Rodney Davis drove all the way from Houston back to his hometown to share his thoughts on Lincoln Beach’s redevelopment plans. Davis’ mother, June Foster, won the Miss Lincoln Beach Pageant when the historically Black beach opened in 1954 in New Orleans East.
“She said what she remembered was standing on stage, winning the pageant and how special she felt,” he said.
Davis wanted to make sure the moment would be honored in the beach’s redesign.
“One question that I had was were they gonna have like a Hall of Fame? Come to find out that is in the plan so I’ll definitely be back for the grand opening,” Davis said.
After the integration of public spaces in New Orleans in 1964, the Lincoln Beach closed and was left to decay. Local activists spearheaded an effort to bring it back. Now, the city is finally making plans for the beach’s reopening.
The city unveiled its latest design for the beach Thursday and it wants people to provide feedback before it’s finalized.
The concept includes a history museum, an event space, a children’s playground and more. Residents are being asked to fill out a survey so the city can prioritize the elements people want most when construction starts.
“I want all the historical stuff and then we could bring in somewhere for the little children,” said Davis’ cousin, New Orleans East resident Amanda Williams. “So they could start enjoying the beach while they’re small and then grow into all the other stuff. I think that would be beautiful.”
At the morning meeting, Aron Chang of the Water Leaders Institute asked how the city would afford all these amenities with only $24 million dedicated to the project. Sasaki, the architecture firm designing the beach, said it has been working on a cost estimate so the design and future phases will align with the city’s budget.
“The purpose of the day is to understand from a priority perspective what people want so that we can fit that actually into the $24 million bucket,” said Josh Brooks, a landscape architect with Sasaki.
The city said it has been actively searching for more funding for the project.
It is also planning a “quick-open” of the beach for sometime next year, so that people can enjoy it as soon as possible. Up until this spring, people were still going to the beach, even though it was not technically open. After gathering feedback from residents about how to go about the quick-open, the city said it’s likely that half the beach will be available for use while construction starts on the other half. A conservative estimate for how much the quick-open will cost is $15 million.
New Orleanians who have memories of the original Lincoln Beach are also invited to share their stories for the historical aspects of the project. Mia Kaplan, the architect who successfully applied and got Lincoln Beach added to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year, is leading that effort.
“The wonderful thing about this site is that there's so much intangible heritage and history,” she said. “Whenever you bring up Lincoln Beach, a lot of times people's faces will light up and it's super powerful. You all are here and part of that.”
A second public meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m on Nov. 7 at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. Vietnamese and Spanish translation will be provided. Feedback can also be given online until Nov. 24.
Those who want to share their oral histories can contact Cierra Chenier at cierra@tvgplanning.com or call TVG Planning at (504) 905-2892.
