Forgotten About New Orleans? Brad Pitt Hasn’t
These days our news outlets bombard us with the latest bullshit off the campaign trail. What did Hillary wear today? In what context did Rudy mention 9/11? Where did Mitt Romney buy a spiffy new suit? And where did John Edwards get his latest $400 ball wax? Or people like Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck (to name just a few) spew their largely one-sided and very loud political and social agendas.
But rarely do we hear news about New Orleans and how the city is trying to recover economically. I was in New Orleans this past March for 6 days, part business, part pleasure and was astonished to see the city’s struggles first hand (albeit pleased that it’s still such a great city). If you’re there during a busy time and you don’t leave the French Quarter, you’ll barely notice a difference.
New Orleans relies heavily on conferences and events to bring tourists in because tourism is down (when word spread about the growing crime, the numbers of tourists dropped). Luckily, New Orleans has the Sugar Bowl coming up (as always) and the BCS Championship the following week that will bring in heavy traffic and dollars. But after that, the tourist numbers will likely be too small until Mardi Gras rolls around. Then there’s Jazz Fest and when summer comes and New Orleans heats up, tourism really dies.
That’s the economic side, then there’s the social side where people are still trying to rebuild homes. I visited the Lower 9th Ward via a taxi tour and honestly didn’t think that area was worth rebuilding. It was mostly abandoned and even before Katrina it was filled with crime. But luckily Bradgelina thinks it is and is working on a 150 home eco-friendly re-building project. And tonight Pitt will be on Larry King to discuss this current Bradgelina endeavor. Anyways, New Orleans can use whatever positive attention it gets so good on them I suppose. And if you tune in, perhaps you can get some advice on adopting Cambodian babies (I think you can just pick them from the villages though).
Pre-gelina Pitt image from this joint.
2 Comments
Yeah, I went to New Orleans a bit after Katrina (say about a year or so) and was very disappointed at the progress that I saw.
Yeah Canal Street was a mess, half the stores were closed and loads of construction going on.