Editing Gretna, Louisiana (section)

==History==
According to the history published by the city, Gretna's history can be traced to a plantation established by Jean-Charles de Pradel by 1750 (when the plantation house, ''Monplaisir'', was built).{{efn|''Monplaisir'' and its associated outbuildings were destroyed by a flood of the Mississippi River in the late 19th century.<ref name="City"/>}} By 1813, the plantation had passed into the hands of one François Bernoudy. [[John McDonogh]] (also spelled John McDonough), then a resident of New Orleans, bought the establishment, moved into the house and founded a settlement in 1815, that would be named [[McDonoghville]]. He subdivided the rest of the former plantation into regular city lots and 30-[[arpent]] farming strips. McDonoghville thus became the first subdivision in Jefferson Parish.{{efn|McDonogh (1779{{snd}}1850) became quite wealthy and owned a great deal of real estate around the New Orleans area.}} McDonough either leased or sold these properties to white laborers or free people of color.<ref name="City">[https://www.gretnala.com/about/history/ "History of Gretna". City of Gretna. Undated.] Accessed January 25, 2020.</ref>

Gretna was settled in 1836,<ref name="city">{{cite web | url = http://www.gretnala.com | title = City of Gretna | access-date = 2007-08-30 | publisher = City of Gretna}}</ref> originally as '''Mechanikham''', growing with a station on the Mississippi River for the [[Missouri Pacific Railroad]], [[Texas and Pacific Railway]], and [[Southern Pacific Railroad]], with a [[ferry]] across the River to New Orleans.  The famous food and [[spice]] company [[Zatarain's]], founded in 1889 in New Orleans, has been located in Gretna since 1963. Gretna was incorporated in 1913, absorbing the section of [[McDonogh, Louisiana|McDonogh]] within the Jefferson Parish boundaries. In the 1940 census, Gretna had a population of 10,879.

===Hurricane Katrina controversy===
[[Image:GretnaLevee.jpg|thumb|left|High water along the [[Mississippi River]] levee at Gretna, 2005]]
The city and its police received considerable press coverage when, in the aftermath of [[Hurricane Katrina]] on August 29, 2005, people who attempted to escape from New Orleans by walking over the [[Crescent City Connection]] bridge over the Mississippi River were turned back at gunpoint by City of Gretna Police, along with Crescent City Connection Police, and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies, who set up a [[roadblock]] on the bridge in the days following the hurricane. According to eyewitnesses, some officers threatened to shoot those coming from New Orleans as they attempted to cross into Gretna on foot, shots were fired overhead, and downdraft from a police helicopter was used to help clear refugees from the bridge.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/national/nationalspecial/10emt.html?_r=1|title=Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees, Witnesses Report|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|access-date=2010-09-19|date=2005-09-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1107-05.htm|title=March to Gretna|access-date=2005-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125225317/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1107-05.htm|archive-date=2005-11-25|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="60 Minutes">{{cite news |author1-first=Carol |author1-last=Kopp |date=2005-12-15 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-bridge-to-gretna/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220075700/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/15/60minutes/main1129440.shtml |url-status=live |archive-date=2005-12-20 |title=The Bridge to Gretna |newspaper=[[60 Minutes]] |publisher=CBS}}</ref> New Orleans Police Department 911 operator Patryce Jenkins, having walked the city for two days after her dispatch center was flooded, tried to return to her unflooded Gretna apartment via the bridge. Though she had ID to prove her status as a resident, she said instead of checking it police ordered her to turn back, used racial slurs, and fired a warning shot over her head, leaving her crying in disbelief.<ref name="Witt">{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-gretna_wittsep04-story.html |title=Katrina aftermath still roils Gretna |author=Howard Witt |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=September 4, 2008}}</ref>

Gretna mayor Ronnie Harris pointed out though the city had not flooded, Gretna had been severely damaged as well, losing power, water, and sewage services, claiming the city had no food, no water, no shelters, and no capacity to take refugees. Harris said that the city had commandeered buses and been transporting a crowd of about 6,000 refugees to a nearby FEMA facility. But he said the city enacted the blockade after a spate of door-to-door robberies began in Gretna and stores at the [[Oakwood Center|Oakwood Mall]] were looted and burned.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 21, 2005 |publisher=MSNBC |author=Brock N. Meeks |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9427111 |title=Gretna mayor defends bridge blockade}}</ref> Residents of Gretna were themselves required to evacuate after a few days.<ref name="Witt" /> Four federal civil lawsuits were filed against the city for violation of civil rights.<ref name="Witt" /> Two were dismissed, and in a third the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office settled with a family from Algiers for $10,000.<ref name="dispo">[https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_73ecedf2-17d8-5736-bf06-57bdaa067373.html Federal judge throws out constitutional claims in CCC bridge blockade suit after Katrina ]</ref> A fourth federal case, involving Regional Transit Authority workers, was scheduled to go to trial in April 2011.<ref>[https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_2f381e57-3c37-5fb9-8712-6b10ed7aeedd.html Federal trial on blocking of the Crescent City Connection after Hurricane Katrina delayed until next year]</ref>{{update inline|date=April 2024}} Several other cases were filed in New Orleans Civil District Court.<ref name="dispo" />