Posted on 01/17/2007 2:49:10 PM PST by AUJenn
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The hookers are back on Bourbon Street. So are the drug dealers, the strippers with names like Rose and Desire, the out-of-town businessmen, the college students getting blitzed on candy-colored cocktails and beer in plastic cups.
But a closer look reveals things are not back to the way they were in the French Quarter. Sixteen months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' liveliest, most exuberant neighborhood is in a funk.
"The money's not the same. I remember when I made $1,200 a night," said Elizabeth Johnson, a manager and dancer at a Bourbon Street strip club, frowning at another slow night. "I know girls who used to never let people touch them, and now they're resorting to prostitution."
Robert Boudreaux, a beefy hotel bellman in an olive green vest, scanned the street with folded arms and said: "Very boring."
The Quarter still has its characters - palm readers, magicians, street musicians, mimes. But the cheap fun is largely confined to the weekends these days, and seven-day-a-week stores, restaurants and clubs such as Preservation Hall are cutting back on their hours. The nonstop party is no more.
The "cams" - real-time camera footage of Bourbon Street, shown over the Internet - are dull on weekdays. Dixieland bands play to empty barrooms.
"The Quarter rats are drunk and high still, but they're less drunk," said bartender Dawn Kesslering.
In the Lower Quarter, the district's residential half, where people walk poodles and neighbors share clothes lines in galleried courtyards, old-timers do not see as much zest around them.
"It's become far more homogenous, far more middle-class than working-class," said John Dillman, who sells used books. "It will look like Boca Raton. A version of Boca Raton that has risque."
In 2004, the last full year before Katrina struck, about 10 million visitors came to New Orleans, most of them drawn by the French Quarter. In 2006, just over 5 million came.
"Every time they'd see CNN, Fox, they'd show flooded streets. Everybody thought there was nothing to come back to," said Earl Bernhardt, owner of several Bourbon Street nightspots.
In truth, the French Quarter was largely untouched by Katrina's fury. But it suffered financially anyway.
Some nightspots really are gone. O'Flaherty's, an Irish pub known for its soul-warming reels and TVs tuned to World Cup soccer, is gone. So too is the 125-year-old Maison Hospitaliere, a nursing home that began as a home for Confederate widows. Bella Luna, La Madeleine and the Old New Orleans Cookery - some of the popular eateries - fell victim to Katrina. The Little Shop of Fantasy, a Mardi Gras mask shop run by two sisters, cleared out of the Quarter and went online, like so many other Quarter businesses. And after 83 years, Hurwitz Mintz shuttered its flagship furniture shop on Royal Street.
Since Katrina, the real estate market has been in flux, and rents have gone through the roof because of the overall shortage of housing in New Orleans.
In the French Quarter, there are twice as many condos for sale, from 90 before Katrina to about 180 now. Some people are moving out; others are trying to take advantage of the housing shortage by converting attics, parlor rooms, stables and slave quarters into condos.
"I'm paying the most rent I've ever paid, and I've got the smallest place I've ever had," said Bob Clift, a portrait artist who waited in vain one recent day for customers under the live oaks on Jackson Square, outside St. Louis Cathedral.
A familiar face in the Quarter for 37 years, Clift said he is planning to leave the city after paying about $1,000 a month for an 8-by-15-foot room. "Poor people can't live here anymore," he said. "Including me."
After Katrina, waves of hurricane refugees and looters filled the French Quarter's streets. Then, soldiers in red berets and boots took Bourbon Street by storm. Then came the world's journalism corps, construction workers and prostitutes.
But now it is so quiet, many people feel afraid to walk the streets at night.
"I live by myself with my dog, so I really have to be careful," said Mikal Matton, a saleswoman at a jewelry shop. "That really bothers me."
Because of a spate of robberies, some stores and bars are locking up early. Several street shootings, a fatal stabbing and a murder-suicide in which a man murdered and cooked his girlfriend have put residents on edge.
"I'm taking gun classes now," said Mary McGinn, who works for a French Quarter real estate agency. She said she a mugger knocked her down Aug. 18 outside the gate to her home, and she hit her head on a concrete step. It took 35 staples to close the gash.
"He got $60. Whoop-de-doo!" she said, gamely smiling in a neck brace.
Police blame the spike in crime on the storm.
"Some of these areas the criminals used to hang out in aren't there anymore, so they're coming down to the French Quarter," said Capt. Kevin Anderson, the Quarter's police commander.
But he insisted the Quarter is safe, largely because there are 45 more officers on patrol than before the storm. And he said crime is down from 2004 in all categories except assault.
"We're dealing primarily with a perception problem," he said. "When someone gets shot in the French Quarter, it's not just national news, it's international news."
""Every time they'd see CNN, Fox, they'd show flooded streets. Everybody thought there was nothing to come back to," said Earl Bernhardt, owner of several Bourbon Street nightspots.
In truth, the French Quarter was largely untouched by Katrina's fury. "
But the media was telling the truth. /s
I stayed in New Orleans back in October for 1 night (for the experience). I got a cheap hotel in the French Quarter (Queen Anne Hotel or something for $59.00). I had to pay $100.00 cash because I didn't have any credit cards but Discover (and most places down there didn't take it). I stepped into the elevator and it smelled like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. I couldn't afford much to eat (because I only had a Discover card and the hotel tied up my cash for deposit until I checked out) and I did sleep ok except for the noise and partying outside (this was on a Thursday night). So, I'm not sure what it used to be like, but they still manage to party until the wee hours as sure as I can tell and I got my fill of New Orleans and have no desire to travel through there again. Staying there I felt like "I gave to the cause" and that's where it ends!
Well, what do we have in this story:
- strippers turned to prostitution
- cannibal murder
- mugging turned to violent attack
- thievery
- druggies and drunks
- people living in fear
Um...yeah, sounds great. Like somewhere I really want to vacation. Or spend any more tax $.
The presstitutes and then the prostitutes. And those Mexican laborers aren't going to do much for the local economy when they wire their paychecks home.
Elsewhere in the article they talk of vacancies AND high priced rentals. Sounds like they are gouging in the market. But who is there in Louisiana to investigate? Their elected leaders are crooks and certainly don't want to talk to ANY investigators.
This probably won't be a popular view here, since a lot of FReepers think New Orleans is worthless, but my little brother returned to work there in the Quarter about 3 months after the hurricane hit. He had gone up to Indianapolis (where we grew up) in the interim, found a job, and a place to live. His employer in N.O. was BEGGING him to come back at Christmas (he works at a popular bar/restaurant/club). He is making pretty good money. Unfortunately, he is still fighting the insurance company to get his settlement on his house; therefore, he is living with a generator instead of electricity (long story--wiring needs to be replaced since it is original to the 95 y.o. old
house).
He has told me that some 'project-type' housing nearby was destroyed by the hurricane and they are putting up some more upscale housing in its place.
He is more optimistic about the future of New Orleans (at least in his part of it) than most people would have you believe. He'll be coming back up to Indy in about 6 weeks and I can't wait to hear more about N.O. (we lived north of there several years ago).
Houston got all that and I don't even have to travel to experience it now.
I thought we had a Civil War to get rid of that. Did I miss something when I took my nap today?
Believe what you want. I was in The French Quarter for NYE and had a GREAT TIME. Yes, the city is hurting. Yes, the city will never be what it was . . . but some of these horror stories are just ridiculous. The people living there are just trying to get by and are trying to rebuild their city. We neglect them at our own peril.
"He has told me that some 'project-type' housing nearby was destroyed by the hurricane and they are putting up some more upscale housing in its place."
I think that is the key. For enterprising INDIVIDUALS to come in and make it better, one upscale development at a time. Maybe the housing market will encourage this kind of speculation, and the slummier areas will be replaced with more middle-class and upper-class development. Personally I'm not too worried about the "poor people" of N.O. as they are generally understood, as they created the bulk of the problems!
I actually like the idea of a "Boca Raton with risque" as some guy said in the article, LOL!
Everything I've read says the city will eventually be given up to the delta. Why should I put my money in there. Anyone else have contrary information?
C'mon LS, even you don't believe that.
" converting (snip) stables and slave quarters into condos."
Gotta get me one of those!
My point is that every story we hear is doom and gloom. Does no one who writes these stories realize that it turns people off from caring about the future of N. Orleans? I am southern born-and-bred, been to N. Orleans many times. I'm all for moving it back to the land of the living. But after hearing NOTHING but crime, terror, hopelessness - it turns people away from wanting to help.
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