Bywater: Chapter Nineteen

We’ve met many interesting people by simply walking the streets of the French Quarter – groups in chariots, bycicles and segways and some of them stopped to talk to us. There was this elder couple who invited us to their daughter’s home for a lobster party after only ten minutes of conversation. And then this lady came and nonchalantly asked if we have been to Bywater. We answered “No” and she insisted that we should visit the neighbourhood and meet her there, later.

So we chose a day, did some research and there we were, on Elysian Fields, an Avenue named after the Parisian Champs-Élysées that courses from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain and is also the jazz and drama infused setting for Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play “A streetcar named desire”.

The neighbourhood formerly known as “Upper 9th Ward” became “Bywater” by the 1940s due to it’s proximity to the Mississippi River and by the late 1990s, the artistic, bohemian, hipsterish communities from the French Quarter had come here searching for quietude.

Even so, there is at least one day during the year when the madness and noise of the city move here and that is “Fat Tuesday” or Mardi Gras, when Bywater welcomes the marchers as they start their procession heading towards the French Quarter and Canal Street.

Moreover, Bywater is historcally important for being home to the site at which the “octoroon” Homer Plessy was removed from a “Whites only” East Louisiana Railroad Car. On the 7th of June 1892, Plessy refused to sit in the “Blacks only” car even though, under Louisiana law, he was classified as “colored”, commiting a violation of “The Separate Car Act”. He was immobilized, taken off at Press and Royal streets and taken into custody. He was found guilty, convicted and sentenced to pay a 25$ fine in the “Plessy vs. Ferguson” case, considered one of the worst and most controversial in U.S. Supreme Court history for upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the facilities were equal in quality (the “separate but equal” doctrine). Today, at the intersection of Press and Royal streets, there is a historical plaque to commemorate the event.

Because of the ground’s slightly higher elevation, Bywater didn’t see much flooding during Hurricane Katrina, nor did other neighbourhoods including the Lower Garden District, French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. We already knew what to expect from the creative-industrial suburb: street art, a multitude of bars and taverns, warehouses turned into contemporary art galleries and the most soaked-in-colour houses we’d ever seen. And perhaps a musical artist or two, since the place is said to have gathered a few (The Pogues’ Spider Stacy, Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Solange, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros’ Alex Ebert etc).

Instead, Bywater seemed almost abandoned with most taverns and restaurants closed, not a soul around, not even local stores to get something to drink from. Or maybe we simply missed them all… Regardless, we kept walking the streets, constantly crossing from one side to the other for glimpses of authenticity inside the pastel coloured, flag decorated habitat.

Actually, decorating their houses with flags is quite common in America, a statement that shows their love and gratitude for the land they live on. It is called “patriotic bunting” and stands for fan shaped, swag draped pieces of fabric in the colors of the national American flag. Most Americans are great patriots and they usually start preparing early for the 4th of July celebration, even months before the event. That’s when you see them cleaning their homes, fixing roofs, repairing porches and mowing the front lawn. And when they’re good’n’ready, their Victorian homes’ porch railings get draped. Heavily. Then, it’s time for friends, family, parades, red, white and blue everything, roasted marshmallows with fireworks on top. But Independence Day is not the only national celebration that makes for patriotic bunting, as there are also the Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and…Flag Day.

Although Baywater is considered to be in the middle of a displacement and gentrification process that has been affecting the neighbourhood’s lower-class inhabitants with a post-Katrina afluence of wealthy, bohemian hipsters and their quirky bars, galleries, restaurants, coffee-shops, boutiques and yoga studios, here are some of the things we’ve missed and deeply regret it: The Music Box (where not long ago, Norah Jones made a surprise appearance and played on a purple piano), Studio BE (a former warehouse turned into a contemporary art space dedicated to the black culture), Euclid Records (a two-level record store), Satsuma Cafe (a great place for coffee-drinking hipsters), The Old Ironworks (an old factory turned into an arts space), The Bargain Centre (a thrift store), Music Box Village (an interactive performance space where sculptures become musical instruments).