What Is a Ward in New Orleans
New Orleans has 17 wards. If you are from here you probably know yours. If you are not, the number people throw up with their hands is a piece of the city that almost nobody explains.
Where the wards came from
Wards 1 through 11 were drawn in 1852, the year New Orleans merged three separate municipalities into one city government. Wards 12 through 17 were added in the 1870s as the city annexed the places around it. Jefferson City and Greenville became Wards 12, 13 and 14. Algiers became the 15th. The City of Carrollton became the 16th and 17th.
So the 17th Ward exists because Carrollton used to be its own city.
What they were originally for
Under the old city charters, voters elected aldermen, and later council members, by ward. That stopped in 1912. New Orleans has not elected an official by ward in over a century.
What a ward means now
Two things. Officially, wards are subdivided into precincts and still used to administer voting. Unofficially, and this is the part that matters, a ward is an identity. Ask somebody where they are from here and a lot of people will answer with a number.
Since the 1980s, calling out your ward and throwing the number up with your hands has run through New Orleans hip hop, bounce and brass. A ward is not an address. It is a claim.
Why we put them on clothes
Artistik Passionz makes pieces for New Orleans wards and neighborhoods because the number already means something before we print it. The FOR THE LADIES collection covers 26 New Orleans neighborhoods on women's crop tops, with ward numbers on the back.
Sources: Wards of New Orleans; New Orleans City Archives.