For your reading pleasure, I present the Signs of the Times of Abita Springs. As I have stated in other posts, I live in Abita Springs, Louisiana. We, the residents, are in the midst of a brouhaha.
Sign #1. It was posted at the entrance to a new housing development in Abita Springs. This sign is better known as The Original Sign.
Sign #2. 
Signage modified by unknown townsman (or woman). It’s better known as The Bad A** Sign.
Sign #3. The sign that expressed what Abita residents really thought the new housing development. It’s better known as The Scumbag Sign.
Sign #4. This sign may or may not have been posted by the developers. Kenner is a working class suburb of New Orleans. This sign is also known as The Final Sign.
What prompted these signs? Let’s review the town’s history first. In the not so distant past, the town had a good sense of boundaries. It was bounded on three sides by piney woods and a fourth side was marked by the Abita Bayou.
The town came into its own near the beginning of the 20th century as a Gilded Age resort town for New Orleanians looking for a holiday or a health spa, seeking cures through the clean air and water. Then, the automobile made the boat and train ride from New Orleans less popular. A group of hippies found the dying town in the early 1970s, giving it a bohemian renaissance. Then, the citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding suburbs decided that the 30-mile or so commute to and from Abita was not a hindrance. They descended upon Abita as well as all the other small towns on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
Today, the town is stretching beyond its original boundaries. The outskirts and border areas near town are full of new housing and business developments. It’s harder and harder to judge where the town ends and begins even though the official population is about 2,500. With more people and buildings, there are more tensions.
In January 2019, a new mayor, Dan Curtis, took over Abita Springs City Hall. He inherited a boondoggle of a problem. The former mayor and council had approved a new housing development covering 162 acres that was zoned for 390 lots. Curtis ran and won as mayor on the platform of stopping the development, as the general consensus of the town was that the size of the new development would overwhelm the small town. The development is on hold as the two sides are waiting to go to court over the plan.
I don’t know what will happen now that The Final Sign has been posted. Will the project begin with approval from the courts as the above cited project is now under court review? Will that mean The Apocalypse follows as hundreds of new residents descend upon our quaint town? Or, will the courts rule in favor of the town and the mayor. Will that make the town remain Paradise?
Only God knows.
Gumbo Ya-Ya 
Fun signs. I give Abita Springs an A+ for imagination.
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It’s been fun to observe the signs change.
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Seems like pretty normal growth for a sunbelt town 30 miles from “town”. I’d want to know how they plan on dealing with the sewage from a thousand new bathrooms.
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I deleted a sentence from the blog post about sewage concerns. That’s the main preoccupation as the sewage system for the town is already overloaded. We really do not have the infrastructure for sewage, water and even enough space in the schools for that many new residents. Our growth is more than sunbelt growth. Since Hurricane Katrina, people have been moving to my neck of the woods in unprecedented numbers.
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As you know, I am a sign connoisseur. These are great. It takes a bit of imagination to turn these small-town dramas into something memorable. I suspect that a bit of Cajun creativity rushes through some local veins.
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Abita Springs has people with imagination. I suspect it’s not Cajun creativity. This locale was settled by the WASPy type of settlers. I suspect the quirkiness of the town comes from the resettlement in the early 1970s which were a group of hippie-types. They instilled the town with a certain vibe that persists even in the signs
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