page_title: Claiborne Avenue
section_title: Overshadowed by I-10
hierarchical_section_title: Claiborne Avenue / Route description / Through the Treme / Overshadowed by I-10
caption_attribution_description: English: The Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC), commonly known as the Industrial Canal, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The canal connects the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain. The view is to the south-southwest looking over New Orleans. The Claiborne Avenue Bridge crosses the canal in the foreground. The Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans is to the right of the Canal, the Lower 9th Ward to the left.
context_page_description: Claiborne Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs the length of the city, about 9.5 miles, beginning at the Jefferson Parish line and ending at the St. Bernard Parish line; the street continues under different names in both directions. It is called South Claiborne Avenue upriver from Canal Street and North Claiborne Avenue from Canal to St. Bernard Parish.
  New Orleans' longest street was named in honor of William C. C. Claiborne, the first United States governor of Louisiana, serving during both the territorial period and as the first governor under statehood. New Orleans was the capital city in those days of the early 19th century.
context_section_description: Claiborne Avenue was once a neutral ground and main street for Tremé, the oldest African-American neighborhood in the United States. In the 1950s, this avenue served as a community space lined with large oak trees and azalea gardens.  During Carnival season, families would camp out, barbecue, and wait for the Mardi Gras parades to pass by. Due to racial segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South, African-Americans were not permitted to shop at white-owned stores. This resulted in the birth of the African American business district on Claiborne Avenue. This historic strip included a plethora of booming African American-owned businesses such as: theaters, drug stores, insurance companies, restaurants, and toy stores that occupied the space. At the intersection of St. Bernard Avenue and Claiborne was the St. Bernard Circle. The intersection bustled with activity around the famous Circle Food Store in New Orleans' historic Seventh Ward. This store was incorporated in 1938 and was New Orleans' first African American-owned full-service grocery store. The Circle Food Store provided groceries—"It stocked local staple foods and was even known to carry wild game"—a pharmacy, a doctor, a dentist, a chiropractor, check cashing and banking, and a place to buy school uniforms.
  To much opposition from the neighborhood residents, a six-lane elevated Interstate-10 was constructed on Claiborne Avenue in 1969.  The construction generally followed vacant land, such as the filled-in New Basin Canal.  The original design called for the Interstate to be built along the river through the French Quarter.  A successful campaign was organized by French Quarter residents and preservations to redirect that stretch of Interstate.   The width of Claiborne Avenue provided the second most convenient route for construction, while still bringing the interstate very close to the Central Business District and the French Quarter, a few blocks from Claiborne. The opposition of the largely African-American and disenfranchised residents of Treme was not enough to stop the project from going forward. After construction, cement parking lots replaced the grassy neutral ground and supports for the interstate replaced the old oak trees, permanently changing the streetscape. It is commonly held that the construction of the overpass was intimately tied to the overall decline of the Treme neighborhood in the 60's and 70's.  As part of the 2002 "Restore the Oaks" program, some of the round supports were painted by various local artists, while others were painted to resemble oak trees.
  According to residents of the area, the Claiborne Expressway is generally acknowledged as the city's most hated piece of infrastructure and is considered the primary cause of the decline of the once thriving, African-American business district. The famous oak trees were removed from the avenue, nearly 500 homes in the area were destroyed, families were displaced, and the businesses closed. Over fifty years later, the only oak trees that line Claiborne Avenue are the ones painted on the concrete columns that support the interstate. Local artists have painted imagery on the columns that tell a story of the Tremé neighborhood's former history. In the wake of rebirth and reconstruction following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many groups and leaders have made proposals to alter and/or remove the interstate in hopes of resurrecting the once booming strip. New programs attempt to restart economic growth, restore the area's history and culture, and create a future for young residents.
  In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many have called for the removal of the I-10 Claiborne overpass, rerouting I-10 to the I-610 corridor.  Supporters cite the structure's need for costly repairs and damage it has caused and continues to cause to what could potentially be a thriving urban neighborhood.  Opponents argue that the overpass' removal would cause great inconvenience to the residents of New Orleans East and potentially require unwanted and intrusive expansion of the I-610 corridor.  The September 14, 2009, draft
caption: Claiborne Avenue Bridge over the Industrial Canal
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