The Janus That Is New Orleans

We've had a lot of football fans down here lately. Last week, it was the folks from University of Georgia and University of Hawaii, whose teams played in the Sugar Bowl. It's New Orleans' turn for the BCS Championship this year, so this weekend, visitors who support Ohio State have been overwhelmed by locals and visitors alike who support the hometown heroes, the Tigers of Louisiana State University. For the visitors staying in downtown or French Quarter hotels, there's not much evidence that anything as cataclysmic as the storm happened here. Those who walk up Canal St. to Claiborne Ave. will see the old green Texaco building, with all its blown-out windows, or maybe they'll look back a block and see the empty housing project that's slated for demolition. For most of the folks cruising the Quarter, the only Hurricane they'll encounter is in a big green cup from Pat O'Brien's.

And we wouldn't want it any other way. New Orleanians are good hosts. As much as many of us are very, very angry about the way we've been treated by the federal government, both in terms of the lies told us that caused the Federal Flood, and BushCo's handling of the entire Gulf Coast region post-storm, we don't want to spoil the party. Those people knocking back "big ass beers" and various rum drinks are important to the city, for the money they leave behind and the good will they carry forward when they return home.

Turn the Janus statue around, however, and there's a totally different face we show. This is the one we put forward to politicians, activists, and folks we know care about the city's survival. We talk about the mess that is still Lakeview, Gentilly, and the Ninth Ward. We're very vocal about anything from the increased crime rate to the "Road Home" program to the demolition of hospitals. We appreciate it when we get attention from national political figures and the MSM, lest "Katrina fatigue" set in and diminish the severity of the problems here.

It's a fine line we walk and talk, in this Janus that is our city. We're happy when Fox News does a positive report on one of our special events, but get angry when we realize that they're doing it because it gives the rest of the country the impression that we're OK. We're OK, but we're not.

When your plane touches down at Louis Armstrong International Airport and you take a taxi or shuttle into the city, you pass through Kenner and Metairie, our western suburbs that are 90%+ rebuilt post-storm. By the time you arrive at your downtown hotel, you're ready to party. And there's no better city to show you a good time. Whether you're just down for a personal vacation, or for a big event, the food's hot and spicy, the beer's cold and wet, and the music plays all night. There's the debauchery that is Carnival, or the music of JazzFest. We've got serious sporting events this year, from the Sugar Bowl last week to the NBA All-Star Game just after Mardi Gras.

If you're a cardiologist, gynecologist, chemist, or engineer, you might be coming down for a convention. We still love the librarians for being so supportive by having their ALA convention here in 2006. We don't want you to forget the horrors that you saw on CNN of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in the days right after the storm, but we still want you to come see the facility now and how far we've come in fixing things.

Let's not talk too much about crime in the city. The neighborhood associations in Mid City, Broadmoor, Bywater, and Faubourg St. John all stay on top of NOPD to get action and protection, there's not much a visitor can do about that. The "tourist" areas of the city are well defended. If you're not venturing out to score dope, and you exercise basic Urban Common Sense, you should be fine.

This is our public face. We know that tourism is our number-one industry, and we very much need y'all to come and spend money.

One other thought on the positive side of our Janus--this positive face we put forward to the rest of the world is not just a white one. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club has not missed a Mardi Gras. The Essence Festival and the Bayou Classic (Grambling State vs. Southern University) football game both returned home in 2007. There are a lot of black folks who haven't been able to come home yet for one reason or another, but that doesn't stop us from inviting black visitors to town and showing them a good time.

Post-Storm New Orleans

Turn the Janus around, however, and things aren't so pretty. Last month's public housing debate/protest put a very public face on one of many serious issues with which we're still wrestling. The tales of homeowners who are trying to save their houses from unnecessary demolition by the city are incredible. Health care for those who have insurance and/or money has improved and returned, but the working poor still have little to no options.

Our public schools are in the midst of an experiment on a grand scale, charter schools. The only thing that can be said about the current state of public education in Orleans is that it can't be any worse than it was before the storm.

Crime is out of control. NOPD has focused on making sure that tourists don't get involved in or get near violent crimes, but that leaves precious little resources for the rest of the city. Lakeview and Gentilly are still being patrolled in large part by Military Police units of the LA National Guard because there aren't enough NOPD officers to put on those streets. It's like the diaspora didn't have a significant impact on our criminal element. These guys found out it was tough to make a dishonest living on Planet Hooston, so now they've returned, and are killing each other and creating way too much collateral damage.

Let's not forget our "colorful" politics in Louisiana. From Huey Pierce Long to Edwin Edwards to Marc Morial, we've had our share of scoundrels that have large numbers of admirers. A disgraced city councilman reported to federal prison last week after having been convicted of bribery. Federal prosecutors are still cleaning up the mess that was Marc Morial's tenure as mayor, much less dealing with anything that's come up post-storm. Every time a local politician gets caught up in scandal, it gives those brilliant minds at Fox News a chance to deride the city. The cesspool that is the comments section of the Da Paper's blog regularly likes to ignore the whoremongering of our Junior Senator in favor of every miscreant black pol we've had in the city in the last twenty years.

We managed to get through a second post-storm hurricane season safely, no thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers. For a component of the armed forces of this country to generate as many half-truths, distortions, and outright lies as the ACOE has over the last forty years is just incredible. To think that men and women in uniform have forsaken the honor of their oaths to this country and the Constitution in the interests of covering their asses is, well, it's something we'd rather not think about. We don't have any choice than to expose the dishonor that is the Army Corps of Engineers, in the hopes that will they fix what they've lied about here in New Orleans. We also hope that perhaps we can shame these people into coming clean about other projects in other parts of the country that may not be what they've claimed all these years.

We need you to always remember that what happened to New Orleans was not a "natural disaster," but a man-made one.

We want you to think about all these things. We want you to be as angry with the Army and the disrespectful piece of crap who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as we are. We want you to keep on your respective Congresscritters to make sure our situation is not ignored. We want you to help us get our people home.

We also want you to come here for vacation. We want you to come support your football team when they play Tulane, or if they make it to the Sugar Bowl. We want you to take that Caribbean cruise you've been thinking about on a boat whose home port is New Orleans. We want you to eat and drink with us, Cajun dance with us at the Fais Do Do stage at JazzFest and yell "Throw me something, Mister!" at Carnival parades.

This is our Janus, our two faces. Look at the positive one and enjoy it when you come here, but be sure to look closely at the other face when you're heading back to the airport on the way home. Keep those fond memories in your head and heart, but bring the motivation to work for social justice back with you.