mdklatt
1/26/2008, 09:25 PM
Since the South Oval is the place for unsolicited opinions, I thought I'd share my opinions of New Orleans based on my recent trip.
I know the city is surrounded by a swamp, but now that I've flown over the area, holy cow--the city is surrounded by a swamp. I imagine they have to chase alligators off of the approach end of Runway 10 at Armstrong Intl. There were a lot of decimated swamp trees (mangroves?) that could have been Katrina damage. It looked like Norman after the ice storm.
On the ride from the airport I was reminded of Houston: no apparent concept of zoning, so mansions are interspersed with shotgun shacks and gas stations. There is a big mother above-ground cemetery that straddles I-10. The downtown area is pretty clean, and does not smell like a sewer contrary to what I'd heard from some people who had been there before. Every local I dealt with was universally helpful and competent, and sincerely friendly. I lost count of how often people expressed gratitude for having people visiting the city again. That being said, things do move more slowly there.
Mayor "Chocolate City" was supposed to give a keynote address at the conference I was at, but he got detained at a MLK event that went long (NOLA Time strikes again). Instead we heard from the city's homeland security director, Terry Ebbert. He's an ex-Marine, and boy is he a go-getter (in his words, his job is "mission driven" instead of "compliance driven"). Whatever problems there were during Katrina, I doubt that he was to blame. He told an anecdote of how one of his people called him to say there were dozens of buses waiting to roll for evacuation duty, but some bureaucrat wouldn't release them until he verified that they had the correct tire pressure. His main point was that you can have all the procedures and government agencies you want in place, but once the **** hits the fan you need a commander, not a coordinator. Houston's response to Rita gets compared a lot to the response to Katrina, but it's apples and oranges. Rita happened with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight. Plus, there are dozens of routes to get out of harm's way from SE Texas. Leaving SE Louisiana is a lot more difficult...did I mention how it's a giant swamp? Ebbert laughed at the idea of abandoning New Orleans. It's the busiest port in the US, and home to a significant share of our refinery capacity (you think oil prices are high now....)
If you're basing your entire opinion of New Orleans on Bourbon Street, you couldn't be more wrong. To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bourbon Street is a wretched hive of scum and villainy like no other. But that's not New Orleans. Hell, that's not even the French Quarter. I was amazed at how much things changed even just one block east or west of Bourbon. I bet a large majority of the people that live in NOLA have never set foot on Bourbon Street.
Based on the local TV news, crime and corruption are problems, but not ones that would affect most visitors. Any large city has areas you avoid, and Louisiana is only a little higher than Oklahoma on the corruption scale. The area between the convention center and the good part of the French Quarter (I was advised not to go too far north or west) seemed safe to me. Even the thugs have to know that the economy is dependent on tourism, and it's not good business to have the tourists gunned down in front of their hotels.
I know the city is surrounded by a swamp, but now that I've flown over the area, holy cow--the city is surrounded by a swamp. I imagine they have to chase alligators off of the approach end of Runway 10 at Armstrong Intl. There were a lot of decimated swamp trees (mangroves?) that could have been Katrina damage. It looked like Norman after the ice storm.
On the ride from the airport I was reminded of Houston: no apparent concept of zoning, so mansions are interspersed with shotgun shacks and gas stations. There is a big mother above-ground cemetery that straddles I-10. The downtown area is pretty clean, and does not smell like a sewer contrary to what I'd heard from some people who had been there before. Every local I dealt with was universally helpful and competent, and sincerely friendly. I lost count of how often people expressed gratitude for having people visiting the city again. That being said, things do move more slowly there.
Mayor "Chocolate City" was supposed to give a keynote address at the conference I was at, but he got detained at a MLK event that went long (NOLA Time strikes again). Instead we heard from the city's homeland security director, Terry Ebbert. He's an ex-Marine, and boy is he a go-getter (in his words, his job is "mission driven" instead of "compliance driven"). Whatever problems there were during Katrina, I doubt that he was to blame. He told an anecdote of how one of his people called him to say there were dozens of buses waiting to roll for evacuation duty, but some bureaucrat wouldn't release them until he verified that they had the correct tire pressure. His main point was that you can have all the procedures and government agencies you want in place, but once the **** hits the fan you need a commander, not a coordinator. Houston's response to Rita gets compared a lot to the response to Katrina, but it's apples and oranges. Rita happened with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight. Plus, there are dozens of routes to get out of harm's way from SE Texas. Leaving SE Louisiana is a lot more difficult...did I mention how it's a giant swamp? Ebbert laughed at the idea of abandoning New Orleans. It's the busiest port in the US, and home to a significant share of our refinery capacity (you think oil prices are high now....)
If you're basing your entire opinion of New Orleans on Bourbon Street, you couldn't be more wrong. To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bourbon Street is a wretched hive of scum and villainy like no other. But that's not New Orleans. Hell, that's not even the French Quarter. I was amazed at how much things changed even just one block east or west of Bourbon. I bet a large majority of the people that live in NOLA have never set foot on Bourbon Street.
Based on the local TV news, crime and corruption are problems, but not ones that would affect most visitors. Any large city has areas you avoid, and Louisiana is only a little higher than Oklahoma on the corruption scale. The area between the convention center and the good part of the French Quarter (I was advised not to go too far north or west) seemed safe to me. Even the thugs have to know that the economy is dependent on tourism, and it's not good business to have the tourists gunned down in front of their hotels.