Tale of Two Cities

NEW ORLEANS — “You can’t find proof of the eight-bil,” says Steve, the driver of the Yellow Cab parked outside the Hampton Suites, adjacent to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The Morial complex, of course, housed thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina, taking in an overflow of evacuees from the Louisiana Superdome.

The animated cabbie is talking about the $8 billion of federal money that is supposed to have been spent on reconstructing levees that are to protect the Crescent City from another flood. The cost of the reconstruction project was originally estimated at $7 billion, now may cost twice that, and Steve settles on eight as the number of billions that has in his mind disappeared into thin air.

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau has spent the afternoon assuring exhibitors at the upcoming National Show of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in May 2008 that all is well where it counts. New Orleans, says Kelly Schulz, the vice president of communications and public relations for the bureau, has become two cities. One that is still in need of rebuilding – the Ninth Ward and the Lakeview district – and one that has returned to its former self.

The reconstituted New Orleans is the one that faces and embraces visitors, by the bureau’s map. This includes the gastronomic French Quarter, jazzy Bourbon Street, the central business area and the Garden District. “Seeing is believing,’’ says Schulz. “Once we get them here, they see for themselves” that the city has righted itself, that the infrastructure is intact. It’s a walkable city, she points out – as long as you use common sense and don’t trod on your own at 4 a.m. in poorly lit sections of town.

And the conventioneers are coming back. In 2004, the year before the storm, New Orleans played host to a record 10.1 million visitors. In 2006, the year after the storm, only 3.6 million showed up. Last year, 6.0 million came. This year, it’s possible that New Orleans will be visited by 8 million. That used to be a typical year.

The American Library Association has come, with a convention attended by 17,000. So has the American College of Cardiology (26,000). So have Coca-Cola Co., Anheuser-Busch Companies and Sherwin-Williams.

For such visitors, there now are 31,500 hotel rooms available. Hotels have spent astonishing sums to remodel, including $50 million at a Wyndham that is becoming a Westin; $38 million at the Marriot and $66 million at the Hilton Riverside. The Ritz-Carlton, which re-opened in January, is like new. Canal Street is undergoing a $20 million upgrade. There are even more restaurants in town than before Katrina came.

But old images die hard. Steve has a nickname for  the mayor, Ray Nagin, who used to run Cox Communications’ local cable systems. “Beggin’ “ Nagin, he calls him, pointing out that he and Gov. Kathleen Blanco went hat in hand to Washington again this week. This week, they sought additional billions of federal aid for repairs of homes or buyouts of homeowners.

No one at the visitors’ bureau is hiding from the tale of these two cities in one: the recovered and the still-recovering. But it’s decided it’s time to call attention to itself, nationwide and internationally, as a resurrected destination for great food and a great time. CBS Outdoor has donated 44 billboards in 18 cities and they carry tongue-in-cheek messages like “Dry? We Were Never Dry” and the triumphal “Soul Is Waterproof.”

No city is working as hard to extend its hand – and earn the hand that shakes it back. As the button proclaimed from another cabbie’s dashboard, “We’re Jazzed You’re Here.”

 Or, in the case of National Show attendees, that you’re coming.

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