Lagniappe

[NCB]

Check this out guys...planned development at its worst.

Salton City, California. It was fully developed as a massive resort on the Salton Sea in California, but development immediately ceased, and already developed areas were abandoned after salt and pollution levels in the Salton Sea rose.

Salton City looks like a pretty large place on Google Maps:

But you see some very different things from the satellite:

Salton City Airport and surrounding neighborhood:

Lehigh Acres, Florida. It was developed into a massive subdivision in the 1970's, and was divided into thousands of quarter-acre and half-acre land plots, complete with thousands of miles of roadway.

Lehigh Acres looks huge on a map, to the point that you wonder why you've never heard of a city this large:

But again, the satellite view reveals some astonishing sights:

Modern day ghost towns!

All of those maps and satelite images were courtesy of Google Maps.

[richyb83]

Very interesting stuff Nate I am a map junkie and even draw-up imaginary city's that I've shared in the past here on UP. City street patterns have always fascinated me for some reason. From the grid(rectangular, broken, etc.) to the cookie-cutter.

What happened to Lehigh Acres?? That's alot of of grid. Florida is becoming overcrowed with not a whole lot of developable land down the peninsula.

Seems like I have seen street patterns similar to that northwest of Albuquerque/Rio Rancho; and in western Arizona, but never bothered to check-out the satelitte pic.

The Woodlands TX is a nice master-planned community that comes to mind.

I once visted Page Arizona on the Utah border; it's was planned back in 1959. The path of the main boulevard(smaller version) is similar to that of Salton City. As a kid I was always intrigued by the little "sea" in southern California.

Edited March 1, 2008 by richyb83

[NCB]

Richy, from what I read, Lehigh Acres was basically just a huge development that flopped. To the point that, of all those land plots you see, only 90% of them are occupied.

I'm also really interested in city layouts, which mostly stems from my curiousity about the street grid in New Orleans and the city's layout, which has alot of history to it. I think Baton Rouge has an interesting bit of history to its street layout; you can basically trace the historic occupancy and development of an area based on what the streets look like. I'm by no means an expert on Baton Rouge's history, but just from looking at the city on a map, it's very easy to figure out which neighborhoods developed 10 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years, etc. If you know the history of New Orleans, you can figure out which neighborhoods were laid out 300 years ago, 200 years ago, 100 years ago, and even 20-50 years ago in the case of New Orleans East, but it's not nearly as obvious.

[dan326]

Communities like that liter the arid states of Caliornia,New Mexico,etc...

One neat map I found is the buildng of a suburb in Cairo,Eygpt that looks to double or triple the area of the city.

I can tell which parts of New Orleans were built when. The French Quarter(obviously the oldest part) and the Cresent to mid-east to northern south rivershore cities(Gretna,Algiers,etc..) were here before 1900.

And speaking of the developmet of Baton Rouge neighborhods, here is a map I posted a while back in the "Baton Rouge Profile" thread.

"The territorial expansion of Baton Rouge accelerated in the post-World War II years as new suburbs pushed the city to the south and east. Cartography by Molly McGraw. Source: East Baton Rouge Parish Planning Commission."

Edited March 2, 2008 by dan326

[dan326]

Cairo or Al Qahirah/ القاهرة (which is Arabic for "The Vanquisher" or "The Triumphant") is the capita Egypt and the sixteenth most populous metropolitan area in the world at 17.3 million. It is said that Cairo is a population of 17.3 million in a city for only 13 million. Many poor must live among the cemeteries in places called the Edited March 2, 2008 by dan326

[UptownNewOrleans]

Just curious dan326, do you want to be an urban planner or architect because you got skills

[richyb83]

Cool maps of Cairo Dan Interesting road set-up; it does look like they dropped a bowl of spaghetti on the map. Wow! Now that's dense! Baton Rouge doesn't know what dense is. Eygptian burbs out in the desert.

Hey Uptown, did you see Dan's latest work in the the BR RiverPlace thread?? He's definetly got skillz.

On that BR nieghborhood map I can't understand the empty/blank gaps in Broadmoor and Sherwood Forest??

Yeah Nate. NOLA's % of street grid tells the story! And to think BR in 1960 was roughly the same size as NOLA was in 1860. And way back in the year 1900 BR had less than 20,000 people while NOLA had an impressive pop. of 287,000; no wonder it was called "Crown Jewel of the South".

Sorry for the late reply.

Edited March 6, 2008 by richyb83

[dan326]

Just curious dan326, do you want to be an urban planner or architect because you got skills

Thanks, ya'll. I have considered being an architect actually.

[UptownNewOrleans]

richy-yea, the man's got serious skills. He'd breeze through the architectural program at LSU, Tulane or whereever he decides to go. dan326, you should do some internships to further your gift.

[NCB]

That's a great field to get into, Dan. It takes alot of hard work to get through a good college Architecture program, and it can be rough those first couple of years after college, but if you've got a passion for it and always put your heart into it, you'll find yourself in a great position. Always keep your options open though, man. I was this close to enrolling at the Tulane School of Architecture, but decided not to after I put alot of serious thought into it. I've always had a passion for architecture, (and I'm sure I can thank growing up in the French Quarter for that) but I just wasn't sure if I wanted to basically dedicate my life to it. I decided that I'd rather pursue business management and studies into the hotel and restaurant industries at Tulane (again, thanks to growing up in New Orleans I suppose) and I'm very happy I went that direction.

But again, just keep your options open. I belive the average college student changes their major 3 times before the end of their sophmore year, and that stat is rising every year. Really think about all of your interests, and then decide if you would want to make a career out of any of them. That way, if you find yourself in college majoring in something you discovered you had no real passion for, you'll be prepared to find something new. Putting all of your eggs into one basket can come back to bite you if you find yourself unhappy in your current position.

But if you to decide to pursue architecture, take a look at Tulane. It's a great unversity (one of the five "Southern Ivies") and its architecture program is really leading the way in physically rebuilding New Orleans and much of SE Louisiana. These "houses of the future," "affordable green units," "energy efficient neighborhoods," and studies of how to "flood proof" historic New Orleans neighborhoods you may have heard about--all Tulane. I don't know what your interests are, but apparently all of these rebuilding projects interest alot of high school students, because Tulane has received 99% more applications from high school students this year than the last few, and applications to UNO and Loyola have more than doubled. LSU's got a great architecture program as well, and being from Baton Rouge I know LSU is probably staring you right in the face. If that's your future route, you'll no doubt enjoy it and find success there. But if you're not entirely sure yet, and want to stay in Louisiana, take a look down I-10. http://architecture.tulane.edu/

[buckett5425]

I am gonna have to agree with everyone Dan, you seen to have a real passion for architecture, and have some great sketchup skills too. But being that I am in the LSU Arch program, of course im going to recommend it. We have a great program, and are ranked in the top 5 for arch schools in the south, and that includes texas. If you're also interested in Landscape Arch our program is ranked second in the nation. Either way, definetly keep your options open, for schools, and majors. But im sure LSU would love to have someone who is as interested in Arch as you, haha. Plus, you cant beat the football, lol...but good luck in what ever you deciede to do!

[dan326]

Thanks for all the compliments and suggestions, guys. I'm definitely staying in Baton Rouge so, I will be sure to take a look at colleges in Baton Rouge, Hammond, Laffeyette, and New Orleans. I was thinking of majoring in : 1.Lingustics 2.Architecture, 3. a Biological research field ; and if none of those work out I have Travel Channel television personality as my number four career.

Edited March 9, 2008 by dan326

[UptownNewOrleans]

Look me (Derrick) up when you come to N.O. and I'll show you the REAL New Orleans; not the tourist-version but the hoods/projects and of course the tourist spots. You'll get a tour of the dangerous Uptown section

[richyb83]

Jindal's name has come up recently as a potential Vice President to Republican nomineee John McCain. I would hope Jindal stays in office as Governor for at least 4 years; if not 8 to clean up all the mess before moving on up.

Jindal to appear on Monday

[cajun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ObRh2djXjs

Bobby Jindal on national TV- possible Veep run.

[SlidellWX]

I would prefer that he stay governor. There is still alot of work to be done to get this state back in order.

[ironchapman]

Hey guys! Long time no see (so to speak)!

I was just wondering if any one here has a Facebook or a MySpace page. I was just wondering, because if anyone does, let me know and I'll leave a link to my profile.

On a different note, I have repeatedly tried to convince my parents that a New Orleans vacation is long overdue. Unfortunately, my Dad, who grew up along the coast of Mississippi, says that he has been there enough times already from when he was a boy.

[NCB]

On a different note, I have repeatedly tried to convince my parents that a New Orleans vacation is long overdue. Unfortunately, my Dad, who grew up along the coast of Mississippi, says that he has been there enough times already from when he was a boy.

You should try getting down here for the Saints-Falcons game, IC. There's always a huge group of Falcons fans that head down to New Orleans for the game, and I know NOLA sends a huge group of Saints fans to see the game in Atlanta as well. Let me know if you end up heading down to the Crescent City!

I may be headed to Atlanta sometime in July, but I'm not completely sure yet. Also may spend a few days in Houston sometime this summer.

[richyb83]

Alligator disrupts traffic on I-10

LAPLACE (AP) -- State police say an alligator that somehow got into the eastbound left lane of Interstate 10 on the Bonnet Carre Spillway was hit by a vehicle and slowed traffic to a crawl.

Troopers say the alligator was still alive, and a nuisance officer from St. Charles Parish removed it from the highway.

A call about the alligator came in about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/26055559.html

[UptownNewOrleans]

Interesting piece of history: New Orleans' Mardi Gras came close to being permanently eliminated due to a pregnant woman being shot to death during the celebration. This happened a few years back where some dudes opened fire and unfortunately the woman was caught in crossfire.

New Orleans based rap group Hot Boys (Juvenile, B.G., Turk and Lil Wayne) coined their name from a real-life crew. The Hot Boys (Sterling, Dooney, Terrence and another dude) were notorious gangsters who ran New Orleans and when they were exterminated, the murder rate declined.

[richyb83]

Upside of high oil prices: State gains from royalties

Higher-than-anticipated oil prices swelled Louisiana's expected budget surplus from the 2007-08 fiscal year by $175 million, state economists said Monday. The windfall from oil and gas royalties, combined with about $640 million in unspent tax revenue from the budget year that ended June 30, means legislators will have an estimated $815 million surplus to spend after it is officially certified early next year.

But economists warned that Louisiana's post-hurricane economic boom, which has brought in record revenues to state government and produced an unprecedented string of budget surpluses, is about to come to an end.

But the economists warned that the state could face a significant hit if the economic volatility on Wall Street begins to effect the rest of the economy. A nationwide credit crunch could hurt Louisiana businesses, while an economic slowdown could reduce the demand for energy, thus depressing oil prices.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index....xml&coll=1

[richyb83]

CONGRATS to Louisiana for reaching the 30,000 post!!! It's been a fun ride!

Thanks for getting the ball rolling Nate! Where you at??

[dimebag1980]

CONGRATS to Louisiana for reaching the 30,000 post!!! It's been a fun ride!

Congrats! Wish I could say I have been a big part of that, but not for the past year or so.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling Nate! Where you at??

Yeah I've been wondering this lately, myself. Hope all's well, Nate. Probably just busy with life.

[dan326]

It's great that Louisiana has so many active posters! Like Richy had said before, it's strange to see that Louisiana is so active and the Houston thread is pratically dead. I think part of it is because Houstonites are so used to development that they don't get excited about it as much.

Also, a congratulations to the Baton Rouge thread for becoming the largest thread by a big margin. And the thread and the city are still growing.

[richyb83]

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all on UP!!!

Hard to believe it's really 2010...