Mid-day in the Garden of...
Yes, the French influence is clear - almost
Parisian at times...
New Orleans
The final leg of the tour was down to New Orleans and Baton Rouge for some meetings etc... Down Highway 61 again, and then spent four days in New Orleans. Again - Amazing. And interesting. If you like tragedy.
From a city of 350,000 people, only 100,000 remain. The French Quarter was pretty much untouched by Katrina, and the CBD is pretty much fine as well - meaning that the average tourist would barely notice... BUT... You go over a bridge and out into the suburbs where all the poor people lived (read - black neighbourhoods) and - well, you can see from the pictures below.
I've never seen anything like it - a year later and it's still completely - and I mean completely - devastated. No sign of life, no people working to put it back together - it's just gone.
And these neighbourhoods go on for miles and miles and miles...
What is really tragic is the political fall out from all this. A seemingly totally incompetant mayor, a total lack of desire by all the business to have the poor people come back, complete uncertainty about what people should do and what will happen next - it's a complete mess.
And of course, the danger exists that the 'money' part of town will use the opportunity to rebuild the city as another 'Disney' version of what was - without the poverty, the grit, and only an officially 'sanctioned' black identity. Very scary.
Did manage to catch some amazing jazz in a club way out in the 'bad-lands' one night - and the French quarter is, yes it's true, quite lovely.
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| Mid-day in the Garden of... |
Yes, the French influence is clear - almost |
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| French Quarter |
A theatre in town. |
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The piano... heart breaking... |