DeGaulle Manor

The 450-unit apartment complex opened in 1964 with 12 5-6 story mid-rise buildings originally known as "Bridge Plaza." Members from the Black Panther Party were among the first blacks to move into the apartments along with the African American New Orleans Saints players. Towards the early 1970's most of the 200 apartments were being leased by the Federal Housing Administration and some were being administered and subsidized by the Red Cross. It later became a low income subsidized section 8 housing complex operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).[4][5] Between 1970 and the present, no owner kept the property for more than seven years; and each time that it changed hands, the new owners made little effort to rectify the many problems that arose under the supervision of the previous owners.[6] By the mid 1980s only 364 units remained occupied as the rest were abandoned with squatters who would normally burglarize the apartments.[7] With bad management, the complex fell into terrible conditions with interior walls damaged from water leeks of rusted pipes and broken elevators. Big rats and cockroach infestations were commonplace as well as rotting garbage stacked up in clogged trash in the dumpsters. The balcony railings were rusted as well as the security gates which did not close. New Orleans Police Department enforced extra patrolling around DeGaulle Manor in an effort to reduce the rising drug activity but failed to make any arrests. Violent shootouts and gunfire became a daily occurrence through out the complex to the point local cab companies also refused to send cabs near there. [8] [9] After a rash of killings in 1993, fed up residents of the complex organized a Crime watch to decrease the violence.[10]

In 1996 HUD razed 39 abandoned townhouse units in a renovation. In December 2000 Woody Koppel, Neal Morris and Mark Schreiner bought the complex for $5 million in hopes of transforming it but many apartments still failed HUD inspections. In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck, 135 out of 364 units were vandalized. One hundred families still lived in the apartments until they were evicted on Thanksgiving.[11] Johnson Properties Group purchased the complex and was able to renovate 160 units.[12]

In 2007, Common Ground Collective bought the property from Johnson Properties Group, renaming it the Crescent City Gates Apartments. Only a portion of the complex was opened at the time and was in poor condition with termites and rodents infesting the apartments. Crescent City Gates is now vacant and will be demolished and replaced by a new sporting complex.[13] North of Crescent City Gates were the Christopher Homes Development, another run-down housing complex torn down in 2013.[14]

In 2014, Brandan Odums and his graffiti crew transformed DeGaulle Manor into a graffiti art exhibit painting murals of famous civil rights leaders and entertainers such as Tupac Shakur, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali.[22] The murals located on 3010 Sandra Drive attracted 3,000 people when Odums opened it as ExhibitBe on 15 November 2014.[23] It was described as "the largest single-site street art exhibit in the American South." ExhibitBe closed in January 2015 with a concert including musicians David Banner, Erykah Badu, Dead Prez, Dee-1 and a performance by the Edna Karr High School Marching Band.[24]

Film

• The 2019 film Black and Blue was filmed at the complex as "Kingston Manor."[25]
• Featured in season 1 in the 2015 TV series Zoo.
• NCIS: New Orleans filmed at 2400 Murl Street.
• Featured in the 2020 film “Project Power.”

• List of public housing developments in the United States