I'm just about ready to give up on New Orleans.

Benjamin Strange · #1 06-16-2008, 10:33 AM

The magic is gone. It's been three years since Katrina, and this entire place just feels very different. New Orleans has been my home off and on since 1998, but now I feel like a stranger in a strange land. The vibe has totally changed, but I can't put my finger on what it is that has changed so much.

Maybe it's the fact that FEMA trailers are still everywhere. Maybe it's seeing destruction and flood lines all over the city. Maybe it's the insane crime rate. Maybe it's the fact that a large percentage of the native population didn't come back - a fact made worse by having them replaced with Texans in giant pickup trucks. Maybe it's our roads being in even worse condition than they were before the storm. Maybe it's the fact that rents and housing costs are sky high, even though there's a glut of houses on the market. Maybe it's the fact that the once interesting music scene is all but dead, and the coolest places to see interesting live music are gone. Maybe it's the fact that most of my closest friends down here have given up and left. Maybe it's because I can't find a decent place to eat after 9pm. Maybe it's due to the price of a po'boy sandwich - $8-9 (!?!). Maybe it's because our only industry, tourism, has been decimated, and many of us are struggling. Maybe because my years in San Francisco caused me to lose my acclimation to the heat and humidity. Maybe it's because everytime I read the news, turn on the radio, or wander down Frenchmen street I hear the word "Katrina".

I really don't know what's happening to me. I used to love this place - lately I'm starting to feel the need to leave. I'm frustrated with the city, with my living situation (I'm paying just as much rent here in NOLA as I was in SF!), and with my band. The music I'm playing to earn my living has become deeply dissatisfying (a mixture of funk, blues, rock&roll, and a large helping of a certain guitarist's massive ego), and I'm at the point where I'd rather have a day job than play one more I-IV-V progression. In the past few months I got out of a 2 year relationship - with a girl that I discovered had been cheating on me for almost the entire time. Everytime I walk around the city I see things that remind me of her. I miss having friends to hang with - they all gave up on the city long ago, and moved all over the country. I've just about had enough, and I'm ready to follow their lead.

I may head back to San Francisco. There's quite a few more places for me to perform my original music there, my old band Never/Again (http://www.myspace.com/greatbetrayal) is starting to gain some momentum and they want me back, there's far more art stuff happening there, and the city is simply beautiful. Sure, I'd have to get a real job in addition to playing, but overall my cost of living would be lower than it is here. I'm already starting to eyeball my stuff around the house to figure how much I could fit in my car...

Why am I ranting about this on TB? I don't really know. I guess it's just weird feeling like I'm lost in the one place I used to feel most at home.

MJ5150 · #2 06-16-2008, 10:54 AM

Thanks for sharing. I hear that everytime I go down there. For me, it is all new and exciting. But for people like yourself who live there, I can totally understand how you feel. Just in the two years I have been going there, I have noticed differences too. I don't rent when I am there, but I have seen prices for other things going sky high. One can argue that prices are going up everywhere, but not at the rate some things in NOLA are, in my opinion.

No sense wasting away in a place you don't love anymore. Head west, young man.

-Mike

**Mark Wilson** · #3 06-16-2008, 10:59 AM

I've never been there, but I've heard about it, and now, no one talks about it. Anytime someone does it involved "Katrina".

I'd say, it's time for you to start again somewhere else.
Why not go back to SF? You've got a band there who want you back, and they're doing well.

Gard · #4 06-16-2008, 11:00 AM

Frankly, I thought you were nuts when you left SF to go back to NOLA.

I am a "native" of the southeastern LA area, both Kenner and Slidell are my "homes", and I lived in Baton Rouge for just over 2 years. You couldn't pay me nearly enough to even consider moving back.

Visiting, heck yeah, but living there, no freakin' way.

If you're that unhappy, get out, go back to SF (which is my favorite place in the country), and BE HAPPY man.

ahkiatt · #5 06-16-2008, 11:01 AM

You sound all ready to leave. Just go, and be happy.

wazzel · #6 06-16-2008, 11:03 AM

I gave up on the city and moved out before Katrina. The city was headded down before the storm. All the storm did was accelerat the process. IMO NO may be a fun place to visit, but is a hard place to make a living and raise a family. For what it's worth I am from the area (Houma) and my wife is from Metairie.

**Thor** · #7 06-16-2008, 11:15 AM

Sounds like you need a break.

Set a course and go. Good luck bro, and fairwinds to your
back.

Mon Rominee · #8 06-16-2008, 11:18 AM

Dude, time for that new chapter in your life. This one is ending on a sour note.

**baba** · #9 06-16-2008, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gard

Frankly, I thought you were nuts when you left SF to go back to NOLA.

+1

Bail.

MJ5150 · #10 06-16-2008, 12:00 PM

BTW........that po'boy in SF will be called an "authentic New Orleans po'boy", and they'll charge you $15 for it now.

-Mike

funkalicious101 · #11 06-16-2008, 01:20 PM

Thats a shame. New Orleans has been one of the places I have wanted to live in.

Of course, along side it at the top of the list was San Francisco.

MakiSupaStar · #12 06-16-2008, 01:23 PM

S.F. Done.

jomahu · #13 06-16-2008, 01:26 PM

no point in staying in a place you're not happy in. it won't change your love for old NOLA.

i tell you, i've been in this country for 10 years now, and the Katrina aftermath (which is still going on) was probably the saddest event i've seen here in the U.S.

Gard · #14 06-16-2008, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomahu

no point in staying in a place you're not happy in. it won't change your love for old NOLA.

i tell you, i've been in this country for 10 years now, and the Katrina aftermath (which is still going on) was probably the saddest event i've seen here in the U.S.

Yup, all correct.

I grew up there, the "old New Orleans" will always have a special place in my memory. However, even before the whole Katrina disaster (which was as much or more man-made as a natural event), the city was becoming a caricature of itself. Very sad.

As my family was directly affected by the event (the actual hurricane, not the flood a day later because of levee breaches), I have watched the struggle from a very close vantage point. My father and sister lived in Slidell at the time of the storm, and the eye of the storm passed directly over the city. Thankfully, my father, who had had enough of a bad year (my mother passed the April before Katrina), was here in NC with me hangin' out, drinking beer and going to minor league baseball games - he needed a break, and I was damn sure makin' sure he got it. My sister and her family managed to get out of town the night before the storm.

Dad snuck back into his home (back roads, avoiding the NG/Army roadblocks) a week after the storm. He walked into what was left of the house that he raised 3 children in, and took stock of what we still had. My brother in law, who was with him, says he walked into the house, and 10 minutes later, he walked out, sat in the carport and wept. He drove away with less than a pickup truck load of items, the rest was destroyed. He sold the house, and moved to Orlando to be with his mother.

My brother in law and my sister lived 2 blocks from dad's. They chose to rebuild, and 2 1/2 years later, they finally left their FEMA trailer and moved back into their home.

I love my sister, but it was the stupid choice. Dad did the right thing, that place won't be anything more than a shell of itself for at least 25-30 years. I haven't been there since the April before Katrina, and there is a part of me that needs to see it, but another part of me just wants to leave it a happy memory and not ever go back. I don't know which will win.

At one time, it was a vibrant, happy, fun, colorful place to live, and I will miss that place, but again, even before Katrina, it had started to not be that place any longer....

...Ben, go back to SF, you'll thank yourself one day.

FL Knifemaker · #15 06-16-2008, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

S.F. Done.

You mean......like..........DONE also??

wazzel · #16 06-16-2008, 01:58 PM

You just had your dad for the storm. You are lucky. We had 16 extra people and 4 extra dogs, no furniture and no appliance. We moved from Metairie the Saturday prior to the storm. Our stuff did not show up till Monday. 8 of the people and 3 of the dogs stayed fwith us or a month before they could go back. Two lost their houses, one in Kenner and one in Slidel (Eden Isle to be exact). I can not believe they decided to rebuild.

Gard · #17 06-16-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wazzel

You just had your dad for the storm. You are lucky. We had 16 extra people and 4 extra dogs, no furniture and no appliance. We moved from Metairie the Saturday prior to the storm. Our stuff did not show up till Monday. 8 of the people and 3 of the dogs stayed fwith us or a month before they could go back. Two lost their houses, one in Kenner and one in Slidel (Eden Isle to be exact). I can not believe they decided to rebuild.

Well, dad being here was just a stroke of luck, he had come up to just hang, then Katrina popped up and he couldn't go home.

Dude, you're kidding, they had a place in Eden Isles and REBUILT???

I don't know if I can describe the incredible level of FAIL that is to anyone that hasn't BEEN to Eden Isles in Slidell (you left an "l" out man!

). That place was just begging to get wiped off the map for over 30 years, and it finally did...and now people are rebuilding??? And worse yet, the local government is letting them? That's stupid times 1000.

For the uninitiated, Eden Isles is a development between the actual "city" of Slidell and Lake Pontchatrain, it's built on reclaimed marshland, there are no trees to speak of (it's just past the "tree line"), and there are canals throughout the entire development, every house is "waterfront" property, all of about a foot above sea level. I knew it was stupid to build there when I was about 7-8 and used to fish in the canals (good fishing actually, lots of saltwater stuff). The city of Slidell is actually an average of about 9' above sea level, so much better than Eden Isles or any of the other areas closer to the lake.

I heard they refused to let anyone rebuild the camps out on the actual lake itself, so the gov't is not completely insane, just mostly, it appears!

need4mospd · #18 06-16-2008, 02:35 PM

I propose we change the name to "Newer Orleans" to avoid confusion with the good ol' New Orleans.

ryco · #19 06-16-2008, 02:36 PM

San Fran and it's surrounding area is nice.
Love the coast just to the north and south. Really pretty!
And the city has a friendly vibe. Lots to do and see!
Bundle up though!

Sad I'll never get to see the "real" NO. Always wanted to go there! My folks lived in Bogalusa for a couple of years. Never made it down -- rats!

Gard · #20 06-16-2008, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryco

Sad I'll never get to see the "real" NO. Always wanted to go there! My folks lived in Bogalusa for a couple of years. Never made it down -- rats!

Bogalusa! There's a town I haven't thought of in a while...man, when the winds were JUST RIGHT in winter, you could smell the paper mills all the way in Slidell!

PEEEE-EWE-EEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I really hated playing football against them in high school when we traveled for the game. They had quite the home-field advantage with that stench!