Across America, you’ll find attempted revitalizations of dormant downtowns long abandoned for the suburban mall or big box store. Cities are turning to the mixed-use concept to bring back Main Streets, constructing apartments over restaurants and communal workspaces over retail in hopes people return. Some are on the verge of success, some are not. The storefronts turn over. Visitors come once. Residents don’t stay.
What Main Street redevelopers are really trying to recreate isn’t a building type, however, it’s a culture. But culture isn’t constructed, it’s created organically — slowly and imperfectly over generations by the people who never left.
For more than 300 years, the French Quarter has been that place — people living above businesses, churches beside hotels, building community one block at a time. It evolved around people living, working, investing, celebrating and belonging in the same place…