Civic Boudaries

Living in a city of districts that were set in place by a previous political action I'm starting to notice the long term effects of those decisions. The development of New Orleans wards in the eighteenth century was a way for voting precincts to be established based on neighboorhoods. Although the wards have not been operating as this "political subdivision" for some time, Saying "I live in the Bywater." and saying "I live in the Ninth Ward." are different by degree. The former statement being geographically more specific, the latter carrying a wealth of social connotations. The residents of New Orleans still recognize the wards as in cultural sense rather than a political one.
These borders exist at all scales whether a difference in road widths or divisions by wards our public space is constantly divided. Do civic boundaries create diversity in New Orleans or do they support unequal spaces? It is obvious to me, that there is a cultural diversity in New Orleans that separates it from the rest of "The South". Likewise, I also see inequalities in the way public space is used like Uptown verses areas of the Bywater. For example In uptown, The grassy streetcar line along St. Charles has become a public domain for activities like jogging and walking dogs. Seeing that I felt, that the collective actions of the residents in that area had overtime created an area of adaptive re-use that required no bureaucratic decision making. In the Bywater the issues of security have hampered the public use of outdoor space like parks into operating during the daytime. In this case I experienced the movement from the outdoor to the indoor especially at night where the collective decisions of the residents still find a way to accommodate a public domain. In both cases architectural implications for these divisions are presented.