name:
RICH CAMPANELLA age: 46 profession: geographer location: popp bandstand
A geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture and the author of six critically acclaimed books on the geography of New Orleans, Campanella
sees City Park— its role in city life, its ecological importance, and its enduring history—through a slightly differ- ent lens than most. We meet at the Morning Call Coffee Stand, a beloved NOLA institution that receives busloads of tourists who stream in for the famous beignets and café au lait.
“New Orleans would be incomplete without City Park. It’s the lungs of the city, and you can trace the city’s geophysical origins here. The oak trees are incredible monarchs— they’re eyewitnesses and living links to the city’s entire life span—and in some cases, a few hundred years before. The park preserves a swath of the old geography. This lagoon is the vestige of a tributary created by the Mississippi River 300 years ago. You
can bike along Bayou St. John and see where the colonials, following the in- structions of the indigenous popula- tion, followed the portage that would link them to the French Quarter. I’m amazed by what it looks like now compared to the autumn of 2005. It was debris-strewn. It was beaten. City Park has been a beacon and model for post-Katrina recovery. You can come here and be inspired.”
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