back in business

I got back from New Orleans on Wednesday night. It was a fabulous, but exhausting trip. I never had a chance to experience New Orleans pre-Katrina, so I don't have anything with which to compare this experience.

It's a bold and brassy city that's unapologetic for what it is. The music on Bourbon Street is far too loud inside the cafes and bars and somehow is even louder out in the streets. You can buy massive daiquiris from street vendors and wander the streets as you sip your drink. Some of the shops have entire walls covered with Mardi Gras beads and masks, and in some areas, the tree branches are covered with beads. The streets are littered with refuse from many nights' worth of party goers and are filled with police officers and street musicians.

For all its seeming fullness and life, New Orleans feels like a shadow of its former self. The shops and Riverwalk seem empty as tourists and convention goers have been hesitant to return to the Big Easy. The French Quarter has more life, but it seems that even those streets have a tangible lack of people and movement.

But the city is rebuilding - slowly. Deserted cars and other waste were removed from the French Quarter to provide the city with a better image for the convention attendees. There are construction projects everywhere, and the local news shows the greater clean-up and reconstruction efforts across New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. There's a deep resentment towards FEMA for its poor response to Katrina. The bitterness is evident everywhere from the local news reports to FEMA t-shirts sold in local shops.

Through all this, there was an amazing amount of gratitude towards the librarians for coming to the city, spending their money, and showing other potential convention-holding organizations, that the Big Easy is back and ready for business.