A map of southern Louisiana, modified as if sea level were a mere one foot higher than it actually is, suggests the natural form of cities along the lower Mississippi.* Naturally, they are linear. Rebuilt as an essentially linear city, New Orleans could become one of the few cities in North America where light-rail transit actually works.
We might expect denser development uptown in the band between Magazine Street and the river, with nodes of activity at the foot of each of the major radial streets — Jackson, Louisiana, Napoleon, Nashville, and so on. A light-rail route along the existing railroad right-of-way at the river could merge seamlessly into a regional storm evacuation network.
* These maps are derived from more precise maps, based on satellite imagery, developed by Richard Campanella in his extraordinary Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2002), an essential cultural and topographical reference for the rebuilding of the city.
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