Straight From The Projects: 3rd Ward New Orleans

C-Murder's music is all about where he grew up in the Calliope Projects 3rd Ward (CP3), one of the toughest projects in New Orleans. This is the flip-side of the Big Easy...not Bourbon Street, not Mardi Gras, just the mean streets where poverty, drug abuse and violence are epidemic. See his neighborhood uncensored: gunfire breaking out...children toting guns in their waistbands...as well as warmth and love so vital to the neighborhood's survival and its hope for the future.

Part 1

The Ward touches the Mississippi River as its front. The down river boundary is Canal Street, below which is the city's 4th Ward. The upper boundary is Julia Street, originally to the New Basin Canal; the former canal route in this area is now I-10. For most of this route from the river back is the 2nd Ward; from Carrollton Avenue up it borders the 17th Ward.

The back boundary is City Park Avenue (formerly known as Bayou Metairie Road), across which is another portion of the 4th Ward.

Part 2

The 3rd Ward encompasses the majority of the Central Business District near the River. The Ward includes the city seat of government, both the old 19th century City Hall on Lafayette Square and the new City Hall Complex on Loyola Avenue. Further back from the Central Buiness District is the Tulane/Gravier neighborhood. At Tulane and Broad are the Courthouse and Orleans Parish Prison.

Continuing back, the Ward includes a large section of the Mid City neighborhood. The famous Calliope, Magnolia & Melpomene Projects are located in the 3rd Ward. The Calliope Projects are a center of the heroine trade on the street level, which is as big a problem in New Orleans as cocaine is in Miami.

Part 3

Celebrities From in the Third Ward

Rappers Master P, Silkk the Shocker, C-Murder, the Birdman AKA "Baby" Brian Williams, Juvenile, and Soulja Slim were all born in the Third Ward.

Part 4