Even when they rebuild, there will always be an emotional stigma attached to the city, and to places such as the convention center.  Realistically, who will want to take their family to where dead bodies floated down the street a few months earlier, or where the diseased water collected?  Can you imagine going to the convention center for a Business Convention, knowing that in the back they had dead bodies stacked up?  Even if they make the place sparkling clean with new buildings and streets, how will they recover their revenue stream from tourism, how will they overcome the stain on the place put there by all that happenned in the past two weeks?

<shrugs>


In 30 years, I haven't ever had the urge to go there.

So I really can't answer your question.

Gettysburg is about 20 miles from my house. Hundreds of thousands of tourists go there every year. Far more people died, and in far more gruesome ways, in Gettysburg than in New Orleans.

<shrug>

I agree with your point about Gettysburg, but I think that this is a different type of situation for a number of reasons.

Quoted: Gettysburg is about 20 miles from my house. Hundreds of thousands of tourists go there every year. Far more people died, and in far more gruesome ways, in Gettysburg than in New Orleans. <shrug>

Yeah, but we didn't watch it happen on television.  Not to mention that Gettysburg is a battlefield and New Orleans is a crime scene.

waiy until my "9th ward" fashion line hits the streets this winter. come spring, everyone will want to visit and be a part of the inspiration. it will be THE destination in the western hemisphere.

Quoted: Even when they rebuild, there will always be an emotional stigma attached to the city, and to places such as the convention center.  Realistically, who will want to take their family to where dead bodies floated down the street a few months earlier, or where the diseased water collected?  Can you imagine going to the convention center for a Business Convention, knowing that in the back they had dead bodies stacked up?  Even if they make the place sparkling clean with new buildings and streets, how will they recover their revenue stream from tourism, how will they overcome the stain on the place put there by all that happenned in the past two weeks?

jk,

Mark my words: NOLA will be rebuilt and be 10X better than it was before the storm.  I'm serious.

Think about it - EVERYTHING will be brand new.  No slums.  Brand new houses, townhomes, condos, apartments - all with higher rents than before (= keeps the rif-raf out).   The federal politicians, in their efforts to appear "caring," will DUMP money into that area so it will be rebuilt with magnificence.

Just watch.

CMOS

Beads
Boobs
Booze

They will be back

Although I was born and raised there I will never go back--or even drive through EVER

Quoted: Quoted: Even when they rebuild, there will always be an emotional stigma attached to the city, and to places such as the convention center.  Realistically, who will want to take their family to where dead bodies floated down the street a few months earlier, or where the diseased water collected?  Can you imagine going to the convention center for a Business Convention, knowing that in the back they had dead bodies stacked up?  Even if they make the place sparkling clean with new buildings and streets, how will they recover their revenue stream from tourism, how will they overcome the stain on the place put there by all that happenned in the past two weeks? jk, Mark my words: NOLA will be rebuilt and be 10X better than it was before the storm.  I'm serious. Think about it - EVERYTHING will be brand new.

Everything?

New prostitutes, new homosexuals, new bums, new pimps, new crack dealers............

I have never been to New Orleans, tell me what exactly goes on there... I have seen the Marti Gra (SP) give them beads, women show their tits, what else happens there besides a good drinking time? Whore Houses? I hear other type houses??
Who has been there, what did you see?

Think about it - EVERYTHING will be brand new.  No slums.  Brand new houses, townhomes, condos, apartments - all with higher rents than before (= keeps the rif-raf out).   The federal politicians, in their efforts to appear "caring," will DUMP money into that area so it will be rebuilt with magnificence. Just watch. CMOS

Yep.  Some places will look nice until some of the de-evacuated-americans have chance to return their surroundings to thier natural state of  shithole.
matthew

Eminent Domain > bulldozers > Steve Wynn. Vegas, watch out.

I was very young when I went there twice in the late 70's I was probably 8 & 11, BTW. The treasures of King Tut & Alexander toured through whatever muesum back then & my family went to see them.

From what little that I remember, the city looked like a slum on stilts.

From a "tourist" standpoint, if you're an alcoholic and have never seen a naked breast in person, I guess it's the place to be.

F-New Orleans. It was a mistake to build it there. I suppose it's too late to prevent the goverment from  making the same mistake twice?

Scott

Quoted: I have never been to New Orleans, tell me what exactly goes on there... I have seen the Marti Gra (SP) give them beads, women show their tits, what else happens there besides a good drinking time? Whore Houses? I hear other type houses?? Who has been there, what did you see?

Salem,
Greater NOLA had a little bit of everything:

Wonderful family freindly neighborhoods
The first Catholic allgirls school in the nation
And all the things you would find in New York City and Las Vegas, except much blacker and more corupt

Quoted: Gettysburg is about 20 miles from my house. Hundreds of thousands of tourists go there every year. Far more people died, and in far more gruesome ways, in Gettysburg than in New Orleans. <shrug>

They had a purpose stoops

I didn't ever want to go there BEFORE, much less NOW!

It will be a much nicer place with most of the poor trash gone.  I predict big things for NO as a tourism destination.  It was a hassle remembering which steets it was unsafe to go beyond and that one couldn't park their car anywhere on the street without having it broken into.

Collage kids (and most people) have a collective memory of about 2 years… for example of this axiom I give you 9-11-2001.

People that would have gone before will go in the not to distance future… I have been to NO many times and will go back, but I have family down there.

jkstexas2001

A great topic, and I think you're correct
in the short term. [less than 3 years]
But Americans have a short term memory problem.
Unfortunately...

myit

Naw..You watch..This March will be one of the biggest Mardi Gras ever. More booze, bewbies and tourists. Usually after something like this, people want to show their support. You have to remember too, most of the French Quarter went unscathed. Party on Garth!

I liked going down there, frankly for the food and the music.  Nothing like eating gumbo and listening to jazz in an open air bar.  I did not go during Mardi Gras, and saw nothing on Bourbon Street that interested me, because I married a good woman.  My wife spent one summer earning money by drawing sketches of folks.  She worked in front of some cathedral, I can't recall the name at the time.  I am wondering if it will be the same.

Anyone who thinks New Orleans will rise like a phoenix is dreaming!  There is no fucking way that New Orleans will be restored with new housing, condos, etc to the point people will call it the 'Atlanta of the Gulf Coast'.  There are lots of reasons for my claim.  A few follow:

1)  If New Orleans tries to resurrect itself as a major tourist destination, where are the people coming from who are going to make the hotel beds, bus the tables, and shine the shoes?  Mexico?  The 'poor' neighborhoods where those service workers once lived, now underwater, will become a state park.  When neighborhoods disintegrate, so does the city.  Detroit is a perfect example of what New Orleans will become.  Even worse is the situation of the skilled workers who evacuated the city and lost their homes.  Employers all over the country are cherry picking this group right now.  The longer they are away from the city, the less likely they will be to return.

2)  "Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely."  Does anyone in their right mind think there will be wholesale change in local government?  How long until Jesse Jackson rides into town proclaiming that New Orleans' government is for and by blacks and any attempt to replace it with one run by competent whites is not only racist but an attempt to disenfranchise blacks?  That political battle promises to be something we haven't seen in this country for 40 years.  Rebuilding New Orleans with a government that is inherently corrupt is criminal.

3)  You can't change geography.  Despite $100 billion or more of our tax dollars, most of New Orleans as we knew it pre-Katrina will continue to be a perennially hurricane threatened coastal city, sinking below sea level.  Levees are works of man and hurricanes are acts of God.  Guess who wins in the end?

4)  New Orleans was losing population even before the storm.  It was widely recognized as a fun place to visit and a shitty place to live.  The best and the brightest found a life elsewhere.  They aren't coming back unless the racial balance is reversed and that won't happen without major civil unrest.  

5)  The city's most important strategic reason for being is an international port.  There are also vital installations for the energy industry.  Nothing changes there except they will comprise the local economy.  New Orleans transitions to more of a gritty industrial area, albeit with less population, than before.

We are witnessing the rapid decline of a major city in the world's wealthiest country.   We live in fascinating times guys!

Quoted: Mark my words: NOLA will be rebuilt and be 10X better than it was before the storm.  I'm serious. Think about it - EVERYTHING will be brand new.  No slums.  Brand new houses, townhomes, condos, apartments - all with higher rents than before (= keeps the rif-raf out).   The federal politicians, in their efforts to appear "caring," will DUMP money into that area so it will be rebuilt with magnificence. Just watch. CMOS

And the same people that craped on it and made it such a scummy corrupt cesspool will do it again just as fast, faster than they can build it is my guess.

If'n I were in charge, I'd level it and build an ultra-modern, ultra-safe, ultra-profitable industrial port complex. Buku concrete. Buku steel. Put the worker housing outside the flood zone and run a high speed train to the complex. Given the geography, and the tremendous resources available in the area, nothing else makes sense.

Which is why there's not a chance in hell they'll do it.

Quoted: Gettysburg is about 20 miles from my house. Hundreds of thousands of tourists go there every year. Far more people died, and in far more gruesome ways, in Gettysburg than in New Orleans. <shrug>

I dont know about that analogy.

Honor, courage and sacrifice versus......shit swirling in a big puddle of water.

Quoted: Anyone who thinks New Orleans will rise like a phoenix is dreaming!  There is no fucking way that New Orleans will be restored with new housing, condos, etc to the point people will call it the 'Atlanta of the Gulf Coast'.  There are lots of reasons for my claim.  A few follow: 1)  If New Orleans tries to resurrect itself as a major tourist destination, where are the people coming from who are going to make the hotel beds, bus the tables, and shine the shoes?  Mexico?  The 'poor' neighborhoods where those service workers once lived, now underwater, will become a state park.  When neighborhoods disintegrate, so does the city.  Detroit is a perfect example of what New Orleans will become.  Even worse is the situation of the skilled workers who evacuated the city and lost their homes.  Employers all over the country are cherry picking this group right now.  The longer they are away from the city, the less likely they will be to return. 2)  "Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely."  Does anyone in their right mind think there will be wholesale change in local government?  How long until Jesse Jackson rides into town proclaiming that New Orleans' government is for and by blacks and any attempt to replace it with one run by competent whites is not only racist but an attempt to disenfranchise blacks?  That political battle promises to be something we haven't seen in this country for 40 years.  Rebuilding New Orleans with a government that is inherently corrupt is criminal. 3)  You can't change geography.  Despite $100 billion or more of our tax dollars, most of New Orleans as we knew it pre-Katrina will continue to be a perennially hurricane threatened coastal city, sinking below sea level.  Levees are works of man and hurricanes are acts of God.  Guess who wins in the end? 4)  New Orleans was losing population even before the storm.  It was widely recognized as a fun place to visit and a shitty place to live.  The best and the brightest found a life elsewhere.  They aren't coming back unless the racial balance is reversed and that won't happen without major civil unrest.   5)  The city's most important strategic reason for being is an international port.  There are also vital installations for the energy industry.  Nothing changes there except they will comprise the local economy.  New Orleans transitions to more of a gritty industrial area, albeit with less population, than before. We are witnessing the rapid decline of a major city in the world's wealthiest country.   We live in fascinating times guys!

Uh… you have stumbled in to something and still are wrong.

New Orleans IS going to be rebuilt and if you think it is not you are dreaming.

New Orleans has a 300 year history and that is not going away, the French Quarter is intact. Workers for the tourist service jobs are easily replaced.

IF much of the population displace by this storm does not return that may help the situation in NO. Detroit lost it industrial base New Orleans industrial base has not gone anywhere it is damaged in places but much of that will be up and running within 2 weeks. The port opened today, some refineries have already come back on line more to follow… or in other words the highest paying jobs are already coming back.

They very people you think are going to be cherry picked will be the first back. If anything this disaster may clean out some of the economic dead wood and make NO MORE viable. Like it or not NO is going to be a boom town for 3-5 years because of the vast amounts of Federal money that are going to be proured in to the place.

The tourist areas were an interesting visit. the French Quarter, some of the other areas.  If they can figure out how to eliminate most of the criminals and retain the food the music the ambience, the port area, willing working locals and tourists will bring it back.  If they can't solve the crime problems it will need to be flushed again, on a regular basis.  Maybe a ward at a time until it works?

I'm heading there in February.

With the passage of time, people will return. Its not the first city to experience a disaster.

Quoted: It will be a much nicer place with most of the poor trash gone.  I predict big things for NO as a tourism destination.  It was a hassle remembering which steets it was unsafe to go beyond and that one couldn't park their car anywhere on the street without having it broken into.

IMHO, what happened to the tourists will have more to do with the return of tourism than any other factor. Yeah, it was a big crime scene but it will bear more on people's mind that they will be herded into the <<insert favorite derogatory name for SuperDome here>> in case of another disaster that will be the deciding factor.

wganz
¶

Quoted: It will be a much nicer place with most of the poor trash gone.  I predict big things for NO as a tourism destination.  It was a hassle remembering which steets it was unsafe to go beyond and that one couldn't park their car anywhere on the street without having it broken into.

I saw this addressed in the ppaers in Alabama when I was just down there as the poorer folks in NO being concerned that the gentrification
of the city created during the rebuilding would drive them out of the city entirely.

Also articles on how the rebuilding would make the city the most high tec city in the USA due to the wholesale rebuilding of so much of the utilities, communications, etc.

Voodoo man! It's voodoo! Can you imagine just how many boobies need to be flashed to bring the tourists back?

People will continue to come.
I do enjoy some of the entertainment venues down there, but as far as a destination....I never quit got that.