I love this city and moved here about a week after I turned 18 in 2013. I agree with your description about the troubles we face on the affordability front. What I completely disagree with is your misguided belief that because I did not go to high school here -the perennial standard for being a New Orleanian- I am not a contributor to our city’s vibrant cultural life but some sort of diluting agent. That is offensive and incorrect. It is also misguided because that entrenched belief is part of the reason our city is struggling to retain talent from elsewhere. Our city is actually losing people. Good people. Because they are not “from here” and are treated differently by everyone, particularly at work.
23
NOLA. It's hot, fetid, foul, corrupt, louche, and absolutely unlivable. And yet, in so many ways it embodies the human spirit as it continues to hang on by a thread despite all the reasons to bury it and move on. There's not one of us who would not benefit from dying standing pat with a jazz band on our tailgate.
7
Yes, we all bemoan the changes, but the N.O. that gentrification is altering never totally existed anyway.
It's just what remains of a romantic, nostalgic fantasy in your mind and mine, of all the idyllic memories of days gone by down in old New Orleans...
The really big N.O. property owners and their Real Estate companies had been working these changes for a long time before Katrina flushed the city and increased the momentum.
They have pretty well got what they wanted, maybe more.
It's like N.O. music. When I'm down there talking to young people, I ask about the music, and almost nobody knows or listens to Fats, Prof. Longhair, Mac, Earl King, The Nevilles, the Radiators, Guitar Slim, Gatemouth, on and on...
The music is another victim of gentrification, or generational change of focus.
But some things never change, especially in N.O., and we should be happy about that.
"I love you baby like a miner love gold,
come on baby let the good times roll."
6
New Orleans is a great city, unique in the world.
Its greatness is equalled by how awful it can be.
Like humanity itself.
The greatest real threat to the city is global warming, not gentrification.
21
There are very few good jobs in New Orleans. It's a terrible place for almost everyone to live regardless of income level. Only a wealthy visitor can make that economy go. The food is so rich it will kill everybody even if Bernie's climate plan saves the day. The arts and culture are fake the violence is real. AND IT'S STILL THE BEST CITY IN AMERICA!
13
IMO a pity the city fathers in NOLA decided to pull down their confederate statues-- such nonsense-- esp. at Lee circle -- has it been renamed? The French quarter was quite dirty - just like Times Square-- have the city fathers in both places not heard about soap and water and elbow grease? -- bleach and water do not remove oil grime or gum. Of course, the city fathers escape from the city whenever they can! The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is a gem. The trolley forces one to relax and I did not manage a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi. Much remains to be explored.
3
What?!
The Times Picayune died in 2012 when it eviscerated its staff and began publishing 3 days a week. The Advocate moved in to publish a daily and has recently resuscitated the Times Picayune as a daily with a larger staff. Could it do better? Sure, but it's better than it was for the last 7 years.
And John Georges a Republican. Huh?! He ran as an Independent in 2007 against Republican darling and political failure Bobby Jindal and in 2010 as a Democrat for Mayor of New Orleans.
19
People should enjoy New Orleans as much as possible because it’s days are numbered because of climate change and the city is below sea level
8
Highly likely that many of the "new people" who are moving to New Orleans are in fact returnees from Houston, Jackson and other cities...the places to which literally hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians fled after Katrina. Perhaps these returnees have something to offer?
4
It just seems like having a city alongside a huge river, not far from a hurricane prone coast, that is below sea level and must be protected by levies and pumps, is a very bad idea and a disaster waiting to happen.......again.....and again.
21
Climate Change will write the final chapter on New Orleans and quite possibly Baton Rouge.
There is a National Geographic map showing a worst-case scenario where the Gulf of Mexico would be just south of Pine Bluff Arkansas. That is not far south of Little Rock, Arkansas and all of Louisiana would be underwater.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/09/rising-seas-ice-melt-new-shoreline-maps/
7
As usual, the NYT gives voice to an author‘s holier-than-thou attitude about a special place that few of their readers will ever understand. To wit: the city has remained vibrant through many other wrenching periods (except perhaps white flight in the 50s and 60s). Its very essence is its perpetual reinvention in the face of almost every challenge in the last 300 years. Same today. The newcomers the Times derides have come because they love the city, not because they want to make it the next Brooklyn (except of course for the New Yorkers buying up the Bywater). Walk around any street in the city except perhaps Decatur by Canal and you will barely spot a national chain store. Much less a Starbucks.
I honestly don’t understand how a paper as “progressive” as the Times feels they have the right to oppose progress in the city: less blight, more political accountability, a sparkling arts community, a reasonably healthy economy and diversity like you won’t see anywhere else. Oh wait... there it is near the end of the article... the owners of the Advocate are — gasp! — conservatives! There goes the neighborhood...
The author’s revisionist history showed when he referred to “the relatively mild racism of the French... colonial period.” Seriously? The slavery-dependent plantation economy was largely French (Creole were not “native,” as the Times asserts). The Times is willing to give a pass to them but not to the current crop of newcomers? Sheesh!
21
If this article was about a city where blacks were moving into white neighborhoods, it would be condemned. But the reverse is ok with most NYT readers.
6
The Times-Picayune was a victim of hubris.
6
What a shame. Whites are moving to New Orleans and bringing with them wealth. What a tragedy.
9
We love New Orleans. Many visits there. The year after Katrina, we decided that we'd support the city by getting married there, bringing our friends and both families. Been back many times since. Owned a condo there for a few years. It has been a special place in our lives.
It pains me to write it, but this article smacks of "we don't want money from white outsiders". Imagine New Orleans without revenue and tax dollars from anyone who isn't "from" there, whether tourists or people choosing to make it their new home.
Be careful what you wish for.
18
I lived in New Orleans three different times. I finished high school, graduated from Tulane, and met my wife of nearly 50 years in New Orleans. I even worked at the Times-Picayune for a time. From my perspective, the list of challenges New Orleans faced (and continues to face) was long and intractable. Frankly, I believe hurricane Katrina was a blessing in disguise. First, it forced many families to relocate to cities and communities where healthful change was and is possible, especially for the children. Second, it offered the City a chance for rebirth. As this article suggests, that “rebirth” is still a work-in-progress. I continue to hope the best for New Orleans, but personal expectations are muted. With global warming, I fear the future of New Orleans is not bright.
16
I write as a relative newcomer to NOLA, having moved here a second time 5 years ago. I agree that those of us who move here only to complain about noisy bars or raise rent to unaffordable heights are extremely problematic. But this article ignores the significant responsibility held by the power families who have lived here for generations. Their inherent biases and paternalism are the drivers for the horrid charter school system, while their children attend private schools. Their tribalism and negligence have resulted in our crumbling infrastructure. Their greed have made affordable development impossible.
Yes, as recent arrivals to NOLA it's important we tread lightly on this fragile city we love. But those who have been here forever are more responsible for all that is crumbling around us.
25
My daughter and her husband moved to New Orleans in 2016, satisfying one of the important goals in their life as a couple and young family. They are “world changers” in their own way, and are committed to making a life there as contributors to social and economic justice, as well as to the arts. They are just barely able to sustain a lower middle class lifestyle in NOLA i.e finding an affordable rental with just enough space to sustain a young family, and scrimping along to find a way to educate children within a school system that fails to serve them and others in greater need. In addition, speaking of things in NOLA needing repair: try driving in many of these neighborhoods, where the threat of whiplash and axle damage is very palpable one.
But the allure and the possibilities this city has to offer offsets these challenges for my “world-changers,” and I hope they will continue to live their dream and affect positive, much needed change and reform to this historic gem of a city.
8
The developers and investors received an unabashed hold of the big easy after Katrina. What is amazing is no one has addressed the flood and storm water management of NOLA in the 14 years following Katrina.This year we are finally realizing the possible catastrophe and blantant mismanagement that will once again enrich developers and investors. hmmmmm . Never mind the public health issues of the toxic soup in the streets and dangerous mold. Note we are NY and Nola based on the north shore with proper drainage, pumps etc. in elevated structures.
Gentrification does not kill a neighborhood it revitalizes it with new business more tax revenue lower crime. What kills a neighborhood is crime and lack of adherence to societies rules.
17
I will always remember the Times Picayune for publishing this yankee's letters to the editor decrying Lousiana's fixation with "scientific creationism" back in the early 1980s, during my stint as a petroleum geologist as Shell Oil. Someone had to be a defender of science and the paper was happy to let me do it.
I always found it weird that light poles had cast inscriptions on their bases which described the city's history in terms who "dominated" it, be it the French, Spanish, Confederacy or the US. A strange way to describe itself.
But the rest of my experience in New Orleans? I was a fish out of water, a victim of crime and corruption and considered a "transient" by those born and raised in the city.
In the oil industry of the 80's the almost universal opinion ws that New Orleans was a city best seen in the rear view mirror.
I am sad at the demise of the paper, but the changes to the city? Not so much.
4
My view of this city is different from the authors. While I have never been a resident of New Orleans it is a city close to my heart. My husband has been visiting since the 80’s when his brother was a student there. We spent part of our honeymoon there in 1996. My daughter just started her junior year at Tulane and we have spent much time visiting over the last several years. I am always struck by how much the residents cherish and cultivate the culture and traditions of their city while embracing change. The spirit and pride of residents is what I love most about New Orleans. It makes New Orleans a unique city. Examine its history, it has changed countless times over hundreds of years while still retaining its rich cultural traditions, it’s dedication to art, music, food, history and its celebration of diversity.
11
Real estate has always filled the same parabola. Once a area is allowed to decay, such as New Orleans has been doing, prices fall and people of means and vision swoop in. It is a natural process.
8
I plowed through a number of these comments assuming Mr. Elie would be taken to task for shooting himself in the foot. Though it may not have been his intention, Treme was an extremely effective advertising campaign for a city that arguably needed it at the time. Be careful what you wish for, and keep what you love a secret.
7
I think change would be welcome in a city and state that sits at rock bottom in almost every ranking of health, education and welfare. Why not give new people and institutions a chance instead of clinging to old ways that bore such sad results ?
15
I lived in New Orleans from '82 to '86. On balance, I enjoyed my time in the city, but this column reminds me of an ever-present attitude I detected during my time there: The belief by native-born New Orleanians that they were something special, and other people were outsiders. Those outsiders sure were welcomed to spend their money though, as long as they left. I found that attitude offensive then, and it is no less offensive now.
Also, New Orleans used to be a place where rogues and various characters could be found in dark, smoky saloons. Now. it's more like Disney World with a Bourbon Street attraction.
24
I have been to New Orleans several times over the years. First time in 1974, last time 2 years ago. I consider New Orleans to now be unlivable, any gentrification notwithstanding.
8
The first time I was in New Orleans, I told a waiter: this is a great town; it's as good as San Francisco, my hometown.
I didn't think I'd ever say such a thing, but New Orleans earned it.
Now, thirty years later, San Francisco is gone, and it sounds like New Orleans is on the ropes. I hope the author's optimism holds for the soul of his city.
Is it just me, or are all the cities, once so distinctive, starting to look alike?
18
@alyosha.......I left San Francisco in 1977 because of the congestion and rudeness. People fought over parking spaces.
Now it has become a homeless nightmare like Seattle, Portland, New Orleans, etc.
Becoming an expat in 2000 after discovering Provence was the best thing that could have happened for my retirement.
The values of France regarding gun control, national health plan, and the quality of medical services far exceed America!
27
Our visit to New Orleans left us with a feeling of a lost opportunity to a city in a constant state of flux.
The population changes over the years were instigated by a tragedy like a hurricane. The latest influx of newcomers may actually be ignorant of the risks they’re taking.
Some communities are cursed by bad luck and New Orleans May be one of them. Climate change may be the next surge of bad luck for the city on the sea.
4
Mr. Elie's point is that the personality of NOL is being lost to gentrification. It is becoming a generic city with its tourist class approach. N'Ahlins will never be the same. Like a strong character-ed, individual "Did it my way" old man dying and leaving the place to the yuppie kids. We lament the loss but welcome the change.
4
"tilting the delicate balance between those residents who move to the city because they love it and those who naturally embody the city’s culture because they live it"
"they’ve also brought threats to the city’s New Orleans-ness"
I have been to NO many times and I love the place. I know what the author means and I have some sympathy for him. But these statements can be read as anti-immigration, decrying the "wrong kind of people": " less black, more white, richer".
What about renewal, diversity, the inevitability of change? If it's good for the nation, isn't it good for a city? I'd love to stop some things in their tracks (including the demise of traditional journalism), but I accept that it's a fool's errand.
Liberals need to be careful about these characterizations either way. We're supposed to be for inclusion, remember?
As for N.O., I think its spirit is indomitable, so I agree with the author's conclusion, despite abundant evidence that anything good can and will be loved to death.
21
The attitude evoked in this article is perhaps the literal definition of "conservative."
Conservative: holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.
25
I disagree.
Now -post Katrina- there is an incredible creative energy in the city.
A great food and bar scene. Tons of art, and much of the city's unique housing has been renovated, making parts of the city truly stunning. It's hip without losing it's unique New Orleans personality.
Why do you think everyone now wants to move to New Orleans?
Because it has everything that made New Orleans great in the past, but MORE. There is a revitalization that is very exciting and is attracting a lot of people.
Cities change. That is just the nature of the beast. And in the case of New Orleans, it's changing for the better.
I'm a fanatical New Yorker, and I'm even thinking of moving to New Orleans!
22
@zoe Don't move. You missed the deep heart of this article. And this, my dear: "It's hip without losing it's unique New Orleans personality." is an oxymoron, the credo of the profiteering occupiers.
5
I don't think you can separate the effects of gentrification from the effects of climate change. The disruption of the climate does not just change the weather, it changes real estate prices, migration patterns, patterns of local wealth, displaces primarily the poor because the wealthy can afford whatever they want. Once the failures of the levees blew away all the poor neighborhoods and those who lived in them, the wealthy were free to do with NO whatever they wanted. The wealthy didn't - and won't - move into the Lower Ninth Ward but they moved in to other neighborhoods. This pattern is playing out in other places and will continue to do so. If we're homogenizing as a nation it is because the little guy can't compete with big money, especially once the little guy has received a major hit from mother nature.
17
Observations on New Orleans
-The architecture and boulevards are striking and unlike other large American cities
-There is generally a friendliness and laid back attitude among the citizenry
-The arts abound: Talk to a Lucky Dog vendor long enough and she might show you the novel she’s writing
-The art scene is so competitive you need to be a really good artist or musician to survive
-The influx of out of towners opening businesses, teaching in charter schools, enriching the culture has led to a striking improvement in many erstwhile rundown, dangerous areas
-The number of restaurants serving excellent, novel, high priced meals is remarkable
-The number of restaurants serving inexpensive fried, fatty seafoods, po’ boys and the like is remarkable
-Many New Orleanians living ‘abroad’ in the U.S. frequently return to New Orleans as they get older
-Fishing the nearby bayous and offshore is totally awesome
-Violent crime, especially gun violence, is constant and horrendous
-Obesity is way above the national average
-Many natives have an idealized vision of themselves and their self-styled uniqueness, that ‘je ne sais quoi’
- French is dead as a language in the city, but there is plenty of Spanish spoken; many old line French families can’t even pronounce their names anymore
- New Orleans is ultimately doomed. Between earth subsidence, rising sea levels, and constant dredging of the Mississippi river it is only a matter of time before it is a tiny island, and then, no more
26
I am legitimately struggling to reconcile the acceptance of mourning the loss of cultural distinction in an area to non-natives, and wonder whether this article would be hashtagged on Twitter already if someone wrote an Op-Ed lamenting the destruction of Michigan culture due to Somali refugees, for instance.
To an extent, I don't blame the author. My hometown has changed in any ways, not all for the better. But explicitly calling out white people for moving into "our city" seems tacky.
23
Change is the lifeblood of a city. Cities, by definition, go up and down in health, population and wealth. NOLA 10 years ago was vastly different from what it was 40 years ago, when I first visited.
I've never understood why gentrification is a bad word. 100 years ago Seattle was nothing; 30 years ago it was quirky; today it is rich. Who knows what it will be 30 years from now? The only certainty is that it will be vastly different.
12
Nice essay. I would point out that the influx of New Orleansians to Dallas, Texas after the hurricane has been a real boon for our cultural scene. Many who fled here, stayed here and have added to the growing cosmopolitan vibe of the city. When I migrated to Dallas in 1990, it was such a closed minded, intensely conservative and painfully Evangelical - "the buckle of the Bible belt." Today it's so much more human. It's like genetics - maybe New Orleans doesn't look as familiar as it once did, but Dallas and Houston now have a bit of old New Orleans in its cultural DNA.
30
OK, I'll bite: what is wrong with gentrification?
What comes with it is generally less crime and litter, more foot-traffic on the sidewalks and therefore a greater feeling of community, and easier access to grocery items that one could make a meal of -- all positive.
It also means higher property values and, yes, taxes. A positive for longtime residents who are ready to sell, a negative for those who want to stay. So -- neutral.
How do three positives plus one neutral = negative?
34
@Marty
For someone who grew up and works there is extremely negative if he is a working class person.It means that he will be forced out against his will ,moved many miles away from his job and requiring to buy a car so he can commute if he can even afford that
15
@Marty -- It's true. The reason it has a bad rap is that there doesn't seem to be anything anyone can do about dislocation. But it's a natural market process. As long as someone is willing to take a certain price for their house or business, they will sell. The only way to stop it is to intervene in the property market, and no one wants to do that to the degree necessary to prevent the kind of transition that is called "gentrification." As with everything else, there are winners and losers.
1
This happening in some of my favorite places and cities. You can’t find a good pirozhki in San Francisco any more, and North Beach is Italian practically only in name. Chinatown is just a tourist trap (though Stockton Street still has a vibrant original market). New York still has a lot of its varietal influences, but small delis and mom-and-pops are being priced out of their neighborhoods. The Gullah natives in Georgia and South Carolina are losing their language. The century-old traditionally black neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, have been either torn down or bought out by whites and developers. We all lose when these things are replaced with corporate and personal wealth with only the thought of increasing that wealth.
16
Gentrification done right will enhance New Orleans. New populations of diverse people is always good. Cities that evolve and grow into vibrant communities are exciting and challenging.
Local government is stepping up to meet the future.I for one welcome the takeover of the old newspaper. Time will tell, if John Georges is able to take the paper to new heights with smart editorials. New writers that readers can't wait to read. Sections young people want to see.Kid only sections on a regular basis.Imitation of the best is the way to go.
8
@Carole
I don't see much diversity among upper middle class gentrifiers. They pretty much conform to whatever values and behavior their class requires at a given time.
19
@Thomas B They have diversity of education, emigrating from disparate parts of the nation, and the desire to transform a city into a modern 21st political economy. What more could you want?
5
@JDK
How about diversity by class and culture? I like that, not a city with suburban white collar culture and values. That's what you see in Chicago's North Side youth ghettos--the suburbs transplanted to the city.
3
Lolis Elie himself and his family are among New Orleans's greatest treasures. He reflects another remarkable tradition here to embody a certain "cosmopolitan localism" that is unique to those whom New Orleans claims--or who claim New Orleans.
I share his optimism for the continued and distinct presence this city shall have on the American and global landscape despite all of the pressures it is experiencing around change. Lolis notes that the city's rich history, in fact, includes a series of detoured trajectories that might render it unrecognizable at any time over its 300+ year history to previous generations who had passed just years before. For all of the romantic stereotypes, New Orleans has always been a city of change.
The waves of arriving French, Haitians, Spanish, French again, Anglos, Mexicans, other Southerners, other Louisianans, and people of color who defied post-Jeffersonian racial castes formed a cultural cauldron. Moreover, early central European and Latin American immigration allowed New Orleans--not New York--to hold title as America's most international city for decades.
It has always born its creativity from a struggle whose iconic contributions to this country remain unrivaled. Forbes Magazine has a web page of internal US migration that bears out Lolis's treatise of New Orleans's invasion by folks from every other "hot market." Let 'em come. Whatever they create, whatever they become will be unique in this world---and pure NOLA.
8
@Gui. Short-term rentals are destroying so many unique places, including NO...why no comments from any resident on this thread? It’s a tremendous problem, and cited in the article.
2
Nostalgia is abound in my heart and mind for NOLA as I read this article. As a native of New Orleans that moved away before Katrina, my visits are less touristy and more family oriented. I still love the city and have never experienced another place the way that I experience NOLA. Maybe its the culture or just my own state of mind when visiting.
Reading the Times Picayune was a main stay activity in my home. My parents started their day with a home delivery of the Times Picayune, reading the paper from back to front. Actually, and maybe sadly, it was the most reading material in my home. I read the NYT, as well as my local paper (all digitally) the same way now. Having a local paper seems to be a luxury these days.
As far as gentrification, migration from climate change is bound to happen everywhere. "Below sea level" has been an accepted condition of NOLA from the beginning. Katrina has changed neighborhoods, schools, politics. White flight has changed neighborhoods, schools, politics. And that is in just the last 60 years. If you have access...well, only the powerful will write the story.
5
As the article mentions, The Advocate won a Pulitzer for their stories on racial bias in jury selection, ultimately leading to landmark new legislation. Seems silly to then ask the question the Advocate's "editorial sensitivity" on demographic and political issues.
The Times Picayune was flailing long before the acquisition. Many locals not-so affectionately called it the "sometimes picayune" for this reason.
Also, worth mentioning that John Georges ran as a Democrat and Independent.
8
New Orleans used to be one of my favorite vacation destinations. But the last time we were there, it was obvious the black population had mostly disappeared. The ambiance was different, as was the food. This was a year or so after Katrina. We have not been back since.
3
@Kathleen Oh, please. If you were here just a year or two after Katrina there were still a lot of people who hadn't returned yet - not just members of the African-American community. The restaurant scene in New Orleans would become even larger and more diverse within five years post-Katrina than it was before the storm. Like all places, New Orleans has changed over the years - but your assessment sounds like you're interpreting things to fit your own preconceived narrative.
23
For me - an urban Mexican - there are only three cities in the United States: New York City, San Francisco, and New Orleans. (Not even LA)
NOLA has - had - a great cultural base: music, food, and racial tolerance. I remember visiting there maybe thirty years ago when it was perhaps more vibrant, and being lectured by a black cab driver about how to mispronounce all the French-named streets and also about the city's traditions of racial tolerance.
I was a bit shocked - walking around in the Quarter - when black people would actually say hello to me as we passed on the street. (I'm a very European-looking Mexican.) People are really quite civil there if they don't murder you. Southern charm and all that. And Mexico City is one of the most dangerous places in the world. But NOLA is really dangerous - for everybody - black and white and in-between.
The cultural shifts - white-flight, white influx, gentrification, black displacement - are a bit complex for a simple analysis. After Katrina, the Quarter really got to be more of tourist trap and NOLA residents - and visitors too - started to gravitate to Magazine Street and other outlying neighborhoods.
But look what's happened to San Francisco: software owns it and has wrecked the hell out of it. And SF will never be the same after Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Oracle...
28
Maybe there should be a maximum quota for incoming white people. Kind of a racial litmus test.
Or if that sounds silly, maybe just be grateful for vitality, no matter the color
10
@Robt Little. There should be a limit to short-term rentals!
4
San Francisco is gone. Seattle is gone. And now, New Orleans will be gone, because when the money starts rolling in, the defining character of a city starts rolling out. Housing prices skyrocket. And soon, all you're left with is a town full of pompous, jaded, snobs.
Qu'elle domage.
47
Add to that list Washington, DC
1
The roots of gentrification are not racial, they are economic.
31
@TRF, Dude, you just threw too much logic at people. No way will most people buy into that.
2
@TRF And what are the roots of American wealth? If you think economics can be disentangled from race, you haven't been paying attention (or studying your history).
4
No place today is like it was 50 years ago. To expect it to be so is the most unproductive, retrogressive nostalgia. You can recall with fondness the way your city used to be. You can also simultaneously take pleasure in what your city is now. But if you lament the old days, you might as well go live in a cave.
The world changes. People die. The old time Dixieland jazz is not an example of New Orleans contemporary uniqueness. Nor is Fats Domino boogie woogie. It's from the past. Enjoy it, but don't lament it.
23
@rlschles
My father used to say, “Americans are nostalgic for a time that never was.” My father was very wise in many ways.
3
I was born and raised in New Orleans, and I am old enough to remember that city at the tail end of White flight. My parents told me that there were as many as a million people living in New Orleans proper, before the start of White flight. Afterwards, the population had shrank to half of that.
Now, New Orleans as well as most American cities are experiencing the great White boomerang back to the inner cities. There is this one remaining constant in both of these phenomenon, past and present. America's White population continues to have the means to move anywhere they please, and all of the opportunities included.
22
Anthropologists say 15% is the magic number; when any group gets to 15% they are no longer tolerated as nicely, whether we're talking rich, white outsiders (non- New Orleanians) or refugees in Germany. Ironic that we can wax nostalgic about the shame of it in N.O. but decry its xenophobic nature in Europe. My reptile brain doesn't like it either, but we should try to overcome it. Whatever has caused this influx to wonderful New Orleans, people are increasingly on the move. As our planet heats up, more people will be moving -- in search of higher ground, better jobs, safer environs, no snow; to escape oppression and so on. Like it or not, migrations will only increase and we would all do better to adjust our thinking and realize we are one in the human condition, and in the next 12 years or so we might be an endangered species.
9
So NO arrivals were fleeing heat and high water
2
No, snow and homogeny.
1
As the article says, New Orleans is 60% black. When I moved there with my family in 1966, the year after hurricane Betsy, which is the nearest equivalent to Katrina for it's effects on the city, it was about 60 to 65 percent white. New Orleans does indeed have a unique history and culture among American cities. Read the the book by Anne Rice, The Feast of All Saints, for an historically accurate portrayal of black and creole culture in the city, NOT the movies. They are not so accurate.
New Orleans was settled by the French in 1718, but the French Quarter is of Spanish architecture, because the Spanish owed it for a few decades. The French construction burned down. It was also a slave trading city and surrounded by sugar plantations. The largest slave revolt in the nation occurred upriver from New Orleans in 1811. Nobody recalls this. (ISBN 978-0-06199521-7)
Because of this history there was a greater integration, mixing of the races, not found in other American cities. During the contentious years of the civil rights movement New Orleans did not experience quite as much racial violence as other American cities. It was easy to forget the color of a person's skin in New Orleans, for a while. Even during Mardi Gras day the criminals partied. This is verifiable. People knew how to get along, but the history of New Orleans is not how this author is presenting it. He's making it a black vs white thing. New Orleans was a white city if it returns to its roots.
19
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
Uhhh sorry to upset your revisionist version of history, but New Orleans has NEVER EVER been 60% white, particularly not in 1966 (did you just make that up???)...since our founding, we've been 60-85% black...Anne Rice does NOT provide an accurate portrayal of Black nor Creole culture, just a less racist white observation (try Keith Weldon Medley's Black Life in Old New Orleans)...and while even today, privilege may allow a person to have exclusively white experiences in the city, it is is not the author who is creating a black vs. white dichotomy, but the inequities rooted in the laws and practices that elevate whiteness to the subjugation of blackness and allowed you to think in 1966 that the city was majority white...and still today give the impression that we were all "getting along" when we were simply more adept at the survival skills necessary to gain more freedoms in an oppressive society.
6
I fell in deep crazy love with New Orleans in the Summer of 1995. 10 years later the destruction of Katrina broke my heart. I asked my young elementary school art students to draw and paint tributes to this great city, a city they had never been to or even knew about.
I understand how upsetting demographic change can be to someone’s home town. I experienced it when hipsters moved into Greenpoint, Brooklyn, my home town years after I had grown up and left. My siblings and I complain about the change, especially after the house we were raised in, one block from the East River, was recently torn down to make way for an apartment building. We are white and so are most of the hipsters. If the hipsters were not white, we would be called racists. Why is it that you will not be called racist for opposing the whites moving into New Orleans?
My brother-in-law is still helping to re-build Nawlins. Can we stop fixating on the color of our skin? Please.
31
@Olivia
Olivia, Just curious: Are you the NYT commenter who posted in today's Bruni piece that you will again vote for Trump?
If you want to know what's changing New Orleans you have to start with the white flight to Jefferson, ST Bernard, and the other suburban parishes. In the 60's New Orleans had a population of 650,000. It was 50/50 white black. By the time Katrina came the city was down to 450,000 and it was 2/3 black. I blame the white people from the Irish Channel, St. Roc, Bywater, Marigny, Mid-City and other neighborhoods, including the 9th Ward, for abandoning the city -that's what really started the cultural change and that started a long time before Air B&B was ever conceived.
5
Blame people for moving? Wow. My parents were robbed 2 times at gunpoint in the span of 6 months and our house was burglarized when I was a child growing up in St. Roc. The neighborhood changed drastically fast and nearly everyone we knew moved out. My father still shakes when he tells of the man who put a gun to his chest and told him he would kill him in front of our family, as my mom held my brothers and I behind her, if he didn’t give him everything. That’s why people moved out and we have been sad of New Orleans slow decline ever since. Articles like this criticize the revitalization which is necessary for New Orleans to have a future and criticize people trying to change the city for the better. That’s why me and so many other college educated, high earning individuals unfortunately moved away, and sadly will likely not go back home. And that hurts.
61
@Not dere no mo
The term "white flight" is a racist misnomer. Not only did white people flee New Orleans, but all middle class people, leaving behind the rich and the poor. The "suburban" parishes, as you call them are integrated.
3
@John, you have just thrown too much logic at people. They won't buy it.
2
Jeez.....change happens. It happens to each and every American City. Live with it. Deal with it. Grow with it.
14
"Seeing how when these culture bearers come to their old stomping ground to hang out or perform, the crowds around them aren’t mostly black renters but white homeowners and Airbnb guests."
And there it is. Racism.
21
@JDK That's not racism.
1
Wow, white people really can’t catch a break. They’re either carpetbagging or gentrifying, and their ‘soul-less selves’ oppress black musicians even when they’re just on the sidelines clapping their hands (off beat, I’m sure).
78
Thanks for this. It's great to read Lolis again in a newspaper. The Picayune has been on the slide since 2012 or so when it laid off so many of its staff and stopped printing daily, then started again, to the point that few noticed or cared.
The Picayune may not have been much, but at least it had news. The current Advocate has so little. There's the sense that something big could happen and it might go unnoticed. Local newspapers are closing everywhere in America.
The photo of the Picayune's graffiti-tagged building coming down is a sign of the times. The site will become one of those giant golf centers, where people hit balls and drink. How did this happen?
10
What AirBnB? Aren’t they illegal in the Quarter?
2
This type of nativist screed is not typical of the Times, and shouldn't be. New people move in, period. They change the culture, period. This is America. Welcome!
19
@Nicholas, you have hit the nail on the head. New people, of every race, move into a city, and often revamp and revitalize. Look at the Hispanics moving into the Midwest and the South, and helping revitalize towns, while, at the same time, doing work that most people won't do. This IS the story of America. New people move in. More established folks either stay, or they move on.
1
@Nicholas
New Yorkers view themselves as the center of the universe, and this nativism and wanting other cities to be locked in the past is absolutely typical of the NYT.
1
Airbnb assures that affordable housing will never be available in the towns and cities that need it the most. From small towns like mine to cities like NO, tourists willing to pay in less than a week what you can charge for a months rent makes the economics hard to ignore and even harder to change.
19
had the chance to ride the "city of new orleans" from champaign, IL to NOLA at mardi gras in 1970 when I was 17. I never regretted missing Woodstock but I regret not riding that train!
6
First off, the headline did not reflect the article, but that doesn't really matter.
I moved to New Orleans in 1974. I never left, nor would I. I never left because I embraced the culture, the food, music, architecture, diversity of people living in close quarters, the tolerance, the openness, life lived outside among strangers, sense of community, and the friendliness. Yes, I get frustrated with the incompetence, the random flooding, the crime, the faux royalty, the blue blood hypocrisy, and the corruption, which seems to have abated or is perhaps less obvious. The young people that move here, as I did, do so for the same reasons. They get sucked into this place that is like no other place on Earth. You either love it or you hate it. It's not a place for the ambivalent. I am hopeful that those same young folks will want to adapt to, embrace and preserve this culture moving forward. I think they will. That's why they're here. And for me, this older white guy is signing up to be in the Haitian Mardi Gras Krewe and will be marching in their parade next Carnival season. Can't wait. Lolis, maybe we shouldn't be afraid of change.
23
The new airport terminal failed to follow specifications for drainage. The ww2 museum cut corners too and is faced with retrofitting of its own. The city has a long history of living the adage, cheap is expensive. Corruption and incompetence. Add that to the racism. Yet, I still love the city. There is a lot of humanity in the city that care forgot. However, I would never compare it to San Francisco. More like the charm of a banana republic. Huge blocks of the city where one would think that gentrification would have had traction, has not. As a native of the city, I find the title of the article unsubstantiated. Corruption in the city is color blind, but yes I find the city’s history of racism shameful and I only have hope that transplants post Katrina bring new blood to make the city one that works. Yesterday the city streets flooded with not much more than what should have been regarded as nothing more than a typical late afternoon tropical shower. Businesses closed, cars were ruined, working folks wondered if they would ever get home before dark. Go figure. I expect to read a lot of suspicious explanations.
10
@william phillips
At the end of the Civil War, there were more black slaveowners than whit slaveowners in New Orleans.
Corruption in New Orleans is color blind, but it is exclusively Democrat.
Regarding whether gentrification or climate change will kill New Orleans first, some food for thought, from the paper linked to below:
"The data available for the period since 1990 raise concerns that the climate system, in particular sea level, may be responding more quickly to climate change than our current generation of models indicates."
And from the scientist that the MIT atmospheric physicist Kerry Emanuel described as the world's foremost expert on the relationship of ice and climate, Richard Alley:
"If we don’t change our ways we’re expecting something like 3 feet of sea level rise in the next century, and it could be 2 and it could be 4 and it could be 20.
The chance that we will cross thresholds that commit us to loss of big chunks of West Antarctica and huge sea level rise is real.
So when you start doing “Well you’re not sure,” but there’s a chance of really bad things and the uncertainties are mostly on the bad side, could be a little better or a little worse or a lot worse, but we’ll be breaking things."
Of course at any time now a strong hurricane could kill New Orleans in a day.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/316/5825/709
https://youtu.be/l2yclMcDroQ?t=47m30s
6
@Erik Frederiksen
New Orleans has always been below sea level and the land has been sinking since the city was established. Katrina did no damage to New Orleans. It was the day after the storm when the levies collapsed that did all of the damage. Hills made of dirt can only hold back Mother Nature for a finite period of time, particularly after a couple of river barges crash into them.
4
The city was built where no city should be. It is a magical place but has always been in the shadow of "this should not be". Don't blame hipsters. Blame the politics and if you need, nature itself
8
@Mixilplix
I visited for the first time last year, and drove around to quite a bit of the city. I was left wondering why some parts of the city had ever been built on, below water level and all that. I can't see how gentrification would ever affect large parts below river and sea-level, and I hope not, because when it floods again, there will be a gigantic mess with the bill to be paid by us.
3
Very sad. It seems that anyplace with an interesting culture in this country has been over run. Here in NYC the snotty rich suburban kids now outnumber the actual New Yorkers. Rather than come here to enjoy the culture, they want the culture here to change and accommodate them. example, gaggle of girls walk into a night downtown night club with a D.J. playing classic post punk and demand the DJ play Taylor Swift because one of them is celebrating a birthday. What I don't understand is, if they love their mall culture so much why didn't they just stay in the burbs?
12
@TripleJ
Actual New Yorkers? Really? Like were you there at Five Points? Or during the time of Peter Stuyvesant?
What are actual New Yorkers? My guess is that your definition is people like you and your parents and their friends.
I moved to NY after college in 1979. Before me, there was a wave of young artists writers and musicians that moved there right after the war. Before that there was a huge migration from the South to Harlem, simultaneous with a wave of immigration from Italy and Eastern Europe. In the 1850s, there were the Irish who came to escape the Potato Famine.
So who are these actual New Yorkers you talk about?
13
Lolis Elie is right about the Times-Picayune's checkered history. It had right-leaning editors speaking to a city of liberals and cultural enthusiasts. Sadly, the Advocate cannot step in with more benign appeal. The paper that now really represents New Orleans is the free weekly, Gambit, which gives more information about the city and its culture that the picayune or the picayune/advocate does.
Gentrification and high real estate prices and taxes do change the city's character, but some of those changes are good.
6
So basically Mr. Elie is concerned that a bunch of newcomers are changing the demographics and culture of his community.
How is this different than complaining about, say, the recent influx of Hispanics in the South, a place they haven’t historically belonged (unlike the Southwest)?
It’s fine if you think the latter attitude is racist, but then you have no basis to complain about the former.
16
I have always refused to visit New Orleans: crime and vice and hurricanes.
3
Do you know how many New Orleanians it takes to change a light bulb?
Two. One to change the bulb and one to tell you how much better the old bulb was.
As a life long native, I resent the writer's racism.
He's using "gentrification" as PC code for "whites".
The racial mix of New Orleans has varied greatly over the years - and for most of its history it was mostly white.
The post-Katrina outsiders have chosen to live here and are revitalizing the city. Despite what this former New Orleanian writes, most of us welcome them and feel the city is better for them.
37
New Orleans began as a refugee camp for the French "ethnically cleansed" from Acadia (in the Canadian Maritimes). Perhaps the UN could provide some aid.
4
Absent a weather catastrophe, New Orleans will be just fine, despite this author's extreme metathesiophobia and hysterical apocalypticism.
6
Can’t help but notice the irony of a story that denigrates gentrification but sings the praises of immigration(mostly illegal)
What is gentrification but a form of migration. Of course when it’s economic migration or even worse, Caucasian’s, the NYT is suddenly worried about the cost that’s laid bare on the existing local population and the failure of the migrants to assimilate.
When it’s illegals from Guatemala anyone who raises the same concerns is a racist. It really is comical. NOLA, and the state of Louisiana in general, is economically deprived and lacks opportunity for upward mobility. Any influx of economic investment should be celebrated.
33
@Chris, DIRECT HIT. Migration to, and in America, is what has built America. You look at the Great Migration of African-Americans out of the South, to the West, and the North, and the East (before and during World War II),and you see that they all wanted a better life for themselves and their children. When the "Gentrifiers" appear, they bring money, and economic vitality, and the desire and means for change and innovation. They make things happen. That's the story of America.
2
“Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists...but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio.”
Lafcadio Hearn, 1879
38
@Bonnie
Thanks Bonnie! I just reread Chita-a memory of last island.
It would make a great post Katrina movie.
Gentrification,,,worse than global warming.
Got it.
Thanks
15
How is it that rich, often liberal gentrifiers are still buying real estate in places like New Orleans and Martha’s Vineyard (Kennedy’s and Obama’s) and all along the California coast? Why do they invest there when the claim it’s all gonna be underwater and way too hot in just a few years? Could it be that the only global warming is their hot air and ideas even they don’t really believe?
7
@ehillesum
As you said, they're rich, so they can afford short-term purchases.
7
@ehillesum
"Could it be that the only global warming is their hot air and ideas even they don’t really believe?"
No.
Whether you believe it or not, anthropogenic global warming is an established scientific fact. So is global sea level rise due to melting icecaps and thermal expansion of seawater. Anyone buying oceanfront property who doesn't take that into account, whatever their income bracket or political preferences, is simply foolish.
2
When Tennessee Williams lived in New Orleans, the French Quarter was a poor neighborhood where artists and writers could afford to live. Working class lived there, too. That's why he housed Stanley, Stella, and Blanche there. The last time I was in New Orleans, a few years ago, I was standing outside of an ante-bellum townhouse in the French Quarter when a real estate agent came by and asked me if I wanted to see inside. The three-story building was being cut up into apartments and they were selling each apartment as it was finished. The apartment he took me into was two rooms (not two bedrooms, just two rooms) and one bath with the hallway made into a kitchen. The two rooms had original fireplaces and original ceiling lamps. There was a small balcony.
The two room apartment was one-half million dollars. You're not going to get artists, writers, jazz musicians, and working class when two rooms sell for one-half million dollars. Changes the whole character of the French Quarter.
26
We New Yorkers suffered a similar problem and the onslaught continues. Gone are the days when our daily murders averaged seven per day, numbering at 2,262 at its worst (now 292 for the entire year) with streets, parks, schools and subways offering a challenge that quickened the pulse of many. While public safety did add some ‘quality of life’ and made neighborhoods more appealable, the down side it that when people want something in growing numbers and supply is limited, value increases and of course prices go up as well. Now, while the city thrives, especially in terms of tourism and business, improved quality of living keeps having driving us toward the dull and predicable facts that adversarial life had gifted us. Who knew?
11
@Robert Mescolotto, Dude, it sounds like you would prefer living in the War Zone that NYC used to be in the late 1980's/early 1990's. Public Safety is the first and foremost responsibility of government, and it seems that, for years if not decades, public safety was not a priority of NYC's government. I"m wondering if the thousands of people who lost loved ones during those years of carnage would understand your (apparent) nostalgia.
15
@Robert Barron I'm wondering where your assertion that "public safety is the first and foremost responsibility of government." This is your opinion, not a fact, and it's not even a well-grounded opinion.
I have family who moved to NOLA in the 80s after a long vacation in the city. New Orleans used to be a unique place but no more, it has changed a lot since Katrina. It was rumored that people wanted a huge devastating event to occur in the city so it could start anew with new construction and with no push back from long-term residents because they were forced out from flooding. Whatever.
I think that soon no one will know what a second line is and the city will be just another American city like Akron.
7
@Lynn in DC
Completely disagree. Please come back and visit us and you will see that is not so.
5
@Lynn in DC ... that is, if it's not all underwater.
2
So much of the world looks the same now, with culture being relegated to small historic districts combining historic buildings with artificial cultural memory via cheap tourist traps. You can still find the real thing in NOLA, but the authentic culture never completely recovered from the hurricane. It is like a different city.
20
Both sides of my family have been in New Orleans for over 300 years. I have an ancestor who fought in the battle of Liberty Place (sadly, on the racist, anti-reconstruction side...he was later a corrupt mayor as well). I love my city, it's history and traditions. I played music for a living for 20 years and know that my amazing environment had as much to do with my ability as practice and study.
Despite all of that, at the ripe old age of 56, I welcome newcomers and change. Sorry Mr Elie, but there are more good restaurants in the city now than there were in the 70's, 80's or even right before Katrina. Music will change dramatically even if everybody who left came back because the internet has connected young people together to cross-pollinate their art.
A for the Times Picayune, I found it too conservative since the 1980's to read. Other than Mr. Elie, Iris Kelso & James Gill, the Op Ed page was a bore and retrograde, not at all reflective of our multicultural city.
The city has always changed, the city is changing, and if we aren't submerged, it will continue to change.
112
Good-bye, New Orleans. Sad to see all its character being lost to new money. In any case, the water is coming, and sea-rise will prove the great leveler.
5
@scrumble I hope you’re not wishing ill on this great city.
3
I lived in the greater New Orleans area for 28 years. One of my true joys while living there was the Times Picayune. I believe it was one of the best newspapers in the entire country. The paper began its demise when they went all digital.
The Times Picayune was the standard of excellence!
10
Look folks, the New Orleans of the '50s that everyone fantasizes about has been long gone for some time. The city was dying / decaying ... schools ... infrastructure ... all of it with the exception of "the Quarter" and a few other neighborhoods.
Cities evolve ... change. Katrina was a disaster and sadly accelerated the process exponentially.
Providing rising ocean levels and more violent weather don't put the final nail in the coffin, New Orleans will survive: it'll just be different from the New Orleans of 60+ years ago.
Cultural evolution and gentrification are better than abandonment and slow death.
42
I visited NO for the first time several years ago and I loved it. I am guilty. I stayed in a beautiful Airbnb that allowed us to explore a neighborhood (Irish Channel) that we otherwise would not have seen. We do not have a history of using Airbnb often and most people I know travel exclusively this way. I am just wondering if many of the readers who bemoan the loss of this and that (and I agree with many of the issues) really never use Airbnb.
5
@Karen B. The city has done their best to get rid of Airbnb’s that are actually investment properties. These properties are called Airbnb’s, but the owner rarely, if ever, uses them, and they are actually hotels that fly under the radar. Meanwhile, every investment “Airbnb” is one less house on the market for someone who actually wants a home to live in. (This is not just a NOLA problem.)
I won’t stay in an Airbnb, particularly in New Orleans. The city lives on tourism, and hotel taxes are a needed source of revenue. I grew up in New Orleans, and I’m kind of protective of my city. If you insist on staying in an Airbnb, make sure the owner lives there. Then (since I suppose you saved money by staying in someone’s house), spend plenty of money on food & drink. There is no such thing as a bad meal in New Orleans.
16
@Noah Perhaps a better question would be "Is it better to give your money to a hotel that pays hotel taxes, or to someone who is dodging them?"
4
@Valerie Airbnbs and other short-term rentals in New Orleans pay annual fees to register their properties, and those who stay in them pay lodging tax to the city.
There are indeed problems with oversaturation of Airbnb investment properties in certain neighborhoods of the city, but dodging taxes isn’t one of them. Our City Council has just passed a new regulation aimed at addressing the oversaturation problem.
I was surprised that the writer didn't mention the Mardi Gras krewes who have kept the city's social structure in place for generations. I know that those who refused to integrate no longer parade, but they still have a powerful influence on the city's culture. I hope that they can function as somewhat of a bulwark against the influx of tourists and new residents. New Orleans is not just a city. It's also a state of mind.
11
I always preferred 'Acadiana' authenticity anyway.
3
Fine writing, sad story. Thanks.
PS: I first went to NO in '72, for the summer. I told my parents back in Manhattan, "The streets are so bad they remind me of home!"
The po'boys, on the other hand ...
6
It will not be fought like a conventional war, but we are still here, and will win. It might not be a "win" in your book, but we will be satisfied.
13
I worked at the first convention held in New Orleans after Katrina. Many locals moved away for work after the hurricane. They were replaced by out of towners. Trying to find K Paul's restaurant, which is one of the most famous restaurants in the country, I stopped into a small motel in the French Quarter. I asked the person at the front desk where K Paul's restaurant was . She had no clue. It turned out it was only 3 doors away. I don't blame her for not knowing, but out of towners have helped erase the authenticity of the city. What a shame.
18
@Phil M
I worked the front desk at a hotel in the French Quarter and couldnt tell you where anything was without a map.
1
What had the potential for a topical op-ed on the loss of an important New Orleans institution became a muddled cultural statement. The rose-colored glasses of nostalgia and a clear distaste for “the new” informed this negative take on the New Orleans Renaissance.
Are newcomers to the city leading to loss of culture? Yes. Are they contributing to the Post-Katrina New Orleans cultural traditions? Also yes.
Cities change. Demographics change. Cultures change. Protecting this wonderfully resilient city and all of its people from the threat of climate change should be our top priority. National op-eds seeking to create divisions between native New Orleanians and Post-Katrina transplants, their ideas, and their commitment to making the city a better place to live actively works against our primary goal.
85
@David, I agree that change is inevitable. I also agree that transplants or newcomers can be a positive and add vibrancy to an existing culture and way of life. As for the perception that divisions are being created, perhaps what's needed is a willingness for mutual understanding: a walk in one another's shoes. One person sees the issue one way and the next person sees it another way. If we take the time to hear each other out, that's is truly listen to one another, maybe something that everyone can buy into will surface. But, if we're dismissive with our views, that's not bound to work in the long run. It can be both/and, rather than either/or.
5
David, you put it perfectly. cities evolve, and trying to preserve them unchanged in amber is a futile and ill advised task. Every single gentrifying city in America has people singing this exact same song of "these new people are changing our city". But the wave of affluent Americans into cities is simply the latest wave of migrants into our great cities, preceded by Irish, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, etc, all of whom were greeted with hand-wringing about how they were changing "their" city.
I myself witnessed the gentrification of Soho and Tribeca in the 80s & 90s forcing the artists out. Anyone else remember the howls about the art community being permanently destroyed? Then people discovered Brooklyn! Times change, one must roll with it.
5
@Jells
Times change, one must roll with it? So, I should roll with Trumpism and increased racism and economic inequality? Because, you know, times change?
2
I can never understand opinion pieces like this one. The one single constant that separates vibrant cities from decaying ones is a constant churn in the population. This is especially true of New Orleans, which has gone through wave after wave of French, Spanish, Native American, African-American, Southerners, Northerners and more. No city needed revitalization more than N'Awlins after Katrina. Be thankful for the influx of "outsiders" willing to plant roots in such a fragile environment instead of bemoaning them.
161
@HKGuy Agree totally - I lived in NOLA for 10 years (Uptown) and never got used to the blight and decay all around me. That was part of the culture too, and I'm glad to see it going away.
34
I was born and raised in Nola and plan to go back pretty soon. I’m glad my city is changing for the better. A lot of the old, run down areas need to go and they need to bring the crime with them.
31
@HKGuy It's not that we just don't want neighbors who are from out of town. It's that they are pushing us out. They're replacing us. They're buying the houses we rent and evicting us to turn them into Airbnbs. It's getting harder and harder for working people to afford to live in New Orleans.
50
To Deirdrel's list, add Austin, Texas, which has become grotesque. I fear Louisville, KY is on its way too.
19
As a New Orleans native who still visits regularly, I’ve felt secure in the knowledge that those who move to NO have a respect, even reverence, for the unique culture that drives the city, and the city can use an influx of energized, educated young people. Those who don’t have that love will (and I know this from many conversations) find a city full of crime, filth, lousy infrastructure and other problems, and will not move there.
That said, NO as well as other tourist-friendly cities will have to deal with the scourge of AirBnB, which creates an acute shortage of affordable long-term rental housing stock by incentivizing short-term rentals based on their greater profit potential. A vibrant city cannot exist without affordable rental units for those who help it thrive.
68
I've loved New Orleans as a convention city where my professional organization often came, I don't see anything in this column that should change that. They still seem to have the touristy French Quarter, Tulane and the Audubon zoo on the St Charles streetcar line, (even better, the return of more streetcars) and jazz parades. People in the US come and go, in New Orleans accelerated by Katrina, but hardly a new phenomena. High housing prices are a curse everywhere as are dying newspapers as we know all too well in Providence. My takeaway: I don't see the justification for the headline about being doomed by "gentrification."
33
You could say the same for Savannah and Charleston and San Francisco and Miami. We are turning the most beautiful neighborhoods into soulless hotels and destroying the housing stock. As we travel and look around to see where we want to retire, the one thing I know for sure is that I don’t want to live next to an air bnb.
73
@Deirdrel Savannah and Charleston have very strict housing preservation rules to preserve their historic homes.
14
@HKGuy buildings don't preserve culture. Most historic homes in Charleston are empty most of the time, as their owners are just investors anyway.
23
@Deirdre
you could also add Greenville and Ashville and Austin and San Diego and on and on and on. Whatever is desirable and livable is turning into illegal hotels.
7
It was abundantly clear, within a few years of Katrina, that the overall plan of state and federal and city agencies was to avoid replacing the substantial number of public housing units that were destroyed. They used the storm to broom poor people out of the city by making it entirely impossible for them to return.
50
@Multimodalmama
Those housing projects were crime centers. The crime used to be mostly confined within those projects now the crime has spread throughout the city like a red ant nest poked with a stick.
The city planners didn't want people to move back to the city because it will flood again.
11
As a New Orleans native, this column strikes several resonant chords. I'm heartened by the author's concluding confidence, but not entirely sure I can share it. My feeling after my last few visits to see family is that New Orleans will go the way of San Francisco and New York, former cultural bastions still pulsing in places but ultimately blandified by unadventurous new money and young white Midwestern suburbanites chasing an idea.
So it goes. I'd be thrilled to be wrong on this, and no matter what happens, those majestic gnarled oak trees will always be there, catching steaming summer rain between their branches.
87
@Sarah N.
"ultimately blandified by unadventurous new money and young white Midwestern suburbanites chasing an idea..."
What's wrong with young white Midwesterners chasing an idea.... that is, the American Dream? Is it their whiteness? If "unadventurous new money" is an euphemism for less crime on the streets, I'll take it every time.
21
@Sarah N. San Francisco has been handed over to the homeless. Is that what you consider culture?
9
@Sarah N.
If bland midwesterners are able to put their litter in the trash can and can avoid murdering other people they will have already improved New Orleans.
Sincerely, someone born in New Orleans.
32
On point, Mr Elie. Our biggest challenge is to revive the New Orleans Public Schools so that our children can be taught in culturally appropriate ways. Trust me, I know---taught for years before Katrina. Charter school "foreigners" just don't get the culture and are working to destroy it.
We often speak of foreigners having to shed their old customs and assimilate into the new. Those who have recently moved to New Orleans seem to have difficulty with our way of life. Why are they here? To take advantage of what? Of whom?
And thank you for the historical background on Phelps and Georges. Sad, that our history is so tainted by racism from the most influential people---news media moguls. Shame on them. But what else is there to read on a daily basis? NYT? Yep. WaPo? Yep. Local media? Gone to the dogs.......
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Coming next week, a reprint of a 1644 Op-Ed by a Dutch writer bemoaning the loss of the essential character of New Amsterdam as the British take it over and change its name to New York...
Cities evolve and change (or die). Given climate change / sea level rise, New Orleans may well be uninhabitable within the lifetime of those now living there anyhow.
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And change, evolution and death are mourned. It’s natural, respectful, and right.
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@J Your comment supports and provides direct evidence of the problems at hand - the hypotheses laid out here- you just don't get it, but I think NOLA will survive somehow and she will even have the last laugh!
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Exactly; well said. As we type, plans are underway to relocate the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to Borneo because the former is sinking. NO is included in the list of other important cities sinking.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/27/world/sinking-cities-indonesia-trnd/index.html
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