Which way in New Orleans? Most of the New Orleans land is below the sea level so you can see a lot of bodies of water there and they get flooded easily. They kept saying us that everything in New Orleans is unique even their way of calling directions. They described directions with respect to the waters, which weave around the city: lakeside means toward Lake Pontchartrain; riverside means toward the Mississippi River; upriver refers to Uptown; and downriver refers to Downtown.