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SATW Awards: New Orleans 4 Grabs the Gold!

Shameless self-promotion time: Today Lonely Planet's New Orleans 4 won the Gold Medal winner in the Guidebook category of the prestigious Society of American Travel Writer's Lowell Thomas Award!!

Authored by Tom Downs and developed by Jay Cooke (that's me), this first LP post-Katrina guide was a labor of love.

We'll celebrate with cocktails at Zeitgeist on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6:30 pm. Laissez les bon temps roulez!!!!

Katrina: Two Years After, New Orleans reflects

It hasn't entered the lexicon of infamy quite like 9/11 (perhaps since events spanned far more than one day), but today, Aug 29, marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast.

Unlike Manhattan, where herculean efforts got the disaster zone cleared faster than expected, the recovery of New Orleans and surrounding Louisiana and Mississippi has progressed far more slowly.

Reasons abound: the sheer size of the disaster; politics of ineptitude at nearly all levels of government; enormous costs and uncertainty surrounding the feasibility of rebuilding; fearsome crime.

Whether the federal response has been hindered by some Rovian scheme to deny a blue state, or the far less machiavellian reality that US resources have been stupidly bogged down in Iraq (where was the Louisiana National Guard two years back?), it remains that the efforts to restore the region were punted by the Bush administration, and have yet to be run back.

With a new election pending, politicos will leverage Katrina. They'll pledge not to forget it, develop grand plans, even in the case of John Edwards stoop to kicking off his campaign in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Regardless, what you'll find in New Orleans if you visit yourself - and please, do - is a populace accepting the fact that they can't rely on their government, that if they wish to rebuild they need to do it themselves. They're hardened, assuredly, at times depressive and mad. But they are New Orleaneans, still, and by nature lovers of life, quick to shake off the demons with a concoction of regal cuisine, pure hospitality and the most ass-shakingest music scene anywhere in America.

Do yourself and them a favor, and get back on down to New Orleans, hear?

A Streetcar Named New Orleans

A Streetcar Named New Orleans  

 

By Jay Cooke

They'd gathered at Beauregard Circle by the entrance to City Park, a crowd several hundred strong, tooting horns and shooting video, tossing beads and waving Saints hats.

The steady 'bwomp, bwah bwah' of a brass band marked the cadence we quickly fell into, dancing around the vintage St. Charles streetcar with the throng on the median, or  'neutral ground'. They'd gathered to cheer us on, a krewe of 60-odd costumed revelers, temporary freaks and ambassadors who climbed aboard the streetcar, bedecked by purple, green and gold.

We were in Mid-City New Orleans, with the Phunny Phorty Phellows social krewe, to kick off Mardi Gras 2007. It was January 6, AKA Twelfth Night, when legend says wise men bestowed gifts onto baby Jesus, and New Orleans' Mardi Gras season begins.

I was riding with Anna and Kristian, two New Orleaneans impacted by Katrina, but fighting to revive their town. We squeezed to the front of the streetcar, grabbed window space and some beads and held on as the streetcar lurched into the night. The band, stuffed in the rear of the car, kept on blowing.

In the 18 months since Katrina became a four-letter word in this town, New Orleans has struggled to recover. Despite red tape and doubters, a hearty core has returned to make a stand and rebuild this unique American city.

It's not been easy. Normalcy is hard to fathom when half a city remains uninhabited, when empty homes line once-vibrant neighborhood blocks. Crime is a major issue.

That's what makes Mardi Gras and New Orleans' spring celebrations - the French Quarter Festival, Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival - so important for New Orleaneans. In the city that's mastered communal celebration unlike any other, public parties now symbolize progress, a reminder of good times past and promise of future ones to come.

We saw this first-hand in Mid-City, a broad, middle-class borough that flooded but is now returning in fits and starts. As our streetcar clanged down Carrollton St. away from the kickoff crowd, smaller groups clustered along the neutral ground, awaiting our approach. They'd wave and bellow "throw me something", we'd whoop and shower down beads in return.

We had the perfect front-window vantage of upcoming groups, some standing, some in lawn chairs, all ages and ethnicities represented. As we approached, they'd erupt in joy.

Though stereotypes paint Mardi Gras as a raucous show of drunks going wild (which they do, on Bourbon Street), for New Orleaneans it connotes much more. Mardi Gras is about families, and generations, gathering for reunions; neighbors reconnecting at favorite parade route spots, year after year.

The conductor noticed the turnout. "So many people," he said as he worked his dual-levered magic, angling the streetcar left onto Canal Street for its dash to the French Quarter downtown. Truth told, the crowd wasn't huge, but in a city striving to repopulate, parade goers were a welcomed site.

As we rode through our final leg downtown, a king cake appeared, and we munched the ceremonial pastry of Mardi Gras. Our beads depleted, we stumbled off at Royal Street, barely noticed despite our elaborate masks and clownish costumes -  which in itself, was a small symbol of normalcy returning to New Orleans again.

If You Go

The 2007 Mardi Gras season runs through Fat Tuesday, Feb. 20, when the police sweep Bourbon Street at midnight and Ash Wednesday begins Lent. Popular parades include Endymion (Feb. 17, 4:30pm), Orpheus (Feb. 19, 5:45pm) and Zulu (Feb. 20, 8am). For schedules, video and trip planning details visit www.mardigrasneworleans.com.

 

Festival season continues throughout spring in New Orleans. Favorites include the Tennessee Williams Festival (Mar. 28-Apr. 1, www.tennesseewilliams.net), the French Quarter Festival (Apr. 13-15, www.fqfi.org) and the granddaddy of American music happenings, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Apr. 27-May 6, www.nojazzfest.com).

Places to Eat

Down-home Mothers (401 Poydras St., 504-523-9656) dishes fluffy biscuits and 'heaping debris' po'boys. Palace Cafe (605 Canal St., 504-523-1661, www.palacecafe.com) masters horseradish oysters, velvety crusted duck and unreal desserts. The Central Grocery (923 Decatur St., 504-523-1620) birthed the muffelatta, a mega sandwich stuffed with ham, salami, provolone and olive tapenade. One fills two.

Places to Stay

A great value in the French Quarter, the 1830's-era Place d'Armes (625 St Ann St., 504-524-4531, www.placedarmes.com) features several buildings around a communal pool and courtyard. The Canal Street Guesthouse (1930 Canal St., 504-266-1930, www.bestguesthouse.com) shrugs off Katrina with its watery murals and festive traveler's ambiance.

Travels with Lonely Planet

King Features Syndicate 2007

 

New Orleans: Progress & Good Works, Pt. 2

Along with the failed levees, the Louisiana Superdome became the most prominent symbol of systematic failure during Katrina. Once representative of Super Bowl celebration and excess, the Superdome devolved into a physical manifestation of human tragedy and bureaucratic ineptitude.

Its restoration, therefore, was prioritized. Engineers had a mandate: to rebuild and renew the football stadium well in time for the New Orleans Saints 2006 home opener.

Unlike the Army Corps of Engineers, the Superdome's contractors have hit their deadlines. The Saints will kick off their home opener on Sept. 25, 2006, versus division rivals the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.

And fans, local and global, have stepped up in kind. Team officials announced that nearly all of the Saints 2006 season tickets packages have sold out. With more than 65,000 of 68,354 seats already sold, the team has shattered its previous high of 53,728 season tickets sold in 2003.

  Go Saints 
  Originally uploaded by howieluvzus.

On and off the field, the Saints worked to achieve success. The free agent signing of quarterback Drew Brees and drafting of running back Reggie Bush provide major talent upgrades, while new ticket plan packages at 17 different price points offers flexible options for fans of all budgets.

2005 Heisman Trophy winner Bush has emerged in particular as a symbol of renewal and hope in the city. He's giving back, too, spearheading restoration efforts of Tad Gormley Stadium, the high school field flooded in New Orleans City Park.

Additional props to Sports Illustrated NFL columnist Peter King, a vocal champion of the city and a season ticket holder to boot.

New Orleans: Progress & Good Works, Pt. 1

In the Year of Katrina, the media has covered the bad news far more than the good. Truth be told, our national tragedy has provided a context for some great works of charity, and a platform for highlighting ongoing cultural, ecological and philanthropic actions.

In support, this fall we're acknowledging some works that are making a positive difference down south. Here's one:

Tipitina's Foundation: The non-profit affiliate of NOLA's most famous music club, Tipitina's Foundation works to help musicians get back on track, with replacement instruments, legal and housing aid, and business seminars.

On August 29, Tips' contributed $500,000 to the Instruments A-Comin' program, providing hugely-needed funds for NOLA school music programs. By purchasing instruments, schools teach local kids skills to succeed in the music trades, offering them ways to escape environments plagued with poverty and strife, hurricanes or not.

When you head to New Orleans, head uptown to the club named for Professor Longhair that launched the careers of the Neville Brothers, the Meters, Rebirth Brass Band and so many more.

New Orleans, One Year After Katrina

As Tropical Storm Ernesto angles toward Florida, its time to pause and reflect on what needs to be known as the Katrina Year.

Hard to fathom that final Saturday night of one year ago, when the outer rings of the hurricane brought drenching rain to New Orleans, and media websites ran lonely images of barren French Quarter intersections, where melancholy streetlights backlit the final hours of old New Orleans.

For all the press that's been given to New Orleans' culture of hurricane denial, its socioeconomic origins and calamatous effects, its worth remembering how for many, Katrina was feared, absolutely and historically.

Perhaps it was the images of the massive storm spanning the full Gulf of Mexico on approach to the Gulf South. Or the fresh legacy of the 2004 hurricane season, tearing Florida apart. Maybe just the ominous tone of our times, in a decade when things that seem they could go bad, do, added to that feeling of dread that arose as Katrina blew up to a Category 5 storm aiming squarely at the river city.

Maybe just the acknowledgment that of all American cities, none was quite as unique and irreplacable as New Orleans.

Even Ray Nagin, who's legacy grows more dubious with each calculating interview, each prizewinning New Orleans-based historian's searing critique, each 60 Minutes puff piece, or Spike Lee joint or ill-advised bitchslap at New York City, even he had the savvy enough to say "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the real deal."

And it was one year ago today that all the world knew about Katrina was that it would do something to New Orleans, impact it somehow, to what level or extent, no one knew.

Clearly, now we all know what happened. Now we know the name Michael Brown, and the term FEMA. Now we know that 21st-Century aside, race and class are inextricably linked in America, as always, even though an African-American female like Condoleezza Rice can ascend to Secretary of State, she can be just as obtuse and disconnected as the fattest of fat white men, shopping for shoes on Fifth Avenue while her countrypeople were abandoned, and dying, in New Orleans.

And now we know, more than ever, how woefully below par is our President, George W. Bush, who probably never imagined while bounding around on his mountain bike in Crawford how the other shoe to drop, post-9/11, would arrive in a storm surge, not a suitcase bomb or sealed envelope.

Perhaps reading Camus' The Stranger this summer will help Bush with his demons in the years after he leaves office. Perhaps he'll be able to resurrect his bullhorn-toting best moment atop the WTC pile, and turn the clock back to pre-K, pre-Iraq. Perhap. Perhaps not.

But rather than skewer Bush or Nagin any more than history ultimately will, rather than spread blame or hatred, let's take a moment to note what's most important: the hundreds of lives lost, in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and the thousands more upended, and displaced, and abandoned.

Someday, literature will address the Katrina year. Someone will write a novel akin to Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, one testifying to the horrors of the greatest displacement of Americans since the Dust Bowl. Most likely, someone is right now.

But for today, for day 364 in the Year of Katrina, take a moment to put down the pens, push away from the keyboard, and bow your heads in commemoration to our shared national tragedy, our JFK, our guilt and shame.

Back to the Big Easy

As Commissioning Editor - US East at Lonely Planet, my terrain includes New Orleans and the American Gulf South. It also covers Florida, so I was aware of that class one hurricane that ripped across the state, toward the Gulf of Mexico and class 5 infamy as Katrina.

I wrote LP's breaking news dispatches during the week of Katrina, and hosted a Lonely Planet podcast discussion of post-hurricane Louisiana with Lonely Planet author Pableaux Johnson.

  New Orleans Protest Car 
  Originally uploaded by howieluvzus.

In November, I returned to New Orleans to report on its progress, three months post-Katrina. I toured the neighborhoods, with an eye toward the reopened few outposts amid the bathtub ring.

  Debris 
  Originally uploaded by emmajane82.

The city has far to go but many believers and a hearty defiance. To survey and spread some love, go now.