features
Battalion/Page 1
February 17,1#
Streetcars give scenic tour of New Orleans
Architect saves 60-year-old transit lines
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The
Streetcar Tour, one of New
Orleans’ oldest, yet newest, and
most intriguing attractions,
grew out of a graduate student’s
project in landscape architec
ture.
But Peter Raarup, whose
travels already had taken him
from Texas to Louisiana via
Connecticut, New York and sev
eral Latin American countries,
had nonscholastic motives as
well.
“I wanted to do a project that
would get me back into a city,”
he said. “So I did a redesign pro
ject for the St. Charles Avenue
area. About two or three months
into the thing, I realized I really
didn’t want to redesign St.
Charles at all. 1 liked it the way it
was.”
Raarup came to view the old
avenue as a lifeline through
some of New Orleans’ most fas
cinating sections, connecting the
tourist crush of the French
Quarter with a sedate, tree-
shaded bend in the Mississippi
River. Yet for all the area’s lovely
old homes, the streetcar line that
served it was losing more than
$1 million a year.
The streetcars themselves, ag
ing remnants of a citywide web
and a nationwide tradition, soon
became the focus of Raarup’s vi
sion. Their money problems
haunted him, along with their
failure to attract large numbers
of tourists.
“I thought, why is this thing
operating at a deficit when it’s
one of the most wonderful
things I’ve ever seen?” Raarup
said. Based on research into the
line’s history, study of the sys
tem’s mechanics and interviews
with riders, he reached some
conclusions.
The St. Charles streetcar,
quite simply, was missing an
opportunity. The world’s oldest
continuously operating street
railway was falling victim to in
adequate promotion, nonexis
tent packaging and the human
animal’s inherent fear of getting
lost.
What Raarup decided to do
was correct each of these wrongs
— promote the streetcar as a
symbol of the city and create an
attractive deal for the tourist
dollar. He also wanted to sim
plify the ride so a person could
get on with confidence and
know exactly where to get off.
Raarup joined forces with
architect Louis Costa and
graphics expert Andre Neff to
enshrine the streetcar and make
a profit in the process. The part
ners outlined “The Streetcar
Guide to Uptown New Orleans,”
devised the Streetcar Pass and
set out to convince the New
Orleans Public Service and the
City Council the idea would
work.
It took quite an effort to con
vince everyone — even with risk
falling heavily on the partners
and profits falling heavily on the
troubled transit system. Finally,
they reached an agreement last
year and Transitour, the trio’s
corporate identity, began.
Once the company stabilized
as an attraction and an enter
prise, it launched a program of
streetcar packages for groups
and individuals.
The main attraction is a $20-
a-person bar hop, which offers a
transit pass and five coupons
good for cocktails, wine or beer
at St. Charles Avenue establish-
The ride along the oak-
shaded avenue covers a century
and a half of architectural styles.
It cuts across a modern business
district, past Lafayette Square
and Lee Circle with their statues,
through the Garden District
with its historic mansions and
past Tulane and Loyola univer
sities to Audubon Park.
The streetcars, built in the
early 1920s, have old-fashioned
wooden seats that can be re
versed, depending upoJ
car’s direction. The seals
have brass hand grips t
aisles for standees.
The military green, j
wheeled vehicles dang a!
6.5-mile street with
stops, and the journey o
takes about 45 minutes,A
trip offers an overall vied
sights, and those who nisi
return for a closer lookaiif
of interest.
Radio Shack experiments
with ‘swampy’ advertising
by CITIES
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TH6 QUCST OF THe secRCT CITY
sweepSTXKes
here's a city in Europe-yo u could travel there f,
So unravel these riddles, and uncover its key.
ree.
c
e 5 f
TO PLAY THE GAME:
Answer each of the riddles that will appear here each
week in February. Write your answer in the blanks below
each riddle. The letters with numbers below them corres
pond to the numbered spaces in the master key. As you
fill in the letters of the master key, you will be spelling the
name and location of a secret city in Europe. Send us
the solution, and you and a friend could win a trip there, free.
WHAT AM I?
TO ENTER SWEEPSTAKES:
1. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
2. Grand Prize consists of two regular round-trip economy airfares
to the secret city, 30-day Eurail passes, American Youth Hostel
passes, two backpacks and $1000 in cash.
3. Cut out master key for use as official entry blank or use 3" x 5"
card. Print your answer along with your name and address. Mail
to Secret City Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 6018, Norwalk, CT 06852.
4. The first 1,000 correct respondents will receive a poster as an
entry prize.
5. All entries must be received by 3/15/82. Enter as often as you
wish, but each entry must be mailed separately.
6. A random drawing of all correct entries will be held 3/22/82 by
the Highland Group, an independent judging organization whose
decision is final.
My arsenal is patience,
My sword is chalk;
My discipline is conscience,
My medium is talk;
My reservoir is history,
My greatest love is truth;
My highest art is alchemy,
Where lead to gold is youth.
k
7. Sweepstakes void where prohibited, taxed or otherwise restr
8. All potential winners may be required to sign an affidavit of el
gibility to verify compliance with the rules within 30 days of recei
of same. For a list of prize winners, send self-addressed, stamped
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cted.
Pt
5 13
(Answer to Week #2 Riddle: CLEF)
QeNeRAL FOODS* INTERNATIONAL COFF^eS
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) General Foods Corporation 1982
aE «BAl Fooog
United Press International
FOR I WORTH — The scien
tist-superhero pecks at a compu
ter keyboard and suddenly
video screens fill with waves and
exotic color, sound monitors
blink to life and reams of paper
spit from machines.
For all the world it looks like a
pretty spiffy secret lab.
That’s exactly what produc
ers of “Swamp Thing,” another
film about a comic book hero,
had in mind.
But the movie set represents
something else — an unortho
dox marketing approach for
electronics giant, Tandy Cor
poration’s Radio Shack, which
recently began lending its high-
tech equipment for use in a
range of movies and television
shows, including Walter Cronk-
ite’s “Universe” and “Hill Street
Blues.”
“We talked to the company
because we wanted a lab that
looked a lab, full of noisy
machines and things,” said
Michael Uslan, co-producer of
the $3.5 million “Swamp
Thing,” which is based on a DC
Comics character.
The equipment is seen. |
the opening sequencer
film, before the herotum |
muck-covered monsterau
into the swamp. But
name is the top credittkl
by when the film cornel
close.
“That’s where theadvd
comes in,” said Ben Ma
the movie’s other prodtittl
a great-looking superhttgH
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movie will remembertkf D'^CK
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student: $3.50
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tickets available at
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