St. Bernard Projects was a housing project in the city of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. A subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, its boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission were: Harrison Avenue to the north, Paris Avenue to the east, Lafreniere Street and Florida Avenue to the south and Bayou St. John to the west.

Geography

Fairgrounds is located at and has an elevation of . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the district has a total area of . of which is land and (0.0%) of which is water.

Adjacent neighborhoods

* Filmore (north) * Dillard (east) * St. Roch (south) * Fairgrounds (south) * City Park (west)

Boundaries

The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of St. Bernard Projects as these streets: Harrison Avenue, Paris Avenue, Lafreniere Street, Florida Avenue and Bayou St. John.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 6,427 people, 2,020 households, and 1,576 families living in the neighborhood. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 17,853 /mi² (7,141 /km²). As of the

of 2010, there were 974 people, 403 households, and 231 families living in the neighborhood.

History

Located in the city's 7th Ward, the complex was built over a few decades, beginning in the 1940s and has the distinction of being the 2nd largest housing project in the city. Like most public housing developments, it was not a very safe complex as it became a battle ground for drug dealers during the height of the

Crack epidemic The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in several social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Americ ...

in the late 1980s. It was once nicknamed "Dodge City" due to wild shootouts that occurred between rival gangs. Between 2002 and 2003 St. Bernard had total of 25 homicides, 13 slayings in 2002 and 12 in 2003. Many of the residents blamed HANO for displacing other residents from other housing projects for the rise in murders. After

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

the project closed and demolition began two years later. In 2008 the project was completely torn down and rebuilt as Columbia Parc, a mixed-income neighborhood.

References

External links

GNOCDC Neighborhood Snapshot

Have I Got a Witness - a documentary about the St. Bernard Projects
Neighborhoods in New Orleans Public housing in New Orleans {{NewOrleans-stub