The Rejuvenation of New Orleans

By: Rahul Kishore - Rahul's Musings

When Huricane Katrina hit, the city of New Orleans went dark. There were no young revelers on the streets of the French quarter wearing beads or having good times, there were no musicians playing jazz and singing the blues. But through the trials of a storm that fundamentally reshaped the landscape of this city, things have slowly returned. The old bastions of New Orleans made a come back, albeit at a steep cost. Katrina is a story of great disaster but of greater rebirth for the crescent city.

As Katrina started to roll into the delta, most restaurant owners skipped town hoping that their businesses would be safe from the prevailing winds and the coming floods. But one bar, non-descript and tiny, decided to stay open. Johnny White’s, whose tag line has always been “Never Closed”, has been serving the French quarter beers at 6 AM on Sundays for nearly 20 years. So when Katrina came, closing was not an option. The bar became an iconic symbol of the ability for the residents of New Orleans to come together as a community to weather Katrina. Johnny White’s became a rallying point for the entire city, where people would come to grab a drink, get critical information from the National Guard, have a warm meal, and work together to keep the community safe. In the darkness, Johnny White’s was the light at the end of the tunnel.

The first restaurant to reopen after Katrina was Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill. One of three restaurants the restaurateur has in New Orleans. Brennan has become an icon of the passion and drive that the people of New Orleans have for rebuilding after Katrina. Brennan didn’t single a single employee due to Katrina, and returned to his restaurants with hope to make them even better than they once were.

Three months after Katrina had passed, New Orelans’s prodigal son, Emeril Legasse, returned to his destroyed restaurant. But instead of cutting his losses and leaving the city that gave him his start, Legasse rebuilt and brought back his employees and customers to Emeril's. In a time when something as simple as opening your doors in the morning seemed like something heroic, Legasse was there to show that the city could rebuild. His flagship restaurant reopened, and slowly but surely things began to return to normal.

After the storm had made its way through, destroying homes, cars, and livelihoods, some of New Orleans’s most iconic restaurants and buildings had been decimated. For 17 years straight, Commander’s Place held the title as Zagat’s Most Popular Restaurant in New Orleans. The beautiful building that houses Commander’s had taken a beating. It took over a year to bring it back to form, and over $8.5 million. After all the blood, sweat and tears, Commander’s opened again with a bang and returned to its traditional place at the top of the rankings in its old home.

For all the progress, there are still setbacks. New Orleans is now home to 200,000 less residents than before the storm. Many refused to move back, in fear of another crushing huricane coming from the gulf. But as more and more businesses open their doors to a new day, more and more people make plans to return. New Orleans is experiencing a great renaissance, bringing back the old traditions while also making new ones. Though Katrina may always be a part of the history of this city, it is the people, not the storm who define what New Orleans is and what it stands for.

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Photo credit: flickr cc ~MVI~