Six Flags in New Orleans (...or as my dad says when I go with five friends, Six Fags.) is also known as Jazzland which was the name when it first opened in 2000.It's had a few owners in it's lifetime which seems to have been short-lived and it's got all kinds of entanglements with the city owning the land it sits on and Six Flags trying to end the lease after they took it over the the most recent of the previous owners could not make it work either.
The theme park is still closed after Hurricane Katrina. ...for some dramatic photos, please CLICK HERE.The official Six Flags website says:
"Six Flags is still in the process of settling claims with its insurers due to substantial damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. As a result, Six Flags New Orleans will remain closed at this time. We know that it is still a difficult time for the residents of New Orleans, and we remain committed to working with the city in support of the recovery efforts."It sucks but I have seen that with a few companies who used the hurricane as a good excuse to pull out of the area. (I mean, that is a big risk being in the most badly damaged areas called the Ninth Ward and I can sort of understand it, but the site does not agree with what I heard for the most part in the city.)
It breaks my heart like things items I read like this:
On December 15, 2006 Six Flags confirmed that they were removing portions of the Batman: The Ride for refurbishment.[6] Batman The Ride was reassembled in 2008 at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and opened under the new name Goliath.[7]
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I hold theme parks a close second to hotels in the hospitality industry and studied for a semester with a concentration on theme parks at the University of New Orleans so stories like this one help:In April 2008 Southern Star Amusement Inc. proposed to take over the site lease, promising to expand the park to over 60 rides (more than double its pre-Katrina size), complete a water park that Six Flags had been planning, and add a RV park. Southern Star Amusement Inc. pledged to open the park as Legend City Adventure Park, with 60 rides in place, including a new water park by the summer of 2009 if the city approved the lease takeover, with the campground to follow. The New Orleans City Council is studying the proposal.[8].Find out more at one of the most primitive websites I have seen in a long time at http://www.legendcityadventurepark.com/.
Jazzland even had a recreation of a smaller and much older theme park in New Orleans called 'Pontchartrain Beach' which was a theme park that was demolished and was set in the very place I went to school for hospitality administration in New Orleans. How crazy is that?It's a small world.CLICK HERE is a kinda funny, kinda heart breaking story of some plans that I home that don't come to rise, like this plan:
And just because it’s not Six Flags doesn’t mean you have to miss some old-time excitement. Be sure to visit Gangsta Town, where we will revive the old Six Flag tradition of cowboy shoot outs updated for the 21st century. In Gangsta Town you can not only visit the Rock Candy Store and see the girls do the booty shake while sipping a 40 oz Barq’s at the all-ages, family-friendly Hip-Hop House Party, you can thrill to a realistic gangta gun battle right there in the street. They’ll be poppin’ and droppin’ like nobody’s business!
...and you get all this bottled up nostalgia from a 'Coke' bottle from the opening of Jazzland in 2000 that I found at my parents house during Hurricane Gustav that was laying about and I took home to Hollywood and placed proudly on my a shelf at my apartment.You can see an EBay listing for $2.99 HERE. Fuck $2.99, I am holding onto mine.
It isn't the only adandoned theme park in Louisiana though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamel%27s_Amusement_Park
http://members.aol.com/PIPAjon88/public_html/hamels.html
