Ask a New Orleanian which of the city’s neighborhoods has changed the most over the past 10 years and they’re likely to say Bywater Historic District, a roughly 120-block neighborhood running alongside the Mississippi River.
Although only a 15 minute walk from the bacchanalia of Bourbon Street, Bywater feels like a calm retreat, where you can once again hear the chatter of birds and the ticking of bikes bouncing over erratically patched cement. Bywater extends beyond the historic district, but opinions on its boundaries vary, even among locals. It is made up of a colorful architectural blend of one-story shotgun houses and Creole cottages packed cozily together. Along the river, worn wharves hint at the neighborhood’s industrial past when longshoremen lived there and unloaded tropical fruit. While the makeup of the neighborhood was racially diverse, “what most folks had in common was their economic class,” as working or middle class residents, said Richard Campanella, a geographer and author with the Tulane University School of Architecture who lived in Bywater for 15 years.
Through the years, Bywater’s population has been shaped by enslavement, migration and gentrification. By the late antebellum era, Black people who were free outnumbered the enslaved population by a three-to-one ratio. In the 1960s, integration of public schools triggered an exodus of white residents, and Bywater became mostly Black. In 2005, the neighborhood was largely spared the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and this set the stage for the area’s ongoing gentrification. In 2000, 61 percent of Bywater residents were Black and 32 percent were white. By 2023, those numbers had nearly flipped, according to census data.
Location: Along the left bank of the Mississippi River, east of the French Quarter and Marigny neighborhoods, from Press Street to Poland Avenue
Population: 3,600 in the Bywater statistical area, which extends beyond the historic district (2019-2023 American Community Survey)
Area: Approximately 120 blocks
Housing: Shotgun houses and Creole cottages, as well as some multifamily buildings and developing housing projects
The vibe: A funky, rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where dive bars and fine dining coexist, and biking with a boombox is popular.