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About this timeline
This timeline illustrates the urbanization of New Orleans resulting from the city's water policy, finding two roughly distinct phases:
1. early focus on levees giving rise to economic, but not overly racial residential segregation
2. later focus on drainage, resulting in economic and overtly racial residential segregation -
Levees chief Water Policy
The city needed natural levees to prevent flooding and therefore focused its Water Policy on flood control through levee reinforcement and expansion as a publically funded project. Levee building remained the almost exclusive water policy through the 18th and most of the 19th century, in concert with New Orleans’ increasing importance as a port. (Colten, 2006; Fussell, 2006). -
Import of convicts and slaves to work on levees
European convicts and contract laborers were imported to work on levees, followed by captive African slaves. New Orleans became the busiest slave market in the South (Camapanella, 2007) -
Period: to
Focus on Levees
City water policy focus on Levee expansion and maintenance promote economic but mixed racial residential pattern -
New Orleans Founded
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, selected a natural levee next to the Mississippi river as the site for New Orleans, from which the land dipped sharply, offering relatively good drainage, to a central space with little or no gradient adjacent to swampland. The gridded city was planned with open ditches for drainage. Drinking water came from wells and cisterns (Colten 2006, Lewis, 2003) -
Growth of New Orleans
Interactive map of New Orleans shows the historical progress of settlement in New Orleans, which was determined by the city's water policies. -
Levees moulded early settlement patterns
Affluent residents, mainly white (French, Spanish, and later, American) with their slaves, settled on high ground abutting levees, leaving lower lying areas downstream and toward swamps, on a gradient of diminishing wealth, for everyone else. (Brand, 2014; Campanella, 2006; Fussell, 2006, Lewis, 2003). -
Residential areas were racially and ethnically mixed
TripartiteThe informal economic residential zoning overlaid a dispersed tripartite French society, where slaves lived next to owners (not always white), and free blacks, people of color, and immigrants lived where they could, usually next to workplaces. Racial control of blacks and people of color was not exerted at the residential level, but socially through the “Code Noir,” and restrictions on public assembly. (Campanella, 2006; Fischer, 1969, Fussell, 2006) -
First canal built
France ceded Louisiana to the Spanish, who continued the French public levee policy for the city. To ease transportation, the Carondolet Canal was built between the city and Lake Pontchartrain. Like the open ditches, it was also used for sewage (Colten, 2006). -
Haitian Immigration furthered mixed society
Haitians:Following the successive revolutions in Saint-Domingue (today Haiti) from 1791-1804, the city’s tripartite society was augmented by the arrival in New Orleans of hundreds of refugees, many white French and free people of color, some of whom were slaveholders themselves, thus reinforcing the mixed residential pattern of the city (Fussell, 2006). -
American City
The Louisiana Purchase saw the city come under US control, and a continued water policy focus on Levees. Transport canal used as sewage. Population growth was migration-driven. Residential patterns were economic, but still ethnically and racially mixed. Drainage and sewerage occured haphazardly via ditches and canals Water was collected in cisterns. -
Levees and Long Lots
Levee construction and maintenance was partly devolved onto landowners on the urban fringe via a city council ordinance, perpetuating the French “long lots” plantation pattern into early urban expansion along the river, the only direction growth could occur. Long lots allowed each landholder to have as much of river frontage as possible for transportation access. It remained popular later as it reduced the length of levee that each owner had to maintain (Colten, 2006). -
City expanded into fauburgs
Levee policy resulted in growth along the river, with the Americans settling in the suburb or "Fauburgs" upriver (left) of the old city ("Vieux Caree" - center of image) where the "French" lived, while free blacks and Creoles of Color in the low areas downriver. This resulted in the "Cresent" shape associated with the city (Colten, 2006; Campanella, 2006). -
Private Canalization and suburbanization
The focus on levees limited investment in other water infrastructure. The city asked the state to charter private companies to take on canalization. The New Orleans Canal and Banking Company was chartered to build the "New Canal," driving real estate speculation and the suburbanization of Carrolton, which interestingly, was populated by a racially mixed middle class. (Colten, 2006) -
Three Municipalities
Violence between communities due to topographic limitations on city growth, led to the city's partition into three municipalities based on ethnicity and race (French, American, and Creoles of Color), each responsible for its own water infrastructure, which, due to uneven tax bases and capacities, resulted in piecemeal levee management (Colten, 2006; Lewis, 2003, Seed et al., 2006). -
Private drainage efforts foundered
With land at a premium, the New Orleans Draining Company was created in1935 by the state to drain, fill, and improve all marshy areas between the settled portions and lake. Both canalization and draining efforts foundered in the financial panic of 1837, with the Canal being turned over to the state and the drainage system incomplete (Colten, 2006) -
Flood of 1849
1849 Flood: State engineers warned against relying on levees alone as without effective water removal, buildup of levees worsened flooding in the swamplands. These fears were confirmed when a "Crevasse," or crack, upriver triggered a major flood, forcing over 12,000 residents to leave their homes, causing "utmost distress... [to prevail] upon the poor." (Colten, 2006; Seed et al., 2006). -
Yellow Fever epidemic
The largest yellow fever epidemic in the city saw the death of 7849 people - mostly immigrants with no immunity, who were held responsible for the conditions they were forced to endure. (Campanella, 2006; Colten, 2006; Seed et al. 2006). -
Nuisance Regulation
Medical authorities saw population density and "filth" associated with (open drains), as causing bad air ("miasma") and disease. As conditions grew severe, such areas, hitherto regarded as common law "nuisances," became formally regulated by city government to protect public health. These are now seen as early environmental policy (Campanella, 2006; Colten 2006; Melosi, 2008; Reznick, 1972). -
Draining machines ineffective
The yellow fever outbreak prompted the state legislature to allow a program of local taxation to fund new steam paddlewheel pumps, called “draining machines” at four outlets.They could handle only small quantities of rain or water, and soon backed up, worsening any flooding (Colten, 2006, Seed et al., 2006). -
Limited water delivery
The citytook over a limited water supply system installed by the private company, New Orleans Water Works, which since 1836, had hauled river water via a steam pump into wood pipes. By 1879, only 10% of residences were covered. The poor had few stand taps, and the one at Kingsley House Setllement was one of its main attractions (Colten, 2006; Melosi, 2008). -
City assumed responsibility for canals
After the failure of a private company to construct an integrated drainage system, the city took over the maintenance of the 36-mile system of drainage canals (Seed et al., 2006) -
New Orleans becomes 2nd largest US port
New Orleans was the second largest port in America (NewYork then being the largest), and retained this position until well after World War II, when Los Angeles-Long Beach emerged as the largest port (Seed et al., 2006) -
State takes over levee policy
State of Louisiana established the Orleans Levee District with a Board of Levee Commissioners, a governmental entity independent of municipal government, responsible for the "construction, repair, control" of all levees in the District, whether on river, lake, canal or elsewhere, ...to amply protect the property within the district." -
Ethnically and racially mixed
Postbellum immigrants and Blacks settled in a concentric zone around the inner core where housing waa crowded but cheap and close to work in noisy, dirty, "nuisance" industries such as on the waterfront (Campanella, 2007)) -
Comprehensive water policy planning
Following decades of piecemeal drainage projects, the city commissioned a Drainage Advisory Board (DAB) to develop a systematic plan to drain the city’s swamplands, which were considered, particularly, by the commercial interests, to be impediments to health, growth and prosperity (Colten, 2006; Melosi, 2008). -
Period: to
Drainage aids residential segregation
Focus on a comprehensive drainage scheme for flood control created more land, resulting in economic and racial segregation and uneven water supply and sewerage coverage. -
Progressive movement influence
Progressive Movement:: DAB proposed a public works program heavily influenced by the Progressive movement’s promotion of science and efficiency, particularly the idea that improved water and sewer systems had a civilizing power, as well as huge social benefits (Colten, 2006; Lekman, 2007; Melosi, 2008). -
Plessy decision and constitutional racial discrimination
Plessy vs. Ferguson desicion: US Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Louisiana’s discriminatory Black Codes (“Jim Crow” laws), upholding the "separate but equal" doctrine, and leading to expanded legal restrictions, and enabling more residential segregation. -
Massive public works plan approved
Photo.The city approved a comprehensive, large-scale and unusually coordinated public works plan under the Sewerage & Water Board (SWB) including drainage, water supply, and sewerage, which to be truly effective, the engineers believed, had to reach all areas of the city and therefore all residents regardless of race (Colten, 2006). -
Dawn of the 20th century
Water policy now focused on drainage, followed by citywide provision of water and sanitation services. The population was characterized by slower growth, driven by births and longer life expectancy than in-migration. The consolidation of a bipartite racial society with increasing residential segregation was underway (Fussell, 2006) -
1900-1910 Color-blind drainage
The drainage system was first implemented in the central business district, to serve the business elite. However, as blacks and poor residents lived here, they too received connections to drainage, in line with the comprehensive plan's Progressive lineage. However, deaths from disease for Blacks were much higher, indicating gaps in service (Colten, 2006). -
1906-1910 Water to the affluent
Water deivery was mainly through cypress wood cisterns (left). A limited 19th century distribution system served the largely white American sector. Citing efficiency, planners directed the first phase of the water pipeline to these neighborhoods, excluding the immigrant and black areas on low land (Colten, 2006). -
1900-1910: Sewage services fee based
Up to 1910 installation of the sewage system was sporadic, as connections required a deposit that only the affluent could afford. Only 20% were serviced by 1910 (Colten, 2006). -
New drainage technology created land
Wood Screw Pump: the new technology enabled installation of massive pumping stations (still used today), to dredge low areas and open up new land for development (Colten, 2006; Kelman, 2007). -
White flight 1
Affluent white residentAffluent white residents streamed into the new dry lowlands, keeping blacks out via a racially restrictive real estate system, thus imprinting a bipartite racial pattern onto residential areas (Colten 2006, Lugo, 2014). -
1910-1920: Drainage progresses
SWB clamed that new pumps and greater coverage had reduced deaths by typhoid, but Blacks still succmbed at a higher rate, indicating gaps in service. Thus progress of service was not even, also affecting low areas with new white immigrants (Colten, 2006) -
1910-1920-Sewerage fee waived
For public health reasons, the SWB reassessed and removed the connection fee, seeing 94% coverage in its service area by 1920, though some houses without indoor plumbing or toilets remained, notably in Black areas (Colten, 2006). -
1920-1920: Water connections free
The SWB focused on coverage of existing service areas rather than on expanding water mains. Though it claimed 97% coverage, there were sizeable gaps in lowland areas with poorer and black residents. -
Restrictive real estate laws
A new City ordinance prohibited blacks from building, renting, or establishing residence in white communities, thus effectively segregating residential areas. Though overturned in 1927, other means to spatially separate the races such as deed covenants, and house pricing were employed, though the latter excluded poor whites as well. These were used well into the 60s. (Colten, 2006; Lugo 2014) -
Great Mississippi Flood
Heavy rains on the Mississippi River caused levee breeches upstream from New Orleans, and inundated parts of the city. A levee was blown up to protect the city. -
Levees taken over by Feds
After the 1927 flood, and citing the inability of the local boards to adequately protect the city, the federal government, via the Army Corps of Engineers, took over the responsibility of gradually building and improving levees along the river, but left the city unprotected from Lake Pontchartrain (Seed et al., 2006). -
The Great Depression and New Deal
The stock market crash triggered an economic collapse that lost many livelihoods, mostly among African Americans. President Roosevelt implemented liberal reforms in a "New Deal" to relieve intense hardship, changing attitudes toward government and its role in the economy. Photo: http://www-tc.pbs.org/jazz/images/time/breadline.jpg -
1920-1930: Drainage Water and Sewerage uneven
Following the flood of 1927, drainage service was extended to areas hitherto ignored so that most built up areas had coverage.
Water service and sewerage could not keep pace with residential expansion. Attempts to catch up placed low prioity on black and poor neighborhoods. -
Redlining
The Federal Housing Adminsitration created to boost homebuying, discriminated against black communities through a classification system designating them as "decling" areas not worth investing in, thus actively promoting racial segregation. -
1940: Slower expansion lakeward
The Great Depression slowed down expansion into the drained lands toward the lake (left, blue dots: total population by tract). Older areas still displayed a mixed residential pattern though some concentration of Blacks has occured (right, red dots: Black population by tract). Source: Social Explorer. -
1930-1940: WPA digs in
Works Progress Administration and other government relief funds were used by the SWB to connect houses to water supply and sewage systems. Almost complete coverage was achieved, though some areas were more affected by inundation than others (Colten, 2006) -
Racial segregation formally ended
The Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Johnson, outlawed discrimination based on race or national origin, among other attributes. However, implicit discrimination and practices such as redlining continued. -
1970: White Flight 2
Increasing post-WWII affluence, coupled with new highways created through urban renewal, enabled middle- and working-class whites to abandon the city, in the wake of desegregation, integration of public housing, civil unrest, and disinvestment in city cores, for freshly drained suburbs (Campanella, 2007; Landphair, 2007), -
1970: inner city poverty
Blacks (right, red dots), concentrated in the city core, from whence jobs and investment had fled, rapidly became the majority population in New Orleans. Their neighborhoods became associated with low income (left, dark red). (Landphair, 2007; Fussell, 2006). -
Infrastructure disinvestment
The election of President Reagan inaugurated a period neo-liberal "small government" of huge cutbacks in government spending and concommittent disinvestment in infratructure in general, which affected levee maintenance and thus New Orleans resilience to storms and floods. -
2000: Suburbs burgeon
The city expanded outwards with whites moving to suburbs (left, blue dots). Blacks also migrated out, but into the eastern suburbs, (right, red dots). Source: Social Explorer. -
2000: Economic separation of Blacks
The second quarter of the 20th century saw Black middle-class migration to the eastern suburbs (left, lighter colors), once the province of whites, while poorer blacks remained in the inner city (left, dark red). Affluent whites (left, dark blue) prevailed in the higher-elevation uptown areas and the western suburbs (Campanella, 2007). Source: Social Explorer -
Hurricane Katrina
The storm caused breaches in the levees (weakened by years of disinvestment) inundating 80% of the city, and devastating reclaimed areas. The most affected were African Americans sectors. Many evacuees could not afford to return. photo: http://ioneblackamericaweb.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/hurricane-katrina-ap-3-8-28-12.jpg?w=630 -
New Orleans Today
Nine years after Katrina the city has regained much of its population, though Blacks are slower to return, due to fewer financial resources. Racial segregation of Blacks (right, red dots) in the population (left, blue dots) continues, though a more affluent demographic is emerging (Fussell, 2010). Image: Social Explorer.
