EPIC visits Urban Greenway Project in New Orleans
Additional Authors: Phoebe Higgins and Sydney Anderson
EPIC’s Restoration Economy Center recently held its annual team retreat in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the trip included team building and bonding activities (complimented with NOLA classics like beignets and coffee with chicory from Cafe du Monde of course!), the highlight of the week was a fantastic tour of the Lafitte Greenway.
The Lafitte Greenway is a 2.6-mile linear park and multi-use trail located in central New Orleans. The urban parkway includes recreational amenities, art installations, fitness and cultural programs, and expansive green areas. It also creates less visible, yet just as vital co-benefits for the six neighborhoods it connects. The Greenway leverages Nature-based solutions to respond to threats of flooding and subsidence with extensive bioswales and native vegetation to promote efficient drainage and maintain soil moisture.
The Lafitte Greenway Partnership (LGP) is the small but powerful organization building partnerships with the City, other organizations and the community to steward projects that achieve their vision of a “safe, vibrant, and active” park.
On the day of our visit, the Greenway was bustling. We passed a steady flow of commuters along the bike path, walked through the multi-use pavilion that houses the popular weekly farmer’s market, and saw vibrant and busy basketball courts, tennis courts, kids play areas, and multiple outdoor fitness facilities.
Earlier that day, the LGP had already hosted a tree planting event with the National Football League (NFL) who will be hosting Superbowl LIX in New Orleans in 2025. The NFL planted 32 native trees, with each representing one of the league’s 32 teams.
Across six unique and historic New Orleans neighborhoods, beginning in the French Quarter and stretching nearly all the way to Lake Ponchartain, passing through the Tremé and Mid-City, the Greenway highlights the rich and sometimes difficult history of these communities. We walked beneath the freeway that razed a once-thriving African American business district and represents a heart-breaking history of neighborhood redevelopment. The Greenway, with its thriving public spaces and the attention paid to community history feels like a space of community and connection for all who have the opportunity to encounter it.
During our tour, we passed an abundance of temporary and permanent sculptural installations and murals by New Orleans culture bearers like BMike, saw Tulane architecture students hard at work on a structure that will house the city’s second-largest urban farm along the Greenway, and got to reflect on Nanih Bvlbancha–an art installation constructed out of native vegetation and oyster shells, designed to bring attention to Louisiana’s Indigenous earthen mound architecture. The feature also provided a public interface for folks to climb so of course, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a team photo atop it!
A huge thank you to the Partnership’s Executive Director, Jason Neville, for the informative and engaging tour. If you find yourself in the New Orleans area, do yourself a favor and visit this unique parkway. Given the public interest and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive its first nine years of existence, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this effort continues to grow longer and even expand laterally. For more information, please visit their website https://www.lafittegreenway.org/
