A trip to N’Awlins (Part 1)
Apparently the correct pronunciation is N’awlins but everytime I say that here in NY I have to say New Orleans before anyone understands me. I was speaking at an Admonsters conference but took an extra day to be a tourist in NOLA since it was my first time.
A couple of gut reactions:
- Right off the bat, the Superdome is GIGANTIC! I don’t follow sports much but it was explained to me that Superdome is one of a few venues that hold the Super Bowl.
- The South is quiet, pretty and s…l…o…w. I quickly could imagine myself sitting on one of those grand porches in the Garden District in a swinging chair reading every afternoon…For maybe a month, maybe, before I went crazy! But it’s nice to dream.
- The Haves have and the Have Nots have not.
- There ain’t people that look like me down in them parts…
I strolled down St Charles Street and saw some of the most amazing homes and took a walk through Audubon Park all before lunch time on Sunday.
Before checking in, I decided to drive down to the Lower 9th Ward. And while people warned me that NOLA wasn’t the safest of places, growing up in NYC, I figured how bad could it be? Well in hindsight, it was one of the dumber things I’ve done.
The first house I saw once I drove over the canal was a gutted yellow home with an open door. So I got out to get a better look. What was astonishing was that the iconic x-like search symbol was still on a lot of houses 3 and a half years later. It was sad to see the have nots who have come back to claim their homes in the Lower 9th Ward live side by side with the constant reminder of this disaster. Some houses were re-built, some were gutted, others are still untouched and boarded up.
On two different occasions, a car would roll by mine very slowly letting me know that I was not welcome. After that, I didn’t get out of the car but I definitely felt like those cars were like the kids on roofs in movies and the whole community knew where I was. I had overstayed my welcome and I headed back to the touristy area of NOLA.
On the way back, I drove past a quiet railroad track and snapped a couple of shots.
All this in one day…stay tuned for the Monday’s adventure in the next post. For more pictures or a sneak peak, go look at the NOLA sets on my Flickr page.
