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Metairie (local pronunciations , ) is a suburb of New Orleans. Although it has a population of 146,136 (census 2000), Metairie is not legally a city as it is unincorporated area and thus designed as a Census-designated place. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and is larger than most cities in the entire state.
Namesake
The original spelling, Métairie, is a French language term for a tenant farm which paid the landlord with a share of the produce (sharecropping), as this was the main activity of the area in the early 19th century.
Recreation
Jefferson parish has placed many parks in Metairie. Many of these playgrounds have organized sports leagues such as soccer, baseball, and basketball. Some of them also have other programs, such as low cost piano lessons. For more information, please see the Metairie.com recreation page
Education
Metairie's public schools are operated by the Jefferson Parish Public School System.
There are two public high schools in Metairie:
Catholic, Private, & ISAS Member elementary, middle, and preparatory schools include:
History
Metairie was first settled by the French in the late 18th century, along an area known as Metairie Ridge, a natural levee formed by a bayou. This became "Metairie Road". An electric streetcar was installed running along Metairie Road in the late 1910s, opening the area to greater development. Upscale housing tracts were constructed off the Road in the 1920s; this area is now known as "Old Metairie." It is today the most prestigious area of Metairie. Most of the rest of Metairie was not developed until after World War II. Much of this growth was a result of white flight, as white New Orleans residents left New Orleans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and after integration of New Orleans schools.
"Veterans Boulevard" was laid out alongside a drainage canal, and became a commercial center of the region. The Central Business District of Metairie is located on Causeway Blvd near Lake Ponchartrain. Metairie also has one of the handful of major malls located in the New Orleans metro area. Lakeside Shopping Center is the highest grossing mall in the New Orleans metropolitan area. In the 1970s and early 1980s an area of bars and nightclubs opened in a section...
