What do you think of New Orleans?
With the Super Bowl and Carnival Season there is a lot of excitement around here. I am curious about how “the collective” outside of the NOLA area views the city.
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I love New Orleans and used to visit every year, usually for JazzFest at the end of April, pre-Katrina, starting in about 1990. I have only visited once after the storm, and found it to be a tragic experience. The food was still wonderful, the Vieux Carre didn’t really look much different, neither did the Garden District, but Lord, the 9th Ward was just a pit of despair.
I’m terrified that unless something profoundly different happens, we are going to end up with a gentrified, much more White, NOLA, cut off from its history and its past, and just a sad shadow of its former self.
People are trying hard to prevent this – The Tipitina Project is trying to encourage new young musicians, etc. I hope it takes hold and works, or the loss will be incalculable.
Wow. The above answers are so jolly and tearfully sentimental. I hate to spoil the mood, but honesty calls….
Hurricane Katrina. Previous to that disaster, New Orleans was just a dot on the map for me. And then news showed the destruction, the death and the desperation…the need. I can’t relate at all when people speak of the city’s former culture and charm. All I can picture is storms and bursting dams, along with teary faces.
I don’t think much of it, It’s not really my type of setting. I wasn’t impressed by it either, but that’s just me, or maybe I would have to be there for actual Mardi Gras.
One thing that I find interesting is that the people who visit often only go to the dirtiest place (the Quarter). I love and hate this city. I love the art and joyful culture, I hate the crime and corruption.
And Mardi Gras is really more family friendly than you’d think. -except for the shootings :( The only ones showing their boobs are the tourists who like to do in our city what they would never do in their own.
All I really know if it personally is the touristy aspects pre-Katrina. I generally feel that we never gave the city enough help to recover (as a nation), and that it’s probably still worse there than it was before the hurricane. But I haven’t been back in a long time.
Yes, it helps to have visited people in their homes. I have several friends who live there, and maybe it’s different to see the city from the standpoint of someone who lives there full time.
I love the flavor of New Orleans. I love that it is different from every place else.
Sorry, but the predominant thought I have of New Orleans is just how much Bourbon Street smells of urine.
Hey, you asked.
I’ve had a few great visits to New Orleans prior to Katrina; haven’t seen it since. As people have said, it is unique among American cities. I hope the Saints win tomorrow for several reasons (go saints), but primarily for the shot in the arm it will give the city.
@AstroChuck I agree, although it got better after they started spraying lemon scented potpourri…..although that got cut in last year’s budget.
No one I know from New Orleans hangs out on Bourbon Street as a general rule unless there’s a pretty good reason. There is so much beauty in the city; why bother with a rowdy, touristy drunken crowd of noisy people? I lived in Manhattan for 30 years and maybe went to Times Square on purpose five times.
@dpworkin Yep – as a NYC resident I definitely understand the comparison.
@JeanPaulSartre I moved here after Katrina, so I can’t speak to what the city went through during that time. However, I have seen how the money that the city did receive was mishandled because of the deep-seeded corruption that runs rampant around here. So many funds were misappropriated….it’s terrible. It’s time that the city stopped pointing fingers and started working together. Other areas devastated by Katrina have moved on.
Almost everybody in Jacksonville, Fl is pulling for the N.O Times to Second line thier way to a victory, but unless you have lived in New Orleans or vistited alot, you’ll never understand why Neworleanians are lik ethe Spartans of america.
I love New Orleans. Pick themselves up from the ashes and rebuild with just hope in their hearts. The very example of the human spirit!
I have never been there in my life, but it seems pretty festive and lively :)
I think I am the only person on the planet who has never had any desire to go there. The only thing that ever appealed to me were the beignets.
I lived in N’Awlins in 1979 and 1980. It was there I got my start as a busker, so I frequented the French Quarter often. I even rented a room there for $45 a week. As far as Bourbon Street, the only time I went there on a regular basis was when I was hired to play in a restaurant.
I did fall in live with the city. I lived “uptown” toward the Garden District. I had some friends who lived in the ninth ward, and I still haven’t been able to contact them since Katrina.
Whooooo Hooooooo!!!!! Superbowl Champs!
It was a gorgeous game!!!!
Maybe New Orleans should have a party or something – don’t know if they know how to do that. :-)
Well I’m going to New Orleans, down on Rampart and Dumaine. I’m gonna stay right there, ‘till I see that Zulu King.
I’ve never been… yet but have always wanted to see it, the landscapes, historical buildings/homes and experience the local culture. Maybe, maybe someday soon.
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