Friday, May 20, 2016

We were washed clean

Yeah I know it's not worth reacting to every stupid NOLA travel piece that comes around anymore. There are so many now it's hardly worth bothering to keep up. An especially vapid one from Vogue got passed around this week. Go find it if you're really desperate. 

This isn't to say they don't do harm. They do. They promote New Orleans as a luxury for and by moneyed assholes. And the frequency at which these advertisements are produced only reinforces that notion. That has real life consequences for us poors living here now in terms of things like the cost of food and housing, and public services. It also affects our general relevance in local politics as our civic leaders tend to prize the needs and opinions of visitors over our own.  

And, of course, they like to be flattered by the narrative many of these pieces are still propagating about how Katrina saved us from "corruption."
Given the new demographics—and the fact that Katrina managed to blow apart such entrenched institutions as a corrupt city hall and an outdated levee board—the pre-Katrina culinary scene now seems insular and narrow. 
Aren't we all grateful for that.

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