Photo Essay: A Weekend In NOLA

[rhertz]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Pocahontas]

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?

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by Pocahontas

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.

[rhertz]

Originally Posted by Pocahontas

The best things about New Orleans are/were Commander's Palace, Brennan's and Antoine's.

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)

[Al Swearengen]

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.

[rhertz]

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....

[Cadenza]

Originally Posted by rhertz

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)

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.

[rhertz]

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.

[Isabella]

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.