jeffschwartz

That is absolutely one of the Domain Cos. Projects; it's the Crescent Club, on the former Crescent City Motors site, and it is slated to have 228 units. The Domain Cos. are doing great stuff; if only the city could reciprocate with some vision for the rest of the Tulane Avenue corridor...

Just a note--those aren't state grants for 930 Poydras, the former Sewell building, and the other projects; they're bonds, floated by the Industrial Development Board. I'm happy to hear about all those projects--especially the 930 Poydras development going forward (yes to apartment, not just condos!) and the Sewell conversion. A grocery is a great amenity, especially when there is 40,000 sq. ft. on a floorplate. There could be living above, which is great, and since it is on a transit line, there should be lower parking requirements. However, I don't know about the conversion of 2400 Canal; if the building is going to be preserved (as it should), why not try to incorporate it into the hospital complex as medical offices or incubator space? I think it is a little questionable that Burgos is going to be directly benefitting from this process, and nurses' housing seems kind of ridiculous in a modernist/international school office building. But maybe I'll be proved wrong...

Awesome Summit development. More geography of nowhere.

iciNola is an awesome project all the way around. it's a really unique take on infill development and it will point the way for future development within our historic neighborhoods. wayne troyer architects do great work. can't wait to see it built.

The only thing I've ever been able to dig up that's relatively recent is this image, which I got directly from the NOPB: What's interesting is that the NOPB/Norfolk Southern tracks would run directly into the end of the current Riverfront streetcar line (see both my previous post as well as that of the UNOP light rail route that blackcoat illustrated in the previous post). We already have the rights-of-way in public ownership, and they're graded and outside of automobile traffic, to boot. That is ideal--akin to what the el is in Chicago, or Philly's aboveground lines, and even better than Boston's T Greenline. If we only had people who would go to bat for it at the RPC, NOPB, CPC, etc. Our streetcar's two biggest failings are that they are relatively slow, and they don't circumnavigate the city. The NOPB route could kill both those birds, and have plenty of ancillary benefits as well (park n rides within the city--for instance, at City Park--could provide City Park with much-needed revenue). Another note I'd like to add to this discussion: In addition to New Orleans having the most Class I railroads in the country, we also have the most intercontinental Amtrak routes (three)--the Crescent (to New York), the City of New Orleans (to Chicago), and the Sunset Limited (to LA)--moving right through our dinky UPT. I'll just say that we need to break out of the mindset of high speed rail just moving along the Gulf. The Illinois Central has long-connected New Orleans to the Midwest, and we need to think of ourselves as the spine of the country. The Illinois Central connects New Orleans to Jackson, Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, and (because it is owned by CN) Toronto and on to Montreal. We need to think N-S in addition to E-W, which would place New Orleans at the intersection of an inverted T that has a total population of more than 70M people. Look what Houston DOESN'T have the we still do, and that is one HELL of a competitive advantage:

While many of the aforementioned future streetcar lines will be wonderful, the first place New Orleans should look to make dramatic new improvements in public transit is on the rights-of-way already owned by the Public Belt Rail Road. The PBRR ROWs do not conflict with on-grade traffic crossings; the streetcars can run at full-speed, unimpeded by vehicular traffic or having to stop every two blocks, thereby creating a viable transit system that will move people as efficiently as if they were in a subway. Furthermore, the route is a circumferential one that can immediately impact ridership. Radial routes can be added as funding permits, either to lay new in-street tracks or to move to BRT (like Curitiba). Here's an illustration I made for another context...

Is this a new project, or is it the as-yet-incomplete portion of RiverGarden? Looks better than I anticipated. Also, this thread should include Tracage: http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf...92217305010.xml