Our daughter is a loyal Notre Dame graduate, so we went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl game, scheduled for January 1, but ultimately played on January 2. The day before the scheduled game, we were in Jackson Square on New Year’s Eve for the countdown to 2025. For us a little partying goes a long way, so we headed back to the Marriott about 12:30. About two and a half hours later, a couple of blocks from where we had been, the terrorist plowed his truck through the crowd, killing 14, and seriously injuring many more.
They call New Orleans “the Big Easy.” I appreciate its joy, its spontaneity, its libertarian tolerance. But I can only visit New Orleans, I cannot live there.
When I arrive in a hotel I want a glass of ice water. In our two most recent visits to Marriott hotels in New Orleans, the ice machines on our floor did not at first work. It never worked during our stay at the first hotel and worked only occasionally at the second hotel. When I complained at the first hotel, I got a joyful grin and a shrug–the ice machine had been that way for several days and who knows when or if it would be fixed? It’s “easy” to celebrate; it’s hard to fix ice machines and keep them running.
There were barriers on Bourbon Street that could have kept the terrorist from killing 14. But it has come out that they were not working and it was not “easy” to fix them. (There were also supposed to be levies that could have reduced the damage from Hurricane Katrina, but it was not “easy” to fix them either.)
I like visiting New Orleans. I like its joyful spontaneity. But what makes New Orleans “the Big Easy” also makes it “the Big Frustrating” and “the Big Vulnerable.” I like visiting New Orleans but I want to live in a city where type-A personalities do what is hard: build, fix, and protect.