New Orleanians

[kida]

The NY Times is reporting something people in the Gulf Coast already knew: lots and lots of New Orleanians are not going back.

During and after the hurricane a lot of evacuees were sheltered in my home town, and a lot of them decided life in a small town wasn't so bad. Some of them are still there, settled into new lives.

There are tons of former New Orleanians here in Houston now, too. I've even seen subdivisions being built with French Louisiana-style themes. French stuff. In Texas.

I guess this partly answers the question of whether New Orleans (not to mention the rest of the Gulf Coast) will ever be the same. There are still people there, but there are whole neighborhoods that are still abandoned. The article points out that only about 53,000 people voted in city elections this year, down from 113,000 last year (which was largely by absentee ballot).

 

[Furious George]

What a shame... I always wanted to visit New Orleans.

 

[kida]

You can still go to New Orleans. Naturally, the popular tourist areas have seen the most renovation; it needs the tourist money to start flowing again.

I was there about a month ago for a wedding. Cafe du Monde was up and running, there were musicians in the streets (though fewer than normal), the food was still good. There just weren't nearly as many people as there normally would have been.

The biggest problem is that the residential areas aren't being rebuilt, so a big percentage of the local population is still gone simply because they don't have homes to go back to.

The Quarter is in better shape. I would just be cautious at night. But then again, I would have been cautious at night before the hurricane, too.

 

[xboxundone]

I would agree while NO as a whole isn't the same the downtown atmosphere is. I think it will take time and honestly some developers willing to take risks to buy up large # of homes and turn them into new communities.
As with anything after a great storm or turn of events things never go back to being the same so i don't see why people would think this would.