Tulane University - Jambalaya Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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Might falls over the Mississippi riverfront. Mew Or- leans: a city at peace . . . but not for long. fffiiiii Crowds gather by the Pontalba Apartments, one of the oldest buildings in the world, during the Jax Brewery opening celebration. The Central Business District (CBD) provides a sharp contrast with the French Quarter — at least in archi- tectural design. fl 16 the city

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Tulane Throws A Party The parties at Tulane have always been something to write home about (anyone who has been to a TGIF can tell you that). But suddenly, the word party just won ' t do. In mid-September of this year a CELEBRATION was held in honor of Tulane ' s Sesquicentennial. The University spared no expense in com- memorating its 150th anniversary. By far, one of the more colorful events was the professors ' parade down McAlister Drive. With the New Orleans weather as unpredictable as usual, the sesqui parade had a little trouble getting off the ground. Finally, after plans were hastily modified. Ma Nature began to cooperate. The clouds parted just long enough for the professors to wind their way from Gibson Hall to Percival Stern and down McAlister Drive. Watching the parade, it was hard to believe that a group of such well-educated people could be so unorganized. Yet, with the usual number of campus security officers trying to keep things proper and organized, the atmosphere remained thoroughly informal. There was even oc- casional applause from esoteric groups in the audience as favor- ite members of the faculty passed. Eventually the parade, along with the spectators, ended up in McAlister Auditorium. Once inside, the crowd was subjected to an hour and a half ' s worth of singing and speeches. Among the speakers, John Joseph Walsh, the dean of the medical school, revealed some of the more pertinent informa- tion about the University. The other speakers. President Eamon Kelly and Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Ph.D., from Yale concerned themselves with contempo- rary issues at Tulane. Both Kelly ' s The Future of Present Deci- sions and Pelikan ' s The Aesthetics of Scholarship were as interesting as they sound. Most of the celebrating centered around the medical school. To close this massive party week, the university sponsored the grand finale off Tulane Avenue, Sunday morning. After a few speeches and some music, the crowd paraded down to the Fairmont Hotel for brunch. Although some people there were just trying to avoid Bruff, the atmosphere of the celebration did not suffer. People are proud of the heritage of our school, and we hope that Tulane ' s next 150 years are just as successful as the first. — B. Foster Tulane professors provided a colorful spectacle as tfie march to McAlister begins. Adding to the already distinguished company of stu- dents and faculty are members of the ROTC program. sesquicentennial 1 5

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THE CITY Celebrating New Orleans ' Return to Itself In 1979, Richard Ernie Reed, a respect- ed urban preservationist, published a booi entitled Return to the City, a well- written, thought-provoking volume. It lauded the efforts of communities in places such as San Francisco, St. Paul, Chicago, Portland, New York, Savannah and Galveston which busted their prover- bial buns to revitalize their downtrodden and oft-neglected neighborhoods. New Orleans seems to have at last discovered the philosophy of urban preservation and is applying it to its own heart, the Central Business District and the Vieux Carre. At the end of 1984, it was fashionable in New Orleans to speak ill of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition. Well ... it was fashionable to speak ill of its fiscal and management woes anyway. No one, however, who had attended the LWE could say too many bad things about the fair itself. True, it never received the at- tendance it ought to have and true, it wasn ' t advertised as well as it ought to have, and true, public figures seem to have profited from it. But in all of the complaining and fingerpointing, no one seems to have noticed several very im- portant and key facts brought about by the World ' s Fair. Thanks to an expected and impending flood of tourists with fat little wallets, the City of Nawlins was forced to tidy its image. Streets were cleaned, new paving was installed and two urban renewal pro- jects — long on the drawing boards but never implemented until the threat of out-of-towners seeing the state of the city ' s heart, forced their construction — were undertaken. One was the St. Charles Avenue streetscape Improve- ment, the program that resulted in the tree-planting and installation of what is termed sidewalk furniture in the biz along the city ' s most historic street from Poydras to Lee Circle. The other projected was the Lafayette Mall. Still unfinished, its concept will pro- vide a new life for the CBD, a section of the city that tends to die down after 5 p.m. This planned pedestrian mall will stretch from Poydras Plaza by the Super- dome down to the Piazza d ' italian and beyond to the newly-renamed Conven- tion Center Boulevard, featuring shops, eateries and nightclubs. The trend, if you ' ve missed it, is quite simple. Where the late 1960 ' s and cer- tainly the 1970 ' s inspired a mass exodus to the suburbs, the eighties are inspiring a return to the city. Where shops and boutiques flocked to the malls on the outskirts, leaving T-shirt joints and dirty movie houses downtown, it is now fash- ionable to move into renovated, formerly decayed neighborhoods and set up shop. This trend has hit New Orleans, and just in time. While many programs and projects were inspired as a result of an impending World ' s Fair, there are a few scattered examples that predate the LWE and show developers ' confidence in New Or- leans. Two main ones set up on opposite ends of the CBD: Poydras Plaza by the Hyatt and Superdome, and Canal Place Continued For a modest fee, you can get a traditional horse and buggy tour of the Quarter. It ' s a bit touristy though. Photos: L. Block the city 17