City-planning professionals are hoping to find out what it takes to turn a former waterway and rail line into a neighborhood destination, and how to bring a community to it. Professionals in transportation, public health and urban planning will convene Feb. 25-26 to find out how to engage communities and get them on trails, or more specifically, the Laffitte Corridor, a planned three-mile linear path linking Treme to Lakeview with a bike- and pedestrian-friendly path and urban greenspace.
The greenway is a project of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that helps transform former rail lines in urban neighborhoods into accessible community spaces, with the goal of making communities more "livable." RTC has completed about 1,500 miles since its founding in 1986, and is looking to develop approximately 15,000 miles of rail-trails throughout the country. The RTC's Urban Pathways Initiative includes the greenway project underway in the Lafitte Corridor. Other cities with Urban Pathways projects include Cleveland, Ohio, Springfield, Mass., Camden, N.J., Jacksonville, Fla., and Compton, Calif.
"New Orleans definitely has a lot of potential in a city for trails, walking and biking," says the RTC's Stephen Miller. "It's compact, it's flat, it's temperate; there are a lot of built in advantages other cities don't have. It'll be exciting to get all the folks from around the country to really see the potential there."
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