Comparing New Orleans to Miami
By Geniusofdespair at 30 March, 2009, 4:15 pm
by Doug Eames “Sister cities is a concept whereby towns or cities in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links between their inhabitants.” Wikipedia I’m a lover of places, sometimes even moreso than people. I find that cities themselves exude unique personalities, above and beyond the ones of the individuals who might happen to occupy them at any given moment. Those people come and go, and naturally bring their own customs and attitudes with them. However, the mood of a city, like the mood of a song or an age in history, has a way of altering these habits and perceptions, if even for a moment, affecting those who fall under its spell, producing a culture in which the residents become mere players expressing an unseen regional rhythm. Perhaps two of the most captivating cities in the US today are New Orleans and Miami; they’re very much alike, but the particular mojos they’ll cast on you are very different. New Orleans is my hometown. After escaping the post-Katrina difficulties for South Beach two years earlier, I returned for the first time for a brief visit just last week, as part of a road trip that will include Austin and San Diego. Seeing the robust crowds and the new businesses and construction all around me, I felt very much like Rip Van Winkle…a visitor from the past with a lot of catching up to do. There is new construction everywhere, fresh new young faces filling up once dreary commercial spaces, and even a new Borders bookstore Uptown, opened in a former funeral home ! Many of the outlying neighborhoods most heavily damaged by Katrina have at long last been attended to, if not fully renovated. Though the social problems from before led me to feel less anxious to return than I might otherwise have been, the city still managed to grab me again as soon as I set foot on its streets. NEW ORLEANS IN A NUTSHELL If your opinion of New Orleans were to be formed entirely by the media, you would envision it as a tattered city whose political corruption was superseded only by its gun violence. While these reputations are well-deserved, it’s quite possible to live comfortably here without falling prey to either of these ills. The Crescent City has its own jazzy groove that draws you into it as soon as you descend upon its city limits, quite a few beats slower than Miami’s dizzying conga, making its difficulties feel a world away. You may notice as you travel the surface streets that the traffic—what there is of it—is much less hurried, as it would have to be, seeing as how the pockmarked roads would prevent you from having it any other way. Coming from Florida, where tailgating is an honored tradition even in the smallest of towns, you feel like you can finally heave a sigh of relief. Likewise, another thing that grabs you about the place is the sense of aesthetics. There is an art incorporated into the every day: the architecture, the decor, the food, the speech, the jazz and blues filtered in continuously via the local public radio station, WWOZ . The very decay of the once-opulent buildings looks as though it had been painstakingly created as part of an elaborate movie set. There are 20-foot high ceilings, ornate moldings, an attention to detail hardly seen in today’s more functionally-oriented world. This is not the past as you’d learn it in sterile history books: New Orleans’ history is dripping in decadence and its style conveys that sense of excess throughout. A third thing you notice is that eccentricity is cherished here. If Miami is weird, New Orleans is downright perverse. People ride around on bicycles with zebra stripes on them. They make art out of discarded baby dolls. They create their own sense of fashion, which often looks like something grabbed off a rack at a 19th century garage sale…kind of post-Goth meets Raggedy Andy. No matter what their day job, nearly everyone has one kind of creative bent or another. Theatre thrives here; musicians abound—anything from Klezmer to Dixieland. Whereas in South Beach, status is about what you drive and how much money you make, in New Orleans, it’s hipper to be off-beat, creative and penniless…although the post-Katrina housing shortage has made that all the more difficult these days with sky-high rents. The city is furthermore immensely walkable; assuming you had the stamina, you could easily make your way on foot throughout the length of Uptown New Orleans, across the Garden District, the downtown area, the French Quarter, Esplanade Avenue, and into the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods downriver. Here, the long-term takes a backseat to the present moment, and the historic surroundings spark the creative imagination, recapturing a time before rat races in which humanity achieved spiritual transcendence through nature, artistic and literary pursuits. To that end, it is an excellent place to find your muse. WHERE TO STAY Some people who come to New Orleans want to lose themselves in the sophisticated tranquility of the city, while others crave more of a party atmosphere. For my four-day stay, I chose the quiet and secluded St. Vincent’s Guest House . Nightly room rates for private rooms are $59, but if you’re staying more than a few, they’re negotiable. There are also dorms available. St. Vincent’s is a reincarnated 19th Century orphanage, up to the elbows in ghosts and ethereal ambience. A monolithic compound with an enclosed courtyard and swimming pool, there are verandas and hidden nooks galore. It’s located just down the street from many Magazine Street attractions, which include antique stores, funky shops and cool places to eat, like Juan’s Flying Burrito . The French Quarter is about 20 minutes away on foot, and about 10 minutes by bus. Across the street is a coffee house, and the guest house also has its own in-house restaurant called The Garden’s Edge , where you can get hearty breakfasts and lunches for under $6. The main drawback to the guest house is that the staff isn’t particularly outgoing or attentive, and appears to be manned by residents working off their rent. But I’d been forewarned of that via some reviews I read, and accepted going in that it was a price I was willing to pay in order to enjoy the atmospheric digs at a reasonable price in the unparalleled beauty of the Lower Garden District. If, on the other hand, you want a little more liveliness in your budget accommodations, you may prefer to bunker down at the India House ( 124 S. Lopez St at Canal St ) in Mid-City. I’d decided against booking my stay there after reading on their website that guests must be students ( Will students of life suffice? ) or foreign travelers. However, I later heard that policy isn’t always aggressively enforced. Rob, a 23-year-old backpacker from Chicago I later reconnoitered with in Austin, offered the following description of his recent experiences at the India House, and at another New Orleans hostel, Marquette House at 2249 Carondelet: “Marquette House is really huge, not much personality, more institutional. It’s a little dirtier, and if you go a block more away from St. Charles, it’s a pretty sketchy area. India House is more quirky and friendlier. Both are equally accessible on the street car lines. The area around the Marquette House is cooler, because there is a bar around the corner… it’s the Garden District and there’s more to do. India House, on the other
Here is the original:
Comparing New Orleans to Miami
No comments yet.