Many people in the New Orleans area have fond memories of the West End in Jefferson Parish, an area with views of Lake Pontchartrain and several restaurants.
Those restaurants were destroyed when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Now, the Jefferson Parish Council is working to revitalize the area. Jennifer Van Vranken, Jefferson Parish Councilmember, joined WWL’s Newell Normand this week to discuss them.
“I got a reality check recently when I was talking about West End and restaurants out there and all those things we used to remember,” she said. “And the youngest member of my staff looked at me and said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t remember West End.”
Normand said that he too has fond memories of the parish’s West End, from dining to spending time in the park.
“We walked out to the point, you know, I mean, it was just a great public space to visit,” he said. “Very unique.”
Already, there has been analysis about the area, and work continues to revitalize it, Van Vranken said. So far, the analysis has found that Lake Pontchartrain is an underutilized asset in the area.
“Where we are now, we have long wanted to bring something back to the site, commerce back to the site and envision some restaurants, but whatever would be built would have to be on the land,” she said.
Listen to Van Vranken and Normand’s full conversation on this and other development efforts in Jefferson Parish here.
