|
Welcome Back
to New Orleans!
The Tourist Areas Are
Fine After Hurricane Katrina
Bright as ever,
the "new" New Orleans shines.
The music still plays in the French
Quarter. The bars are still buzzing (as are the patrons) on Bourbon
Street. Mardi Gras beads are hanging from balconies and trees along
St. Charles Street. The crowds are back – perhaps bigger than ever
– for
Jazz Fest.
New Orleans – once the picture of despair – is now in repair.
It's not under water, it's not under siege, it's not a picture of bad
health.
 In
many ways, New Orleans is just as it was before Hurricane Katrina. The
French Quarter, largely undamaged when the hurricane hit, is its usual
ol' self. Restaurants are serving their signature Creole and New Orleans
native dishes. Shops sell everything from swamp tours to Mardi Gras
beads. Tourists line up for the beignets from Cafe du Monde.
And there's the music, still coming out of the stores, at the outdoor
Market Cafe, up and down Bourbon
Street, over on locals-heavy Frenchman Street and from
live bands in bars throughout the city.
About the only difference a tourist can tell Katrina was even here
is that the St. Charles Street car is under repair and no longer goes
down to Camille's Grill. That, however, is due to be fixed by
the end of the year and it's not too much longer before it will be going
to the beautiful Garden District. That and the fact that, on a day-to-day
basis, the numbers of people in the Quarter are just not what they were
prior to August 29, 2005.
Funky shops and
bananas foster – two New Orleans traditions in the Quarter.
For it was on that day that New Orleans became mortal. Once a near
fantasyland of hard partying and a live-life-to-the-max mantra, the
people's worst fear for years became reality. A category 5 hurricane
not only hit the city, it did so nearly head-on and overwhelmed the
levees. Almost instantly 80 percent of New Orleans was under water.
It would be some time before this once-proud city could stand tall again.
Yet like a prize fighter who has been knocked around but not out, New
Orleans has slowly gotten back on its feet. Services have been restored
long ago, hotels are in perfect shape (some even better than before,
using Katrina to make upgrades), the food is just fine and the drinks
are flowing.
This is not to say there are not problems. Housing remains a major
issue and gang crime has overtaken the devastated Lower 9th Ward. However,
no tourist would ever mistakenly venture into this area and beyond Rampart
Street outside of the Quarter has never been a place to wind up alone
at night. The Quarter is perfectly safe from crime – aside from
the occasional petty theft pickpocket.
Brightly-colored houses comprise the building community of Musician's
Village.
The people, resistant Cajuns down to the core, have sidestepped the
feeble efforts of FEMA and the government to pretty much take matters
into their own hands. A group of big-name musicians from the city, chief
among them Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr., are creating new
life in an area called Musician's Village. Brightly-colored houses,
which look like something out of the Bahamas, are being built in an
area that was destroyed. Residents backed up against the now-infamous
17th Street Canal are coming back into new or rebuilt homes. It almost
has the appearance of an entirely new development.
"It's heartwarming," said Mary Beth Romig, Director of Communications
and Public Relations for the New Orleans Convention and Visitor's Bureau.
"And it just feeds on itself. One block gets rebuilt, then the
next block."
The downtown area is becoming, for lack of a better word, yuppieized.
Warehouses are being converted into high-end lofts and art galleries
are flourishing. Local sit outside on nice days at the cafes in the
lovely Irish Channel and later hit the wine bar. Canal Street –
a longtime boulevard of broken buildings – will eventually receive
a much-needed facelift. Tax breaks have brought Hollywood to the Big
Easy with more than 20 movies with 2007 releases filmed or being filmed
here. Cruise ships and conventions are back and next January, New Orleans
will host the 2008 BCS Bowl for college football's national championship.
Heck, even the Saints nearly made the Super Bowl.
So just like before the Hurricane, New Orleans is defined by its people
and its culture. Katrina may have sadly taken some of the life out of
the city. But it could not take away it's soul.
The crowds are back
at Jazz Festival, packing two weekends in 2007.
And on Bourbon Street,
it's still all about the the beads and the bars.
PubClub.com's
City & Entertainment Guide to New Orleans:
• Get ready for New Orleans with our Pre
Party Orientation Guide.
• Get a first-person perspective from The
Bartender; our man about town.
• Our bar guide – on and off Bourbon Street –is called
PubClubbing.
• New Orleans Bonus: Take a
City Tour aboard the St. Charles Street Car.
• There is a lot more to do in New Orleans than drink. Here's what
to do when not slamming drinks in Post
Party.
• Learn about and enjoy New Orleans' distinctive cuisine
in our dining
and restaurant guide.
• Soak up the sites of New Orleans with our
Photo
Journal.
• Special Events! Mardi
Gras,
Jazz Fest and New
Year's Eve.
 New
Orleans Visitor's Guide!
|