Afterthoughts on New Orleans
Posted at 5:34 pm on Tuesday, October 14, 2008, in Uncategorized, and tagged beer, new orleans.
It’s been awhile — almost a month — since I returned from New Orleans, but some closing thoughts on the Crescent City is more than appropriate…
- As long-time readers know, I prefer to drink local brews when I travel, and in New Orleans, that meant drinking Abita, since there really wasn’t any competition. Good beer though; had it everywhere I went (either Amber or Wheat, mostly).
- The food in New Orleans has its roots in three distinct cultures: French, Spanish and the Caribbean, and the combination of the three makes for an intense cuisine. Cajun food, in all honestly, is like nothing I have ever had before. And I liked it.
- Brad Pitt is an idiot. Well, maybe not an “idiot.” (An “idiot” would imply that he is incapable of understanding logic, and that is probably not true.) I just don’t think he realizes what it is he is exactly doing. (Pitt is re-building homes in the Lower Ninth Ward, directly beneath a re-built flood wall that is still not constructed to the height necessary to fully protect the homes, and in an area that will never be able to be fully-protected, even to 100-year flood levels. In comparison, the Netherlands are protected to 1000-year storm levels.)
- The low-lying areas to the north of the City — between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain — areas that were devastated by levee breaches folloing Hurricane Katrina, should be re-claimed as wetlands (as they once were; only during the rapid growth following the second world war did developers decide to pump the water out of the “low lying swamps” and build tract housing). This buffer will allow for the re-development of the downtown and naturally higher places in the area, while providing for natural overflows of the river to re-build these swamps, a natural hurricane retarder. The ground has settled nearly ten feet in some of these areas; and the streets lie below the level of water in adjacent drainage canals. (More on all this later.)
- The City is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the U.S. and I plan to return with my wife in the next ten years or so, after the re-building is more complete.
- And don’t let anyone convince you otherwise: Bourbon Street is nuts. And it is better than Vegas (although I must only assume, since I have never been; but based on what I know, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve heard). New Orleans is real. Bourbon Street is real. Las Vegas is a mirage in the desert.
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October 17th, 2008 at 2:38 am
The Netherlands are protected to 4000 year storm-levels in the rural parts and to 10000 year storm-levels in the most urbanized area.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Thank you for the correct numbers. A lot better than the protection for New Orleans, that is for sure.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 am
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