Featured Apartment:
New Orleans- City Park- We've got a newly-renovated one bedroom unit near Tulane that has a great layout for roommates who need their privacy but also need a one-bedroom sized rent. In this apartment, we've put a door on the living room, so it can be used as a second bedroom. Studio apartments, lofts, and efficiency apartments also available. View More Listings -->
City Park Information
City Park, a 1300-acre (5.3 km) public park in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the
6th-largest and 7th-most-visited park in the United States. Although it is an
urban park, it is operated by a state agency, the Louisiana Department of
Recreation and Tourism. The Park is very unusual in that it is 98% funded by
self-generated revenue through user fees and donations, 2% by the state of
Louisiana.
City Park was established in the 19th century on the land fronting Metairie Road
(now City Park Avenue) along the remains of Bayou Metairie, a former
distributary of the Mississippi River, but originally only went back a block or
two in distance, as swamp ground extended from there to Lake Pontchartrain.
After this area was drained in the mid 20th century, City Park was expanded.
Substantial improvements were made to the park by the Works Progress
Administration, including many sculptures by Enrique Alferez. It is one of the
10 largest urban parks in the country and holds the world's largest collection
of mature live oak trees in the world, some older than 600 years. Its founding
in 1853 makes also makes it one of the oldest parks in the country.
Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to the park, first by the winds toppling
an estimated 1,000 trees and damaging many more. After the failure of several
floodwalls, the park flooded with 1 to 10 feet of water which sat for two to
four weeks, damaging all buildings, amusement rides, maintenance equipment,
electrical systems, vehicles, and causing the death of more trees and
landscaping including nearly the entire plant collection in the New Orleans
Botanical Garden.
