Desire Lines, New Orleans
The Desire Streetcar was made famous by Tennessee Williams when he had Blanche DuBois, upon arriving at a seedy part of the French Quarter, say "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields." Although to quote Kenneth Holdritch, a Tennessee Williams scholar, this route was "metaphorically perfect, but geographically impossible." The Desire streetcar line which began service in 1920, ran along the bar, nightclub, and shop district of the French Quarter-and a densely populated residential neighborhood that included the street named Desire. Desire begins almost at the Mississippi River and ends at what until just recently was the most notorious and dangerous housing project in New Orleans. It is also doubly cursed by bordering a toxic landfill-a dump so polluted that in 1994 federal officials placed it on the Superfund list-a designation reserved for the 1,300 most toxic waste sites in the country. (Craig Flournoy, Dallas Morning News.)
The Desire Streetcar ceased operation in 1948 and was replaced by a bus that now services the poorer sections of the original route. Most of the riders are now commuting to the service industry jobs provided by New Orleans tourism.
I have worked on the project represented by these images for the last four years during almost 20 visits to New Orleans, exploring the neighborhoods that were served by the original line. When I began, there were plans to restore the Desire Streetcar. The Canal Streetcar line is being rebuilt; it will take tourists to the famous cemeteries, to City Park, and the Museum. The St. Charles Streetcar line takes riders through the Garden District where well-tended mansions go on for miles. But the Desire line is on hold for lack of funds and disputes among neighborhoods regarding track placement.
Urban planners call the footpaths worn in the weeds where there are no sidewalks, desire lines. New Orleans still has the same contradictions that Blanche DuBois discovered. I have been warned repeatedly that Desire is the most dangerous place in town.
