Today in New Orleans
Since Katrina, a new entrepreneurial drive and creative spirit have engulfed the city. Residency, tourism, and convention numbers have increased multifold since the post-Katrina downturn. The annual number of visitors to Louisiana has set records for the past four years running. Along Tulane Avenue, a new $1.1 billion University Medical Center officially opened in late 2015, anchoring the area’s sprawling, ambitious “biodistrict.” The hotel market is growing like kudzu with 17 new or renovated properties open for business since 2015, with more in the works. The Rampart Street streetcar line humming along from the Marigny to the CBD. Louis Armstrong Airport is undergoing an enormous renovation (and welcoming its first international flights in nearly three decades).
Off the beaten path streets like Oak, Freret, St. Claude Avenue, and Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard have blossomed with activity. There are an astounding 600 more restaurants in the city than there were pre-Katrina – close to 1,400 at last count - , and the hopping Frenchmen Street club scene continues to boom. Some say it’s jumped the shark; we say find us a better street for music, people-watching, and sheer exhilaration in the U.S. Good luck. HBO’s series Tremé portrayed authentic New Orleans with a (mostly) spot-on eye and a killer soundtrack, focusing a new fascination on the local culture.
It’s a thrilling time in the city that time forgot—and with that 300th birthday drawing near, the buzz is about as loud as Rebirth Brass Band playing the tin-ceilinged Maple Leaf bar.
Still, all is not rosy. While the tourist zones show few signs of ill wind, those venturing into certain neighborhoods will still find pristine, rebuilt homes next to abandoned blight. In the decimated Lower 9th Ward, redevelopment chugs along slowly, but proudly, with small but significant new developments and the architecturally cuurious “Make It Right” homes (Brad Pitt’s foundation). Other areas are repopulating and redeveloping radically, gentrifying rapidly, and threatening, some believe, the very authenticity that attracted the gentrifiers (and tourists). The sociological, economic, and cultural impact of the city’s shifting demographics is a source of much concern and debate, from the displacement of long-term renters by profiteering Airbnb landlords to the future of the city’s many entrenched Confederate symbols. And, crime and the hobbled criminal justice system remain complicated, vexing problems.
The grim images that focused the eyes of the world on New Orleans in August 2005 are not easily erased, nor should they be. The category 5 storm was downgraded to a category 3 when it hit New Orleans, but the surge was too much for the city’s federal levee system. Its failure flooded 80% of the city, causing 1,836 recorded deaths and all forms of astounding, horrifying loss. Some 28,000 people took refuge in the Superdome, the ill-prepared refuge of last resort.
Four and a half years later, the Dome’s home football team, the New Orleans Saints, at long last came marching in with their first-ever Super Bowl victory. The long-derided 'Aints restored what billions in rebuilding funds couldn’t: civic pride.
It may seem trivial, even disrespectful, to cite a football game as a turning point in the city’s rebirth—but it isn’t. The effects of this real and symbolic victory reached far beyond the ecstatic, extended celebrations—and they cannot be overstated. That same year saw high points: Mitch Landrieu won the mayoral race with 66 percent of the vote, marking the end to the previous administration’s fumbling, inertia, and corruption; and massive crowds poured into the city for Mardi Gras and French Quarter Fest. The good times were rolling once again, at full speed.
And then, the whammy. One. More. Time. (Eye roll, headshake.)
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill hit, with potent imagery again tainting New Orleans with a wide, crude brush. In reality, New Orleans is some 150 miles from the spill, and those images were far worse than the reality (though state-mates in the affected areas were hard-hit).
Although locals will forever mark time as B.K. or A.K. (Before Katrina or After Katrina), New Orleaneans just did what they do: proclaim their undying love for their city, mix a cocktail, and set to tidying up. Oh, and throw a few parties for half a million people, and earn top awards on umpteen “Best of” travel polls.
The indomitable spirit is intact. The oysters are still sweet, the jasmine-infused air still sultry. Bands still play in Jackson Square, and parades erupt at random. New Orleans is still the best city in America, and the bons temps—like those beloved Saints of field and song—go marching in and on. We’re right there with them. You should be, too. Go, and be in that number.