Anyone been to New Orleans lately? (Or NoLA residents check in)

[MorningGlow]

Hi all,

Mr. MorningGlow has been asked by his previous employer (he now works for them freelance) if he could travel to New Orleans to help a client. What's the city like these days--what he can expect? He'll probably be staying on the lower end of Canal or in the Quarter. I think the client is in the warehouse district. How "normal" is that area of the city now? What's been repaired, what's still under construction?

Funny how a year later there's still so much that needs to be done, but the Katrina devastation has fallen off the general radar--thanks in part to our country's collective short-term memory, and in part to the ADD media, but mostly, I think, that there's been so much insanity since Katrina, one terrible story just keeps superseding the others. Sometimes I'm amazed that we can keep functioning while being hammered with all this craziness.

And if I may vent for a moment, let me just say that on the one hand, I'm jealous as hell that he gets to go back to a city I love as if it were my own--I get to stay home with the toddler--yee-frickin-ha. (We used to go every year before MorningGlow Jr. came along--the last time we went was 2003 and I miss it SO MUCH.) On the other hand, if I did go, I think I'd be haunted by all the news stories I read last year. I don't think I'd even be able to look in the general direction of the Superdome or the convention center without all those horrible, horrible tales coming to mind. The Katrina stories broke my heart last year and I'm afraid I'd just stand in that city and cry my heart out for all the wrong done to the people of the Gulf--so maybe it's better I don't go and make a spectacle of myself! :cry:

Anyway, thanks in advance for any news updates and advice! :hi:

[drthais]

1. That would be 'Hey Ya'll'

It's safe enough....
He'll be in a hotel in the quarter or on canal, you're right
because that's all there is
chunks of the city are up and running
large chunks are not
and never will be
but I think it's plenty safe, if that's what you're worrying about
have him bring a camera
so he can show you
*sigh* almost a whole year
my sister is moving back into her house in Mid-City (near the old Whole Foods)
in a week or two - it's been gutted and re-done
it's an old double.

It's all so sad
keep your fingers crossed
that no storms come this way this year

[democrat in Tallahassee]

3. drthais, I used to live on Elysian Fields near gentilly blvd. How

did that area fare? The story really has fallen off the radar.

[pitohui]

13. that area did not fare very well EOM

,

[MorningGlow]

10. Y'all indeed

Thanks for the info. What a heartbreak. No, I'm not in fear of his safety or anything like that. I was just wondering what's up and running and what's not. :hi:

[misanthrope]

22. That should be...

..."y'all," a contraction of "you" and "all."

[uppityperson]

2. Take a camera, drive around and witness, eat good food

hope he has fun there also. Oh yes, it is hot and muggy.

[OwnedByFerrets]

7. The east side looks like a ghost town.

Or maybe some parts of Iraq.:sarcasm:

[uppityperson]

8. indeed. Take a camera and tour around. Seriously.

If anyone goes, witness and spread the word about it.

[MorningGlow]

11. Great idea about the camera

I hope I can convince him to take the digital camera. He's not one for snapping pics even in a touristy moment, but if he can be persuaded, I'll post what he brings back.

At the moment I'm trying to convince him to stuff his pockets full of crawfish and beignets (separate pockets, mind), but he's resisting, damn the man.

As for the weather, yeah, we know summer in New Orleans well--we were there in July one year. Going outside into the heat and humidity was like walking face first into a hot wet wool blanket. Not unlike upstate NY lately (thanks for the global warming, George, ya weenie) only more so. :hi:

[soothsayer]

4. Quarter is just fine (Dominos is selling sushi---I'm skeptical about

that)----it's just all the poor residential areas that are still in ruins. Poor New Orleans! Shame, shame mr. bush!

[MorningGlow]

15. Domino's? Sushi? Okay, that's just plain wrong. n/t

[Catch22Dem]

5. A co-worker just got back

He said he saw a LOT of tarps, but things were coming along, and the food was incredible. He enjoyed himself, I know that.

[jobycom]

6. I was there last month

The Quarters are pretty much as before. Less crowded, but still crowded. A little calmer, the street musicians aren't as good. But it's alive. The area along Magazine Street out to Audobon Park is pretty lively, too. Bars and antique stores, as before. The further lakeside you get, the worse the city is. I-10 is the dividing line between recovery and abandonment, at least along Canal Street, though there is much ruin still riverside of I-10.

Parkway Bakery is open, though everything around it is closed. If that means anything to you.

The area east of Canal to the lake is waste--driving I-10 from the Twin Spans to about Canal is enough to make anyone cry, and I can say that from experience. It's dead, closed, lifeless, empty, silent, and nothing but ruins and page fencing. The Ninth is barely recovering, the Lower Ninth is dead. Chalmette has some life. The area along the Lake from Little Woods to around City Park (my geography gets a bit fuzzy here) is barely alive. Lots of page fencing around ruins, little construction being done. The nicer houses along the Lake are starting to be rebuilt, and there is work being done on locks or floodgates on the Lake canals.

Metarie and Jefferson Parish are in pretty good shape, at least around Veterans just west of 17th Street Canal. In fact, that's a dividing line. The Jefferson side is a city, and just across the canal is a wasteland, though there was more traffic and a bit of construction (mostly deconstruction, it looked to me) than back in December (another trip out there).

I don't live there, that's just my impression as someone who visits, with family in the area. It's more dead than alive, but the places with life are still New Orleans. Sort of.

Algiers and Gretna are alive (meaning traffic and businesses and livable houses).

It's still a mess.

[jobycom]

9. Throw you a couple of pics

Here's the house my dad grew up in. On Forchet St. You can see the waterline

[MorningGlow]

12. Aw, now you've done it!

If there's any way someone can be homesick for a place they can't actually call home, then that's me right now! :hi:

[MorningGlow]

14. Thanks for the details, Joby

That's a great help. (But what a shame.) Mr. MorningGlow probably will see some of the less touristy parts as he spends time with the clients. The first time we visited, his host took us out to a neighborhood shack (don't ask me the name or where it was, but it sure was far from where tourists roam) where we had our initiation into bo'led crawfish. Been addicted ever since. I'll bet that shack's long gone, now... :(

Come to think of it, it was on that trip to the seafood shack when his host showed us the pumps on the side of the road and told us how New Orleans depended on those to keep from flooding. And it was back then--and every trip after that--that NoLA residents told us how they were living on borrowed time, till "the big one" hit that would top and/or break the levees.

"Never anticipated the levees would fail" my ass, GW. Everybody in the country knew except you and your cabal. There's a special place in hell for these guys, I just know it (and I don't even believe in hell.)

[Swamp Rat]

16. Way'at MorningGlow!

I agree. :hi:

[MorningGlow]

18. Hiya Swamp Rat!

Bless you and your neighbors in the Gulf. Keep those demonic Bushco pics coming! Love 'em! :hi:

[jobycom]

17. They've been talking about the Big One in New Orleans since before Betsy

My parents moved out of New Orleans because of Hurricane Audrey, in 57, though I don't think they moved for a couple of years. Unfortunately, they moved to Bay St. Louis, and were struck by Betsy and Camille before they moved just above Gulfport. But I grew up hearing about the Big One, and asking what "Evacuation Route" meant. New Orleans had been prepared for decades for Katrina, the failure came from BushCo.

[Swamp Rat]

21. Exactly!

[MorningGlow]

24. But...but...but...

It was the city gov't that failed! It was the state! It was those darned citizens who refused to leave so they could loot the place and party the entire time! :sarcasm:

I swear, the Bush cabal points fingers so much and so quickly that their digits should've fallen off by now.

And you can take "digits" any way you like.

[Balderdash]

19. Like everyone else

has said, the French Quarter is up and running. But getting to
the French Quarter is a pretty sad journey. But having tourists
come down and visit is good for the economy and for the spirit of
New Orleans so y'all keep comin'. :-)

[MorningGlow]

20. Kick for the morning crowd

[HeeBGBz]

23. I drove to the airport a couple of weeks ago

Stopped and got some gas and drove back to south Mississippi. Wish I could have spent more time in the city, but I was in a borrowed car and didn't have the time. Gas was actually a few cents cheaper than Biloxi.