Welcome to New Orleans - Please Don't Go Home

New Orleans, April 18 –There are two common signs seen everywhere in this recovering city.
First is “Now Open”
Then “Rebuilding New Orleans" sits on everything from big box stores to mom and pop convenience stores.
Walking through Louis Armstrong International Airport there is very little evidence of a city being rebuilt. The airport doesn’t look too much different from my last trip here in 1972.
Except for the empty corridors.
Unlike O’Hare, JFK, or even Fresno International, you could park a Boeing 737 in the corridor without interrupting the flow of traffic. Except for the music and repeated announcements regarding unattended luggage, on this Tuesday morning it is as quiet as a French Quarter watering hole on the morning after Mardi Gras.
The Crescent City will elect a new mayor Saturday, and the local airwaves radiate with waves of political ads that remind voters of the good and evil perpetrated by the incumbents during the unpleasantness last August.. With so many voters dispersed across the country, the city has a gargantuan task of gathering absentee ballots.
The city hopes that the federal government will be generous to New Orleans as it was to New York City when September 11, 2001 interrupted an election in that city.
So far, there is no response from the feds.
This is a city seeking to come together again.
Leaving the airport, there is very little evidence that New Orleans suffered any damage from Katrina. Once you pass through the 610 bypass, and enter the east side of the city, the damage and its accompanying chaos becomes vivid. Entire neighborhoods sit free of cars, except for the occasional FEMA trailer. Eight-month old lumber lies everywhere, water lines can still be seen from the freeway.
But the “now open” signs are sprouting everywhere from car dealers to fast-food outlets. Some recovery has begun. Yes, there still no big checks in the mail as insurance companies and the government figure out how to avoid the overdrafts sure to come if checks are ever cashed.
But come they must.