ORLEANS PARISH
Parish Offices
1300 Perdido Street
New Orleans 504-658-1095
https://www.nola.gov
Chamber of Commerce
1515 Poydras Street
New Orleans 504-799-4260
https://www.neworleanschamber.org
Orleans Parish shares the same boundaries with the enchanting City of New Orleans, an area that has captured the hearts and imaginations of newcomers for centuries. The very names this city has been called reflect its unrivaled status and allure: Crescent City, the Gateway to the Americas, the Birthplace of Jazz, the Big Easy, and the City that Care Forgot. Orleans Parish is serious about business and maintains one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation. At the same time, this area literally pulsates with an iconic culture that infuses vitality into every aspect of daily life. The city’s worldwide allure as a premier tourist destination has ensured a network of first-rate transportation facilities over land, air and water, including affordable bus lines, historic streetcars and a commuter ferry.
Services
Newcomers to New Orleans can look forward to some of the most highly respected and progressive healthcare resources in the world. The post-Katrina world has emerged with an exceptionally strong network of community health centers that are being praised as a model for the entire nation. Some of America’s finest health systems and hospitals are located in this area, led by Ochsner Medical Center with a Number One ranking and the only Louisiana hospital recognized as “Best Hospital” across eight specialty rankings by US News & World Report. Children’s Hospital provides advanced care in more than 40 pediatric specialties. The only full-service hospital exclusively for children in Louisiana and the Gulf South, Children’s has such an outstanding reputation that it accepts referrals from across the nation and several foreign countries. Another prestigious institution is Tulane Medical Center, an acclaimed research and medical facility that also serves as the primary teaching hospital for the Tulane University School of Medicine. The all-new University Medical Center in downtown New Orleans is already a model of post-Katrina, catastrophe-resistant architectural wonder. Throughout the parish, world-class teaching hospitals and medical centers combine with emergency care centers, family practice clinics, and physicians in every possible specialty and subspecialty to meet every need close to home.
Orleans Parish provides first-rate educational opportunities beginning with quality learning environments in public and private schools from preschool through high school. Delgado Community College maintains its original campus adjacent to New Orleans City Park, ensuring opportunities for an affordable start on a four-year degree as well as a wide selection of certification and two-year degree programs. Distinguished as Louisiana’s oldest and largest community college system, Delgado also serves as a center for professional and advanced technology career education and traditional occupational training. Herzing University provides career-oriented higher education with an emphasis on programs in healthcare, business, public safety, and technology & design. Public institutions of higher education include Southern University at New Orleans and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, the latter with six professional schools and twelve Centers of Excellence. The University of New Orleans is recognized by the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s finest institutions for undergraduate education and featured in the latest guide among “The Best 378 Colleges.” Also included on that list is the private Jesuit institution, Loyola University New Orleans. Tulane University is another prestigious private institution offering undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in the liberal arts, science and engineering, architecture, business, law, social work, medicine and public health, and tropical medicine. Dillard University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, and Xavier University of Louisiana add to the impressive list of private schools.
Lifestyle
New Orleans is peerless in its blend of elegant European culture with sights like an overloaded junk trunk or revelers tossing beads from balconies to beautiful passers-by. In a city where the official motto is laissez les bons temps rouler or let the good times roll, the atmosphere is characteristically joyful with bursts of electrifying excitement. At the same time, the area is known for its relaxed pace and attitude. Conversations with total strangers are common in New Orleans, sometimes referred to as the northernmost Caribbean city. The beguiling French Quarter is the most famous piece of real estate in the city, although the mesmerizing strains of jazz and blues can be heard drifting into the streets from quiet streets and unlikely corners. Tempting aromas fill the air from cafes and restaurants that feature delicacies with African, Spanish, French, Italian and Caribbean influences. New Orleans ranks with Paris and New York City among the world’s “Top Cities for Food,” with chefs at more than 3,000 restaurants taking advantage of nature’s bounty of seafood and fresh produce to create Creole and Cajun delicacies that can be found nowhere else.
The European flavor of New Orleans is undeniable, particularly in the grand architecture. More than 35,000 buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Louis Cathedral and the Old Ursuline Convent date back to the 1700s, the latter distinguished as the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley. Quaint, historic streetcars pass by magnificent antebellum mansions gracing the Garden District and Uptown, while the Algiers/Canal Ferry provides commuters and visitors with water transportation from Canal Street to historic Algiers Point on the West Bank. New Orleans is synonymous with great music, particularly jazz. Great festivals and the world-famous Mardi Gras celebration attract throngs of year-round visitors. At the same time, the city is a comfortable, stimulating home with eclectic neighborhoods and vibrant attractions. Hundreds of theatre, art, music, sports, festivals, and recreational events each year ensure that living and even working in Orleans Parish is a perpetual celebration.
One of the most popular attractions is the Audubon Nature Institute with lush parks, a zoo, aquarium, insectarium, golf course, and IMAX Theatre. Families will appreciate Louisiana Children’s Museum, Storyland theme park, and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park. Historic highlights include the Backstreet Cultural Museum, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World, Louisiana’s Civil War Museum, Louisiana State Museum, the National World War II Museum, and New Orleans African American Museum. Nature lovers will want to explore Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, the historic Evergreen Plantation, New Orleans Botanical Garden at City Park, and Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. Premier cultural performances and events as well as visual art collections are available in outstanding venues like Saenger Theater, Civic Theater, the Contemporary Arts Center in the Warehouse District, Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Marigny Opera House. As overwhelming as this list may be—it is by no means complete. Unrivaled for the richness of its history, diverse in culture and steeped in unique traditions, New Orleans is a place like no other.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
New Orleans
City Offices
504-658-4000
https://www.nola.gov
Chamber of Commerce
504-799-4260
https://www.neworleanschamber.org
With great food, music, culture, and world-class attractions scattered throughout the city, one of the best ways to learn more about New Orleans is to become better acquainted with some of the important neighborhoods. CBD or the Central Business District is the city’s downtown, home to popular nightclubs and fabulous restaurants. The adjacent Warehouse District serves as the city’s arts district, and together these two areas showcase a wide variety of architectural styles from gleaming high rise office buildings to renovated warehouse lofts and 19th century row homes. Encircled by grand, historic architecture, Lafayette Square is the heart of the Warehouse District, where the arts are celebrated at the Contemporary Arts Center and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art as well as in dozens of galleries. The National War Museum and the Ernest H. Morial Convention Center are also major attractions.
The French Quarter is the most famous New Orleans neighborhood, strategically situated along the Mississippi River and known for its stunning architecture and unrivaled vibrancy. East of the famous French Quarter are the neighborhoods of Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, blending traditional culture with trendy modernism. The architecture reflects this convergence of history and renewal, harmonizing quaint shotguns, Creole cottages and Italianate mansions with townhomes and renovated storefronts. Marigny features the entertainment district of Frenchmen Street—often called the Bourbon Street for locals. The most breathtakingly beautiful neighborhood in the city is undeniably the historic Garden District, lined with antebellum manors in Italianate, Greek Revival and Victorian styles along with exquisite gardens. The southern charm and sheer elegance of the Garden District have no equal and have attracted a number of celebrities to what has been called “Hollywood South.”
The neighborhood known as the Tremé has become a star in its own right as the location of an HBO television series. The architecture, music, museums, and landmarks all celebrate the history, culture, and heritage of one of America’s oldest African-American and “free people of color” neighborhoods. The dominant landmark is the 32-acre Louis Armstrong Park with Congo Square, where the survival of African dance, rhythms, and drum beats laid a foundation for the first forms of jazz and modern American dance. Today, the park is home to Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, hosting the Louisiana Philharmonic, New Orleans Opera Association, dance performances, and Broadway productions. Wherever you turn in New Orleans, magical surprises never fail to captivate the imagination and the senses.
Algiers
City Offices
504-658-4000
https://www.nola.gov
Chamber of Commerce
504-799-4260
https://www.neworleanschamber.org
One of the neighborhoods or “communities” within New Orleans, Algiers is located across the Mississippi River in close proximity to other West Bank towns and suburbs including Gretna. Connected to the city by bridge and ferry, Algiers offers bed and breakfasts, restaurants, and attractions in close proximity to the French Quarter and the downtown district. At the same time, the geographic separation from the rest of the city has engendered a unique sense of identity in Algiers. Newcomers will discover the feeling of a small Louisiana town, and people from this area tend to be known as Algerines. The historic buildings in Algiers reflect the area’s periods of change and development. Although some buildings remain from the 1840s, the dominant architectural styles are Greek Revival, Italianate and Victorian styles from the most rapid period of growth from 1850 to1900. The homes in Algiers range from modest to opulent, almost completely dominated by well-crafted frame structures with decorative trim.
