The short history of this theme park is a very sad one indeed. A casualty of Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags/Jazzland was built in 2000 to fill the void left behind when Pontchartrain Beach park closed in the mid 1980's. The park was opened as Jazzland and then Six Flags purchased the park two years later. In August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina's flood waters filled the site and sat for weeks until it was pumped out. The site has been sitting idle ever since, and Six Flags removed most of the valuables from the site. Six Flags wound up getting out of the site lease in 2009, and the city now owns the land. Click here for a really cool youtube video from inside of the park. Since 2006 several proposals have come and gone for the site, but nothing has happened yet. So you ask yourself why is a theme park on this retail site?
The most recent proposal for the site is for a factory outlet mall, which was approved by the city after several other plans for the site were rejected including two proposals to rebuild and refurbish the theme park. Now I am all for this site to be fixed up, but not as a mall it should be a theme park or demolished entirely. The site that the Plaza Mall was on two exits away on Read Blvd is still sitting there with only a Lowes and an abandoned movie theater. The rest of that site was planned to be a lifestyle center similar to the outdoor outlet mall proposed for the Six Flags site. The Plaza Site is centrally located to the population of New Orleans East, and it has better I-10 freeway access than the Six Flags site. I would also rather see the Kenilworth site redeveloped than to tear down the remains of the theme park on swampland and start all over. If a factory outlet mall is built here I wish it the best of success, but the location in my opinion is not an ideal spot for the largest retail development in New Orleans East.
All of the photos here were taken from around the site; sorry for those of you looking for interior photos (click here).
Couldn't agree more that the outlet mall idea is better suited for the Plaza site. Our proposal to rebuild as Jazzland is still a possibility if we can get the message out to the public.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jazzlandpark.com
http://www.facebook.com/jazzlandpark
http://www.twitter.com/jazzlandpark
https://www.change.org/petitions/city-of-new-orleans-restore-jazzland-theme-park-instead-of-outlet-mall-proposal-3
The outlet mall requires extensive public financing and has no tenants lined up. We have private financial backing and require no TIF. We also could be open by 2013, instead of the 4 year timetable for the mall. See our plans and decide for yourself what the better option is.
I really hope they keep it as a park. Although i have never been to new orleans, here in minnesota we have one amusment park called valleyfair, which floods yearly and if they closed it and never reopened it would be horrible. I hope they keep it a amusement park. Malls are everywhere how about we keep things we need more of.
ReplyDeleteClosed For Storm shows Six Flags, New Orleans, in its glory days and current state of abject dereliction.
ReplyDeleteFilmmakers Jake Williams and John Shaw joins Factual America in Ep23 to talk about their film 'Closed For Storm'; which is about a theme park left for ruin in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago.
Link: https://bit.ly/2Bm3nhA
Thanks for sending over the link, I will check it out.
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