The Curbed Cup, our annual award for the New Orleans neighborhood of the year, is kicking off with 8 areas vying for the prestigious (fake) trophy. This week we'll have two matchups per day, and all the results and the full tournament bracket will be reviewed on Friday. Voting for each pairing ends 24 hours after it begins. Let the eliminations commence!

Today’s neighborhood match is Mid-City versus Uptown: a rapidly developing neighborhood against a historic and mature district.

Mid-City

Mid-City has had a full year of developments. Recently, The City of New Orleans opened its first permanent VA Medical Center since Hurricane Katrina. The new center sits just beside the University Medical Center in the near complete medical district. Additionally, the Mid-City Market, located on North Carrollton Avenue, has continued to mature into a neighborhood Hub. According to Developer Stirling Properties, owner of Mid-City market, the Carrollton shopping center is a fully leased as of October of 2016. The adjacent shopping center opened a new Marshall’s and Petco this past Fall. Additionally, the Lafitte Greenway, which was completed in November of 2015, was selected by the National Recreation and Park Association to undergo renovations to create a community common area. Sidney Torres IV is even in the works of developing a new Mid-City apartment complex, located by the Lafitte Greenway. Adding on to the city’s extensive list of developments, the Welcome Table of New Orleans recently unveiled its new paved community circle, located on Jefferson Davis Parkway and Cleveland Avenue. Now that’s a mouthful.

Uptown

This year’s underdog is Uptown. The neighborhood, which is one of the largest districts in New Orleans, and has fostered many great artist, including Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson, as well as the owner, and head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Tom Benson and Sean Payton respectively. While many of its shopping and developments have been around for years, the city has seen a share of inconvenient street construction and drainage development. Most notably, the largest project the construction of the new Jewish Community Center expansion. While new Uptown developments have not been as ubiquitous as Mid-City, there is still no shortage of beautiful and historic homes in this district.