The buzz in New Orleans last week was centered on a feature in this month’s National Geographic. The story suggests that the city is ultimately doomed and seriously questions the efforts to rebuild. These are fighting words if New Orleans is your home town - no matter how much truth there is to the argument.
I’ve been asked in several e-mails what New Orleans is like right now. It depends on where you are. The tourist areas, which are the oldest parts of the city, look pretty good and have returned to some degree of normalcy. Everywhere else is looking rough. The National Geographic article has some heart-stopping photography.
Summer is a great time to visit the city if you want to do it on the cheap and aren’t afraid to sweat. I stayed at the W Hotel in the French Quarter for $102 last week. During Jazz Fest that room will cost well over $500.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:47 pm
My travel buddy and I are considering NOLA for our winter spring venture. I haven’t been since 1999, and need to get back.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pm
That’s as bleak as bleak gets, no question about it. I think the question that’s often asked — will New Orleans survive — is too broad. New Orleans, in some form, HAS to exist if for no other reason than its geographic location as a port; stuff gotta come in, stuff gotta go out.
It’s really more which parts of New Orleans will be rebuilt and to what extent. And sadly, the ovbvious answer is the sections that either draw tourists or can afford to, i.e., where the white folk live. So unfortunately, I think we’re going to see the “rebirth” of NewOrleansWorld, The Jazz Experience! brought to you by General Motors.
Still for some small solice, you might look to my town, S.F., as a model. Until the 100th anniversary of the 1906 quake and the surrounding hoopla, I had no idea of a)the surprising scale of the city back then (pretty damned big) or the scope of the destruction (with a few exceptions, complete).
Yet, even facing a seven-by-seven mile rolling moonscape of scorched earth and teetering rubble with 1906 technology, they got the place rebuilt. And I gotta tell ya, it looks pretty good right now.
So while there may not be much hope, there is some hope. The thing both towns have going for them is that people love them. And that might be enough.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:21 pm
flava:
Great comment.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Beth: Go!
Flav: You always put things in perspective. It’s just sad to see.