'Treppin' tripe

CNBC asks us to swallow quite a load of pig guts in this story about how hot dogs saved Freret St.

While paying a little extra for a storefront in an established neighborhood can be justified, other times an ambitious business owner might gamble on a neighborhood's potential.

For New Orleans native Constantine Georges, a former federal prosecutor who served for 22 years, the idea to open a hot dog stand was already a gamble, but perhaps even more so considering the location he settled on in 2011: a 475-square-foot shack in a traditionally economically depressed New Orleans neighborhood on Freret Street.

Oookayy.. sure. And it helps also when the city is investing federal community development block grant money in upgrading the streets, sidewalks and landscaping. It also helps when the area is the focus of a Commercial Corridor Revitalization Program designed to combine grant money, tax credits, and special planning consideration in order to help promote new businesses just like your stupid hot dog stand.  And, hey, that's pretty nice.  There's a lot of good stuff on Freret Street now.  But it didn't happen because Constantine Georges took a courageous gamble. He just happened to be in position to reap the benefits of it.