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Originally Posted by ardecila
Do it all, and then some. Sucks that we can't pedestrianize the entire Quarter, but the city really doesn't have the transit system in place to let residents live their lives without cars.
I agree Orleans is a weird choice, though, I assume the intention is to lure tourists from Jackson Square up to Armstrong Park and businesses on Rampart? I think St Ann would be a better choice though, it's not blocked by the cathedral and it has the big lit Armstrong archway at the other end. If it's successful you could even use it to lure people further into the Treme, with something like the Freedom Trail in Boston.
Also I wouldn't close Iberville even after 5pm, it has too many loading docks and garage entrances... Bienville is a better pedestrian street to close.
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Btw, I think you put the wrong link.
Here's the article
Orleans is probably just a pick of the lowest hanging fruit. In my experience it usually has little or no traffic, so fewer people would complain. I am skeptical about the nightly closures they are proposing - there was a lot of talk about more of those a few years ago and they put in a bunch of bollards and then promptly forgot about them. I say either close a portion permanently or not at all.
Green corridors should be a part of any pedestrian zone. Everyone knows it gets extremely hot in the summer sun and the FQ probably has the fewest trees of any neighborhood. Well designed landscaping would also reduce street flooding.
I think Armstrong park needs to be a big ingredient in this plan. It currently holds the area back. With the tall fencing, few people use it during the day and it is closed at night. Reopening that grid to pedestrians and bikes would help a lot. Right now a third of the space is devoted to parking lots. I'd propose leasing a third of that space to a developer to build housing and use the revenue to build a garage for FQ worker and residents and add more green space. They could also lease some of those buildings for STRs.
The skeleton of a good transit system is already in place, it's just that the number of buses has not kept up with the population/tourism growth. A small fare increase could easily pay for doubling or tripling of service near the quarter. Decatur is a choke point for transit, so a longer term solution would be to pave the riverfront streetcar tracks like the Canal ones so that buses can also use them to avoid traffic.