Lucky Dog cart on Rue Bourbon

An important plot of the HBO series Treme is the street life of the French Quarter, along with Faubourgs Marigny and Treme. Annie and Sonny, the street-musician couple, make their meager livings performing on street corners from Royal to Frenchmen. Davis Mcalary wanders all over Treme and the Quarter, offering comic relief.

Then there's Antoine. Antoine Batiste is not a "street musician," like Sonny and Annie, but he certainly is on the street more than he'd like to be. Like many New Orleanians, Antoine lost his car in the storm. Public transit was beyond dysfunctional in that first year post-k. NORTA got the streetcars running again on Canal Street by December of 2005, but still struggles to provide service to commuters even now. In the show, Antoine's stuck out in Metairie. Even before the storm, the public-transit links between city and suburbs were weak. That means Antoine is forced to rely on taxicabs to get around--not a cheap proposition. To minimize this, taxicab patrons often walk as much as they can, and that's Antoine. Of course, folks who work in the Quarter (as Antoine does when he works his strip-club gig), you've got to walk a bit anyway. That makes casual encounters between Annie/Sonny and Antoine perfectly logical.

Of course, Treme is not the first exploration of life on the streets of New Orleans. John Kennedy Toole's wonderful novel, A Confederacy of Dunces is the best-known tales in the genre.  Toole's iconic anti-hero, Ignatius J. Reilly worked for the fictional "Paradise Vendors," a not-so-veiled homage to Lucky Dogs.  The real-life story of Lucky Dogs, told by Jerry Strahan in his book, Managing Ignatius, is one of the most enjoyable memories of the French Quarter ever written. Both are highly recommended.

Von Dullen streetcar 2008, at the two-track terminal at Beauregard Circle.

This is the end of the "Carrollton Spur" of the Canal Street line.  On the outbound leg of the route, one of every four streetcars running on Canal turns right onto North Carrollton avenue and goes down to City Park.  This spur is a big boost to the New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, and the various businesses along Carrollton.

This photo was shot from Lelong Drive, the main entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art.  (The photo at the top of the NOMA home page is what you'd see from this vantage point if you turned around.)  The operator hasn't yet changed over the trolley poles for the inbound run.  The Von Dullen streetcars were originally built in 2002-2003 for the return of the Canal line.  They were flooded in the storm, and were stripped and re-built in 2006.  While they have the same basic arch-roof design of the 1923-vintage Perley A. Thomas cars that run on the St. Charles line (the city's classic green streetcars), these streetcars have modern controls and electronics, as well as wheelchair lifts on both sides. 

There's no better way to get off the beaten tourist path in New Orleans than to ride the Carrollton Spur out to City Park.  Enjoy Bayou St. John, Pitot House, the park itself, and NOMA.  Even on a hot summer afternoon, you can escape back into the air-conditioned red streetcar to get back downtown!

Happy Fourth of July, NOLA Style:

"Go Fourth On The River" shots from last year, courtesy of Laura Bergerol. If you don't know Laura and her work, take the time to go visit her site. Good stuff from a good person!

Since HBO's hit series, Treme " has concluded its first season, we'll be featuring photos of Faubourg Treme as well as various places around New Orleans that pop up in the show.

Interior of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in the 1930s.  Originally named for St. Anthony, this church is located at Conti and N. Rampart Streets, in the Treme.  The church was built as a mortuary chapel for the city in the 1820s.  It's location, one block down from St. Louis Cemetery Number One, was outside the French Quarter, so funerals of victims of yellow fever could be held away from St. Louis Cathedral and the general population of the city.  As the city grew, OLG became the parish church for Treme near Canal Street (St. Augustine was the church for the Esplanade side of the neighborhood).

This shot of the church features two well-known statues positioned to the right of the main altar.  The big St. Jude statue (left) was moved into the side chapel to the left of the altar.  It's now the International Shrine of St. Jude, and one of the most peaceful and spiritual places you'll ever encounter.  The statue in the niche on the wall just to the right in the photo is labeled "St. Expedit," and is one of the more amusing stories in New Orleans history.  In the early 19th century, New Orleanians would order statuary for their churches from the old countries.  One of the boxes contained the statue of an early church martyr in a Roman military uniform that couldn't be identified.  The workers who unpacked the statue saw the word "EXPEDIT" stenciled on the box and assumed that was the saint's name. 

The rest, as they say, is New Orleans.

Perley A. Thomas streetcar number 939, operated by New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated, on the West End line, 1946.

It's hot in New Orleans in the summer. Visit here for a day and a half in June/July/August and you figure that out pretty quickly. Back before the days of near-universal air conditioning in homes and offices, folks needed an escape from the heat. One of the things families would do was to head out to West End for a day trip. The New Orleans & City RR Company began running steam train service down Canal Street to West End in the 1870s, along with their mule-car service to the cemeteries. It was all streetcars after electrification in 1895, but the idea was still the same: escape to the lakefront!

It's 1946 in this photo. NOPSI operated the Perley Thomas 800- and 900-series streetcars exclusively by now and was actively discontinuing electric transit service in favor of buses. You can see the motorman-conductor team as they pose for the picture. The requirement by the city that NOPSI use two-man crews hastened the demise of street railways in the city.

Still, it looks like a lovely (albeit hot) day in New Orleans. A trip to the lakefront to catch the breeze at West End Park is something I could use right now.

Palace Car 660 on the St. Claude line, at the corner of Esplanade and N. Rampart, 1930s.  Built for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis by the American Car Company, these streetcars were nicknamed "Palace" cars in New Orleans because they were so roomy and comfortable inside.  The monitor deck on the roof allowed air to flow in the top of the streetcar, cooling them down more than the arch-roofed Perley A. Thomas cars we all know so well. 

The Palace cars were run by New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) on the Canal line until the mid-1930s.  They were replaced on that line by the 800- and 900-series Perley A. Thomas cars, and the Palaces were shifted to the Napoleon and St. Claude lines.

Car 660 is heading inbound on N. Rampart Street, into Faubourg Treme.  The HBO Series "Treme" completed its first season last night to much critical claim, locally and around the country.  660 is passing St. Aloysius High School, the subject of my latest book for Arcadia's Images of America series, Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.  You can find more info on the book at http://boshbook.com.

(x-posted yatpundit, seashell-software, and canalstreetcar)

Front and rear views of my two sets of Moo Cards

I'll be signing Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans at the Brother Martin CajunFest today, from about 1pm until 5pm or so.  The book goes for $21.95 and all proceeds (including author's royalties) go to Brother Martin High School.  Also, if you've got a copy of New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line that you'd like me to sign, bring it along!

Note: posting this here because District A contains the bulk of the Canal line and the Carrollton Spur.

DISTRICT "A" PUBLIC MEETING ON THE MASTER PLAN

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Parkview Terrace (2nd floor of the old Casino Bldg.) on Dreyfous Avenue in City Park.

Your opportunity to provide input on the City's Master Plan.

For more information, please call the office of Councilmember Shelley Midura at 504.658.1010

Still have questions? Contact: Charlie London http://fsjna.org

Some photos of public transit in Helsinki and Espoo, Finland--these tie into today's podcast:

Trolley in downtown Helsinki. They usually call them "trams," using the more British term.

Commuter rail trains coming in and out of Leppavara Station in Espoo, a suburb just to the west of Helsinki.  Leppavara is a major commuter station and bus terminal in Espoo.

Buses at the terminal at Leppavara. That's a three-level shopping mall right behind the train station and bus terminal.

Subway station in downtown Helsinki.

The big impression I was left with after two weeks in Helsinki (and two return trips since those photos were taken) is how public transit complements public space. It's about getting downtown, to the mall, to the train station, etc.

And here's today's Podcast:

Streetcar Saturday!

Today's Podcast

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