Desire Street
Encyclopedia
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. According to Jed Horne
Jed Horne
Jed Horne works for the New Orleans area newspaper The Times-Picayune, of which he is currently the metro editor. He is also the author of two books: Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of an American City, which chronicles the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the slow Federal...
, the name is a misspelled homage to a lover of Napoleon named "Desiree". The famous play A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
refers to the former transportation line
Streetcars in New Orleans
Streetcars in New Orleans have been an integral part of the city's public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world,...
to this street. It is also the title of a book by Jed Horne
Jed Horne
Jed Horne works for the New Orleans area newspaper The Times-Picayune, of which he is currently the metro editor. He is also the author of two books: Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of an American City, which chronicles the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the slow Federal...
, and part of the title of a book by John Churchill Chase
John Churchill Chase
John Churchill Chase was a cartoonist and writer. He was known for his editorial cartoons and his works on the history of his native New Orleans and Louisiana in the United States....
. The Desire neighborhood in the upper 9th Ward is named after the street, as are the area's Desire Projects
Desire Projects
Desire Projects is a neighborhood and a former housing project of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Bywater District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Higgins Boulevard to the north, Alvar Street to the east, Florida Boulevard to the south and Desire...
although the housing development has been knocked down and replaced with smaller apartment buildings. Since Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, most of the apartments are abandoned and sit in disrepair.