After waking up at 10 after the night on Bourbon street (I think thats pretty respectable.) I headed out to go around the French quarter a little bit before heading to Tennessee. When I was touring the city during the day, I did see more of the damage than I had before. Even though for the most part th
e 'city' wasn't affected as much, if you look a little closer you can pretty quickly see signs of what happened. Randomly I'd notice that every few buildings still had boarded up windows or was abandoned. There are still ravaged homes that obviously just haven't been reclaimed even in the quarter. I struck up a conversation with a local, as I usually try to do and we got to talking about the hurricane. He made a really good point, he was saying that people in New Orleans (at least him) generally disliked the question of whether or not some places would be 'rebuilt.' Something I hadn't really thought of because you always hear of the rebuilding effort, but whats the point of rebuilding a house for someone who doesn't plan on coming back? Most of the affected areas that are still streets of rubble were populated by the lowest economic brackets. Those people, generally have nothing in New Orleans to go back to and many have restarted in Houston or wherever they happened to end up. New Orleans is almost like a kid wearing his dad's shirt, there's way too much city for the amount of people still here. Now that's not to say that there aren't FEMA trailer parks in a lot of places, but 'rebuilding' will only happen at the rate that people come back and therefore give a reason to build at all.
e 'city' wasn't affected as much, if you look a little closer you can pretty quickly see signs of what happened. Randomly I'd notice that every few buildings still had boarded up windows or was abandoned. There are still ravaged homes that obviously just haven't been reclaimed even in the quarter. I struck up a conversation with a local, as I usually try to do and we got to talking about the hurricane. He made a really good point, he was saying that people in New Orleans (at least him) generally disliked the question of whether or not some places would be 'rebuilt.' Something I hadn't really thought of because you always hear of the rebuilding effort, but whats the point of rebuilding a house for someone who doesn't plan on coming back? Most of the affected areas that are still streets of rubble were populated by the lowest economic brackets. Those people, generally have nothing in New Orleans to go back to and many have restarted in Houston or wherever they happened to end up. New Orleans is almost like a kid wearing his dad's shirt, there's way too much city for the amount of people still here. Now that's not to say that there aren't FEMA trailer parks in a lot of places, but 'rebuilding' will only happen at the rate that people come back and therefore give a reason to build at all. Anyway, after getting my HRC pin I headed on to Memphis. It took most of
the afternoon, they're about 350 miles apart. I got there about 7pm, a nice Motel 6 about 15 minutes walk from the entertainment district. This is another place that's just about too much fun. The more southern/western cities I go to, the more I realize how much of an anomaly Houston is. Beale street is almost as hopping as Bourbon street. Tons of bars and restaurants, all with open doors and live music spilling out onto the street. It just so happened too that Wednesday night is Beale Street Bike Night, which meant that at least 1000 motorcycles were parked along the road. I'm not generally a bike head but some of these were pretty awesome customs and Harleys. Anyway, after walking a
round a while, I settled in the Rum Boogie Cafe and had about the best ribs of my life. The music was great too, this woman on stage was channeling Aretha it seemed. I was there until almost 1am before she was done. I don't know how her voice held out but I could have watched her for hours. Free shows, yee haa.
the afternoon, they're about 350 miles apart. I got there about 7pm, a nice Motel 6 about 15 minutes walk from the entertainment district. This is another place that's just about too much fun. The more southern/western cities I go to, the more I realize how much of an anomaly Houston is. Beale street is almost as hopping as Bourbon street. Tons of bars and restaurants, all with open doors and live music spilling out onto the street. It just so happened too that Wednesday night is Beale Street Bike Night, which meant that at least 1000 motorcycles were parked along the road. I'm not generally a bike head but some of these were pretty awesome customs and Harleys. Anyway, after walking a
round a while, I settled in the Rum Boogie Cafe and had about the best ribs of my life. The music was great too, this woman on stage was channeling Aretha it seemed. I was there until almost 1am before she was done. I don't know how her voice held out but I could have watched her for hours. Free shows, yee haa.So thats Wednesday, time to keep heading home, towards Nashville.
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