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Home Again - About New Orleans Road Trip

I just returned home last night from a two day road trip to New Orleans (pronounced Nawlins according to a sign my daughter and I saw in the Louis Armstrong International Airport. The purpose of the trip was for my daughter Amanda to visit Tulane University - she is considering attending in the fall

I have to admit that I did not know what to expect. A guy who works for me took leave of absense to resume his part time job with FEMA. He had told me some of what I could expect. My daughter was to stay on campus and experience real campus life in as much as such a thing is possible in a couple of days; I was going to see a good friend who lives sort of between Tulane and the French Quarter.

Like everyone else who was not personally affected by Katrina, I have heard reports and seen images on TV that frightened me and gave me considerable reservations at the prospect of my daughter attending school in the middle of what I perceived a 'war zone'. My friend Grem had told me some good things and bad things about the situation in town but he also assured me that Tulane had fared very well all things considered and that much of the older city weathered Katrina very well indeed. The real devastation as one might imagine was closer to the levee that colapsed and in the lowest lying areas.

We departed Orlando at 6:30AM Eastern. The flighhtime from Orlando to New Orleans (gate to gate) was about 1:40 and there is also a hour time difference, soiIt was about 7:10AM Central time. Nothing is open and very few are awake in the Big Easy on Sunday morning. It was after 9:00AM before we could arrange for transportation to the University.

The drive to campus was hardly shocking but it was enlightening. The Airport is on the northwestern side of the city, so we came in through some of the areas that had been flooded. These were not the worst areas, but these were the parts of town where people had waded in water and used rafts. Some of the signs of the damage are still there, some have been corrected or are still in the process. In the case of the University, the northern end of campuse took on some water damage (around the sportsand recreational complex. Otherwise there was some wind and roof damage.

Tulane is in a fairly nice section of the city. Seven months after Katrina things are largely back together and working albeit not everything is exactly as it needs to be. For some parts of the city it will be ten to fifteen years before the city is fully recovered. In the spare time between events and such we had a lot of time to kill and we also had time to talk to people who have called New Orleans home for much of their lifetime. There is no doubt in any that the city is coming back. They are frustrated with the lack of speed at times but other parts of the recovery are taking on this monumental task with a good deal of careful study and planning which has delayed some parts of the process.

Sitting and waiting was a recurring theme which oddly made the time feel stretched-out. It is very odd int hat there was some interesting events and good times, plenty of food and talking with others that had been wedged between the long intervals of sitting around and waiting. The other all effect was that the two days felt like nearly a week but it was not an unpleasant experience as it offered ample time to rest. That was perhaps more important to me than to Amanda.

There were the requisite speeches from administrators including the University President and a very well done walking tour of campus. One of the highlight of the tour was the Mardi Gras beads still hanging from the trees from a month ago.

A couple of the University's star faculty members gave presentations of classroom like lectures. Amanda and I attended a presentation by Dr. Rosanne Adderley titled "Voodoo and History: The Spirit of African American & Caribbean Studied in New Orleans" and Dr. Bruce Fluery titled "Intelligent Design: Old Wine in New Bottles". Both were intellectually stimulating and thought provoking.

Afterwards there was a nice buffet featuring some New Orleans style cuisine. So it was night time and Amanda went her way and I went mine.

I had intended to ride a bus down St. Charles Ave to Napolean and from there walk to my friend's place. The trouble is that in a city hthat is not quite functioning on all cylinders, the bus service at night is not predictable. Although the fare is free it is not as regular as I discovered later on that it was during the daytime. I hoofed it across campus to St Charles and on down St. Charles toward Napoleon, perhaps 20 blocks.

I am not used to walking,especially when carrying a bag with a change or two of clothing. It was a cool evening but even so I was sweating profusely by the time I made it to my friend's place. On the way I passed some very impressive old houses, even mansions that are well maintained and obviously places where the remaining power brokers of the city reside. As might be expected, not all the street signs are up and so I walked past Napoleon and went way past the Garden District even to the edge of I-10, nearly entering the French Quarter. I had been in New Orleans before and so I knew I was well past where I should be.

I took a cross street north a couple of blocks only to discover that I had entered the twightlight zone. Where St. Charles was nice houses, hotels and restaurants, only a couple of blocks north was a vandalized car, left to remain as a warning. This was no where for someone to be walking at night. I circled back and made it to Josephine. Figuring the Napoleon could not be far away, a headed on. Finally I saw a cab for hire. There were a few in that area. The cab took me the remainder of the few blcosk that I needed to go.

I was very tired but after a shower I spent a couple of hours chatting with my friend who is the inspiration for the Grem character in Spectre of Dammerwald. He has been working on a story about New Orleans for a couple of years. I have helped him with it a time or two and although it is far from complete it is one of the projects I'd like to see complete. It is funny and sarcastic, irreverent and caustic.

The next morning I walked from Grem's place back to St. Charles where two hispanic ladies were waiting for a bus. It came within a couple of minutes and wisked me back to Tulane where a very filling breakfast awaited.

The second day was more for Amanda, so that she could sit in on a couple of actual classes, go shopping int he bookstore and see anything lese that she wanted to see. Then, around noon there was a huge outdoor barbeque to conclude the day's schedule.

We then returned to the north end of campus, called for a cab (something I should have done the night before perhaps) and back to the airport to await (and I mean await) departure.

Somewhere in all that I promoted my books to a few people.

I have some personal opinions regarding the recovery of New Orleans and I may actually expand upon them later on. The simple truth is that the government has thrown money at the local administrators who are doing only a little of what they should be doing. The presense of FEMA funds in the present economy has inflated the price for building supplies. It has also made it difficult for businesses to find and retain employees that they can afford. Burger King is hiring at $12.50/hr but no one wants to work past 5pm. So the Burger Kings close early.

It is hard to know what to do in a situation but it is easy to see what is wrong. I guess the largest frustration that I sensed was not with government but with the opportunists that are taking advantage of the situation. New Orleans will be back but this I a critical time when very lasting decisions have to be made with a sober understanding of the effects on the future of the city. American's most diverse city could become a model of how to integrate a city so completely that the diversity is not even noticed. But at the present each ethnic group seems intent on maintaining a cultural pluralism in distinct isolation that will at best remake the city into what it was before, with all its long standing problems. Let's hope that the people are wiser than the present leadership that is guiding the reconstruction - the very same leadership that failed the people on the city and state level during the disaster.

E

posted by Unknown @ 10:23 PM