Six Flags New Orleans

[ilvny]

Has anybody been to Six Flags New Orleans, either before, during (when the park closed early for the hurricane) or after Hurricane Katrina?  I've never been there, but I've viewed it on Google Maps and YouTube.  The park is standing but not operating to this day.  As of July 2011 on Google Maps, there is still a sign for Six Flags on I-510/LA 47, which can be seen at the link below.  If you pan to the left, you can see the park.  You can also look at the abandoned theme park from above and by "driving" on Michoud Blvd and Lake Forest Blvd.  The park sign still says "closed for storm" as it did on August 21, 2005 when the park closed.

http://goo.gl/maps/zfCZI

Wikipedia's article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_New_Orleans

[Alps]

I've driven by it on I-510 but not inside.

[formulanone]

The sign's still there as of January 2013, but also lots of high chain-link fences all around the property. Except for the highest structures, there didn't seem to be much visible without violating the No Trespassing signs.

[Alex]

The park was used for the movie Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters in summer 2012. During that time period security of the abandoned park was beefed up. The last I read on it was that there were plans to tear the remaining structures down and replace the site with a new outlet mall. Don't know if the money for that was ever generated.

[ilvny]

From what I read, the mall plan fell through.  It's a shame the park is deteriorating.  I also don't like that people vandalize it.  I don't have a problem with urban exploration as long as people don't trash the place they're exploring.

I believe they should rebuild the park closer to the French Quarter and other tourist attractions in New Orleans.  The park made the least amount of money of all the Six Flags parks and it was said that the park would have made more money had it been closer to the French Quarter.

[formulanone]

The French Quarter isn't exactly family-friendly entertainment.

[Brandon]

If anything, the park should've been along the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline, well within the city.

[Alex]

From what I read, the mall plan fell through.  It's a shame the park is deteriorating.  I also don't like that people vandalize it.  I don't have a problem with urban exploration as long as people don't trash the place they're exploring.

I believe they should rebuild the park closer to the French Quarter and other tourist attractions in New Orleans.  The park made the least amount of money of all the Six Flags parks and it was said that the park would have made more money had it been closer to the French Quarter.

When they shot the movie there, they restored and cleaned up a lot of the place. Not sure if the security is still there, but during the filming anyone caught trespassing was subject to arrest. We drove by there April of 2012 and saw that same sign "closed for storm". There is also a set of signals that was in flash mode:

[ilvny]

The French Quarter isn't exactly family-friendly entertainment.

I meant near the French Quarter within a short driving distance, not in the French Quarter.  It's said that the park would have made more money if it were built closer to the French Quarter and other tourist attractions.  The park site is in Eastern New Orleans in the Ninth Ward.

[ilvny]

If anything, the park should've been along the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline, well within the city.

I agree.  That's a better location.

[hm insulators]

It reminds me of the old Coco Palms Hotel on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. For decades, that hotel used to be the most famous one on the island (Elvis Presley shot a part of Blue Hawaii there in the early 1960s). In 1992, Hurricane Iniki (ee-NEE-kee) blasted Kauai with nearly 150 mph winds and did a lot of damage, including the Coco Palms. Next to nothing has been done to the Coco Palms since: the poor old hotel sits rotting and abandoned, basically, and has for 20 years and change. Numerous people and/or organizations down through the years have come forward with pie-in-the-sky ideas ("Oh, we're going to do this, that and the other thing with the property") only to run into ecological, economic and political realities, including the fact that to get to the beach from the Coco Palms, you have to cross a very busy Kuhio Highway. Forty or fifty years ago, the traffic on the road was much less, but such is the traffic nowadays that they would certainly have to build a pedestrian overcrossing.

Whatever they do now, they're just going to have to knock down the old place; goodness knows who or what has been walking, flying or crawling around in there for over two decades.