I work for a
wonderful non-profit that runs college prep charter schools in rural and inner-city areas. Every August, all of our schools (we currently have about 50, with plans to open more) get together to celebrate our successes and collaborate to improve what we do. Last July, we made plans to hold this conference in New Orleans, and when our hotel (mostly) survived Katrina, we decided to support the Big Easy and leave our reservation where it was. Here are my observations on post-Katrina New Orleans.
* While I was waiting for my shuttle from the airport, the lady at the shuttle company counter was telling us how Katrina had totally devastated their industry; their shuttle company was the only one that survived the post-Katrina tourist nosedive, and they now employ only four counter workers, down from fifteen.
* Friday night (my first night in town) I heard some serious sirens happening out in the street at about 11 pm-midnight. Turns out that was the quadruple homicide that happened last week. There was another police incident directly in front of our hotel, along with an ambulance, but we never figured out why.
* During a meeting with hotel staff prior to the event kickoff, the staff expressed their gratitude for our business in such a sincere way it was almost heartbreaking. The hotels in the French Quarter (the larger ones, at least) are in perfect working order, yet business is still dead. A 1200-person convention like ours, which used to be this hotel's bread and butter, has become comparatively rare.
* Bourbon Street is still Bourbon street, complete with beads flying from balconies and Hurricanes in plastic cups. Some new t-shirt slogans have joined the standard offerings as well, notably "FEMA Evacuation Plan: run, bitch, run!" and (my favorite) "Make levees, not war." However, it seems like most of the people there are from New Orleans and the immediately surrounding areas and states; the out-of-state tourists haven't started to come back yet, it seems. This was especially evident at the Acme Oyster House (a delicious place that's frequented by tourists, try the seafood gumbo) at lunchtime: Saturday was packed, Monday was dead. And despite the fact that the French Quarter survived Katrina relatively unscathed (compared to the Ninth Ward, at least), there are still a lot of boarded-up businesses and unrepaired potholes.
* The pigeons here are skinny! I never knew pigeons could be skinny; I figured they could eke out an ample diet from pretty much anything.
* While I was working the conference's registration table, one of the attendees brought up a point that has stuck with me: it must really suck for people who only have little things wrong with their houses. I mean, if your roof blew off, it's pretty apparent that that needs to be fixed right away. But people with, say, one window broken, or some missing siding, which contractor is going to have the availability to handle that? (And that's assuming you have the funds to bring in a contractor.) The same phenomenon is noticeable on the streets in the French Quarter. Street signs are bent and askew, the visors on traffic signals are missing.
* St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square, complete with its bronze likeness of our 7th president, looks as if nothing untoward or messy has ever occurred there. If it hadn't been for the oppressive humidity, I would have lingered in the square for a long time; it's a very pleasant place.
What have I taken away from my week in New Orleans (besides a new-found love for catfish and praliene ice cream)? A renewed anger for the Bush Administration's laissez-faire attitude toward one of America's great cities in trouble. A sense of frustration that, a year on, the conditions in the Ninth Ward really haven't changed. A mild sense of bummer-ness that I never got to experience New Orleans in its former glory. Mostly, a desire to see New Orleans get back on its feet. All the people I met are determined to bounce back from this, but they need our help. Take a vacation to New Orleans; the hotels are cheap and businesses are open. Even better, take a vacation to New Orleans and help the Ninth Ward rebuild. Magenta's diary struck a chord with me; even though this is my first visit to New Orleans, and I can still see that it's a wonderful city, it's very obviously a shadow of its former self.