The term neighborhood has many meanings and uses. For example, neighborhood can be used to refer to the small group of houses in the immediate vicinity of one's house or to a larger area with similar housing types and market values.
Neighborhood is also used to describe an area surrounding a local institution patronized by residents, such as a church, school, or social agency. It can also be defined by a political ward or precinct. The concept of neighborhood includes both geographic (place-oriented) and social (people-oriented) components.
These many interpretations lead to a healthy debate on what boundaries are most useful in neighborhood planning efforts. Academically, every field has a different logic for their definition. Neighborhood associations and community groups offer their interpretations. City Planning departments often designate neighborhood boundaries along census tract boundaries. And, in fact, community residents quite frequently have a very different mental map of their neighborhood than the officially designated neighborhood areas used by planners and policymakers. All definitions are important and meaningful. The question is how one begins to create agreement over the definitions so that the debate focuses not on boundary definitions but on how to make positive changes in the neighborhoods.
Our purpose at the GNO Community Data Center is to facilitate the strategic use of local data in decision-making. This purpose influenced our decisions on boundaries for the initial launch of this web site. Rather than starting from scratch, our staff researched alternative sets of neighborhood boundaries currently available for Orleans Parish .
This research included police districts, Community Development Corporations (CDC) boundaries, neighborhood associations, and city planning boundaries. The conclusion we reached was that the City Planning neighborhoods, which were initially developed through a comprehensive citizen planning and research process in the 1970s and 1980s, would be a good starting place in the discussion on common neighborhood designations in Orleans Parish.
In addition, City Planning
boundaries were the only existing neighborhood designations that did not overlap
and largely followed Census tract boundaries. Having boundaries that neatly
contain Census tracts makes it much more feasible to organize Census data at
the neighborhood level.
In the initial study in 1980, 68 neighborhoods were designated for Orleans Parish. City Planning continues to use these geographic designations to understand and plan for the City. After each Census, City Planning has made adjustments to the neighborhoods based on changes in Census tract boundaries. As of October 2001, according to documents we received from City Planning, City Planning has 76 neighborhood designations. The New Orleans City Planning Commission has further compiled these neighborhoods to form 13 planning districts.
The links below may be useful in understanding these area designations:
New Orleans Neighborhoods: Official Listing and Corresponding 1990 Federal Census Tracts
nutrias.org/facts/noneigh.htm
List compiled by the New Orleans Public LibraryIndividual Planning Districts, New Orleans City Planning
www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_lucontents.htm
Resource describing which neighborhoods comprise each planning district, along with maps and current and planned use of land.
As the GNO Community Data Center started its work with developing publicly available data at a sub-parish level, we started with these neighborhood designations (based on documents we received from NO City Planning in October 2001) and made some minor adaptations as noted:
The neighborhood boundaries used in this web site are not to be confused with neighborhood association boundaries or boundaries that are self-identified by residents. The boundaries on this web site are used for the organization and presentation of data.
Below the neighborhood level
Our neighborhood designations are made up of Census tracts, which are made of block groups. You could look at data at these smaller levels, but it's a bit unwieldy. With 181 Census tracts and 485 block groups in Orleans Parish, for example, it's easy to see how the 73 neighborhoods that we're using can be a useful organizing concept.
Seventy-three neighborhoods is still a lot of areas to consider, but they're areas you'll recognize just by living and working in Orleans Parish.