The French Quarter Continues its Colorful Story
Today, the French Quarter remains an arts area, but the tourism industry has turned it in to a modern garden of delights and vices. The population of the French Quarter has declined, moving from 20,000 residents in the district during the 1920s to 4,000 today. The area has gentrified. Real estate is prohibitively expensive, but the visitor swarm has not been stemmed. Hotels have moved to the periphery due to a prohibition on building new hotels in the French Quarter in the 1970s, but revelers flock in, indulging in the award-winning restaurants like Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s Restaurant, Bayona, and Justine. Amid fine dining, there are nightclubs, strip joints, parades, and sounds of shrieking partiers permeate through the wrought-iron balconies and unique antique and art shops. But vices, scandals, and secrets have always been part of French Quarter lore and will continue to paint the district in a diverse array of colors.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:
Barataria: The ruins of a pirate kingdom. Leonidas Hubbard Jr. The Atlantic, June 1903.
Guilty of being gay: NOLA businessman Clay Shaw. Lori Archer, GoNola.com, 6 April 2017.
How gay men helped save the French Quarter. Lori Archer, GoNola.com, 2 February 2018.
Wine and blood at the Beauregard-Keyes House. (n.a.) WWNO Public Radio, 29 October 2015.