Just visited New Orleans

[palmaire1]

Allow me to share my experiences visiting New Orleans this weekend. After going several times over the last 10 years,it was my first time since Katrina.

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."-A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams.

Since I don't live there or really know anyone who does, that makes me a stranger. But as someone who knows about hurricanes (living in Florida), I wanted to make a statement with my tourist dollars and help support a town needing to get on its feet. Rather than write a check to the Red Cross, I thought I would see for myself how the town is doing.

It was like visiting a friend who got out of the hospital after a lenghty stay. I got the feeling that something was different. Yet there was a push towards normalcy. The recovery is slow, but progress is evident.

The airport had only a few planes at the gates, and few passengers roaming the terminals. Afternoon traffic, however, was pretty busy. The hotel was open, but not very full. Employees seemed genuinly happy to accomodate this stranger willing to support their renewal. Many of these people, I learned through listening, had been displaced for months and only recently returned.

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?"-Louis Armstrong

For many, they never thought about NOT returning. Even though the situation was terrible, the city was home. One fellow in a bar lamented that the recent Southern Decadence celebration was depressing because many of his friends were not present. They have not yet returned. But those who are back desperatly want life to be normal again.

I was struck on this trip the uniqueness that is New Orleans. There is only one Mississippi River; there is only one French Quarter; there is only one birthplace of jazz; there is only one Cafe Du Monde, one Jackson square, one Superdome. You know you are in New Orleans-not some cookie-cutter town with too many Starbuck's and too many malls.

Thanks for reading this. If you have a desire to have a great time and help a great city rebuild-go for a visit. The people are appreciative of every "customer." There's plenty to do and lots of fun to be had. Imagine going to work every day and then going home to the work of fixing all that was destroyed. The residents imagine that someday all will be normal again.

 

[spooger]

palmaire1.....thank you....thank you....thank you!

i live in baton rouge....i was born in new orleans....some of my family and many of my closest friends live in new orleans....i love new orleans

i have said many times on JUB and on the streets .... that the real way to help new orleans is to go there and support the people who are trying to rebuild their City....

you walk the walk....God bless you for that!

the part of the city that visitors remember actually survived pretty well....downtown, uptown, the French Quarter, etc.....so i hope that others will not exclude new orleans from their travel plans....

for us who live in and near new orleans, there is nothing that lifts our spirits more than seeing people like yourself come again to new orleans and experience the uniqueness of this great city....

and there is nothing sadder than hearing people who don't know the city say that it shouldn't be rebuilt.....

there are several residents of new orleans or the immediate area here on JUB....one or two whose homes or towns were heavily damaged or destroyed....i hope they read your post and see that we are remembered...

please don't forget the wonderful people of Mississippi who suffered the awful devistation of their homes and towns as well....

 

[spikethecat]

palmaire1

You have no idea what it means to me to see you write that. Somebody out there gets it.
I have the authority to grant you Honorary New Orleanian status.

When you come back just tell them I said so. You aint no stranger no more. You family.

PM me for some bartender names. They will treat you like gold.

 

[snapcat]

This is really a great thread!

I once lived in NO (Metairie, actually) and still have family both in NO and in Biloxi and Gulfport. I lost some family and friends to the storm. I've endured several negative threads about whether the city should be rebuilt.

My hat is off to you, sir, and thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[Rand]

I agree with others - thank you for sharing your experience

I do hope others will go and visit and help

I shall plan to do so

 

[offcentered1]

My hubby and I try to support it's rebuild on a regular basis. We in fact went out last night for pizza and beer with a couple of friends in the Uptown area. We try to support local business as much as possible.

 

[offcentered1]

It is important to me and my hubby and everyone who lives in this area to keep this post alive. This is a very important topic and a very serious one. The city is a melting pot of culture and a beautiful example of what being unique and also enduring for the residents/natives to promote in order to keep it's heart and soul; continuing in to the future in the process preserving the past. In New Orleans We do not eat to live; we live to eat.

Do not let this thread die, please.

Damian

 

[tigerfan]

As a New Orleanian I want to say thanks to all for your support. We are rebuilding a better New Orleans for our friends and families and we encourage you all to come and enjoy what the new New Orleans will have to offer.

During the hard times it is always nice to know that we are not forgotten.

The old girl received a sound bruising but she is dusting off her skirt and will be ready for the dance real soon!

 

[offcentered1]

Keep us alive. we are life, we are passion, we are what other cities will never know. We are what every other cities will and would what ever want. You take your own heart and add everything that makes you up and express it in whatever you initially feel comfortable with is the most speak of what New Orleans is about.

Damian

 

[offcentered1]

It is Heart in and of it self. It is soul in and of itself. Figure out what heart is. Figure out what soul is for yourself. Breathe, feel, and let it all be. It is you, it is safe and fuck everyone else if they do not agree.

 

[offcentered1]

Come see us of, from, and near, New Orleans. If you are those that are associated with the city, help us individually if you can, or we will help you in our own way. I think more of you than I would speek of those that I would speek of in and unintentional way

 

[miatajeff]

I visited 6 years ago and had a great time-I plan to visit soon, and hope that others do as well.
I cried over the devastation, and knew that the Government would not help. It would be up to us-each of us to commit to help the city rebuild.

 

[offcentered1]

Just realized how drunk and down I was when I posted last night.
Sorry

 

[snapcat]

You wouldn't be the first person, and certainly won't be the last.

For what it's worth, your passion for the city was evident in your posts.

It's good to have you aboard!

 

[Rand]

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes.

Many scientists advocate diverting the Mississippi River below New Orleans, where towns like Pilottown, above, sit along the delta.
And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the river.

Far from rejecting the idea, state officials have embraced it, motivated not just by the lessons of Hurricane Katrina but also by growing fears that global climate change will bring rising seas, accelerating land loss and worse weather.

“A major diversion in the lower part of the river is something that needs to be done,” said James R. Hanchey, deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. He said the state was convening a planning meeting on the idea this fall. The diversion would be well downstream of New Orleans, in the bird-foot delta at the river’s mouth. Even so, there would be tremendous engineering challenges, particularly in finding a new way for freighters to make their way into the Mississippi’s shipping channel, said Mr. Hanchey, who took his job after retiring as director of engineering and technical services for the Mississippi Valley division of the Army Corps of Engineers. But he added, “I think it’s within the realm of possibility.”

 

[thewiz]

I would have to say that on my visit to New Orleans in May I was struck with many of the same feelings as you. Tonight I was getting my hair cut and the young man in the chair next to me just came back from summer classes at Tulane.

Going in may was like visiting your grandmother's house after grandpa died or else their prized pet. No one is really talking about it but it's certainly hovering over everything that happens. I was in New Orleans to speak at a conference and at night I tried to see as much of the city as possible; stopping at fire stations and talking to the employees; talking to police officers; talking to the waiters and waitresses. There was a sense of what I would call "battle fatigue" that I am sure will play out over the coming months and years. The guy that was getting his haircut with me tonight said the same thing...people are beginning to feel somewhat fatigued because normalcy is not returning as quickly as everyone would like.

I've been in New Orleans several other times and was always impressed by the vibrancy and "unusual" comfort they took in areas that would make other cities "uncomfortable." I stopped at a corner bar to listen to a jazz group that was recommended by two guys that live in my building in DC....they said to tell the folks that they said "hello." I was the only person in the bar although the music was great and the owner very friendly (he even bought me a drink so I left a tip equal to it on the bar as I felt he wasn't making much else that night!)

Much of New Orleans looks better than it ever has; other parts are struggling. A number of buildings around the Sheraton, where I stayed, are burned out. Some suspect that owners of some properties would realize that storm insurance and FEMA would not cover losses; fire insurance would! I'm sure some of that is true. A big warehouse caught fire and burned the day I was speaking; it looked like an eclipse downtown as the black smoke went skyward and every firefigher was mustered in the city.

The employees are tired; tired of promises; tired of no equipment; tired of being tired. Many lost their homes; they have family scattered hither and yon. But they were also proud; too proud to leave New Orleans.

I'll be back in the next few months to other conferences; a major one next year for cities. It will be years before she puts on her party dress and there are no wrinkles.....but the dress is at least being re-stitched through the tenacity and persistance of those staying behind.

 

[palmaire1]

And of course Bourbon Street was alive with its usual warped sense of humor.

One T shirt had the following printed: FEMA's evacuation plan: Run, mutherfucker, run!
And another read:New Orleans' Police Department? Not Our Problem Dude.

(Thanks to all who took the time to read and comment. I am moved by your responses as well).

 

[thewiz]

Ha...ha...ha....

I do have to admit that the t-shirts have gotten better and as offensive! I brought a couple back to folks with whom I have meetings at FEMA!