It’s kinda weird working in the CBD. It’s the one place in New Orleans where things aren’t moving slowly. I’ve been taking Esplanade to Decatur to Camp St. to get to work and it’s quite a nice ride. Decatur St. is kinda funny in the afternoons when all of the tourists are out. It’s kinda funny to think that they go to the French Quarter to walk around all day long, looking in shops, trying to find things to buy and drink and eat, like they’re at a big fair. No one’s telling them “just go find a place to sit and eat for two hours, then go find some shade along the river to sit.” They’re all so busy and we’re all so…
Now that I’m thinking about it, though, I don’t even know that I’d call this a lazy city anymore. It seems like there’s a lot more activity going on, aside from the streetcars. It’s probably more just that the city is compressed now. Everyone lives closer together or something. I guess what it is, at least in my experience, is that the city has become uptown, downtown, mid-city and the points in between. But it’s like, when i go North of Esplanade on Wisner (toward the lake) there’s just not much of anything there. There are pockets of civilization — there are businesses again on Harrison Ave (including a snoball stand that’s open past sun-down!), there are some things going on in Lakeview and Gentilly, but it’s not a lot. When we drive East to my mom’s or my dad’s we pass through New Orleans East and it doesn’t look a hell of a lot different. I know we don’t get the full story from the interstate, but you can just see it… there’s just not a lot of life there.
But when you stay localized to where you live, when we don’t go past City Park, it’s like things are fairly normal. I don’t know, i go back and forth. Sometimes it’s euphoric to be here. We’ve been going to the park nearly every evening so that I can go for walks and the kids can play with other kids. The evenings have been so beautiful. The temperature is warm but not stifling, everything is green and lush and there are trees everywhere. Huge oak trees and palm trees… there are so many different types of palm trees, some so huge and dense that the trunks have ferns growing in their shingled bark.
But you have to contrast that with the stories of the crimes, the woman who was car-jacked in broad daylight at the mall, the man who was shot down Carrollton right near the corner of Claiborne. I admit that I sometimes elect to be naive. It’s not going to happen to me because I’m invincible, or simply because it never has. I didn’t grow up in the best of neighborhoods, but we’ve always been safe. I think I live in a fantastic neighborhood now, but as everyone you meet points out, no area is completely safe.
I don’t think New Orleans is a lazy city anymore, and it may also simply be because my personal experience now, here, isn’t what it was in the past. (Though I have to say that in some ways I can’t help but feel like my mind has reverted back to it being 1993, but that’s a tangent for another day.) But I’m not the only one who’s mentioned this. This was what I was getting at with working in the CBD, that it’s like the one place in nola where things are in constant motion. Work is actually happening, there is money being spent and deadlines being met. But then you go home, back to your (hopefully) quiet neighborhood, you spend a few hours enjoying the warmth and slowing down the tempo…
Part of me feels compelled to chronicle my experiences here to offset this pervasive negativity that I’ve seen in New Orleans media, blogs in particular. Perhaps I’ve got rose-colored blinders on. Perhaps I don’t have it as hard as some other local writers and so my experience is inherently different. But listen, I grew up hearing my grandpa pseudo-swear at the local news as he sat at the dinner table, complaining about the crime, the politicians, the corruption, the pot holes in the streets, the bums in the French Quarter… I don’t know. You know, everything that people are complaining about now. But let’s face it, it’s not worse now, it’s just a continuation of the same old shit. And fo reals, the same old shit in New Orleans, as far as I’m concerned, is way more interesting then the same old shit in just about any other place this country has to offer. Of course I’d like less crime, to feel like my family is safe. I want my wife to feel safe. I’d like to get bounced off of the seat by the bumps in the road less as I ride my scooter. But I wouldn’t like less Spanish moss. I love that there are swans swimming through the waters of city park and a huge flock of herons nesting in the trees in Audubon Park. I enjoy seeing how many people are out walking, jogging, riding their bikes, and walking their dogs. I feel like there is community around me here, something I don’t EVER remember feeling in Milwaukee.
And part of me feels compelled to chronicle my experiences here to see how they change when things stop going my way.