New Orleans: Reflections on an all-too-quick visit
Two months after Katrina New Orleans is not New Orleans – and it seems a long, long way from being that anytime soon – if ever again... It is more of a construction site than a functioning city...
Landing at Louis Armstrong Airport in a cloudy, muggy mid-afternoon, it becomes readily apparent that this is no ordinary city at this moment: No suit and tie to be found at the airport; many airport vendors simply closed; and, the most current “Visitor’s Guide” is dated August 2005 – two months old and pre-Katrina.
The “BlueVan” that will take me to the hotel is full of other bureaucrats also coming to save the day – at least that’s what could be gathered from their conversations… But, most enlightened is the van driver who shares with me that he “lost everything; am now living with my daughter; and I’m just thankful I have a job… Heck, I’m only one of 8 employees in a company that had 150 +; and, this is one of the 30 vans we were able to salvage – we lost twice as many.”… Glancing out the window I notice most billboards are missing pieces; blue tarps dot many businesses’ roofs; and, lots and lots of trucks and pick up trucks… The van driver again: “There, you see over there [pointing at a 5 feet water mark on the highway wall]? That’s how high the water came here in this expressway… Over there, it came about twice as high – that’s were the levy broke.”
But, there IS rush hour!... Lots and lots of cars getting out of the City – something must be economically active, I deduce.
Then we come up to the infamous Superdome… The roof looks squeaky clean, and other people in the van make the comment to that effect. But, our guide (the van driver) explains that the white roof of the Superdome is just a ‘make-do’ paint job, already beginning to wash off with the recent rain… And yep, the dome is not useable – it remain vacant and “we sure do miss them Saints!”, he exclaims.
Look over there! Boy, oh boy: The Hyatt took quite a hit – at least 1/3 of the windows are shattered. Wow!
Coming in on a downtown street, more than ½ of the storefronts are boarded up… Yet, there’s one for quick entrepreneurship: a sign that reads “Dormitory Style Accommodations Available.”
Lots of “Now Open” signs too… Kool.
Get off the van and – yep, the stench is real… I was warned about that – and it is real real.
A quick walk over to the French Quarters and… first of all: Where are the street cars on Canal Street?!?! Oh, how sad – no street cars… Then, goodness gracious, this ain’t what I remember as the French Quarters I’ve visited upteen times in my life… ouch!... Every third establishment still boarded up; no revelers; no tourist; no conventioneers… BUT: there ARE people on the streets. They look like laborers that just got off work… So, I ask one and he shrugs. Oh, perdon, I switch to Spanish and then he tells me that yep, they’ve been “working like dogs all day and want to savor the ol’ New Orleans at night.”… hmmm… I wonder if he had ever been to the real New Orleans…
Larry Flint’s Hustlers is open- and so is the other girlie bar across the street… I guess you have to cater to your customers…
I hear music – live music at that! Neat neat! Live music AND a crowd – if you can call 10 people in a bar a crowd… But, the music is nice… The Blues mix with the Macarena coming from the pizza place across the street rather interestingly…
Walking down the street, I hear quite a bit of Spanish… But, when I hear “oye chico” I realize THAT is not Mexican Spanish. So I respond, with a Cubano accent, “que me cuenta, men?” And they tell me they (all 5 of them!) are Cuban brothers that came in a balsa from Cuba barely a year ago and are looking forward to making New Orleans home because “it looks like old Havana.”
On to Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral – through the alley – the dark dark alley at that… No one in THIS side of town… hmmm… walk fast… No artist in Jackson Square… Most shops closed… Interesting: a New York Police car!
Believe it or not, Ripley’s is closed. And on top of the building, the sign that reads “Home of JAX beer” is barely readable because many of the light bulbs are not lit.
Finally, Café du Monde!... ah, to savor the coffee and special beignets!... But, it simply sad that there are more waiters waiting than customers to be waited on… ½ the chairs are on tables because a crowd is not expected tonight… So, I get my $3.50 tab and pay with a $10 bill – “keep the change.”
The stench is real even in Café du Monde… I sneeze… The choir of waiters say in unison: “Bless You” – and I respond, “no, Bless You!”
Dinner is a jambalaya on a styrofoam plate at ZydeQue (a place that claims Bar-B-Q is French for “from whiskers to tail.”) There are 22 patrons. Two are women.
Walking back to the hotel I see the largest crowd yet congregating outside one of the fancy hotels on Canal Street, between the piles of debris yet to be picked up and the boarded up store (the one next to the opened Radio Shack which is full of customers at the Sprint and Nextel booth with special offers on calling card to Mexico.) As I get nearer to the crowd I realize it is mostly Latinos hanging out. Only few blacks to be seen anywhere. It seems there’s a Latino band in the hotel and it’s pretty much opened to folks dressed “as is” – no tie required, obviously… And, to make it feel more like home, there’s the lady selling hot tamales off the back of the pick-up truck on Canal Street.
Will New Orleans become Nuevo Orleans?
Analytical Moment:
If left to the traditional market forces, downtown New Orleans will be rebuild rather quickly and rather unplanned. A beautiful renovation here; a so-so “make do” rehab over there… Surely the streetcars will come back; so will the bands, the artist, and the food… All the economic engines that support conventions and revelers will be back soon enough… And the service industry to support them will be predominantly Latino…
Tomorrow I hope to see the remnants of the neighborhood and try to decipher: Will poor blacks come back?... Remind me again who wants them back? Who will advocate for them? How will they express their voice?
Day two begins with a mile walk to the Artist Warehouse District… Cute enough, but yet empty as the rest of New Orleans – except for the construction folks.
Then off to work: “Re-Inhibiting New Orleans”, a conference at Tulane University sponsored by Fannie Mae and others… Getting there was easy only because we had a car - few taxi drivers are working.
Driving down St. Charles, the mansions seem to cry – some visibly damaged, but most look fine. The Jewish Community Center has been turned over into the FEMA Center; and, the street cars are gone – some of the track is literally under mud… Oh, what a painful sight!
At the Conference we get to hear some very brilliant people make some very good points as to what happened, what is happening, and what’s going to happen… Luckily, this conference included the participation of some real people from real New Orleans neighborhoods – some now living in Houston, others in Atlanta.
The people expressed their anger; the professionals kept their cool (except some that live in New Orleans – including our own NONHS Board President did cry); and, we all got mutually depressed.
Analytical Moment Again:
At the Conference there did seem to be a massive state of denial in the crowd… Folks talked about the beautiful future; the new design elements; the wonderful return of the ‘art class’ and the ‘poor class’ and the ‘food class’… Maybe I am jaded, but: Yeah right… come back to what again?... What if many have found their new lives in Houston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and beyond…. Tell me what they are coming back to again??!?!? … No guarantee that the levees will be rebuilt any better than they were before. No guarantee that certain neighborhoods will be environmentally safe. No guarantee regarding what housing code use…
Then we went on a ‘tour’ to see the neighborhood… Here we really really got really really depressed – what a mess indeed… Mile after mile after mile of mostly vacant, dilapidated, destroyed, water damaged homes and apartments and commercial strips… Mile after mile after mile of trash, stench, and not many people – other than construction workers and the occasional “returning pioneer” trying to clean up the mess.
Then we get to the infamous levee. Hey, at least it’s been rebuilt… yeah, right: being re rebuilt to withstand a category 3 hurricane, not a 5… Frankly, with this one the bureaucratic mess is simply overwhelming… Right by the levee are the homes destroyed by the gushing water – and one of the homes is simply 50 yards away in the middle of the street, to where it was literally ‘washed away’…
We also visit a middle income community – it too was destroyed: At least this hurricane was not racist!
Dinner time takes us back to the French Quarter, visibly much more alive than the night before (but still most folks clearly construction workers.) We dine at the 2 Sisters Restaurant – it’s their first night back! (And it shows. We were two of the few –very few – patrons, the service was overly friendly, and the food overly cooked.) … The waiter did share with us that many of the chefs have found good jobs in other cities, so they were ‘breaking’ a new chef in…
Walking around Bourbon Street, we did notice the high presence of police – almost at every corner…
Day Three: Back to work…
Yet Another Analytical Moment:
By far the most wrenching, impacting, long-lasting part of the experience are the stories. Someone ought to write a book titled “450,000 Stories”, because that’s how many people lived in New Orleans before the Hurricane and that’s how many different stories are worth listening to… But we have no time, of course. We have work to do; solutions to design; responsibility matrix to complete…
What next?
=> 450,000 people lived in New Orleans before the Hurricane.
=> 75,000 have returned so far
=> 200,000 are in Houston
=> 65,000 were public housing residents
Will New Orleans “come back”? Of course it will!... But, what will this new New Orleans look like; feel like; taste like?... Well, I’ll take the plunge and make some predictions here. In two years:
- The convention and tourism will come back strong, making the new New Orleans a destination of choice for this industry and providing a golden opportunity for service workers and the supportive entrepreneurship industry.
- New Orleans poor and working poor will have a significant Latino segment. They will concentrate mostly in the service industry (maids, restaurants, etc.)… But, someday there will emerge a new New Orleans’ cuisine: The New Tex Mex!
- There will be a significant crime and drug problem, particularly rampant in the vacant housing and apartments.
- There will be an increasing number of “New Orleans Wanna-Bees” – people moving to New Orleans as some sort of new-wave artists and ‘easy-living’ type.
- The public elementary and high schools will finally be reopened, but at a vastly reduced capacity – since most families with children have found new digs elsewhere.
- The New Orleans’ ‘diaspora’ will return for special events and to touch bases with their ‘heritage’, but will then go back to their new lives elsewhere... New Orleans’ population will surge to 300,000!
- People throughout the country – and even in suburban New Orleans will be saying “what’s the fuzz? – we are back!”... (Easy to say when you just visit for a couple of days or see only the images of what is being rebuilt – not what is left to be done… Easy to say when you are not impacted by being uprooted from your close-knit community where you were born, raised, and aged…)
- The levees will be rebuild to withstand a category 3 hurricane, with promises that a new levee system, and a “New Urbanism” park system will take care of everyone’s concern – by the year 2525.
Reemberto Rodriguez
November 30, 2005
