respectful and consistent to the cultural values and a legacy of a community could be a strong methodology for positive development, and resisting gentrification. Scott presented a series of projects, focussing on re-development in the lower 9th ward, and the development of the Oretha Castle Halley district across the 1st, 2nd and 10th wards.

Occupying a residential lot in the impoverished and nearly eradicated lower 9th ward, the Donald Harrison Sr. Museum and Cultural Center was a two-year project achieved through the collaboration of the Tulane City Center and the community of Mardi Gras Indians concerned for the future of their culture. A design-build project of modest physical scale, the center includes an open performance space affronting its lawn, inviting locals to enjoy and experience the festive culture that New Orleans is so historically rooted in. A classroom is enclosed on the interior, complete with books, a washroom and storage space.

Also in the 9th ward, the All Soul’s Episcopal Church converted a Walgreen’s into a new space for worship after losing their original space to Katrina. Walls were painted and then fronted by a wooden prop-wall with cut outs for doors and around the center of the cross. The converted Walgreen’s Church also provides an extensive after school program, enriching local children with tutoring, homework help, lesson in cooking and orchestra, and provides them dinner before bussing them back home at night.

To the other side of New Orleans’ CBD and French Quarter is the emerging neighborhood along Haley Oretha Castle Boulevard. Mostly spared from the hurricane, the neighborhood’s prior decay is due to social and economic factors in the 80’s and 90’s. What was originally Dryades Street was renamed in honor of a legendary female hero of the mid-20th century civil rights movement, who led a boycott on the street that now bears her name.

Respecting the cultural legacy of Oretha Castle Haley and the significance of her character to the African-American community, and the New Orleans community together, designer and developers have dotted the boulevard with well-designed, culturally respective projects that intend to elongate and celebrate the city’s cultural legacies. Included are the New Orleans Jazz Market, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, and a restoration to an abandoned grammar school that includes a civil rights museum and a Jack and Jake’s, a New Orleans’ based food market dedicated to quality, local food. The new projects are accompanying the established Ashé Cultural Center, and Café Reconcile, a grassroots community education and vocational training program.

Learning and seeing the development of these neighborhoods from economic or natural decimation into community-oriented, successful neighborhoods was inspiring. However, the central concern, whether or not these efforts truly are able to combat the forces of gentrification, is up for further discussion. Although the efforts to instill a community-oriented and culturally respective redevelopment are certainly commendable. However, the sociological beast of gentrification, as Scott Ruff seems to have acknowledged, is more complicated of a science than just culturally-responsible development.

What forces are stopping non-originals from becoming so attracted by recent developments that they decide to move their and change the community makeup? What design factors or civic policies are controlling the rising economic strength of the neighborhood so that the benefits are felt within the community, not pulled apart from it? These are not answered. Despite the unknown future of the social scene of the Oretha Castle Haley neighborhood, these efforts, largely led by the Tulane City Center who calls the neighborhood, home, are certainly a commendable start.