Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Ok, I’m being a bit melodramatic. Most of the country couldn’t care less what is happening today, this very warm Saturday, in New Orleans. Sure Hollywood feigns interest, and the major news networks are acting as if the future of the world depended on the election in New Orleans. I’ll never grow tired of the “Come Visit New Orleans” commercials starring a lot of people who don’t live in New Orleans anymore (kudos to John Goodman for actually being a resident).
Look, I’d love to see a lot of tourists visit the city and bring money into the town, but what I’d like to see more is demolition, renovation, and rebuilding. Good Lord people, eight months later and New Orleans East looks like the perfect scene for a horror flick. Devoid of life, flashing stop lights, empty. It disturbs me so much that when the time comes to evacuate, I’m considering taking the long route across the Causeway to I-12 instead of staying on I-10 East all the way to Alabama. (Trust me, it’s a long way to get to the same place.) Last night NBC Nightly News had a small story on Filmore Avenue, which was my preferred route to get from NOBTS to Metairie. From what I gather, nobody has even gotten to that part of town. And there’s no chance they’ve cleaned up Ponchatrain/West End Blvd. where last I saw, they’d built a mountain out of old oaks and oak mulch on the neutral ground.
Progress. I’ve seen more progress in Iraq than in New Orleans. (No, I don’t blame Bush for this. I blame Nagin, Blanco, and New Orleans for this.) My friend Howie tells me that a firm from Tyler, Texas offered to pay New Orleans for each flooded/junked car they removed from the city. Instead, Nagin and his people declined and are now taking bids to see who they have to pay the least for removing the cars. And the cars are still there, last I checked.
This is the city I’m moving back to. My family thinks I’m crazy. I watch the news and I wonder if maybe I am. I got an email from my mentor, who recently brought his family back to New Orleans, and in it I felt undertones of frustration. The attitude he seemed to be telling me about: “They won’t change. They never change. Nothing will make them change.” I’ve felt that in my heart too. It’s a hard thing to watch. And I move back June 1st. Less than two weeks.
So here we are. Saturday. I didn’t vote because I don’t have a clue who to vote for. All I know is that Nagin wants a Chocolate (read: Black) City, and Landrieu is old school (read: the corrupt folks), and both seem to be completely out of touch with reality. In particular, Nagin seems to be the most clueless. I guess what it comes down to is that today really isn’t the first day of the rest of New Orleans’ life. It’s just another day in a very insane life. And here I sit wondering if it’s a city that wants redemption. That wants rebuilding. That wants anything. I wonder if maybe New Orleans just wants to party itself out, and die a pitiful death.
Two weeks.
[Update]: I guess I’ll be spending the next four years in the Chocolate City. Anybody see the remake of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? I wonder if he’ll bring in oompa loompas to rebuild.
