Unserious Friday: A Stroll Down Coliseum Street

Given the seriousness of my recent post, I thought today should be a change of pace. So, come with me as I walk down the actual Coliseum Street on my way to work.


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I live on Coliseum Square in the Lower Garden District and I walk to my job on Camp Street each morning. When I step outside my door, I see the park across the street, usually with a few folks walking their dogs while some are sitting on the benches. I do walk "down" the street, because in New Orleans, the direction I am walking is "downtown," going toward the Central Business District (CBD) and the world-renowned French Quarter (Some other Friday, I will get into New Orleans' unique directionality caused by living in a crescent of the Mississippi River).

For a couple of blocks, it's mostly residential houses built over the last century or so. The neighborhood used to be kinda sketchy, but since the Crescent City Connection (aka the Mississippi River Bridge) was completed and bridge ramps were removed, the neighborhood has revitalized (and is somewhat gentrified). Since it is an Historic District, the houses retain their older charm, smaller versions of the houses further Uptown in the Garden District proper.

Walking down Camp Street, I pass St. Theresa of Avila parish church. As you might imagine, you can't walk too many blocks in New Orleans without passing a Catholic Church.

Next is Bridge House, a complex of residential buildings and a thrift store/used car lot that is home and workplace for recovering addicts rebuilding their lives. Across from the Bridge House store, and right on my walking route, is a little pocket park dedicated to Margaret Haughery, the Bread Woman of New Orleans, who fed the poor in the late 1800s. It is ironic to me that as I cross Calliope Street there are homeless men "living" under the bridge overpass, stark evidence that our poor and homeless are still here.

Once I cross Calliope, pronounce "CAL-lee-ope," I am in the CBD. Just one block in, there is a cluster of three museums and the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). Two museums are dedicated to war: the Confederate Museum (which has a sign on front that says Civil War Museum) and the National WWII Museum, Tom Hanks' gift to New Orleans. Next to the "Confederate Memorial Hall" is the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, part of the University of New Orleans, and across the street is the CAC. Quite a combination of ideologies in small space, if I don't say.

I am now three blocks from my building. Beyond the CAC, the street is mostly small buildings that house residences, small shops, galleries and parking lots/garages. One place that sticks out is Ozanam Inn, a homeless shelter for men run by the Society of St. Vincent DePaul. Two blocks further and I am my place of business.

So, that is my walk every morning (and afternoon in reverse). I experience the socioeconomic diversity and disparity of New Orleans every day and I am a better person for that walk.