Hey, if I'm gonna come back after a long hiatus, you know I'm going to kick off with a streetcar post. :-)
The Loyola spur of the Canal Street Line (part of POTUS' economic stimulus package) is plodding forward:
Looking up Loyola Avenue, from Tulane to Poydras. You can see the street has been ripped up. and the work crews are making progress laying down the new roadbed and tracks. Then the street will be put back together. Notice the water puddling up in the foreground. This is one of the regular headaches of road work in New Orleans.
(more after the squiggly)
The roadbed for the modern streetcar lines is much more complex than what you see on the neutral ground on St. Charles. That's just your basic rails held together with wooden ties. On Canal Street, and now on Loyola, the ground is tottally dug up and re-constructed to make a long-lasting railbed.
The Holiday Inn on Poydras, featuring "The Clarinet" on the side, is one of the businesses directly affected by the construction on Loyola. Unlike the Carrollton spur, which significantly hurt business on N. Carrollton, from Canal to City Park Avenue, for over a year, there aren't as many retail businesses on Loyola. In fact, there are plans to develop more retail outlets after the streetcar line is complete.