Sad but true.
The French Quarter was largely untouched - Preservation Hall reportedly suffered very little damage. But maybe some of that rebuilding money can go into PH anyway....
People mostly went to see the French Quarter anyway which didn't flood at all. The restaurants, the architecture, the music are all good. I'd heard recently (pre-Katrina) it had started getting seedy. It's possible it could be built back better.
Whoever owns the large buildings and hotels downtown are not going to walk away from them. It will probably come back slowly and maybe not as big, like Galveston did after the 1900 hurricane.
Or, maybe I'm too much of an optimist.
At one time NOLA was ny favorite city in the U.S. That was before the degenerates took over the Quarter and the crime rate went off the charts.
Hopefully, it can get back to that state of affairs but I doubt it. It's really sad - it was a great place.