Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2008 - (Page 48) neighborhoods with 3,000 lots; in 1975 there were 5,000 houses. More subdivisions were planned, and apartment complexes rose for singles and young couples. The Times-Picayune headlined that “Suburbia Means Luxurious Living,” and this, “carefree, leisurely life,” was available at various price ranges in Lake Forest, which “has all of the conveniences of city living in a country-like setting.” A Lake Forest promotion claimed that, “We’ve got a lot of living for you,” and one resident told New Orleans Magazine in 1974, “You know, they’ve had places like this in California for twenty years I guess New Orleans has been behind the times. It’s a shame.” Central to the project was the one million square foot Plaza Shopping Center which opened in 1974. It had the distinction of being the largest enclosed mall in the midSouth and its completion indicated that eastern New Orleans had arrived. In 1975 the Times-Picayune said part of the success of Lake Forest was “the basically orderly development which the City Planning Commission had the foresight to develop for the area in 1966.” However, there were problems surfacing, since according to the TimesPicayune, interest was so high in the area that, “Some of the new apartments are not up to snuff construction-wise.” Shoddy construction was not the only emerging problem. This said the Times-Picayune in 1975: “Drained and prepared for construction, the wetlands begin sinking and with the soil so sinks the building. Some critics even suggest that marshland is totally unsuitable for housing.” Around 1908, land around Lake Forest was said to be about 1-3 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. As the mucky land was drained and put into cultivation it began to compact like a dried-out sponge and the level went downward to as much as 8-feet below sea level in the 1970s. This problem was also visiting Village de l’Est which was noticeably sinking into the swamp. By 1991, it suffered buckled sidewalks, roller-coaster driveways and exposed pilings under houses requiring regular soil infill by owners as the ground steadily subsided. In 1975 the Times-Picayune concluded that “builders keep building because the people keep moving east, and [this] is definitely a major area of growth.” DAVID RAE MORR IS Planned communities do not always mean success — which was especially true in New Orleans East where things got off badly in spite of its space-age ‘60s-era design. Growth Does Not Equate to Success 48 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2008 ; THE HISTORIC SAM R. SUTTON COLLECTION NEW ORLEANS In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese refugees moved to Southeast Louisiana by the thousands. Many established roots in the Versailles subdivision of New Orleans East where the largely Catholic community continues to worship at Our Lady Queen of Vietnam Church. Foreseen as free of the urban decay in the older inner city, newer neighborhoods fell on hard times, too. To combat this, in 1972 New Orleans East, with the auspices of the city, sought federal funding under the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a New Town Project. The plan called for the city to purchase 8,500 acres in 1975 for another planned community called Pontchartrain New Town in Town. Completion was slated for 1977, but the federal program was suspended before anything began. The developers decided that New Orleans East would be best developed privately and renamed it Orlandia. Without federal funding, Orlandia had little following. Lost contracts and staff reductions at the Michoud Assembly Plant hindered Village de l’Est’s advancement. Along with continued subsidence, many houses were poorly maintained and there were increasing complaints of petty crime. A former executive for New Orleans East told
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