New Orleans: Saints Needed

New Orleans: Saints Needed

So, as I mentioned yesterday, on our way back to Florida from Texas, Mike and I stopped in New Orleans. I had never been there before, either pre- or post-Katrina, and had a lot of ideas about what New Orleans would be like. I had visions of a city with history, culture, charm — and yes, thriving nightlife, even though it isn’t something I’m necessarily interested in. I am not a partier, or a clubber, or a drinker. I’ve never had the urge to visit New Orleans for Mardi Gras. My interest has been more in the history and culture of the city. I don’t like being in large crowds in general — I definitely need to have space around me to feel comfortable — and I can only imagine the anxiety being packed into tiny Bourbon Street would bring me. Anyway, all in all I was excited about the trip. I couldn’t wait to try some great Cajun food, to see Bourbon Street (during the day) and the French Quarter, and to just wander around in general.

We had originally planned to go to Mother’s. Neither one of us had been to Mother’s before, and that was where we were planning on eating… until we saw the line snaking around the building. So, we figured we’d just park in a public lot and walk down Canal Street to Bourbon Street, and just pick something on the way. And around here is where the visit started going badly.

The first thing that made me feel a little bit uncomfortable was how crowded it was. Remember how I just said I don’t like being in big crowds? This is not just a preference type thing. I seriously cannot stand it. It literally makes me go into near anxiety-attack mode. It may be irrational, but you know what? We all have our things that make us nervous. Mine just so happen to be large crowds and possums. If that makes me weird, then so be it.

So anyway, not only was the sidewalk packed with pedestrians, there were also countless street vendors crowding up even more space. There was loud music playing from inside every store, from every car that drove by, and all in all, it combined for a very jumbled, frantic atmosphere. I was uncomfortable pretty much right from the beginning. To make it more uncomfortable, the people we were fighting through to get to Bourbon Street were… well… scary. They were thugs, drug dealers… people with obvious meth hands and track marks, people who looked and acted rough and dangerous. I was gripping Mike’s hand for dear life. Also a little disturbing was the total disregard people seemed to have for those around them. The people driving didn’t stop for pedestrians, and would swerve into other lanes with reckless abandon. If you weren’t paying absolute attention, then you could easily get hit by a car.

When we finally got to Bourbon Street, I was shocked. This was not the pretty tourist hotspot you see in pictures, like this one:

No, Bourbon Street was a wreck. And not from Katrina. It was just shabby, sleazy-looking. There were piles and piles of garbage and sludge — literal sludge — on the sidewalks, in front of the restaurants and shops, and in the street. It was already jam-packed at 4:00 in the afternoon and Mike, who’s been to New Orleans before, told me that by nightfall it would just get worse. Every night is like Mardi Gras at Bourbon Street, except not as busy, he told me. I was also a little bit apalled to see the various Hustler stores lining Bourbon Street. I get that it’s a party hotspot, but come on — is a Hustler “Barely Legal” stripclub really necessary? There were people practically dry-humping in the middle of the street, with one couple in particular really getting into it, as the guy grinded his ass right into the woman’s crotch. People would call out and jeer at random passersby. There were also the men who would brazenly check you out and make catcalls or suggestive remarks, regardless of the fact that my six-foot-tall boyfriend was holding my hand right next to me. Like before, I absolutely refused to let go of Mike’s hand. I had the distinct feeling that getting separated would have a very bad outcome here. This may be exaggerating, but I had a very strong sense that if I had been walking around there alone, all by myself, I could easily get dragged down some back alley and then beaten and raped — and no one there would even raise an eyebrow. According to multiple people I’ve spoken to, this does happen pretty regularly, and especially during Mardi Gras. There are no statistics to back this up that I know of, but hey, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

We got into the restaurant, where I was able to feel a little bit better, but walking back to the car it was more of the same. Being surrounded by thugs and gangsta-wannabes does not give one the feeling of safety and comfort. We were going to stop by the French Quarter and the Riverwalk, but I was too anxious to get out of there, and to the safety of our vehicle (which, most importantly, contained an loaded weapon). I couldn’t believe how rough the city was — and we were in what I thought was the tourist part of New Orleans! I’d hate to wander into what’s considered the “rough part of town” there. New Orleans was quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable and scary places I have ever visited in my entire life. It was like a haven for thugs, drug dealers, gangsters, rapists, and criminals. Does that mean that everyone there is a rapist or a criminal? Of course not, but it was awfully hard to distinguish who was just trying to act like a thug and who was the real thing.

So, take what you’d like from this post. I don’t know that I ever want to visit New Orleans again. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people pour into New Orleans for Mardi Gras to cram themselves onto one of the seediest, sleaziest streets I’ve ever seen in my entire life (not to mention that Bourbon Street is tiny, barely bigger than a hallway). To sum up, all I can really say is that if you still feel like you want to experience New Orleans, go right on ahead. I’d just recommend you travel in a group.

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46 Comments
  • Chad says:

    Last time I went there (back around 2001 I think) it was exactly the same as you describe.
    If you’re not drunk or drug addled, you wonder what all the fuss is about.
    Me and my business partner were setting up a medical clinic’s computer system for a long weekend.
    After walking up and down Bourbon St. we decided to just go back to the hotel and catch a movie. Philadelphia Story if I remember right.

  • Otherside says:

    Yeah….and if you went to Rome you’d probably complain about all of the old buildings.

  • Zaggs says:

    2008 (yours), 2001 (chad), 2004 (me), Bourbon street has always been a hell hole. It was just as dirty and seedy when I and my wife went to New Orleans for a week. Bourbon street reminded me of the internet actually, bunch of crack heads and way too many advertisements for teenage porn. Not to mention the restaraunt we went to charges for coke refills which equated to them just bringing at a can, at $3 a pop (which wasn’t mentioned till the bill)!
    Not to mention this is the city where my wife braved the streets to go from the hotel to the Walgreens 2 blocks down and was offered a “ride” by some guys in a white van. Scary part was though that Bourbon street wasn’t the dirtiest/nastiest part of the city. No not quite. The worst was when we walked from our hotel (a bit south of the Superdome) to Armstrong park which took us through the NW part of the French Quarter. Let me tell you nothing more romantic then walking on sidewalks littered with condoms, crack vials and syringes all the while flanked by run down buildings!
    There were spots we enjoyed: Brennan’s, Aquarium, D-Day museum (now WW2 museum I think),and the NO museum of art.

  • Steve says:

    Cassy,

    I lived in New Orleans from 1987 to 2001 and what you describe is not too far from being accurate. But I think it is simply not your thing. I graduated from Tulane in 1991, and stayed in New Orleans for another 10 years becuase there were things in the city that were truly unique. I have not been back since Katrina, so I am not sure what it is like now.

    I have to admit, that I didn’t spend much time in the French Quarter when I lived there, becuase it is the tourist area. In a tourist town, that is where they exploit the tourists.

    I don’t think you’re wrong for saying the things you said, because there is, and was well well before Katrina, plenty wrong in New Orleans. However, the same trip from the perspective of someone less averse to crowds, and a slightly more adventurous might have been described in much different terms.

    What I can tell you is that if you really wanted to get a feel for the culture and the history of the city, Mother’s and Bourbon Street were not the places to visit.

  • William says:

    I went to NO in the fall of 1998, just before Hurricane Georges struck Alabama. It was a Saturday night when I was going up and down Bourbon street. There were about 8 of us guys, and one female, who walked in the middle of all of us. She is very attractive like Cassy, but her boyfriend was back home, since we were on a class field trip for our college. She was playing it safe. As we walked around, I got to witness two gangs start fighting each other, and then the cops proceeding to kick the crap out of each of the gangs. NO was (and still is) a dirty, dumpy nasty town. Anyone that could be considered respectable moved out after Katrina. I have zero desire to ever go there again. Good riddance as far as I am concerned.

  • kevin barry says:

    I have taken my daughter to New Orleans TWICE… and have never encountered the least problem. She located a hotel room in a beautiful hotel just off the French Quarter for a great price, the people were all friendly, both trips, and she loves the place. I got her into a restaurant which featured blues music, we had dessert in a place that had live zydeco music, we shopped the entire french quarter area, and had no problem whatsoever. I did not have to hold her hand the entire time, I didn’t long for my automobile and the safety of a loaded weapon, and we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously. We stood and watched street musicians who were wonderful. We met all kinds of nice people, we bought things, ate new food and came away with a car trunk full of mementos and tourist stuff. I think that you entire post reveals a good deal more about you than it does about the city. We even took a late night tour of the “ghost walk” and did not encounter a single solitary problem the entire time.
    Honestly. She was twelve and the second trip was 17, and not so much as single rude comment or attempt at anything out of the ordinary. We did have a lot of smiles from very nice people though.
    Both trips were heavy on the French Quarter, both in the afternoon and at night.
    Your post suggests a real serious paranoia, and a penchant for prejudice.
    I’d go back to New Orleans in a second.

  • Cas says:

    So I, and the multiple other people who have reported similar experiences, were all paranoid and delusional? I imagined the meth hands on the street vendors and the crude shouts from strangers in the streets? I made up everything I wrote about? Mike and I both just somehow imagined it?

    I’m glad you had such a great experience. I, unfortunately, didn’t.

    And I don’t know what “prejudice” you’re speaking of. As I said to start with, I certainly didn’t go into it with any prejudices. I couldn’t have been more excited to go.

    There were no street musicians, no people smiling and being friendly. NONE. Perhaps they all moved on after Katrina, I don’t know. But they weren’t there. The only street musician I saw the entire trip, for example, was a saxophone player outside of Minute Maid Park after the Astros game. There certainly weren’t any in New Orleans when I was there.

    Just because my trip was different than yours, it doesn’t mean I am prejudiced, paranoid, or a liar. And, judging from the reactions of other commenters and e-mails I’m receiving, I’m not outside the norm. My experience seems to be more typical of New Orleans than yours does, from the responses I’m getting. So does that mean we’re all making it up? All imagining things? If someone experiences something, and you didn’t have the EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE, it must mean it isn’t true and the person is lying? Wow, that makes a LOT of sense, buddy. Very logical.

    Don’t take this as me saying that what you’re writing is wrong or bad. I’m genuinely glad to hear you had a good experience. But just because I, and other people, have not had a positive experience does not mean that what we’re saying is untrue or embellished. It honestly sounds like you’re being a little oversensitive and defensive to me.

  • RJ says:

    I live two hours from New Orleans and every time I have to go there I dread it. Overpriced, unsafe and tacky is the only way to describe it. If you are interested in Mardi Gras I highly recommend that you come here, Mobile, AL. Mobile had the original Mardi Gras in the US and exported it to NO. It is much smaller but just as much fun and nowhere near as dangerous. Plus Mobile has much of the same French/Spanish heritage.

    http://www.mobile.org/vis_mardigras.php

  • Davon says:

    As someone who grew up about an hour north of New Orleans, I think I agree with Steve. New Orleans is one of the dirtiest cities I’ve ever been to, and you did visit one of the slightly cleaner parts. I don’t know if you went down there on one of the busier/dirtier weekends or not, but nothing you described seems too “embellished”, just from a perspective of someone who isn’t used to that type of “trash” on the streets (and I meant some of the people more than the objects). However, I visited the city this last March for a conference, and I didn’t see the same level of trash/thugs that you saw, apparently. So it might’ve been just a bad weekend.

    New Orleans is better enjoyed by someone who knows where to go. There are places in the French Quarter that are well-priced, great food, great service, and wonderful places to eat at. There are also great cultural things to see as well. You’ll see more street musicians, artists, magicians, etc. if you go during the day (not late afternoon), and NOT on Bourbon St. They usually hang out around Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral. You really can go down there and have a great time, even without the drinking and partying.

    And, as a side note, my first trip down Bourbon street was during the day when I was around 13 or so. It was a shock (kind of enjoyable to a 13-year old boy). I was with a friend. My Mom would NEVER have taken me down there at that age, and she wasn’t too pleased about it when she found out. I would NEVER take a child down that street, especially a young, easily influenced, pre-teen girl. I know that some of those strip clubs down there have employed girls as young as 15 in the past, as well as some other shady practices.

  • mojoe says:

    Cassy,

    I had a very different experience from what you encountered.

    I was there in late January 1990 for a Super Bowl (a trip my friend won, I can’t afford such things!). It was extremely crowded and loud, but we are both over 6′ and 250# so nobody bothered us. The people we encountered, both the natives and the other tourists, were friendly and helpful (especially the cab drivers, unheard of here in Boston). The food was spectacular, as was the riverboat cruise we took and the MANY clubs we went to in search of good music.

    The only thing I was warned against was visiting the cemeteries, as they were known havens for the gangs at the time and since they’re above-ground they’re more like mazes.

    I’ve often thought about going back (not for Mardi Gras though) but have less desire now since Katrina and hearing stories like yours.

  • Caz says:

    Cas: If you were here in New Orleans this past weekend (July 4 – 6)you visited New Orleans during Essence Fest – the black music/culture festival. Likely the WORST possible weekend of the year for you to visit. No doubt, the afro-centric culture-fest is not your thing to begin with (it isn’t mine either), but unfortunately, Essence Fest brings a particularly rough and seedy element that hangs around the Canal St. & Bourbon St. area you saw, while the “good” Essence Fest – goers were at the Convention Center attending official fest events (make no mistake – many of the thugs and druggies you saw were “touists” as well – the kind that seeks the lowest possible cultural experiences America has to offer). You describe a walk from Mothers to the foot of Bourbon St. where Red Fish Grill is. I CRINGE at the thougt of that ~five-block walk, !during Essence Fest!, shaping your impression of our wonderful city. I could not have picked a more perfect experience to create the worst possible impression of New Orleans. There are so many things to respond to in your post to illustrate just how “wrong” of an impression you got – I’d love to tell you … if you care to hear.

  • vectorsrule says:

    The comments are accurate. We lived there from 2000-2005 while my wife attended Tulane Med school. The city is a slum, a dangerous slum. There were five murders in four days when we first got there looking for a house. The week we left I read a story of a father that was murdered when helping his daughter move from NOLA. She lived in the quarter and he begged her to leave because of the danger.

    While my wife was at Tulane some homeless people murdered one of the Dean’s sons (student at the time). His crime? He gave money to them on a regular basis while walking to his home. They figured if he had change to hand out he had a lot more at his home. They followed him home, forced an entry and killed him.

    The city is run like 3rd world African nation. It is totally corrupt. You could not get anything done by anyone. I can’t count the number of vendors who came to our house who completely screwed up the job. If a vendor came once and did the job right it was a freaken’ miracle!

    If you are young and want to go to a bachelor party, throw up on the street, pick up a crack whore, this is your town. If you are looking for a normal relaxing vacation with or without your family do not go to this city.

  • BlakeW says:

    Kevin Barry is not being truthful and I don’t believe he has EVER been to New Orleans. He speaks in very general terms and does not give any specifics of his trip. I haven’t been to New Orleans since 1995, and Bourbon Street has always been very dirty and seedy. In 1989 we stayed out all night and it was a complete drug induced party till the police run you off at 5:00 am I think it was. It was just a typical August Wednesday night and the air is thick with the stinch of whiskey, piss and puke. St Charles Street is truly beautiful but downtown was down right dangerous.

    I took my SEC broker examine there in 1995 and stayed in east New Orleans, big mistake. I could hear random gunfire all night and I was not that nervous simply because I was on the 3rd floor of my crappy Days Inn.

    My father did his medical training at Charity Hospital in the early 60’s and sprinted away as soon as he could. He swears they were shooting each other right outside the ER doors and had to keep armed security at the hospital. When did the rest of the world start keeping armed security at hospitals? 30 years later? Talk about being ahead of your time. After Katrina we should have just locked the gate behind us, NO is a third world dump.

  • jack says:

    When people have panic attacks sometimes their perceptions are a bit…off. Things seem–and are remembered–as much worse than they actually were.

    From some of your comments your disorientation is very clear–“We were going to stop by the French Quarter and the Riverwalk”–Bourbon Street is IN the Quarter.

    And things like this–“According to multiple people I’ve spoken to, this does happen pretty regularly, and especially during Mardi Gras. There are no statistics to back this up that I know of, but hey, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.”. Coming from you, a blogger who typically doesn’t jump to conclusions, one is left surprised.

    Additionally, if your experience is the ‘norm’ as you imply that it might be, why do tourists throng the streets? Why do people go there at all? Bourbon Street could not exist without tourists–especially now when the population halved.

    I’ve walked on Bourbon Street in the early morning hours(when Sanitation cleans up the nightly mess) and during various wild celebrations. Bourbon Street is what it is, and its a loud permanent party.

    Walk down to Royal Street and you get a completely different experience–art galleries, antique stores and fine shops. And the wonderful architecture. Walk up, into the residential Quarter and you’ll see gorgeous homes, beautiful courtyards and smiles from the people.

    I appreciate your feelings, but I expect that what really happened is that you freaked.

  • Phosphat says:

    NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) is not for everyone, and frankly I agree with you that a lone woman would have to be pretty brave and a black belt to walk down Bourbon Street and its connecting streets on a weekend evening.

    Bourbon Street and the French Quarter are for tourists and the homeless. It’s a place where you can get just about anything for a price, the music is far from original and the streets smell like urine most days.

    If you return, look to the jazz clubs on the edges of the Quarter, especially places such as Snug Harbor, where you can hear current and up-and-coming jazz stars almost every night. I’m NOT a jazz fanatic, but live (like a lot of music…even country music) it’s a wonderful experience.

    Even in the French Quarter, there are great restaurants and eateries that provide tastes generally not reproduced outside of NOLA with any consistency.

    In short, New Orleans is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there either.

  • Terri says:

    I’m sorry you had a scary time in NOLA. I’ve been there several times and have enjoyed every single visit although all were pre Katrina. Like every big city, NOLA has its seedy side and roughnecks, but I personally had a great time walking down Bourbon Street at midnight on the weekends. I espcially liked benets (donuts) and hot chocolate. In fact, I don’t even drink but still enjoyed the music at Pat O’Brien’s. All I can say is obviously it’s changed for the worst.

  • Rorschach says:

    NL ws, s, nd lkly wll lwys b th fstrng csspl f hmn xstnc. Thr rlly s nly n wy t fx NL. Nk t frm rbt, t’s th nly wy t b sr.

    Rorschach, your comment has been disemvoweled. Please none of that talk on this blog in the future!

  • Ron says:

    I feel compelled to point out a few facts as a native New Orleanian. The July 4th weekend in New Orleans always corresponds with the Essence Music Festival. The Essence Festival exclusively features black artists, including Kanye West this year, and attracts tens of thousands of almost exclusively black tourists. It is also the only time of year that I do not feel welcome in my own city because, as a white person, the crowds look at me as if I do not belong there. However, this is in no way the norm for our city.

    New Orleans, especially in the French Quarter, is better that I can ever remember it. All the great restaurants and music venues are thriving, and there are continued efforts to preserve and revitalize historic areas. I hope that you will give New Orleans another chance.

  • Rob Farrington says:

    Possums, eh? Bet you screamed a bit when you visited Rachel’s site recently!

    I know I did…

  • Cas says:

    Caz, I would be more than happy to hear about some of the better parts of New Orleans. I honest-to-God would like to go back, if for no other reason than to visit the WWII museum. But I know that I wouldn’t feel completely comfortable there at any point in time, and an area where you constantly feel as if you might be attacked at any minute, or struck by a bullet from a drive-by shooting, is not an area I’m particularly thrilled about visiting. And I live in Jacksonville. We have one of the highest murder rates in the country — and yet New Orleans still freaked me out. Go figure. I wonder why that might be! 😉

    And Jack, being extremely uncomfortable and anxious is not the same thing as a panic attack. I know what panick attacks are; one of my best friends gets them on a semi-regular basis. I was not having a panic attack. And the “disorientation” of not knowing the difference between Bourbon Street and the French Quarter? Uh, buddy, I’m not from New Orleans. I’d never been there before. So how was it I was supposed to know the exact location of the various streets and neighborhoods there? I saw signs pointing to the French Quarter everywhere, including on Bourbon Street. If I was mistaken, then oh well — it isn’t a sign of a “panic attack”. I may have been scared, but I wasn’t irrational. And even if I was irrational, my boyfriend was not scared or anxious at all. Yet he still saw and experienced the same things I did; in fact, he helped me write this post. He is a very calm and collected person, and not scared by much (he is in the military, after all). However, that didn’t change the fact that our observations were nearly identical, and there are plenty of people saying they’ve had similar experiences as well.

  • Strider says:

    I took my wife and daughter for a week long visit to New Orleans just a few months ago. What a disappointment! The city, particularly The French Quarter, is a complete rip off. No jazz was heard there – only the tired “classic rock” that fills the airwaves of every city in North America. The food was terrible everywhere except the high end restaurants. Oh,
    and the place actually stinks! A putrid, disgusting aroma pervades the entire area. The hotel, which was expensive, wouldn’t secure my wifes laptop computer so we had to lug it around. They charged us thirty bucks a night to park our car. Never again!

  • TJRose says:

    What’s even sadder than the mere existance of NO, is the fact that the (we) taxpayers footed the bill to reclaim it for the very people you described. After nature tried to reclaim it, and sadly, didn’t succeed.

  • Tom G says:

    My girlfriend and I are from Mississippi and have been going to New Orleans for the last year almost monthly. Generally, we spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights on Bourbon Street, many times dancing until Dawn. Certainly, it has a scary, seedy look and many types of characters to be found. But, our experience has always been great. In the 30 or so nights and days we’ve been there, we’ve maybe seen two fights and the police completely subdued the situation in minutes. Outside of a few bums asking for money, we’ve never experienced ANY problems from anyone. Not once have we seen anyone use drugs or offer us for any. (Although I did smell marijuana a few times.) We’ve been in almost every club, shop and restaurant without incident. And, we’ve parked on dozens of different streets and walked up and down all of them at all hours.

    We’ve also met many people that live and work on or around Bourbon and they have always been very friendly and sometimes we would chat for hours. Not once have we heard horror stories that you might expect.

    I can certainly understand a surface evaluation of seeming anarchy, crime, and drug use. But, I thought, after all of our enjoyable times there, I should let you know its really not as bad as it seems. Try it again sometime… I think its worth the chance.

  • RA says:

    Conservatives and all Republicans should boycot New Orleans. Their Katrina problems were caused by their racist black mayor and Democrat governor. Yet they continually blamed Republicans and especially Bush.

    Now, after all that bad mouthing they re-elect the racist black mayor and want conservative white people to come and spend their money there.

    I say “Hell no, we won’t go”. Find alternatives and let “School Bus Nagen” and New Orleans die on the vine!

  • wayne says:

    Cas,
    You’ll prob want to avoid NO on the labor day weekend too. That’s when the decadence festival, which is a gay and lesbian party,is held. I went to one accidentally, being that I’m hetero,and was astonished at what I saw during the daytime, I can only imagine how wild it got at night. Didn’t bother me because I’m libertarian,live and let live, and I’ve never felt more like John Wayne.
    One thing though comes to mind, it seemed a lot cleaner than than the time I went to Mardi Gras, or the time i visited on a Wednesday evening/nite.

  • dr kill says:

    New Orleans is not DisneyWorld. The ‘let the good times roll’ life style requires some tolerance. Casey, I don’t know your personal history, but it’s OK if you don’t like The Big Easy. That’s why there are towns like Orlando, or maybe Live Oak.

    I’d like RA to know that we have two children at Tulane, who chose to return after the storm. I’d also like RA to know that we are registered Republicans who love New Orleans, warts and all. We even bought a house uptown last summer.

    I go to work every day, but I admire people who don’t.

  • Caz says:

    Cas: My point is that you got a bad impression of an area you probably wouldn’t have liked to begin with (Canal St. and the first few blocks of Bourbon St.) It is a dense, European-style crowded street scene with an uncommon architectual style that many tourists come specifically to see precisely because the rest of America doesn’t look like that. It sounds like that part of the experience is not for you to begin with.

    But even with the occasional strippers and street peddlers which form the fabric of what the upper three blocks of Bourbon St. are, the place is usually over-run with normal looking, middle-America tourists in t-shirts with fanny packs and cameras. And no one feels like the’ll be “attacked at any minute, or struck by a bullet from a drive-by shooting” because it’s not the “rough part of town” – it is in fact, some of the highest priced real estate around, even though it makes a show of being more seedy than it really is. The weekend you picked was the absolute worst in that respect.

    Combine a slow summer tourist season, plummetting hotel room-rates and a sudden influx from the Essence Fest, and the easily accesible tourist areas become a sewer. All the “classy” joints close for a few days – because they can afford to, and your left with tourist hell. You would say the same thing about Atlanta if you went to Buckhead during Freaknik.

    As for the trash, the truth is the situation improved dramatically post-Katrina with an improved sanitation contract. But that is no match for the volume and class of bodies you saw. If you packed 100,000 drunk college kids or assorted hoodlums into the downtown Jacksonville riverfront, it would look and smell the same, but that doesn’t mean it’s like that every weekend.

    In other words, you got a bad impresion. But none of that changes the fact that if you don’t like crowds, narrow streets, old buildings, or if you don’t enjoy libation and frivolity, the French Quarter is not for you, no matter the quality of the tourist standing next to you or the cleanliness of the street under your feet. My wife and I are born and raised here, and it suits us. We spent the first three years of our marriage in a little French Quarter apartment 1/2 block off of Bourbon St. (though we mostly stuck to Royal St.), had our first kid there, and just might still be there if we had off-street parking. We had like-minded friends there (still do), attended church at the Cathedral (where my daughter was baptized) and lived a good life in what you saw as a sewer. We love Mardi Gras, a time when we became fabulously popular due to our balcony overlooking the street and endured the mess in return for the company of our close friends. Our annual Haloween party became so big we had to cancel it after I found myself ordering beer by the keg. But the one weekend we made sure to be out of town was the 4th of July.

    My recommendation is that when you’re ready for a New Orleans style weekend, come during the early Spring or late Fall when it’s nice out, fork over some cash for a good hotel, eat some fabulous (and yes, expensive) dinners, drink lots of wine and be willing to explore some scenes outside of your comfort zone, but get a local to show you around. Otherwise, you might find yourself trapped in tourist hell on a weekend any local would have told you to stay away.

  • I R A Darth Aggie says:

    I haven’t been to Quarter in quite a while, but Bourbon street is a pit. The Hustler thing is new, tho. The only points of interest for you should be: St. Louis Cathedral, the Aquarium of the Americas, Cafe Dumond – the original one next to the market, and maybe Madame Laveaux’s.

    Especially if you hate crowds that much. Having been on Bourbon St after the Endymion parade, I can tell you that if my party of 5 hadn’t grasped each other’s belts, we wouldn’t have made it over to Pat O’Briens. At least not all of us.

    You don’t need to stay in the Quarter to find good, authentic Cajun and creole food. Metarie is chock full of such. And anyone who says the food is terrible – and I’m looking at you, Strider – doesn’t like to eat.

    Now I got red beans & rice on my mind…maybe some blackened fish.

  • Whatever says:

    I think what you have established is that lower middle-class, whitebread, Southern city-girls who are afraid of opossums and blacks should not seek out adventures any further away from their cultural norm than say….Disney World!

  • kevin barry says:

    I’m not a regular reader of this blog, and from the violent response that I was treated to, I won’t be back again. I never called anyone a liar, never said that anyone was delusional, and commented about the paranoia because YOU brought up your desire for a loaded gun.
    Blake W is absolutely wrong about my never being in New Orleans, not to mention enormously rude. Not everyone who writes a post to a blog is a liar. Not every subject has to be taken so violently.
    I regret what I had to read as a response, and regret that my simple message was so grossly misconstrued.
    It’s nice that you know how to type, perhaps you should learn how to read. You might also take a “chill pill”.

  • Thomas Jackson says:

    I had to return to Washington DC from Mexico so we took the opportunity to visit New Orleans enroute in August in 1998. What a mistake. I had envisioned a city of charm, great sights, music, fantastic food and got a cheap and tawdry place that reeked of decay, puke, beer, and the roar of druggies, drunks, panhandlers, and thugs. The climate was oppressive even at night, but the atmosphere made Times Square in its heyday seem calm and family oriented. Crime was rampant and we couldn’t wait to leave.

    I’d never return. I can recommend the smaller towns and cities around New Orleans that boast wonderful tourist attractions, friendly people, and a healthy atmosphere. But New Orleans is a joke unless you like places like Times Square in the 70, or San Francisco today.

  • Banjo says:

    Nobody has mentioned all of the vomit on the sidewalks and streets. The natives dont even notice anymore.

  • Tina says:

    I just came back from New Orleans 3 weeks ago. We stayed at the Inn on Bourbon. we paid 380 for 5 nights and that included a saturday arrival. I recommend the Toulouse Street View.

    There is no doubt that Bourbon Street stinks, is dirty, and smells like the vomit of the men and woman of the past 300 years. But that is Bourbon. That is why you go. It has had the plague…that is dirty. note on the weekends you will get lucky and catch the baby powder smell….lol

    My disappoint was the music. I wanted to hear New Orleans sound, jazz and the alike. I heard more Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams in 5 nights that I have heard since the 80’s…lol. Bourbon is quite busy on Fri, sat and sunday nights. we stayed from sat to Thursday. We were lucky our inlaws came in and watched the little one. The last 2 nights were spent with the little one. We did not drink with her on Bourbon but she had a blast. a coke slurpie, we danced on our last night to a street live jazz band and I shared thee best moment to date with my little one. It was liberating.

    As far as the crime. As a photographer and my first time I had read about the crime in the area. But the common ground is just good common sense…during the day anywhere is fine below bourbon in the quarter. at night dont wear valuables, dont go walking anywhere dimmly lit, keep money in your front pockets. I NEVER FELT UNSAFE ON BOURBON ST. I think you have to be confident as a tourist and dont put yourself out there for a robbery. stay with people and you are good.

    When I went to the graveywards I had read that the most robberies took place there. I was upset because I was so paranoid upon arrival about stuff like that. I did not get to enjoy the cemetery as I could have. But it is never ever not bad to be over cautious.

    Im sorry you had a bad trip but I truly can say as a traveller you need to give it a second go around and be more open to the city. It is old….some of thee oldest buildings are here. know where to be. royal street is gorgeous…decateur fun time…jackson square…there is sooo much to do. stay at the inn on bourbon. Cafe Pontalba in jackson square the best food we ate. Immerse into the world that many have lived hundreds of years before you.

    I loved nothing more when walking the streets of New Orleans and thinking of all those in past who have shared the same steps that I have now taken.

    New Orleans is and will always be New Orleans

  • Tina says:

    PS

    Im going back in a few weeks

  • Tina says:

    I agree with Dark Aggie…the food is coming back to me….creole…beignets….oh the tasty cuisine of New Orleans…lol

  • Texas Truth says:

    New Orleans is a hell-hole. I can take it for about an hour and then i get tired of watching my back and my wallet. I even got propositioned on Bourbon Street by a transvestite a few years ago. My lovely bride and her best friend were with me. I thought it was funny, but then figured how hard up he/she must be to hit on a fat/balding white guy. Once you have seen New Orleans and Bourbon Street, there is not much reason to go back.

  • ElvenPhoenix says:

    Cassy:

    It sounds like you went to New Orleans on the worst of all possible times. I’ve been there multiple times, beginning when I was 18, and have always enjoyed it. I have to admit I haven’t been since Katrina, but I have friends who went last year for Jazz Fest who said that the city itself was still devastated, but that the Quarter was great. My recommendation would be to go back, possibly during the St. Pat’s weekend, with a local or frequent visitor to guide you. Your experience would be completely different.

    If you were to go on St. Pat’s weekend you’d have the fun of Mardi Gras without the accompanying crowds and nastiness. The St. Joseph’s day parade wends it’s way through the Quarter in the evening, while the St. Pat’s parade takes place in the Garden District during the afternoon. Plenty of beads to be had by all, with only the occasional drunk tourist shouting “show me your tits”. To merriment by all, as virtually no one does that on that particular weekend.

    My recommendation would be to stay someplace like the Monteleone or one of the smaller inns in the Quarter. Stroll up Royal St. as it is either the longest or second-longest street in the world for art galleries & antique stores. I forget which. On the weekends they block it off during the afternoon and there are a lot of street performers. The most amazing one I recall was a young man playing 2 guitars – one with his feet, one with his hands. Chartres & St. Charles are also good streets to stroll.

    Down on Toulouse there’s an Irish bar – O’Flaherty’s. If you like Irish music they usually have wonderful performers and the atmosphere is pretty relaxed.

    Jackson Square is usually crowded with street artists doing portraits and caricatures. I’ve never had one done, but it’s fun to watch them work.

    The Farmer’s Market has tons of touristy items at half off or more of the store price, if you’re interested in those sort of things. There are also tons of other merchandise to choose from.

    No visit to the Quarter would be complete without a visit to the Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets. The last time we were there there was and older black musician playing sax, serenading the customers. It was wonderful.

    Pat O’Brian’s is a great place to sip a cocktail at dusk. Who knows, they may pick you to light the fountain. I got to do that one year. There’s something special about watching the flames and water mix. And I love the food at Ralph & Kacoo’s (we have a franchise here!!), as well as the jazz Sunday brunch at the Court of the Two Sisters. We also enjoy the Gumbo Shop and Petunia’s.

    My husband is a musician, so we end up spending lots of time going to various bars to hear live music. I don’t recall their names (there are SO MANY of them!). I think the highlight for him on our last trip was seeing Marcia Ball at the House of Blues.

    In short, know that New Orleans is not a safe city. Bourbon Street has always been “nasty”, from the sex shops, strip bars, drunks, and transvestites. Avoid it if you don’t find crowds and people pathologically interesting. But there are a lot of other places to go and things to do in the Quarter that are quite enjoyable.

  • Fascinating thread! It’s interesting how widely varying the perceptions are of the very same city. I have yet to go to NO, even though I have friends from there. I do have an overall perception of the city, and it is a mixed bag. One thing is for certain, though: New Orleans is, and has been for some time, a troubled city. People I know from other parts of Louisiana don’t care for New Orleans, and many folks in Baton Rouge in particular panicked when large numbers of refugees from NO poured into their city after Katrina. According to one friend of mine from Baton Rouge, locals who didn’t already have one went out to buy guns.

    Now my informal “polling” of Louisianians regarding NO may be wildly innacurate, but I do get the impression that NO is a unique city that is more like Singapore is to Malaysia, or Hong Kong is to China in it’s relationship to Louisiana in general.

    We Americans need to be reminded from time-to-time that we are one truly “multicultural” society, and NOT in that phony, lefty victimology/oppression crappola way that is taught in schools and toughted by demagogues. New Orleans happens to be one of America’s cultural extremes, which is why it seems so “third world” to so many of us.

    Also, the implicattions that Cass or some of the other respondents are racist or prejudiced because of their impressions or mindsets is nonsense. People behaving badly don’t get a pass because of their color or ethnicity.

  • Taylor says:

    I visited New Orleans in 1995, when the ABA had its annual convention there. The first thing I noticed was that in the convention information packet I received, there was a lot of information on places *not* to go to. Never saw anything like that for any other ABA convention location I’d been to, not even New York City.

    Luckily, a friend who was there at the time had attended Tulane Law School and was familiar with the city’s “Go/No-Go” zones, so she was able to shepherd me around and we encountered no problems. But it was still a creepy feeling to be confined to a tiny part of the city like it was some sort of wild-life sanctuary — only the “wild life” was outside the sanctuary, not inside.

    Aside from that, all I remember was that New Orleans was one of the most over-hyped places I’ve visited, right down to the vaunted jazz environment; listening to one particularly uninspired performance at a restaurant, it was all I could do to keep from jumping onto my chair and exclaiming, “When you’re through warming up, why dontcha play somethin’?”

  • docjim505 says:

    Went to NO a year before Katrina to visit a friend at Tulane. If I never go back, it’ll be too soon. Filthy, full of degenerates and thugs. Bourbon Street was interesting… in the way that a documentary about some primitive society of incestuous cannibals would be interesting. Otherwise, it was disgusting and degrading. My brother’s NG unit went there on pass during an annual training in Biloxi a few years prior. Some hood wandered up to them as they ate outside at a restaurant and announced that, if they didn’t part with $0.63, he’d kill one of them. Happily, they were able to cough up the coin, so he wandered off and was beaten and arrested by the NOPD a few minutes later.

    Personally, I’d rather take vacation in Fallujah than go back to NO.

    But I have to admit, the Audobon Aquarium and the D-Day Museum were very nice. And the food is everything that people claim.

  • KevinQC says:

    New Orleans definitely isn’t for everyone. I used to go there all the time when I lived in Mississippi and while it can be just as you described – I totally believe you – it also isn’t always like that. I’d be interested in knowing what conventions, concerts, or other events were going on when you were there. That can make a big difference. The worst trip I ever had there was for New Year’s when the Sugar Bowl (UVA and Tennessee – 1991) crowds were in town. It was horrific… simply horrific. I never had a bad experience during Mardi Gras though. I’m going back there this summer for the first time post hurricane, and I’m looking forward to it.

  • Uncle Mikey says:

    A friend of mine said he went during Mardi Gras and watched a policeman approach a group of college kids who were inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons, only to ask for a balloon himself, inhale it, and stagger away. Now that’s what I call protecting and serving.

    It’s a toilet, just like Vegas is a toilet. Turds tend to congregate in toilets, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it stinks in Nawlins.

  • BlackRedneck says:

    I went to New Orleans with a group of 4 to see the Battle of the Bands (between two black colleges, Southern and Grambling). This was pre-Katrina. We had lots of fun but New Orleans can be a pit. Dirty, shabby, and rundown doesn’t begin to describe it. We walked from Bourbon street to the stadium– big mistake. I grew up in the hood in L.A. and can spot the crazies. New Orleans is full of them. My sister’s friend is from Compton and she thought New Orleans was SCARY. I found it highly amusing that the Compton person was afraid of New Orleans. She kept pointing out how horrible and nasty it looked.

  • Lisa says:

    Cassey:

    Your trip sounds awful! I am so sorry that you missed a positive NOLA experience. My first trip to NOLA was in the early 80s as a teenager, then Mardi Gras visits during college. My husband, a first responder, was on a search and rescue team within 48 hrs after Katrina. My last trip was for a Saints game after Katrina. My sis was there earlier this week. We are north louisiana natives. NOLA, as they say, is a whole other country. The Historical Society of New Orleans does wonderful, educational guided tours of the Quarter, the cemetaries, the garden district etc. New Orleans is a third world country where you are responsible for your own safety and common sense is a requirement. BUT…there is no place like it. Royal Street is a must. I’m now of the age where food is so much more important that 3 for 1 daquaris and the top five best meals of my life have been enjoyed and savored in NOLA. The music can be wonderful!! Blues, a cold cocktail on the patio, as the humid breeze blows thru the evening. Or nothing like a 100 new friends at the Cat’s Meow or a friendly jibe from a Red Skins fan as as you meet in line for beniets before the game. C’mon…NOLA brought us the Manning football dynasty, Fats Domino and Harry Connick, Jr. It has some redeeming qualities….

    Plan it next time, and try it again. You may never love it, but at least give it a fair evaluation. (P.S. I would never LIVE in NOLA – 3 or 4 days a trip is about the right amount of time)

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