New Orleans Central Business District

New Orleans Central Business District

The Central Business District' (CBD)' is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Iberville, Decatur and Canal Streets to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, the New Orleans Morial Convention Center, Julia and Magazine Streets and the Pontchartrain Expressway to the south and South Claiborne Avenue, Cleveland and South and North Derbigny Streets to the west. It is the equivalent of what many cities call their "downtown", although in New Orleans "downtown" or "down town" was historically used to mean all portions of the city downriver from Canal Street in the direction of flow of the Mississippi River. In recent decades, however, use of the catch-all "downtown" adjective to describe neighborhoods downriver from Canal Street has largely ceased, having been replaced in usage by individual neighborhood names (e.g., Bywater).

Originally developed as the largely residential Faubourg Ste. Marie (Eng. "St. Mary Suburb") in the late-18th century, the modern Central Business District is today a dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood, home to professional offices housed within tall skyscrapers, specialty and neighborhood retail, numerous restaurants and clubs, and thousands of residents inhabiting restored historic commercial and industrial buildings.