The Battle Beyond
Click photos for more details
New Orleans has been on a week-long sports high and going headlong into Mardi Gras. While all this is good, it’s notable that parts of our city remain a complete wreck on all varying degrees the further you go from a tangential line extending from any point on the dry epicenter of functionality and commerce that is the French Quarter and all along the sliver-on-the-river toward the lake. Broadmoore, Gentilly, Mid-City and more. The reality of our City is very different for residents.
I took a drive about town today and revisited areas I haven’t photographed in about a year to compare realities. These photos contrast just one tiny slice of one of the poorer parts of the City with the downtown effervescence.
The parking lots downtown and hotels and bars along Bourbon St. are raking it in and it’s business as usual. On the other hand, some areas remain in a sad and static state since Katrina. How far can the enthusiasm of an LSU win stretch? Thanks to y’all for coming from Hawaii and Ohio. You give us a great morale boost which we still need.
Just an FYI:
This was our City Sponsored NOLA information alert for today which the City sends via email:
The Office of Emergency Preparedness would like to inform everyone that military aircraft will be performing low level flyovers around the CBD area today Monday January 7, 2008. These flyovers are in response to the BCS championship game that is occurring in the New Orleans Superdome.
City Hall to Close at 2 p.m. on Monday
New Orleans City Hall will close at 2 p.m. on Monday, January 7 due to anticipated traffic and parking congestion in the downtown business area as a result of the BCS National Championship game. Emergency and essential services will continue to be provided throughout this time.
For more information, please contact the city information hotline by dialing 311.
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the further you go from a tangential line extending from any point on the dry epicenter
Technically this would be a perpendicular; the tangent is the best straight-line approximation of the curve (meaning it tends to follow the curve rather than depart from it) but I catch your drift.
And the email alert regarding low-level flyovers was my WTF moment of the day! Hope everyone has a good safe time out there.
And go, whoever!
You’re right, in our case, I guess. Although nothing here isn’t on a curve. That email alert was really f’d up, on the big scheme of things considering I have heard nothing but sirens for what seems like days straight.
The areas you most likely visited were not high in home ownership, good guess or a more educated guess. Landlords cannot afford to repair and insure at todays rates. The era of cheap rent for a dump has been discontinued in the City of New Orleans. About 65% of the population were renters. many of the homeowners in the poor neighborhoods were elderly. The neighborhoods you speak about not returning to the past and have an unknown future. Its real estate!!!