by Larry Lagarde

Jeff Ciabotti, Vice President of Trail Development for the Rails To Trails Conservancy (RTC), flew down from D.C. last weekend to pledge the full support of his national non-profit organization behind the Lafitte Trail. In a meeting Tuesday with representatives from the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, the Governor's office, FOLC and other stake holders, Jeff made clear that the Lafitte Trail is of national importance and should be built without delay. (Photo: Bart Everson and Jeff Ciabotti on a dilapidated bridge over the last surviving remnant of the Carondolet Canal.)

I spent several hours bicycling around the corridor with Jeff, Billy Fields (also of the RTC) and Bart Everson (a fellow FOLC board member and the man behind "b.rox, Life in the Flood Zone"). We rode from Mid City to the French Quarter and back, stopping frequently to take in neighborhood features such as historical landmarks, locations of schools and the new motion picture production studio being built by the Louisiana Institute of Film Technology (LIFT).

Jeff was amazed by the level of devastation and the strange emptiness of once vibrant neighborhoods; yet, he acknowledged the corridor as an incredible opportunity to spur revitalization, unify neighborhoods and heal a great American city. He also noted that the Lafitte Corridor is one of the most significant urban greenways he's seen and that a portion of the trail could be in use almost immediately. (Photo: Bart Everson, Jeff Ciabotti & Billy Fields at the proposed Basin Street/Armstong Park trailhead for the Lafitte Corridor.)

Labels: bike touring, Hurricane Katrina, Lafitte Corridor, Lafitte Trail, LIFT, New Orleans, New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, Rails To Trails Conservancy