New Orleans’ SuperFail

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from In These Times:


New Orleans’ SuperFail
Downtown is being spruced up for the Super Bowl, but in neglected neighborhoods, roads remain unpaved.

BY Andy Kopsa


The Super Bowl is coming to New Orleans, the first to be held in the Crescent City since it was ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina. Come February 3, 2013, the Superdome—now the Mercedes-Benz Superdome—will be a site of the ultimate football frenzy, instead of the reeking, impromptu shelter the country forgot.

It’s been seven years since Katrina, and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (who took the helm after former Mayor Ray Nagin moved to Texas in a cloud of shame) is selling the Super Bowl as the city’s comeback. Landrieu has announced a brand-new streetcar line through the Central Business District to help shuttle Super Bowl-goers. The line connects four Super Bowl hot spots: the game, the parking lot designated for tailgating, the French Quarter and of course, Bourbon Street. The tailgating lot is adjacent to a Greyhound station, meaning that the streetcar line will go some way toward shoring up the city’s decimated infrastructure after the Super Bowl has come and gone. But locals are pretty sure that juxtaposition is just a happy accident.

The hype over the Super Bowl has been huge. “New Orleans is back,” gushed Saints owner Tom Benson in brief remarks at the NFL Super Bowl award announcement.

But try telling that to the people who live in the still-devastated Lower Ninth Ward or on the tattered lakefront of Lake Pontchartrain. Or to the city's displaced population–30 percent fewer people than before the storm still live there–now scattered around the United States since being thrown on buses and planes after Katrina hit. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/14428/new_orleans_superfail/

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1. Thanks for the article

With family who lived through Katrina and my own visits to New Orleans it is easy to see the great divide between those who want to believe "New Orleans is Back" and the displaced and those who still live in areas that were decimated. And to know the high crime rate, lack of healthcare, and condition of most schools. It is sad to watch Mary Matalin today on CNN promoting the big expensive Super Bowl party, Mardi Gras, and NOLA as a great place for business and for fun. Only for some people.