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Remember West End and the restaurants? Move afoot to bring it back

Lakefront entertainment spot was home to restaurants including Fitzgerald's and Jaeger's and more before Hurricane Katrina laid waste to it

NEW ORLEANS — People strolled along the Lakeshore Drive seawall and sailed on Lake Pontchartrain Saturday, but it was a far different scene near the old West End area.

Desolate is one way to describe it right now.

If all goes according to plan, things could change in the not-too-distant future.
“I drove past West End yesterday and that old parking lot, you know, it still is in shambles,” said Jefferson Parish Councilwoman Jennifer Van Vrencken. “It still is not what we remember, but it gives me hope that we will transform it over the next few years.

The 5-acre site sits partly in Orleans Parish, partly in Jefferson Parish. The side in Jefferson is owned by the state.

Work among the three is now underway to revitalize it, more than 15 years after Hurricane Katrina decimated it.

New Orleans City Councilman Joe Giarrusso is confident politics won't get in the way.

“I tell people all the time getting one thing done in one government is difficult. Trying to get three different branches from Orleans, Jefferson, the state to try and do something all at once is a challenge, but we've met it,” Giarrusso said.

The Jefferson Parish Council and New Orleans City Council are each in support of the agreement that would let work begin. Mayor LaToya Cantrell is expected to sign it soon.

Before Katrina, the area was home to many seafood restaurants.
Wooden pilings in the lake are all that's left after Katrina wiped them off the map. That's one reason the area won't be rebuilt the way it was.

Aside from what nature can do to buildings over the water, the Corps of Engineers has banned new construction on the lake in this spot because of the flood gates built at the mouth of the 17th Street Canal after Katrina.

That's led to a clean slate of sorts as lawmakers figure out the next stops for the property.

“Recreation has changed since Fitzgerald's and Bruning's and Swanson's and Jaeger's and all the restaurants that used to be out there,” Giarrusso said.

“What makes the most sense to be there? Is it more restaurants? I love the idea of making this an entertainment center. Is there some really good retail we can bring out there? The possibility of people to live out there as well.”

Van Vrencken said the area would be ideal for “a mix of retail, restaurants. Maybe some condominiums. That's what I think most of us are envisioning, just a multi-use kind of development.”

Officials said they will get public input once the design process begins.
Van Vrencnken said she hopes that Orleans and Jefferson can benefit from the restoration.

“We've been working in Jefferson on the Bucktown side of the parish line and so we have some really nice recreational and educational things planned there, things like kayak and canoe launches and children's play areas,” she said. “I think that's going to work in synergy with the more commercial things that will be on the New Orleans side.”

She said she looks forward to the day that a bridge can once again connect the Jefferson and Orleans lakefronts.

“When we're able to put that pedestrian crossing back, all of this should really work together to just be a vibrant and fabulous lakefront,” she said.

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