<p>Also, check out the Tulane website - go to Administration - Departments - Public Safety - you can view an updated list of crimes on campus and off (near) campus.</p>
<p>Recently, according to the Times Picayune, there were 6 murders in a 24 hour period in New Orleans. When I checked the map as to where they occured, they all appeared to be far from campus - the closest at least 2-3 miles away and some at least 5-10 miles from campus.</p>
<p>there's a lot of hotels on St. Charles, pretty close to campus, which are drop-dead gorgeous, but id imagine theyd be really expensive =P</p>
<p>what my dad and i did last year when we came to campus is we went to hotels.com and looked up the hotels in nola that were closest to campus and picked from there.</p>
<p>true, there's certain areas of the city i wouldnt recommend, but the uptown area, in my opinion, is quite safe. i currently live on campus, and there's good security here, so i feel safe.</p>
<p>There's a Hampton Inn on St. Charles, that is fairly close to Tulane and it is very clean and well-maintained. </p>
<p>Also agree with BL1 and CT2010Dad about the violence. I'm sorry that all the publicity is happening now when college decisions are being made. Being the mother of a daughter, I look at the Times-Picayune on-line on a regular basis and have not felt uncomfortable with her there. </p>
<p>The students do not appear to feel unsafe and like CT2010Dad, I feel comfortable with the security at the school (they are very friendly, personable people).</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. You all are so helpful. We used to live in Los Angeles, so I understand that the problems might be more localized than it appears in the newspaper. I just wanted to make sure that we did not land in one of those areas!</p>
<p>Do you have a favorite restaurant on or close to campus? I want to show my son the local area as much as possible to give him a good feel for it.</p>
<p>I really like Jacque-Imo's Cafe. <a href="http://www.jacquesimoscafe.com/main.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.jacquesimoscafe.com/main.htm</a></p>
<p>I have yet to have a bad meal in NOLA. We've tried a couple of places, though none particularly close to campus (we stayed on Poydras Street in the Pavillon Hotel - walking distance to the French Quarter, 10-15 minutes by car to campus, but I also understand the St. Charles trolley is up and running again - can anyone confirm?): Emeril's NOLA (the Shrimp and Grits is out of this world...), Ralph's on the Park (the smore's for dessert are beyond decadent - and totally unlike anything you may have had on a campout...), Delmonico's (great steaks and chops), Red Fish Grill (if you've never had real blackened redfish, try this! - the grilled chicken is fabulous as well). </p>
<p>You can google 'restaurants new orleans' and get a lot of hits. This is the first one on the list, which has categories, menus, locations and you can even make reservations (you might consider this before you go for the more popular restaurants if there are any big conventions in town).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/b%5B/url%5D">http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/b</a></p>
<p>Plus, the hotel staff will be pretty helpful as well.</p>
<p>RE: The Trolley -</p>
<p>I understand that the cars from the St. Charles line are being used on the other line. The cars for the other line were too damaged to be repaired quickly, so they moved the cars.</p>
<p>This information was from my daughter. We finally agreed to let her take her car back with her for the spring semester, as there seemed to be a lot of places that were just outside of walking distance, but too close to call a taxi. I think that is the most detrimental effect that Tulane students sustained from Katrina.</p>
<p>According to her, there is no word on when the St. Charles line will be working. (Although in "Deja Vu", she said it made it look like Denzel Washington was riding on the St. Charles line, which wasn't possible.)</p>
<p>The Street Car -</p>
<p>OK, folks, if you're gonna send someone to Tulane you gotta learn some lingo. It's not a trolley, it's a street car (think 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - Tennesee Williams, right?). The green streetcars (actually I'm from nola but I'm ashamed to say I don't know if it's one word or two) are the oldest and I think they are themselves on a national historic register or something; in fact I think the entire St. Charles streetcar line is a national historic landmark. The red streetcars were built as new replicas of the original ones for use on the Canal St. line, which was a rebuilt version of the original Canal line that got axed ages ago when I guess busses were new and fancy and people didn't want to spend the money on streetcars.</p>
<p>The green historic streetcars were kept in a barn that didn't flood, but the new red ones were severely damaged. The actual electrical wires, etc of the St. Charles line was badly damaged by falling trees, wind, etc. and was slated for a major upgrade before Katrina hit, so they decided to bring the Canal line back first with the green cars, repair and upgrade the St. Charles line while repairing the red cars, and then switch things out when they were done.</p>
<p>The St. Charles line just reopened in Dec (?), but only up to Lee Cirlcle (near downtown). The rest of the line to Carrollton and the bend is due to open this summer (I think) and be finished clear through by the end of '07.</p>
<p>If you want to find out lots of stuff nola, go to <a href="http://www.nola.com%5B/url%5D">www.nola.com</a>, which is the web version of the Times Picayune and has TONS of up to date info. </p>
<p>If you want to really educate yourself on New Orleans, the levee system, the Mississippi river and the Corps of Engineers, read "Rising Tide" by John Barry. LOTS of interesting factual and political history of the city and of Tulane and how it all fits together.</p>
<p>as of late december the St. Charles streetcar is opened all the way until lee circle ( which is a 1/4 of the way to Tulane if you are coming from the French Quarter). the RTA is opening up the line as they finish repairs. its slated to be repaired up to tulane by the spring of 2008 i believe.</p>