Map of Wards of New Orleans with Number Labels

The city of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, is divided into 17

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

. Politically, the wards are used in

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s, subdivided into precincts. Under various previous city charters of the 19th century, aldermen and later city council members were elected by ward. The city has not had officials elected to represent wards since 1912, but the ward designations remain a part of New Orleans' fabric. Socially, it is not uncommon for New Orleanians from some wards to identify where they are from by their ward number.

History

Most of the boundaries of Wards 1 through 11 were drawn in 1852 when the city was reorganized from three separate municipalities into one centralized government. With various changes, these boundaries remain largely the same, and have not changed at all since the 1880s. The rest of the Wards were formed from the expansion of the city boundaries in the 1870s. The 12th, 13th, and 14th Wards were formed by annexation of land up river from the older city of New Orleans that had been Jefferson City and Greenville; the 15th by the annexation of the city of Algiers, Louisiana across the Mississippi River from the rest of the city, and finally the 16th and 17th Wards formed from the annexed city of Carrollton. Beginning in the 1980s, residents began to give new cultural meaning to wards as part of their local identity. Extremely prevalent in

New Orleans hip hop Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphi ...

(particularly

Bounce Music Bounce music is a style of New Orleans hip hop music that is said to have originated as early as the late 1980s in the city's housing projects. Popular bounce artists have included DJ Jubilee, Partners-N-Crime, Magnolia Shorty and Big Freedi ...

), jazz, and other local genres of music, the concepts of "calling out" one's ward (stating the ward of one's residence), and "throwing up" one's ward (holding one's digits on one or both hands to signify their ward) have become mainstays of local culture and are even embraced casually at culturally mainstream events such as the

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...

. Although this practice is often seen as overly territorial and hostile, sometimes blamed for inciting violence, many simply see it as a friendly camaraderie shared with one's neighborhood.

Uptown wards

* 1st Ward * 2nd Ward * 3rd Ward * 10th Ward * 11th Ward * 12th Ward * 13th Ward * 14th Ward * 16th Ward * 17th Ward

Downtown wards

* 4th Ward * 5th Ward * 6th Ward * 7th Ward * 8th Ward *

9th Ward The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...

West Bank wards

* 15th Ward (Algiers)

Works cited

References

External links

Map of the New Orleans ward territories
{{New Orleans Geography of New Orleans Neighborhoods in New Orleans