Editor’s Note: Some readers have asked why we’re revisiting themes like displacement, gentrification, and housing justice. These are issues that began decades ago. We believe it’s precisely because this has been happening for so long that it demands continued attention. The erosion of New Orleans’ working-class neighborhoods isn’t just history. It’s an ongoing crisis that […]
You’re not imagining it. New Orleans feels different — and not always in a good way. Sometimes it happens slowly. Other times, all at once. But every time you look down at your phone, something else is gone. Gone: The corner store with the $3 po’ boy Now it’s a wine shop that closes at […]
To visitors, a second line in New Orleans might look like an impromptu brass band parade weaving through the streets — but it’s much more than a party. Second lines are acts of remembrance, resistance, and renewal. They’re a ritual in motion, born from a legacy of struggle and solidarity. At a time when cultural […]
Editor’s Note: Our first piece, Who Really Owns New Orleans Now, sparked a strong response — not just in readership, but in what readers asked for next: more depth, more evidence, and more answers. While that article was designed as a broad overview of a long-standing problem, it quickly became clear that a deeper investigation […]
Editor’s Note: Big Easy Magazine has just published Who Really Owns New Orleans Now, Part II: A Deeper Dive—the first in an ongoing editorial series examining housing, ownership, and development in New Orleans. When homes are sold, but no one moves in… when a neighborhood feels emptier even as property values rise… when your neighbor’s […]
It’s a talking point that pops up every time someone dares to criticize gentrification: “Isn’t this what you wanted? Integration? White people moving into Black neighborhoods? Sounds like desegregation to me.” It’s the kind of smug argument that tries to flip racial justice on its head — as if gentrification is just a liberal fever […]
Tremé: A Cultural Beacon Under Pressure Tremé, one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in America and a birthplace of jazz, has long stood as a pillar of New Orleans culture. But post-Katrina redevelopment, skyrocketing property values, and short-term rentals have turned Tremé into a battleground for housing justice. Whole-home Airbnbs now make up over 10% […]
New Orleans culture is labor. It’s been stitched, played, danced, and shouted into existence by generations of Black, Indigenous, and working-class communities. But today, that culture is being sold back to us—often by people who had no hand in creating it. Culture as Cash Crop Every year, millions visit New Orleans looking for “authenticity.” They […]
Every time someone points at New Orleans and says, “See? Another murder. Another carjacking,” they ignore the reality: the conditions behind crime in cities like ours weren’t random—they were built, layer by layer, over decades. From government-backed redlining to the hollowing out of urban communities through white flight, and the devastating rise of mass incarceration, […]
You don’t have to be a developer or a policy wonk to care about zoning. In fact, if you live in New Orleans, zoning laws are already shaping your world—dictating how your neighborhood looks, how expensive your rent is, and even who your neighbors are allowed to be. But zoning laws aren’t just boring government […]
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