|
I live in Minnesota. My parents, they live in Illinois. I have a
sister who makes her home in San Antonio, Texas and another who makes
her home in Buffalo, New York, so naturally it makes sense that we all
get together to spend some quality time in New Orleans, Louisiana.
As the McGonigle clan converged on the party capital of the world, we
each had our own thoughts of what we might like to see and/or do while
there.
You can about imagine that with each of us living such different lives
in such diverse locales, that we would each want to see and experience
something different.
Well, my wife and I wanted to see it all. Living in rural Minnesota you
don’t always get the chance to experience all that life has to offer
and we wanted to do just that.
My wife was intrigued by the cemeteries. I was interested in the
plantations, Bourbon street, the French Quarter, and of course, the
damage from Katrina.
I was moved by how prevalent the storm still is even to an outsider’s eye.
I was thinking about many recent disasters. Tornado-ravaged areas in
Minnesota are all but rebuilt. While much work still remains for our
own area from the summer flooding, an outsider might not notice that
the region saw the devastation that it did.
Mississippi has cleaned up much of their flood damage from the same hurricane that wreaked havoc on New Orleans.
Yet so much still remains to be done in that town. Why?
When you walk down the street in the French Quarter, you step over piles of lumber, sheet rock, and other debris.
You might drive in any given neighborhood and see boarded up houses, yet to recover.
Many, many homes remain abandoned, void of residents or care. Whole
neighborhoods are waiting to be torn down while government officials
bicker over what to do and how to proceed.
Now I’m not saying that the devastation wasn’t immense, and I’m not
saying that it doesn’t take decades for a community to recover from
natural disasters, because it does.
However, I am saying that what I took away from my visit to New
Orleans is that much work still remains in order for that city to even
begin to be “back.”
And I am not trying to minimize the very real human tole a storm like that can cause.
When the floods hit this area wheels were set into motion all in an effort to rebuild the lives of those who were affected.
In New Orleans, those wheels have fallen off the track and even to a Minnesotan, it is obvious.
Other than that, the trip was time well spent. The French Quarter, of
course, is amazing. Is there a cooler scene in America than Bourbon
Street?
The city itself, Katrina aside, is a bit in need of some upkeep for my
taste. It is abuzz with life and interesting people and stories are
everywhere.
The weather was cold, relatively speaking. While Minnesota struggled
through -35 wind-chills, in New Orleans last weekend it was a balmy 40
above and even dipped into the 20’s during the evening.
There were too many good restaurants to name and even the worst one that we ate at was pretty darn good.
I would recommend a trip to the city anytime. I really gives you
perspective on what makes this nation of ours so great...and
unfortunately, what doesn’t.
 |
