Proud to be an American, well, hmmm
I rode my bike out to the lakefront and instead of taking the beautiful path they recently completed along the bayou, I took Marconi Street because I love when you pop out over the levee and see the blue lake all of a sudden. Lake Ponchartrain is one of the largest, if not the largest salt water lake.
I detoured back behind the mansions that have an alley way through the back and was happy to see that most have been restored and the grounds and yard furniture all looked in good shape. Then I headed towards the lighthouse and West End. The old red roofed lighthouse fell in the storm and so they have erected this McLightHouse – big and white and lacking in utter charm.
I tooled around West End Park and then went towards the point passing all the boathouses that are mostly still devastated. There are signs of recovery though – instead of the “For Sale – Slight Water Damage” hardee har har signs there were actual restored boathouses with signs that said “Bo Rivage” or simply “Boathouse #76”.
There were several people fishing along the point and one little boy was completely beside himself when a gaggle of ducks made their way over to where he was fishing possibly spooking his catch. As I came back around and headed to West End again, I was listening to my Ipod and Lee Greenwood was singing “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free” – I love this song, even though Ronald Reagan co-opted it for his campaign but today, looking at all the devastation that is still palpable, I wanted to strangle George W. Bush.
West End was made famous by Louis Armstrong in one of the best selling jazz recordings ever called West End Blues – it was originally a nationally renowned resort built in the mid 1800’s and named New Lake End. In 1880, the name was changed to West End with the additions of a hotel, restaurant and an amusement park built on piers over Lake Ponchartrain. The City of New Orleans followed and constructed a harbor and railroad and streetcar facilities along the New Basin Canal and the 17th Street Canal (which breached during Katrina due to faulty construction by the Corp of Engineers) and by 1921 had constructed a seawall 500 feet (150 m) out into the lake and filled in this space to create the large and oak lined West End Park.
My first inlaws owned Fontana’s, which was part of a chain of restaurants that lined the park – there was also Brunings, and recently Maggie’s, and Fitzgerald’s – all so familiar and so long gone. When the city put in a toll and made you pay to park, all of these business lost customers overnight as New Orleanians flatly refused to pay to park for what had always been free.