Lafayette

 

(lä'fēĕt', lăf'ēĕt') City (1990 pop. 94,440), seat of Lafayette parish, S central La., on the Vermilion River (which is linked to the Intracoastal Waterway); settled 1770s by exiled Acadians, inc. 1836. Known as the hub of Cajun Country (see Acadia), it is a commercial, shipping, and medical center for an area producing sugarcane, rice, cotton, dairy cattle, livestock, and petroleum. Manufactures include apparel, jewelry, and building materials. The area's oil and natural gas boom contributed to a large population increase and an influx of new businesses to the city in the 1980s and 90s. The Heymann Oil Center is headquarters for several oil companies. Of interest are St. John's Cathedral (1916), a Carmelite monastery, a planetarium, natural history and children's museums, and the Cajun Dome stadium. The Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette is there, and the city is the scene of an annual Mardi Gras and the Festival Acadiens. Evangeline Downs racetrack and casino and the Cypress Island Preserve are nearby.

City of Lafayette
City
Downtown Lafayette
Flag Logo
Nickname : Hub City
Motto : The Heart of Cajun Country
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Parish	Lafayette
Area	mi² ( km²)
- land	mi² ( km²)
- water	mi² ( km²), 0.21%
- metro	mi² ( km²)
Center
- coordinates	30°12′50″N 92°01′46″W / 30.21389, -92.02944Coordinates: 30°12′50″N 92°01′46″W / 30.21389, -92.02944
- elevation	ft ( m)
Population	(2000)
- metro	(2000)
Density	/mi² ( /km²)
- metro	/mi² ( /km²)
Founded	1821
Mayor	Joey Durel
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP codes	70501, 70503, 70506-8
Area code	337
Location of Lafayette in Louisiana
Location of Louisiana in the United States
Website : http://www.lafayettela.gov

Lafayette is a city on the Vermilion River in Lafayette Parish, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. ^{[1] [2]} Lafayette is the parish seat. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 110,257; a 2004 census estimate put the metro area's population at 246,160. It is the fourth largest incorporated city in the state. It is the principal city of the Lafayette-Acadiana, LA Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2006, had an estimated total population of 537,947.

The city was founded as Vermilionville in 1821 by a French-speaking Acadian named Jean Mouton. In 1884, it was renamed for the Marquis de Lafayette, who assisted the United States during its Revolutionary War. The city's economy was primarily based on agriculture until the 1940s, when the petroleum and natural gas industry became dominant.

Lafayette has a strong tourism industry, attracted by the Cajun and Creole cultures of the surrounding region. It has one of the highest restaurant counts per capita of cities in the area.

Geography

Lafayette is located at 30°12′50″N, 92°1′46″W (30.213901, -92.029363)¹ and has an elevation of  feet ({{formatnum:{{rnd/+|36*0.3048

|Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{"|}}}} m)³.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 123.5 km² (47.7 mi²). 123.3 km² (47.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.19%) is water.

The Vermilion River runs through the center of Lafayette. Other significant waterways in the city are Isaac Verot Coulee, Coulee Mine, Coulee des Poches and Coulee Ile Des Cannes, which are natural drainage canals that lead to the Vermilion River.

Demographics

The estimated metro-area population of the Lafayette-Acadiana area for 2006 is 537,947 ^[3] (including the metro area outside Lafayette).

As of the census² of 2000, there were 110,257 people,^[2] 43,506 households, and 27,104 families residing in the city of Lafayette only. The population density was 894.5/km² (2,316.7/mi²). There were 46,865 housing units at an average density of 380.2/km² (984.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 68.23% White, 28.51% African American, 0.25% Native American, 1.44% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.58% from other races, and 0.97% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.88% of the population.

Lafayette is the only major city in Louisiana to be growing in population instead of shrinking (even before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita). However, according to a 2005 estimate, Lake Charles, Louisiana has resumed growing once again after a slight loss of .03 % between 1990 and 2000.

There were 43,506 households, out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.9% were married couples living together, 14.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. Nearly 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 13.3% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 93.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $35,996, and the median income for a family was $47,783. Males had a median income of $37,729 versus $23,606 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,031. About 11.6% of families and 16.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.3% of those under age 18 and 14.5% of those age 65 or over. In the 1970s, Lafayette had the distinction of having more millionaires per capita than any other city in the United States, thanks mostly to the oil industry.

Education

Public Schools

• Lafayette Parish Public Schools

Private Schools

• Cathedral Carmel School
• Ascension Day School
• Sts. Leo-Seton Catholic School
• Fatima School, Our Lady of
• Lafayette Christian Academy
• St. Thomas More School
• Teurlings Catholic High School
• Episcopal School of Acadiana
• Family Life Christian Academy
• Holy Family Catholic School
• Immaculate Heart of Mary School
• First Baptist Christian School

University and colleges

• The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• South Louisiana Community College (Lafayette campus)
• Louisiana Technical College (Lafayette campus)
• Remington College (Lafayette campus)

Public Library System

• Lafayette Public Library System

Health and medicine

Lafayette is served by the following hospitals.

• Lafayette General Medical Center - 1214 Coolidge Street
• University Medical Center - 2390 West Congress Street
• Womens and Childrens Hospital - 4600 Ambassador Caffery Parkway
• Lafayette General Surgical Hospital - 1000 West Pinhook Road
• Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital - 1011 Kaliste Saloom Road
• Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center - 611 Saint Landry Street
• Medical Center of Southwest Louisiana - 2810 Ambassador Caffery Parkway

Sports

Lafayette is home to the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, the athletic teams of The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It is also home to the Lafayette Bayou Bulls semi-pro football program which started in 2003. Between the years of 1995 and 2005, Lafayette was home to the Louisiana IceGators ECHL hockey team.

Sports venues:

• Cajundome
• Cajun Field
• Blackham Coliseum

Military

Lafayette is the home of the National Guard headquarters of the 256th Infantry Brigade, a military unit of over 3,000 soldiers that served in Iraq in the years of 2004-5.

Government and politics

Since the consolidation of city and parish governments, Lafayette has had a city-parish president as its chief executive, rather than a mayor as it had previously. The current Republican city-parish president is Joey Durel. As the largest city in the seventh congressional district of Louisiana, it overwhelmingly supported U.S. representative Charles Boustany in his races in 2004 and 2006; he is a citizen of Lafayette. In 2004, residents of Lafayette cast 57,000 ballots for George W. Bush and 31,000 for John F. Kerry. According to the Bay City Center for Voting Research, Lafayette is the ninth most conservative city in the nation.^[4]

Notable local politicians

• Ernie Alexander (b. 1933), state representative and former member of the Lafayette City-Parish Council
• J. Rayburn Bertrand (deceased), mayor from 1960-1972
• Kenneth Francis "Kenny" Bowen (deceased), mayor from 1972-1980; 1992-1996
• Isaac A. Broussard (deceased), Lafayette Parish sheriff (1888-1904), one of two longest-tenured sheriffs
• Joey Durel (b. 1953), mayor-president of Lafayette consolidated government since 2004
• William Dudley "Dud" Lastrapes, Jr. (b. 1929), first Republican mayor of Lafayette since Reconstruction, served 1980-1992
• Roderick Miller (deceased), first Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Lafayette since Reconstruction
• Ashton J. Mouton (deceased), youngest mayor in Lafayette history, served 1948-1956
• David Thibodaux (deceased), UL Lafayette English faculty, Lafayette Parish School Board member, four-time Republican congressional candidate

Lafayette is also home to a branch of the AmeriCorps State program (http://www.americorps.org/). UL AmeriCorps is associated with the University of Louisiana and employs about 40 students who perform either 900 or 400 hours of community service in 11 months. (http://americorps.louisiana.edu/)

Media

Print

• The Daily Advertiser, daily newspaper
• The Independent Weekly, weekly newspaper
• The Times of Acadiana, weekly newspaper
• The Vermillion, UL Lafayette student newpaper

Television
Lafayette is home to KATC-TV, Channel 3, an (ABC) affiliate, KLFY-TV Channel 10 (CBS), KADN-TV, Channel 15 (Fox), and KLWB, Channel 50 (CW). KPLC-TV, Channel 7 and WVLA, Channel 33, are NBC affiliates, located in nearby Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, respectively, but serve Lafayette as well.

Radio

• List of Lafayette radio stations

Points of interest

• Acadian Village is a reconstructed (actually, reassembled) Cajun bayou and has a community representative collection of Cajun furnishings. Website
• Acadiana Center for the Arts
• Alexandre Mouton House Museum was home to Louisiana's first Democratic governor, Alexandre Mouton, who once lived in this antebellum town house. It is now a museum and contain collection of antiques, historical documents, and old mardi gras costumes.
• Cajundome, home to the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns basketball teams, serves as a convention space.
• Cajun Field also nicknamed "the Swamp" is home to the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team.
• Children's Museum of Acadiana
• Cite des Arts
• Cypress Lake
• Heymann Center A performing arts center.
• Jean Lafitte National Park Acadian Cultural Center
• Jefferson Street Market has 65 shops under one roof, offering everything from fine French antiques to fine art by regional artists.
• Lafayette Natural History Museum & Planetarium is a combination museum and planetarium, which houses over 1,000 paintings, prints and sculpture of Louisiana artists and regularly changing exhibits and planetarium programs.
• Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) is a state-of-the-art resource center encompassing the world’s first six-sided, digital virtual reality cube as well as the world’s largest digital 3-D auditorium.
• Mall of Acadiana - Contains a Dillards, Sears, JCPenny, Macy's, and over 120 specialty stores and services.
• Paul and Lulu Hillard University Art Museum has a Permanent Collection consists of more than 2000 works of art, including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and photographs that represents 18th, 19th and 20th century Louisiana, in addition to works from around the world.
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• National Wetlands Research Center is a research facility operated by the U.S. Geological Survey that focuses on estuarine, marine, and freshwater wetlands.
• River Ranch An urban village with residences, restaurants, and specialty shops.
• Vermillionville is a reconstruction of a Cajun-Creole settlement from the 1765-to-1890 era
• Zoo of Acadiana is located nearby in Broussard.
• Lafayette Public Library System

Events

• Festivals Acadiens
• Festival International
• Festival de Musique Acadienne

Transportation

• Air: Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT) is on US Highway 90, on the southeast side of the city.
• Interstate Highway: I-10 and I-49 (Lafayette serves as I-49's southern terminus, at its intersection with I-10)
• Passenger Rail: The Amtrak Sunset Limited offers service to Orlando, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana and Los Angeles, California
• Public Transit: Lafayette Transit provides bus service.

Lafayette is also served by U.S. Routes 90 (known as the Evangeline Thruway for part of its route) and 167 (also known as Johnston Street). Ambassador Caffery Parkway, named for Jefferson Caffery, serves as a partially completed loop around Lafayette. Other Arterial Roads serving Lafayette include Verot School Road (LA 339), Congress Street, Kaliste Saloom Road (LA 3095), Carmel Dr. (LA 94), University Avenue (LA 182), and Pinhook Road (LA 182).

Notable residents

Natives
Some of the notable people born in Lafayette:

• Nnamdi Asomugha, NFL defensive back
• Jefferson Caffery (deceased), former U.S. ambassador
• Michael Doucet, Cajun musician
• Walter Davis, triple jump athlete
• Kevin Faulk, NFL running back
• Ron Guidry, former NY Yankees pitcher
• Danneel Harris, television actress
• Angela Kinsey, television actress
• Brett Weaver, Anime voice over actor; mostly known for his work with ADV Films
• Domanick Williams, NFL running back
• Greg Gautreaux, NFL Official

Residents
Other notable residents of Lafayette:

• Kevyn Aucoin (deceased), professional makeup artist
• Paul Bako, major league baseball player
• Captain Steven L. Bennett (deceased), Vietnam War Medal of Honor winner
• Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana governor
• Marc Broussard, accomplished musician
• Hollis Conway, Olympic medalist
• Aaron Dalbec, musician
• Jake Delhomme, NFL quarterback
• Ernest Gaines, acclaimed writer
• Ben Earl Looney (deceased), acclaimed painter originally from Webster Parish
• Elizabeth McNulty, Miss Louisiana 2007
• Louis J. Michot, businessman, former state education superintendent and state representative
• Michael J. Michot, businessman and state Senator from Lafayette
• Brian Mitchell, former NFL running back, special teams returner
• Brandon Stokley, NFL wide receiver
• Javon Walker, NFL wide receiver

For more details on this topic, see List of University of Louisiana at Lafayette people.

References

External links

• Lafayette Consolidated Government
• Lafayette Conventions and Visitors Center
• Downtown Alive
• Pelicans on Parade in Lafayette

Municipalities and communities of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Parish seat: Lafayette
Cities	Lafayette | Scott | Youngsville
Towns	Broussard | Carencro | Duson
Unincorporated communities	Billeaud | Broadmoor | Capitan | Elks | New Flanders | Gloria | Judice | Larabee | Milton | Mouton | Ossun | Pilette | Pont Des Mouton | Ridge | River Ranch | Sadou | Stekey | Vatican | Walroy

	State of Louisiana Baton Rouge (capital)
Topics	History | Louisianans | Constitution | Governors | Lieutenant Governors | Attorneys General | Legislature | Supreme Court
Regions	Acadiana | Central Louisiana | Florida Parishes | Greater New Orleans | North Louisiana
Cities	Alexandria | Baton Rouge | Bossier City | Houma | Kenner | Lafayette | Lake Charles | Monroe | New Iberia | New Orleans | Opelousas | Ruston | Shreveport | Slidell | Sulphur
CDPs	Chalmette | Harvey | LaPlace | Marrero | Metairie | Terrytown
Metros	Alexandria | Baton Rouge | Houma‑Bayou Cane‑Thibodaux | Lafayette | Lake Charles | Monroe | New Orleans | Shreveport‑Bossier City
Parishes	Acadia | Allen | Ascension | Assumption | Avoyelles | Beauregard | Bienville | Bossier | Caddo | Calcasieu | Caldwell | Cameron | Catahoula | Claiborne | Concordia | De Soto | East Baton Rouge | East Carroll | East Feliciana | Evangeline | Franklin | Grant | Iberia | Iberville | Jackson | Jefferson | Jefferson Davis | La Salle | Lafayette | Lafourche | Lincoln | Livingston | Madison | Morehouse | Natchitoches | Orleans | Ouachita | Plaquemines | Pointe Coupee | Rapides | Red River | Richland | Sabine | St. Bernard | St. Charles | St. Helena | St. James | St. John the Baptist | St. Landry | St. Martin | St. Mary | St. Tammany | Tangipahoa | Tensas | Terrebonne | Union | Vermilion | Vernon | Washington | Webster | West Baton Rouge | West Carroll | West Feliciana | Winn

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