Photo Essay: A Weekend In NOLA
 

Hey, just thought I'd post a great photo essay that captures the essence of NOLA and the people who live there ... it's at http://www.orato.com/node/3384 for anyone who's interested in some beautiful photos of a beautiful city! :D

Thanks, Robyn.
With almost all of my family living in NO, I know first hand the difficulties and the stresses that are still plaguing the city and the people. So much is still a disaster and I think many people are unaware of how bad it really is. I love seeing the good stuff. The new musicians row is really something to behold, as is the green project that brad pitt has underway.

Photo essay
 

Thank you for posting your beautiful shots! I will definitely check out your page on Flickr. Mine is http://flickr.com/photos/cadencecandids/
Still a work in progress. :)

Cadenza

New Orleans is a really misunderstood place with a long, equally misunderstood history. To many it's simply the birthplace of jazz and Mardi Gras and a spot where dozens of cultures intermingle and feed off each other's art, food, language, and spirit. What most people don't realize is that it's much more than that, the city is a wonderfully complex pit of filth and crime with hundreds of thousands of worthless citizens who can barely survive a few days without charity (or the forcible charity known as taxation) from the few productive citizens who reap nothing but scorn and blame for the ills of that cesspool of a city.

The citizenry is so much more than just the musicians, street performers, and hard workers you see reflected on television. Those few are but a small slice of the much larger population of worthless anchors on society. For every friendly saxophonist entertaining hundreds by blasting away for hours on a street corner there are literally dozens of other, shadier folks breaking in to your car, lifting your wallet, or mugging you at knife-point.

Katrina and its aftermath revealed a lot of New Orleans seedy underbelly to the rest of the nation (and the world) but anyone who has lived there and knows the real New Orleans, knows that's just the tip of the criminal iceberg. What the rest of the country sees as a city devastated by nature struggling to retain its identity while regaining its prosperity, we know to be a failing criminal Mecca, destroyed from within long ago, only to have its festive patina washed away by a hurricane.

Thanks guys ... if you want to send your messages to the photographer, her Flickr stream is posted at the link. I'm sure she's got other great shots as well. As far as NO being a "criminal underbelly", I don't know. I think every city, including Vancouver, where I live, has it's shady bits. Ever heard of the Downtown Eastside? Look it up - it's at the centre of a gruesome serial killer trial - you may have heard of Robert Pickton? He's accused of killing sex trade workers and feeding their bodies to his pigs. Sorry to get gross, but where there's devastation, there's crime, and it's our job as citizens to fight both.
I think NO is not only surviving, but moving on - why slam that, Joepole?

I just want to make sure people don't forget the real New Orleans, the one with drug addicts, urine, and grinding poverty caused by its own residents, a population by and large too inept to lead its own life.

Seems all we hear about lately are glossy, inspiring stories of hope and redemption. That's not the New Orleans I know. The New Orleans I know is a pit of despair, corruption, and hopelessness with a faint outer shell of "culture."

I hear you, Joepole.

If the city were "moving on" then Ray Nagin would be unemployed. It's business as usual down there.

I'm not sure what the answers are to New Orleans.. personally I'm not in agreement with Joe on this one. I know that New Orleans has issues.. some BIG issues.. crime is very high.. But I'm not willing to pass the rest of the city off because of it. I've spent a whole lot of time in New Orleans. Have family there. There is much to do there for entertainment, and I still have a good time when I go there. And personally, I've never had a bad experience there, including the Jazz Fest, one year after Katrina.

But what are the answers ? to the high crime, the poverty etc etc etc.. I don't see it being any different than any other large inner city, with the same makeup of residence as New Orleans.. I suppose new orleans history and heritage is what has kept the likes of the French Quarter and other historical areas from totally decaying into nothingness.. despite what is going on around it.

I know New Orleans has its ugly side.. But I'll say it again. I've been down there countless times for concerts, parties, festivals, and to just visit. pre and post katrina, I've never had a bad experience down there, other than it's just down right hot in the summer time :)

:gosaints:

1. What is a "large inner city?" "Inner city" is part of a city, not a type of city.

2.

>.. I don't see it being any different than any other large inner city, with the same makeup of residence as New Orleans

Such as?

I'm just gonna assume you're in a mood today joe.. either you know what I meant, or you didn't..
:)

I don't know which other cities "with the same makeup of residence as New Orleans" are no different. That is why I asked.

An inner city is the central area of a major city. In the United States and United Kingdom, the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city center and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto, where people are less educated and wealthy and where there is more crime. These connotations are less common in other Western countries, where deprived areas may be located in outlying parts of cities. For instance, in Paris, Vienna or Amsterdam, the inner city is the richest part of the metropolis, where housing is the most expensive, and where elites and high-income individuals dwell.

I'm referring to those "inner cities" in some parts of the country.. that are literally crumbling, crime is rampant and the rule of the day. I'm just saying that I think New Orleans would have long been given up on, except for it's rich history. And Bourbon street is still a great place to go, and hear some great music.

:gosaints:

Let Joe Blow it makes him feel better and a bit more educated than the average Joe :laugh:

Why Joe I didn't know you had such as way with words.... "festive patina"?

heh heh eh heh He said "festive patina"...........

Around 1969 I was about 10 years old in New Orleans and saw another kid about 12 years old pick the pocket of an old drunk man and stick the wallet into his shoe shine kid and cover it up with a rag really quick. I was amazed at the speed and skill this kid had at stealing. He obviously had a lot of practice and resulting talent. The man spun around and looked at me. My parent quickly defended me and as we were walking away, the 12 year old kid was helping the man look for his wallet. "Did you take this man's wallet?" "Did you take this man's wallet"? All the while I was pointing at this shoe shine box.

My point Joe is that your point is nothing new at all. New Orleans was that way before we were born. You can thank each and every mayor and governor since Huey Long to present.

The best things about New Orleans are/were Commander's Palace, Brennan's and Antoine's. I'm not sure which ones are still there. I've not been to New Orleans in years! Oh and Pat O'Brian's. Does anyone know if those are still in existence?:)

Yes, they all are!

Joe, I gotta say, I take offense to many of your comments. My family has lived there for years and years (Hey, my MIL was born on Bourbon Street in 1930) and they work their tails off and make NO a great place. In fact, my aunt, Cheryl Milam, has been elected principal of the year for Louisiana 2 years running.
All cities have their problems, and the larger they are, the more there will be. Joe, you ought to go with us next time to New Orleans so that you can see the city I know and dearly love.

The strip clubs were not too bad either! ;)

(I only went once and it was weird, but also a memorable experience with my buddies that I won't soon forget)

Come to New Orleans and take as much of the brown stuff thats floatin around in standin water as ya want for momentos. I'm with Joe on this one. The place is a giant public toilet that aint been flushed in years. Can it be cleaned up? Yes, and it should. But it was a crapper 30 or 40 years ago, its a crapper today, and it'll likely remain a crapper as long as "Chocolate Nagin" and his ilk are in charge, which is obviously how they like it down there.

Here's a new orleans story. About 20 years ago Ms Hertz and I went to NO and drank a Hurricane (or two, I can't remember). A few hour later, nature called. I peed fricken red and freaked out and called Ms Hertz for help! Once we realized it was our chosen libation, we laughed hard. Sorry if this was TMI.... :D

I think that Antoine's relocated to Baton Rouge. But I'm pretty sure that Commander's and Brennan's have reopened.

Quite a number of NO restaurants relocated to Baton Rouge.

I know that New Orleans has a bad seamy side and laughable politics (watch a city council meeting on TV--hilarious if not so pathetic). But the two years that I lived there (Uptown between Magazine and the river) are full of wonderful memories. The city really got into my blood. This was in 1984-6 or so and ever since, going to New Orleans has felt like I'm going "home", more than going to my actual home in Texas. There were negative things like not having a driveway and being close to Magazine, sometimes having to park down the street. There are decent grocery stores now, but back then, you'd have to circle the parking lot till someone decided to leave. But the wonderful neighbors (yats) and architecture and walking in Audubon Park and the zoo with my son any time I wanted, the sound of the streetcar, going to the Quarter for the day, all of the uniqueness of this historic place...definitely worth the drawbacks back then. I had cried when my now ex-husband matched in a medical residency there. I'd been only to NO only once and only seen Bourbon St. and had a very negative impression of the city. But I cried a lot more when we moved away. For me, Katrina was heartbreaking.

Please don't get me wrong. On that same trip were I saw the drunk man get pick pocketed by a juvenile, I also shopped Magazine street for antiques and junk. I ate my first bignet at Cafe DuMonde. My first Aunt Sally's Praline. My first Cafe Au Lait. My first Banana's Foster....... I even got my portrait painted. That trip may have been the most memorable of my life. I am deeply saddened by the fate that befell New Orleans. One of a kind city, that's for sure. I am even glad that I got to see one strip show pre-Katrina. I love New Orleans in my own little way just like everyone else. :D

I hate to admit it, but I sort of agree with Joe. I visited NO about 7 years ago. It was much worse than when I visited about 20 years before that. It was so dirty and really trashy people were hanging out were the artists once were in Jackson Square. I was very disappointed. NO is not a place I want to visit again. There are many good, productive people who live there, but I am afraid there are many more people who choose to live off the government and who commit crime in that city. If I lived in NO, I would prefer these people would not return.