Spring Break
City finds rebirth in Mardi Gras
Ralph MacDonald
Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: Entertainment
The downtown area is also home of the famed Bourbon Street. The mid-day crowd brought in an abundance of elaborate costumes and face paint, which gave Bourbon Street the appearance of a retirement home for over-the-hill tooth fairies. The street is home to several mystical shops, including the pseudo-Catholic Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo (actually all voodoo seems to be pseudo-Catholic, but I was surprised by the number of books that detailed how to pray to Catholic saints). Of course, the real attraction on Bourbon is the famous Pat O'Brien's outdoor bar, where they serve their notorious hurricane drink for seven dollars and a delicious jambalaya for five. The first of several bars in the establishment is through a dark door on the street, but past this small room the place opens up into a garden and outdoor bar. The drinks are all served in plastic cups, bringing me to one of the greatest advantages of New Orleans.
New Orleans is one of the few cities I have been to that has eschewed the very common and very obnoxious open container law. Every bar we went to served with either plastic cups or cans so as to not lose any nice glasses to patrons with the wanderlust. It is a very liberating experience to be able to take your drink around the very interesting city and not worry about the abundant supply of cops that give their best effort to keep the city under control while the young and the old tear the city apart. Every empty parade street ended up looking like a war zone, filled with toilet paper, beads, beer bottles, and cups and a lone motorist who had found a way to turn their cooler into what history will ultimately acknowledge as the world's coolest scooter.
Of course, some will probably ultimately wish that the police were not so occupied with the downtown tourists because there are some parts of New Orleans that are absolutely terrifying. The city has had trouble with poverty and its ever-present partner, crime, in the aftermath of Katrina. An accidental non-turn on Third Street took me very promptly from the Garden district to an area that appeared out of something from The Wire. Poverty was very apparent here and there was no shortage of menacing people watching me as I slowly contemplated when to just quit and turn back. I actually managed to walk alone through these kinds of areas twice, once during the middle of the afternoon and again at four in the morning, so there is at least anecdotal evidence that New Orleans is not as dangerous as one would think, but I would still bring a rabbit's foot if you intend to spend much time in the scarier areas. It is also worth noting that my mid-day walk through the New Orleans ghetto revealed several contractors working on home improvement, evidence, albeit again anecdotal, that the city is making a comeback of sorts from the devastation of Katrina.
New Orleans is one of the few cities I have been to that has eschewed the very common and very obnoxious open container law. Every bar we went to served with either plastic cups or cans so as to not lose any nice glasses to patrons with the wanderlust. It is a very liberating experience to be able to take your drink around the very interesting city and not worry about the abundant supply of cops that give their best effort to keep the city under control while the young and the old tear the city apart. Every empty parade street ended up looking like a war zone, filled with toilet paper, beads, beer bottles, and cups and a lone motorist who had found a way to turn their cooler into what history will ultimately acknowledge as the world's coolest scooter.
Of course, some will probably ultimately wish that the police were not so occupied with the downtown tourists because there are some parts of New Orleans that are absolutely terrifying. The city has had trouble with poverty and its ever-present partner, crime, in the aftermath of Katrina. An accidental non-turn on Third Street took me very promptly from the Garden district to an area that appeared out of something from The Wire. Poverty was very apparent here and there was no shortage of menacing people watching me as I slowly contemplated when to just quit and turn back. I actually managed to walk alone through these kinds of areas twice, once during the middle of the afternoon and again at four in the morning, so there is at least anecdotal evidence that New Orleans is not as dangerous as one would think, but I would still bring a rabbit's foot if you intend to spend much time in the scarier areas. It is also worth noting that my mid-day walk through the New Orleans ghetto revealed several contractors working on home improvement, evidence, albeit again anecdotal, that the city is making a comeback of sorts from the devastation of Katrina.
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