Neighborhoods in Brief

"Where y'at?" goes the traditional local greeting. "Where" is easy enough when you are in the French Quarter, the site of the original settlement. A 13-block-long grid between Canal Street and Esplanade Avenue, running from the Mississippi River to North Rampart Street, it's the closest the city comes to a geographic center.

After that, all bets are off. Because of the bend in the river, the streets are laid out at angles and curves that render north, south, east, and west useless. It's time to readjust your thinking: In New Orleans the compass points are lakeside, riverside, uptown, and downtown. You'll catch on quickly if you keep in mind that North Rampart Street is the lakeside boundary of the Quarter and that St. Charles Avenue extends from the French Quarter, downtown, to Tulane University, uptown.

Canal Street forms the boundary between new and old New Orleans. Street names change when they cross Canal (Bourbon St., for example, becomes Carondelet St.), and addresses begin at 100 on either side of Canal. In the Quarter, street numbers begin at 400 at the river because 4 blocks of numbered buildings were lost to the river before the levee was built.

Maps -- Don't think you can get along without one in New Orleans! For a map, call the Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2020 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130 (tel. 800/672-6124 or 504/566-5011; www.neworleanscvb.com); stop by the Visitor Information Center, 529 St. Ann St. (tel. 504/568-5661) for a free one; or pay for one at any major bookstore. If you rent a car, be sure to ask for maps of the city -- the rental agents have good detailed ones.

Street Names -- As if the streets themselves weren't colorful enough, there are the street names, from Felicity to the jawbreaker Tchoupitoulas (chop-i-too-las). How did they get these fanciful monikers? Well, in some cases, from overeducated city fathers who named streets after Greek muses (Calliope and Terpsichore). Some immortalize long-dead and otherwise forgotten women (Julia was a free woman of color, but who was Felicity?).

Many streets in the French Quarter -- Burgundy, Dauphine, Toulouse, and Dumaine -- honor French royalty or nobility, while St. Peter and St. Ann were favorite baptismal names of the Orleans family. The Faubourg Marigny (Faubourg being the local word for suburb) neighborhood was once part of the Marigny (say Mare-i-nee) family plantation. After scion Bernard squandered his family's fortune (mostly on gambling), he sold off parcels to the city, naming the streets after his favorite things: Desire, Piety, Poets, Duels, Craps, and so forth.

By the way, if pronunciation seems a mystery, try it with a French accent, and you might actually get it right. Unless it's Chartres (Chart-ers), that is, or Burgundy (Bur-gun-dee) Street. Or Gallier (Gaul-ee-er). Or Calliope (Cal-lee-ope). Oh, never mind. When in doubt, just ask a local. They're used to it.

City Layout

The French Quarter Made up of about 90 square blocks, this section is also known as the Vieux Carré ("Old Square") and is enclosed by Canal Street, North Rampart Street, the Mississippi River, and Esplanade Avenue. The Quarter is full of clubs, bars, stores, residences, and museums; its major public area is Jackson Square, bounded by Chartres, Decatur, St. Peter, and St. Ann streets. The most historic and best-preserved area in the city, a survivor of two major fires in the 1700s in addition to Katrina, it's likely to be the focal point of your stay.

Storyville North of the Quarter (just above Rampart St.) is Basin Street, the birthplace of jazz -- or, at least, that's the legend. In fact, jazz probably predates the rise of Storyville (the old red-light district along Basin St.) by a good number of years. To give credit where credit is due, however, Storyville's "sporting houses" did provide a place for the music to grab the ear of a wide segment of the public who came to enjoy the houses', uh, services. King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong were among the jazz greats who got their start on Basin Street in the brothels between Canal Street and Beauregard Square.

Apart from a couple of nondescript buildings, no trace of the old Storyville survives (and note this is now a dangerous neighborhood, and not any better since Katrina). A low-income public housing project now sprawls over much of the site, and statues depicting Latin American heroes -- Simón Bolívar, Benito Juárez, and General Francisco Morazán -- dot the landscape.

Faubourg Marigny This area is east of the French Quarter (on the other side of Esplanade Ave.). Over the past decade, the Marigny has emerged as one of the city's vital centers of activity, and it was fortunate that it did not experience flooding from Katrina. Here, you can still find the outlines of a small Creole suburb, and many old-time residents remain. Younger urban dwellers have moved into the area in significant numbers recently. Today some of the best bars and nightspots in New Orleans are along Frenchmen Street, the Marigny's main drag. Along with the adjacent sections of the French Quarter, the Marigny is also a social center for the city's gay and lesbian communities.

Bywater This riverside neighborhood is past the Faubourg Marigny and is bounded on the east by an industrial canal. It is tempting to misspeak and call it "Backwater" because at first glance it seems like a wasteland of light industry and run-down homes. In fact, Bywater has plenty of nice, modest residential sections. Furthermore, it's home to the city's artists-in-hiding, and many local designers have shops among the urban decay. This is in keeping with the history of the area, which early on was home to artisans as well as communities of immigrants and free people of color. The lower Bywater adjacent to the Marigny suffered relatively little damage and looks pretty good until one travels past St. Claude toward the lake, where there was severe flooding thanks to the breach in the Industrial Canal.

Mid-City/Esplanade Ridge Stretching north from the French Quarter to City Park, Esplanade Ridge hugs either side of Esplanade Avenue. This area encompasses a few distinct neighborhoods, all of which have certain things in common. In the 19th century, Esplanade was the grand avenue of New Orleans's Creole society -- the St. Charles Avenue of downriver. Many sections of the avenue and houses along it have seen better days, but there is still evidence of those times, especially in the ancient oak trees forming a canopy above the road. If you drive or stroll toward City Park along Esplanade, you can measure the progress of the avenue's development in the styles of its houses. Because of this relatively high ground, most of the buildings along Esplanade escaped damaging flooding.

The oldest section of Esplanade Ridge, Faubourg Treme, is located directly across Rampart Street from the French Quarter. Like the Quarter, it was a dense 19th-century Creole community. Unlike the Quarter, Treme (pronounced Treh-may) has remained almost untouched by preservationists (apart from some plucky folks who have beautifully restored a number of turn-of-the-20th-c. and older houses) and so has continued to be an organic residential community. Prior to Katrina, it was one of the most vibrant African-American neighborhoods in New Orleans, home to more than a few of the city's best brass bands. Despite major community efforts to reclaim the neighborhood, Treme is usually plagued by severe crime and not advisable to walk through at night. Hurricane and flood damage has set back this historic neighborhood, and there is fear that reconstruction may lead to the sort of gentrification that could force out families who have lived here for generations, though so far those fears have gone unrealized.

Central Business District Historically, Canal Street has been New Orleans's main street, and in the 19th century it also divided the French and American sections of the city. (By the way, there's no canal -- the one that was planned for the spot never came to be.) Parts of the Central Business District (CBD) were relentlessly featured on the news thanks to the looters that targeted the T-shirt and sporting goods stores that line Canal Street, and the Hyatt, which had many windows blown out by Katrina. This may have led to the impression that the area was devastated by the disaster, but it actually bounced back quite quickly. Canal Street itself is still shabby compared to its former days of splendor when it was the center of local shopping, but improvements to the street, including spots for sidewalk cafes, may help lure in some better businesses in addition to the several very fine hotels and restaurants already in place. Admire the streetlights on the neutral ground (as locals call it; you might call it the meridian); they were a gift from France and when they were first lit -- none other than Thomas Edison throwing the switch -- they made Canal Street the most illuminated street in the world.

The CBD is roughly bounded by Canal Street and the elevated Pontchartrain Expressway (Business Rte. U.S. 90) between Loyola Avenue and the Mississippi River. Some of the most elegant luxury hotels are in this area. Most of the district was known as Faubourg St. Mary when Americans began settling here after the Louisiana Purchase. Lafayette Square was the center of life here during the 19th century.

Within the CBD is the Warehouse District. More than 20 years ago, this area was full of abandoned warehouses and almost nothing else. With the efforts of some dedicated individuals and institutions, however, it's steadily evolving into a residential neighborhood with some commercial activity. Furthermore, this area also serves as the city's art gallery district, with many of the premier galleries concentrated along Julia Street. Most of these galleries show the works of local and regional contemporary artists. The Contemporary Arts Center and Louisiana Children's Museum are also in this area.

Uptown/The Garden District Bounded by St. Charles Avenue (lakeside) and Magazine Street (riverside) between Jackson and Louisiana avenues, the Garden District remains one of the most picturesque areas in the city. Originally the site of a plantation, the area was subdivided and developed as a residential neighborhood for wealthy Americans. Throughout the middle of the 19th century, developers built the Victorian, Italianate, and Greek Revival homes that still line the streets. Most of the homes had elaborate lawns and gardens, but few of those still exist. The Garden District is located uptown (as opposed to the CBD, which is downtown); the neighborhood west of the Garden District is often called Uptown (not to be confused with the directions people often use here: The Garden District is located uptown from both the Quarter and CBD and is in what is collectively referred to as Uptown). Because it did not flood, much of Uptown looks as it always did, although some trees toppled and others look like they were pruned by drunks.

The Irish Channel The area bounded by Magazine Street and the Mississippi River, Louisiana Avenue, and the Central Business District got its name during the 1800s when more than 100,000 Irish immigrated to New Orleans. As was true elsewhere in the country, the Irish of New Orleans were often considered "expendable" labor, and many were killed while employed at dangerous construction work and other manual labor.

These days, the Channel is significantly less Irish, but it retains its lively spirit and distinctive neighborhood flavor. Much of the area is run-down, but just as much is filled with quiet residential neighborhoods. To get a glimpse of the Irish Channel, go to the antiques-shop district on Magazine Street and stroll between Felicity Street and Jackson Avenue.

Algiers Point Directly across the Mississippi River from the Central Business District and the French Quarter and connected by the Canal Street Ferry, Algiers Point is the old town center of Algiers. It is another of the city's original Creole suburbs but probably the one that has changed the least over the decades. Today you can't see many signs of the area's once-booming railroad and dry-docking industries, but you can see some of the best-preserved small gingerbread and Creole cottages in New Orleans. The neighborhood has recently begun to attract attention as a historic landmark, and it makes for one of the city's most pleasant strolls.